lmao, I'm glad you didn't lost it and thank you, this was very insightful!
The ghouls are pretty bad, true. They're too difficult to dodge, when they de-aggro they tend to stay for too long near the locker coz they don't have a "leash" or anything that would make them leave the room, not to mention all the times I struggled with their pathfinding which might still be a bit buggy. I'm thinking of making them more forgiving/easier to sneak past them and fix stuff that make them so relentless and a pain in the ass.
When it comes to the dash ability, yeah I should probably replace it with a sprint and give her an invisible stamina bar and the more it would deplete it would make Uchiko look more sweaty and tired. Aside from sprinting, the idea of giving her a resource to manage makes me excited but I don't have an idea what it could be used for. I'll keep that in mind.
When it comes to boxes, the idea for them is that they are supposed to be used as cover when sneaking around and as barricades, especially for placing them near a door, but they are also supposed to be a potential obstacle when you get chased by an enemy. The reason the boxes are so easy to destroy by the ghouls is coz I thought that if the ghouls wouldn't be able to destroy them easily, it wouldn't look scary. I think it's okay for the boxes to be more sturdy. I'm thinking of making different types of boxes (light, heavy) and change the way the player picks up boxes, coz yea, picking up 3 boxes at once is silly.
Nah you're right that getting to see the ghouls is basically game over, I need to slow down the pace of the game while giving the player something to do so that people dont get bored to death, but that's the thing, I want the game to have more mechanics and since those weren't implemented yet, I made this version more about fast chases to not waste the player's time.
Yeah you're right that the single outfit pieces are a bit underwhelming and there should be full heal sets. I think the game should have both, that way a full heal set could work as a reward, for example for exploring areas or for enduring tougher moments, while single pieces would keep you alive but also keep you on your toes.
I actually thought about making outfits with bonuses/abilities but the idea of balancing them around having fewer pieces is genius! Thank you!
Again, thank you for your thoughts! People like you give me motivation to keep on working on my projects!