thanks for clarifying that, always great to use gamejams to talk about our games and learn what was the reasons behind decisions.
A lot of what you explained makes sense and I can see where your coming from. I actually did not even realize that you do most of the damage through blocking (but, it makes sense in retrospective) because I was so focused on pressing the right buttons. Blocking really suggests that it is defensive skill only, so I guess that was what reinforced my idea here. But I should have realized that I did damage if I only blocked, but just wording it differently would definately help the player.
That it was primarly made as a reaction test also explains a lot and I can totally see that it was hard to fully turn it into a rhythm game during the Jam. From a player perspective, it makes sense that it is a rhythm game I think, because you block on the full beat and attack on the half beat. With combos, you then get intro triplet rhythms, so that is pretty cool. And therefore, I think it makes sense to see the commands beforehand, because you can plan ahead what you gonna do in your head and execute on the beat. But if this was not how it was originally intended and developed, I totally understand why the game is not fully designed around that mechanic.
But overall, again, really cool game. I probably gonna give it another go on the weekend with a bit more time and the knowledge I gained from our conversation. I really think this has potential and it is rare for me that a Jam game has enough of a lasting impact on me that I want to come back to it after testing it out! so you did definately a great job here!
also, would be super cool if you could check out our game, I would really appreciate a feedback if that is anything that interests you at all.