That was a fun ride. A very lush world with map layout that rewards exploration, and enough enemy variety to keep you on your toes. The mini-map was very helpful in making sure you don't miss exits easily, which used to be a common occurrence with cartridge-console era games of this type. Overall very pleasant to play, although I wish the button layout could be tweaked. A couple of comments and other things that I noticed:
- + Controls are generally quite responsive and whacking the pots for loot is a lot of fun.
- + The sprite work is absolutely fantastic.
- + Switching between available items was responsive even during tense moments.
- + At first I was chickening and running out of health potions fast, but soon I figured out that enemies drop health, too. So I think the balance here is just right.
- + Dashing on and off ledges, as well as charging into enemies with your sword charged, was pretty cool.
- ? Is there any pattern to the order of sword swings? I felt it would be better if the order was fixed, as at times I missed a swing and got hit.
- ? There is a section in the dungeon in which you walk "under" a part of the dungeon. To me it the visual cue (is there any?) that this is different from regular walls was not clear, and I accidentally found out that I could move under it.
- ? Might have been nice for the purposes of this being a game jam entry, that there is an autosave or continue feature.
- - The green bushes, when overlaid over grass, are hard to discern as impassable objects, leading to me getting stuck momentarily, and getting whacked as a result.
- - The charge of the bees should be in a straight line. Sometimes, probably due to getting stuck in objects, they curve in unexpected ways. Combined with the fact that I couldn't figure out the pattern of my sword swings, I found them to be a little frustrating at times.
- - In relation with the point about the sword swings; I would suggest that because even the standard attack costs stamina, there shouldn't be anything left to chance (which side of you the swing starts), as it would sometimes lead to additional swings because the first one came out the "wrong" side and missed the enemy.
P.S.: didn't have any frame drops myself but I have 4070S so that might be it. What I did have was that upon closing my game, the gamma control of my desktop went whack, with windows that were in focus becoming brighter while the rest was darkened (this happened, without fail, all three times I closed the game). It required a reboot of my computer to fix. Suspect it's to do with how Pixel Game Maker works and not with your game specifically. I have not tested the non-install version of the game, by the way.