(review based on 1.03 jam release)
THE JIANGSHIS ATE YOUR DONATIONS!
still think it’s really funny that multiple people made pvz style games for this jam in particular, but it’s fine because they’re super good. art was PHENOMENAL on this one, felt like it captured a bit of the original pvz charm while still being unique. gameplay was mostly smooth, although the final stage is quite a difficulty spike. music was ALMOST perfect, but those off-key high notes in the main stage theme kinda murdered me ngl. thankfully, the entire soundtrack is nothing but bangers aside from that one specific part.
the story wasn’t a big focus, but it was neat and added some fun context to the setting. that being said, the dialogue kinda makes me feel like i was supposed to unlock each doll sequentially rather than having them all available on stage 1. this also would’ve made the difficulty a lot more consistent, so it’d make sense if it was meant to work that way.
but regardless of if it worked 100% correctly or not, i had a good time with this one! managed to be fun to strategize even with just a few factors to consider. and good thing i like pvz to begin with cuz theres more where this came from lmao