decisionmaking is shifted from perfection to reaction and everything feels more like a fight. As soon as I got my mind away from "solving a puzzle" to "a battle with shapes and fei" it became immediately more fun.
That's a really good way to put it actually. This has always seemed obvious to me, so I never even considered that some might still see the fights as a puzzle where you need to figure out the perfect solution, which would cause frustration. Thank you, I might actually use that in a tuto page in the game!
Clarity during the fights has always been an issue, and yeah as you said being aware of what spell your enemy is going to cast next is currently one of the main problems with the fights I have to solve. Since a big announcement in the middle of the screen would get in the way, I've been thinking about adding an SFX that would change depending on the spell category (attack, heal, buff, debuff, special), which would trigger when the spell starts being cast and when it's close to being launched. Maybe change the board's background color could help too... That'll be among the changes I work on for the next version, along with a bunch of QoL more generally ^^
I'm glad you weren't afraid to experiment with the various Heartpowers as well! Each has strengths and weaknesses as you said. Most people have some trouble with the Yoyo and the Mines actually ^^
The Swatter though, that one got improved some time ago but I agree that it still needs more. Actually, just right now, I realized that making the Swatter and Fly follow the Heart might help a lot! It would be a lot easier to track their movement and trigger the splat at the right time if you know to do it when they reach the Heart, which you'll already be looking at, rather than having to keep an eye somewhere else on the screen. Definitely worth experimenting with! Thank ye :B