I was looking forward to this one ever since I saw a gif of it on Discord, and I wasn't disappointed. Definitely a top 3 contender from me, and possibly a top 1 Metroidvania! If this was truly made in only 4 days, then incredible job!

I think this game is a perfect example of interesting and unique Metroidvania abilities that actually feel good to use, and aren't jank or one-trick ponies. They might not have all been equally powerful (the frilly shaft and star topper carried me through pretty much most of the game), which I think is fairly understandable and normal for a Metroidvania. But it really felt like every ability provided at least some sort of a situational advantage, even down to such small details like the platinum topper giving you a bit of extra range on your shots. When you finally do get the old reliable double jump, it truly feels more like the cherry on top, rather than a level design crutch!

That said, having such incredible mobility did lead to some progression issues. The sheer ease of sequence breaking is one thing (and I would argue a staple of classic Metroidvania), but the ease with which a player can softlock themselves is another. I think at least the final area should be guarded against early entry better, since I don't think it's possible to do without double jump, or at least really really hard. Perhaps at least the save point should be moved to a less immediately accessible location, so that a player can still attempt the area early if they want to, but at least they can't save themselves into a corner (as I did on my first run, forcing me to delete my save).

I think a big part of why it's so easy to get softlocked is that the intended path is often very unclear. For me, by far the biggest problem here was the lever after the throw ability. It just seemed like such a relatively inconspicuous piece of scenery that I assumed its entire purpose was to open the big trapdoor right next to it, and I had no idea it played such a massive role in opening up intended progression paths elsewhere throughout the level! If technically possible, perhaps a cutscene could play showing the other paths being opened, or even just a dialog text saying something like "A path opened somewhere else."

Of course, the real elephant in the room is the frilly shaft. Once you discover the upwards "bomb jump" spam, it's hard to go back. Ironically, the things that make it so prone to game-breakage are also the things that make it so fun! I'd say it's both the best weapon and best movement ability in the game by a long shot, so I can definitely understand an unwillingness to "fix" it. And honestly, I think it's fine the way it is, as long as the level protects the player somehow from the worst (save-ending) softlocks!

Other than that, I noticed only a few major bugs. The dialog box had some issues, such as being able to open the map while the box is active, and being able to press Up again to restart the whole dialog. It was also possible to get bubbles stuck in a wall, which caused so much audio distortion that at one point I think the music stopped completely.

I'm not even gonna talk much about movement, since such great abilities wouldn't have been possible without great movement (and vice versa). Nor am I gonna talk much about the presentation, because honestly I think it's just as perfect as almost everything else in the game. I love the "tiny" pixel art style to bits, the protagonist's design and different outfits are adorable (I see those Touhou fangames in the developer's profile, and I can definitely see the influences😉), all the hidden NPCs are lots of fun to find and talk to, and the music suits the mood perfectly.

All in all, I had tons of fun with this one! I think I managed to find everything and uncover the entire map, including the hidden developer cameo. Amazing job!

(Wait... is this actually a Touhou fangame in disguise???)

Amazing experience! Controls like a charm, has great music, level design is open but not labyrinthic, it has it all!

I only have 2 criticisms: I found it annoying to have to go back to a save point to swap wands (but I understand that the level design relies on this, so it is more of a nitpick), and I found  myself stuck out of bounds a few times

Those are just minor issues though. This was an all around great game. Congrats!

Pretty cool graphics and fun game. But bubble skill is just op and broken. I managed to jump up multiple screens up with it and got many weird bugs. like I would grab ledge on the bottom of new screen it puts me up in the sky. and at some point I saw a +1hp ball above a save point started to spam bubbles and it launched me up to screen outside of map into the sky lol. Very fun game need a bit of polish

MY Goooddd this is sooo lovely!

Everything is so beautifull here.... from the cutesy characters to the gorgeous backgrounds and the leaves falling around us, and the music making everything so much zen and serene, I really can't get enought of it....

The NPCs sprinkled around are also extremelly lovely, althought I am kinda sad their dialogues doesn't change after I have the things they are mentioning, or when I interact with them repeatedly, but alas,  the world already feel more alive just by them existing at all

This is a really cute game! i love the abilities they are all so unique, maybe except the one that just shoots but i love the bubble!!!!! very simple but very fun!!! i love the visual style and the art its very cute

Control support for the game seems scuffed, i can jump with my controller but not move at all, so i had to use a keyboard for playing.

he attack animations are a little scuffed, sometimes they don’t show up, if im too slow only the first animation shows, if im too fast, it skips some parts, if i move to one side while i attack the character will look in one direction and attack on the other direction. Anyways,

All i have to say left is: BUBBLES.

feels like it was made in the full month, really good game. impeccable lighthopping, i have been put to shame. i do wish the different outfits were actual cosmetics you could swap between though, maybe in an extra slot on the wand building menu

Absolutely fantastic game! Can't believe you did all of that in just five days, great job!!

