I like this! Legendary Super Warriors is fresh in my mind having played it to the end for the first time a couple weeks ago, so I’m pleasantly surprised to see that anyone is making something like it!
Game Critiques (Preface: I have a lot of words):
- Meter to show how many turns are left on being Powered Up is appreciated. (The flickering from the original was a tad hard to catch, though I think adding it here would not be bad)
Powering up is no longer linked to Limited Abilities OR Stage attacks, though. This makes it feel kinda weak! (Though it was very centralizing in LSW so that’s not inherently bad.)
- Any chance to add the mechanic from LSW that lets you salvage failed Commands (or in this case, Combos) by pressing [A] at a certain time? Not to allow your combo to still increase rank, which I love, but just make your turn feel a little less wasted, which I think a roguelike would benefit from.
- Does getting hit particularly hard give you AP? I didn't get hit by anything of super high strength, so I wanted to know if this was in this game.
- Defending feels a tad stale? The lack of aerial positions (or suitable replacement), inability to force a movement out of your opponent (by moving into "their" area) don’t do so well to keep defense engaging.
On top of that, Burst/Sidestep are just 1 turn, all-or-nothing guesses you spend resources on, which are kind of fatal in a roguelike!
- Speaking of positions, the CPU doesn't seem to have a reason to stay in neutral? Heck, there's little reason to be in neutral as the player. The Attack boost felt really high, so when the CPU doesn’t move from there they get smacked hard for free.
In addition, the input time increase isn’t exceptionally high: when I switched to a gamepad from keyboard, I lost all need for neutral. In LSW was based on everyone’s position, which made it matter a lot more.
I don't think it needs to be removed, but it has room for improvement.
And if it weren’t for the carried HP across battles, I wouldn’t bother moving backwards as much either.
This part goes back to the above bullet point; In LSW, using Shockwave/Avoiding was a risk/reward move, but moving up or down was a “safe” one with a lower reward. Star Spark lacks a safe defending movement against particular attack types due to this. I would even settle for an Endurance equivalent. I never did get Counter though, so I can’t say if that fits the bill.
- Roguelike card game is a bit overdone now, but I'm surprised it's not here, ha. I did notice the skills you get as attacks generally feeling a bit lesser to your initial set, and expected to be able to swap them with your starters like cards assuming late-game ones would be as good/better.
- It would be nice to be able to check the player's current stats to help plan for turns.
- I'm not against Ki and Strength stats being merged into Atk, but it added on to specific attack types feeling like an unnecessary detail
- Throw is VERY cool but it costs a lot, including an attacking turn. I generally found it not worth doing.
Visuals:
I have an eye for pixel work, I'm told; overall the game looks nice, good animations, and captures the feel of the inspiration without being too stuck in the source. I liked the map for the areas!
However! The visuals are an odd in between of "SNES/GBA" and "Incorrectly Colored GBC game", which is kind of weird. This ranges from the sprite dimensions being slightly big/small for one of those, or just odd palette choices.
It's also super apparent when the pixel scales and positions don't match or align, which makes the game look amateur-ish, when its quality is actually way higher! You can see this particularly in the mismatched text sizes on the menus, as well as the hit and gather power effects. (Also I can tell that's the Emerald font.)
Particle effects and such also save time but they ultimately Just Look Weird. For example, Chantico’s battle arena has a generally nice look but the particle effect on the volcano looks odd. Inversely, the purple swirling around Viola’s hand looks great, since it avoids this.
Obviously on the art side this is taxing, but I think images to go along with the events would help a lot with making them feel more important!
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I had a lot to say, but my mind is just very attentive on details. I can’t stress enough that I actually enjoyed the demo quite a bit, and played it several times!