I’ve revisited this after a year and I can say that this is still an engaging game with a reasonable learning curve for the demo. It takes so many of the right cues of the second quest. I have a couple notes but after a year you may have addressed them.
First, one thing I really don’t like borrowed from the – other quest mentioned – are arbitrary platforms. There were a couple of places where the background looks like a platform, but is not. It is forgivable, but it detracts from the overall fairness of the game.
Second, candles that are ever so slightly out of reach of the whip while standing. This is something from Castlevania on the MSX and I really didn’t like it there, either.
Third, the forest level has entirely too many elements going on when you head toward the cave. It’s a bit disorienting sometimes and because blue and green are so close together on the color wheel, Simon doesn’t stand out from the background as prominently as would be ideal.
Ex. In the screenshot with the bee hive, you just about absolutely nailed it in the nearground (orange/yellow) which makes Simon’s colors pop because Simon is blue (orange’s complement).
The problem returns in the far-ground (purple, blue). You have the right idea in action. Blue/Violet are the complements of Yellow & Orange. The fore and near ground both pop against the farground, but the farground is not the thing on the screen we are trying to keep track of.
Lastly, this may be just because I’m getting old, Simon’s brightness is a bit too muted. Some literal brightening up would help him pop even against blue/purple.
All this being said, this is still a fantastic game and I am eager for an update and the next demo.
The music & sound are superb. The music is moody and the sound effects give on screen actions a sense of force behind him.
The graphics strike the right balance of chunky like an 8-bit game, but more detailed than was normally found on that generation of consoles.
Your level design and enemy placement is obviously well thought out. In particular the sahagin bridge is brilliant. You have the player and Simon experiencing the same jump scares simultaneously and the player has to harden their nerves and become the courageous hero Simon is to navigate across the bridge. That is just chef kiss.