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clansing2 days ago(+1)

I wanted to like this. I really did. It started off well. I liked the look of it. I've always enjoyed Metroidvanias. I found timing the attack to hit enemies without them hitting me took some work to finally figure out, but that's probably a me problem. 

But the up arrow to climb off the ledge feels really awkward (and frequently doesn't work for me - I'll bounce off the ledge, and then just grab it again instead of getting up, and have no idea if that's a bug or if I'm doing something wrong). Down + UP at the same time is almost painful to  use the parry (and I honestly never figured out whether the parry was supposed to work on some of the projectiles or not - the floating balls in the spike area either couldn't have their shots parried, or my timing was just bad). I probably should have just given up on the keyboard and gone to dig up my gamepad.

Also the brief delay on movement after getting hit tripped me up in the spike area CONSTANTLY. I'd get knocked into the spikes, try to jump, not jump, and by the time I realized the jump didn't trigger, I'd take another hit from the spikes. The knock-back also made it so that I couldn't even get through the spike area after something like 40 tries, because I ALWAYS got knocked off the platforms - the balls ALWAYS seemed to shoot when they were lined up with the platform I was trying to jump on. And blocking the shot? NOPE. Knock-back into the spikes. I'm sure someone will just say "Skill issue" - but trying to get into melee range of something with a projectile attach that knocks you back every couple of seconds over vanishing platforms that exists for only a few seconds over spikes that ensure you have to start the whole sequence over every 15-20 seconds just stops being fun.

And I get that you were going for some narrative thing with the whole quicktime event with anxiety as a penalty for missing - but as far as I can tell it has no gameplay purpose or effect except to make people like me need to take 4-5 attempts to use a checkpoint (and I guess to make it take longer to run a boss fight).

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R_Goulart2 days ago(+1)(-1)

Thank you very much for your feedback. I haven't had time to adjust the difficulty balance, and I understand that the design may have become too punishing (problems of making a game jam game alone). The mechanic for climbing the ledge uses an upward tap because the jump button is then used against the wall for the wall jump, and it was causing a conflict.

After making a separate button on the gamepad to activate the parry along with the defense, I plan to do the same on the keyboard by removing the upward button. In fact, the enemies that shoot fire from the spikes are better countered when you use the Parry to deflect their shots before advancing, and if you can't use the ability, you'll have more difficulty. I particularly like using the downstab (down and attack in the air) to bounce off them, but it can also be difficult to do. I plan to apply a secret item that negates knockback, but this and other adjustments will only be made after the game jam voting is over.

Thank you so much for your interest in the game and for your honest feedback. I will consider what can be done to make the game less punishing and more fun. I hope that next time you will be able to enjoy the game after the changes.

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clansing11 hours ago(+1)

Downstab? I didn't even see that was a thing when I played the first time. That's one of my favourite melee mechanics in a platfomer (I think it was my most common attack in Hollow Knight). So I thought I'd give it another shot, see if that made it easier.... and found a bug. First boss, if you beat it while standing on the ledges, the flaming hover effect floats you into the room above, and you get stuck in the floor.

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R_Goulart10 hours ago

Hmm, I'll take a look to see what might be causing this. Thank you so much for finding it.

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