I love the style, it's very simple and effective.

The set of abilities is very creative, and changing outfits was a great touch.

(it was very fun to explore the map in the editor, thank you for some clever ideas! ¦3)

This game was pretty cool. Very solid and polished experience overall, although there were few hiccups. 

I got softlocked twice:

- Got stuck underneath a room in the top right area with a lever.

- Got stuck in midair in the rainy area to the left of where you get the time wand.

Thankfully, the game does save your progress, so it wasn’t too big of a deal.

Another minor bug I found is that bubbles can sometimes get stuck in walls and start spamming the bounce sound effect for a second or two before popping. It's a funny glitch, but it's easy to accidentally trigger when using the bubbles normally, and also it sometimes seems to cause the music to stop playing (although it doesn’t happen every time, so it might be something else causing that issue).

The final challenge was pretty cool, but I think it was maybe a little too short (and simple?). When I got there it felt like it was a bit too early for it (I only had two shafts and two toppers at that point). It didn’t help that you couldn’t backtrack either due to a wind current blocking the way you entered, so when you enter that room you have to complete it with what you have at that point. 

Also, it’s pretty easy to accidentally enter the final challenge from the wind currents in the room below, which is something that happened to me quite a few times when I was collecting all the items I missed. At that point I didn’t know that you could press R to respawn at your last checkpoint, so I was closing the game and reopening it to return to get out of the final challenge. That was a bit of a pace breaker.  Knowing that you could respawn at the last checkpoint you saved at would've been nice to learn about in-game (or in the README), but it's at least listed on the jam page, so I eventually did learn about it.

Aside from that, I’d say the game was great overall.

The visuals are very charming. They make good use of "flat" coloring.

There were some specific visual details that I want to point out:

- The little twirl animation of the dash ability was pretty cute.

- There are 2 versions of the slash effect when attacking rather than just 1, which gives some visual variety/flair.

- The wind movement of those foreground shrubs is pretty nice, although it seems a little inconsistent that none of the other foliage type stuff moves.

The music is also pretty chill. I specifically liked the track in that area in the top right with the blue terrain. The start of it is very serene, then the beat comes in and it gets a nice groove while still feeling laidback. Then the beat leaves and you get another very peaceful segment again. It feels almost nostalgic; it reminds me of Minecraft’s soundtrack a bit.

That area just has a pleasant vibe in general. I can't think of a good way to describe it, but the color palette of that area feels... cozier, vs the other areas. The leaves(?) blowing in the wind also contribute to the vibe.

I like how the wand construction system is an interpretation of the "Construct" theme that isn't just robots. It's a neat system, although I found that I ended up sticking mostly with the bubble shaft and the dash topper once I got them. It felt like the most flexible combination; all the others felt too niche.

Another reason I used the bubble shaft so much is that it was also my favorite shaft. I really liked how the bubbles have good movement utility but are also pretty good for taking out enemies. It was very fun to spawn tons of bubbles and gain a bunch of height with them, although it feels a bit too spamable (and because of that, exploitable) imo.

The map is pretty well-designed I think; it leaves enough room for some good exploration, but it doesn’t feel meandering. The map screen was a big help though. I referenced it a number of times to help me navigate, especially after I beat the final challenge and started trying to find everything I could.

The NPCs you could find scattered about the map were neat, although they mostly only seem to be there for flavor text.

The alternate colors you get when collecting hp upgrades were a nice little touch that made collecting them feel a little more fun, but I wish you could select which one to use. Also, having some sort of item collection tracker would've been cool too I feel like. I believe I got 8 health upgrades; I'm not sure if that's all of them, but that's all the ones I was able to find simply by exploring all the room connections marked on the map screen.

There’s for sure a good few flaws, but I don’t think they’re major enough to drag the whole experience down. Very good job!

Game looks and sounds pretty. Unaware if it was intentional or not, but spamming the attack button lead to some quirky results in animation sometimes, which is just a thing I think I noticed but didn't affect gameplay. I'm probably really bad at it, but the bubble staff is hard to use. I was actively trying at first, until I gave up and decided to spam and hope for the best, which sometimes lead to frustrating platforming. I do think the theme implementation is creative however, and it's obviously impressive what you managed to achieve in such a short time. Fun time.

TS SO GAS. I love the different areas, and the powers and wand-swapping are so creative. I got 4 outfits, and the final challenge was cool. The sprites are so cute and everything was a treat to look at. Nice job!!!