I have a lot more to say about this one than I think I expected for a game where the description notes it’s unfinished, so bear with me a bit on this one… I have a lot of games to play, and I’m not as good at being concise when I’m trying to be hasty, so apologies for the wall of text!
The visuals are pretty charming in this one, lots of creative visual concepts on display here! I actually rather like that about it. The intro animation is nice and juicy and would probably pare well with some nice lightning sounds once those are ready to go. The attack animations look really nice, and actually, just the animation work in general, it’s very good stuff.
The protagonist has a pretty cool design, and the description of “You kill the rust in your heart by killing the factory” honestly goes hard and despite the themes not feeling integrated much here with the game itself, that alone actually carries the theme points a bit here for the creativity there.
Actually, in general, you’ve maybe noticed I’m describing a lot here as creative, and I feel like that’s generally one of the strong points here. I can tell there’s heart in this one.
Gameplay wise… admittedly I start to have issues at that point. Before I get into those, here’s some positives on that.
I actually really appreciate when games give both ranged and melee attack options instead of sticking purely to one or the other. Could be something to toy with a bit more when the game is more finished, but as is it’s already a solid start to some potentially quite good combat. I also like that you have both a fast attack and a stronger but slower attack (the controls call it a parry, but it seems to work more as a regular heavy attack), to give the player more options.
Moving up slopes slower than normal movement makes traversing terrain feel pretty interesting, even if going down slopes feels slightly glitchy as of now due to kind of more-so falling down than walking down.
Also, I very much appreciate that this game has very generous coyote time (being able to jump for a bit after you step off a platform).
As for the issues… well… I might suggest that the attack animations are a bit too slow and their hitboxes are a bit too small, which makes landing attacks a lot harder than is likely intended.
Additionally, while I’d say it’s a smaller issue, it’s a bit unclear how the player’s invulnerability frames and taking damage etc. even works at first glance due to lack of any kind of real stun or knockback when taking damage, or even a dedicated animation for it, and also the damaged animation kicking in sometimes even when nothing seems to be hitting me. (Is there a stamina mechanic?)
Lastly, I couldn’t figure out how to get past the hourglass eye thing at all. I killed a few enemies, attacked it a ton of tons, and… nothing. Tried leaving the room, nothing, and I don’t see anything else I can really interact with.
To suggest a possible fix for the first gameplay issue in particular though, if your goal with the slow attacks was that you want to discourage the player from timing the attacks wrong, maybe if you speed them up you could also slow down or even stop the player from moving during part of the attack?
I actually do like what I’m seeing here so far despite the gameplay issues though, even if it could still be quite a bit better with that in mind. Would love to see what this becomes after the jam since it’s pretty clear you plan to continue with this more, so keep at it!