Nice work! I played this to the end and it did a great job capturing that Zelda vibe. It was very engaging and kept me in the zone to the finish. At times I was stumped on what to do next, and at times I had to take a few lives and some trial & error to beat a boss, so I liked the challenge level as well. And of course I love a good NES-style secret! Nice job! On further development, you might consider constraining the knock-back of enemies (when struck with e.g. sword) to the single x- or y-axis on which it was struck. When our hero can only attack on even 90-degree angles, having an enemy (who the player has "lined up" for attack) be knocked slightly off-line from the direction of the strike, and then continue its walking path into the hero to hurt the hero (and the hero's sword can no longer make contact) -- this somehow didn't "feel" quite right, maybe because I've been conditioned on the knock-back of grid-based walkers in NES Legend of Zelda? Just my two cents, others may disagree (and enjoy the new combat considerations it presents), but I thought it might be helpful player feedback. Nice work!
Viewing post in The Legacy of Orbos jam comments
I agree with you. I added the knockback effect fairly late into the development and didn't have much time to fine tune. They also can be knocked into the next screen which is a bit annoying as they will get in your way if you try to cross exactly where they are. I'm really glad you enjoyed this. Thank you for playing