Played the demo and I thought it was pretty fun! First of all I love love love the aesthetics of this, from the way the environment looks to the characters. I also I think Rubine has an amazing character design, they’re the whole reason I even checked out this demo to begin with. Also bless you for giving her thick thighs, that’s really the thing that makes her design come together. Music and voice acting were good. Some of the loops for some tracks were a little too short and there was one section that had no music and was kind of jarring (I think it was the area in front of the temple) that could use some ambient sounds.
The gameplay was pretty fun, I enjoy the mix between shoot’em up and 3D action beat-em up styles. Though this is still super early so there some issues I have. While the 3D action works well enough it's a bit too floaty, the lack of impact and weight that makes fighting enemies not as satisfying as it could be. Also, another reason for this is the lack of feedback when you hit enemies. It felt like half the time I wasn't even sure I was actually doing damage to some enemies. It doesn't help that is barely any sound when you hit an enemy especially with a melee attack, the lack of feedback really hampers the game feel. Again, I know this is super early so I get why it's like this but it's something to keep in mind for the future. One of the most important things for an action game is that it feels good to hit enemies.
The camera also needs a lot of work. Sometimes when I pressed on the lock on the camera would completely move away from Rubine for no reason. At some points it would seem a little too close to her that I would have a hard time seeing the enemies. Also speaking of the lock on, I wish there was a way to see which enemy are locked on when in the combat mode, like maybe having the target appear on their bodies would help. Also, the camera for the last phase of the level 1 boss is just bad. The camera is so zoomed in, and the boss took like 80% of the screen I couldn't tell what I was doing for most of it.
Also, during the shooting segments sometimes the target would disappear when I was aiming over certain enemies and sometimes it would appear behind the enemy which made it hard to know where I was aiming. Also aiming in the shooting segments is kind of inconsistent. For most of the game you're allowed to aim freely when you hold down the aim button but sometimes you aren't allowed at all during certain shooting segments and that really threw me off. Also, this might just be me considering I don't play shoot’em ups but it kind of got a bit tiring constantly holding down the aim button during the shooting segments. I kind of wish during those segments the cursor was automatically on the screen, and you didn't have to hold down the button all the time. Again, I'm not too experienced in this genre so maybe it's just something I have to get used to but I figured I'd share this either way.
One thing that really did feel clunky while playing was the charge button. I don't know maybe I just need to get used to it but having to hold down the button to aim hold on the button to charge and then hold down the button to shoot felt like a little too much? It was too much to wrap my head around, so I didn't use the charge that much, I really only used it for mini bosses and bosses. Also, I had no idea how the blue bar worked until like the end of level 1. The fact that there's a bar to build up charge and you still need to hold down the charge button to use the charge attack anyways doesn't sit right with me, it feels unintuitive, I guess? Like there are moments where I was charging down the button yet the charge attack didn't work because I didn't have meter. The fact that you could hold down the charge and then see a charge animation but youstill get nothing doesn't feel great, like I know you could build it up again by doing regular attacks but can you least see what I mean when I say that it feels off to use? Again, maybe it's just me but this felt like something worth bringing up.
Level 1 was a good time, but it was way too long. It felt like it could have been split into two. Like it should have ended when Rubine talks to Deemu after that boss fight, and that long shoot’em up section should have been the start of the next level. The actual level 2 by comparison felt like it had around the right amount of length.
Another big thing is that you're checkpointing could use some work. I died in the 1st combat section in the second half of level 1 and I had to do that whole long ass shoot em up section again and that did not feel good. It would really help if some enemies dropped health during the shooting up sections cause I noticed they could only be found in the combat sections. Also, I wish was a checkpoint right at the beginning of bosses 'cause I died to the final boss of level 1 multiple times and it was kind of annoying having to run all the way back to the inside of the temple every single time.
Also speaking of the final boss of level 1. It's a cool fight, it does drag a little bit but that might just because I died a lot (it took me awhile to figure out how to avoid that attack in his last phase). But also I encountered a glitch that soft locked me. It was in one of the shooting phases where you're allowed to aim freely, I think I must have aimed opposite of where he was when we transitioned to the next phase where he sank into the sand and only his head showed up Rubine was facing towards the camera and wouldn’t face the boss so I couldn't shoot him at all which meant I had to die to reset which sucked. I don't know how you could reproduce that but hopefully you'll figure out what caused it.
Last thing I want to talk about is this story. There was a lot more exposition and world building than I expected, the text on a black screen exposition dump is a bit boring but this is early and its the easiest way to do exposition so I totally get why you did it so I don't fault you at all. Hopefully when the games is farther along you could maybe find better ways of doing it. I gotta say I was not expecting the tonal whiplash in level 2. By that point you know Rubine was already a war machine that fought against humans but to actually see her brutalize actual people with blood and guts and all really took me by surprise. At first, I thought it was a bit too much and it kind of took me out of it 'cause I was not expecting this kind of graphic violence at all but I was kind of vibing with it towards the end especially at that segment with the classical music and the mech guy begging his fellow soldiers to retreat before their all killed. Was it a little jarring? Sure. Do I respect the hell out of it anyways? Yes. The only actual negative I have about the story is that “co-worker” scene with rubine and red-cyborg-bee-that-I-forgot-her-name-already-but-is-totaly-not-Deemu. It's a cute as hell cutscene don't get me wrong, but I felt like it being sentence sandwiched between two scenes of Rubine brutalizing soldiers and more soldiers dying and being psychologically tortured felt really off and not in a good way. Am I not saying you should get rid of it 'cause I still really like the dialogue between the two but maybe having something leading into that scene more naturally would help it? Like for example let's say the scene starts with not-deemu meeting back up with Rubine and noticing that somethings wrong with her ('cause she's got the trauma) so way to take her mind off as she changes the topic to the “co-worker” conversation as a way to cheer her up. I don't know, I'm not a writer so feel free to completely disregard everything I said at this point but this game is dealing with a lot more heavier themes than I thought it would so I'm interested to see where Rubine’s character goes and what exactly the mysteries behind what happened in the war and Deemu’s connection to Rubine’s sister/lover/co-worker.
I know most of this has just been my critiques so I hope you aren't discouraged in any way. I just wanna reiterate that I really really did enjoy this demo and I think your game is really charming and has a lot of promise. I would not write this much about your game if I did not think it had the sauce. So, thank you so much for making this! I hope to see more of your work in the future.