OH. MAI. GODDO.
Is this a bullet hell platformer boss rush for the deranged of mind?? I'm on the mazochist's heaven!!
I Love this, the boss designs are super creative and incorporate the themes fantastically! Not only aesthetically, but also on their gameplay! This is really super well done!
And speaking of their gameplay, oh my GOD, I wanna MARRY those bosses! they are soooooo fun and impeccably designed! And most of them are multiphased?????? Do you wanna make me lose my freaking mind???????
Like for real, as self-proclaimed bossfight connoisseur myself, you scratched every single bossfight itch I crave to see!
And the final boss is BRUTAL!!!
Not only brutally challenging, but brutally stealing my heart!!! I still didn't beat it yet, but I MUST do so later on sometime. Every single new pattern phase I think it cannot get possibly better and then I am fwoggin MELTING for the next surprise!! I managed to get to the desperation move before having to put the game down to take a break. A DESPERATION MOVE. You have NO idea the giant smile I had on my face when I saw that arena fading out <3
And then there is Unity, hidden all the way on the end of earth, and boy, is it worth finding it. I ADORE how you designed that boss in a way that the player can basically choose their own difficulty, that is such peak game design.
I also didn't beat them yet either, actually. Why? Because c'mon, they're "Unity", I gotta fight all three at the same time ;)
That is definitelly also a little harder than the alternative, but I don't care, I ball! It seens super doable, I will also come back to it at some point, I hope.
Now, not everything are flowers, sadly.... The player hitbox is like, really big? It was not much of an issue for the big majority of the game, but on the final boss it became very apparent when I would try to squeeze between bullets and would get hit by like, 1 pixel of my head's outline touching the bullet, or 1 pixel of my arms outline touching the vertical beams, and that never feels good.
I also actually really struggle with the control scheme... This is way more of a personal nitpick, but the spacebar is a horrible button for 2D platformers honestly.... Specially since W was completely free of input to rub salt on the wound. It's the recipe for disaster, spacebar is the most sensible button and the thumb is the brutest of fingers, they were never meant to be a power couple. Due to that I am still having a really hard time measuring precise jump heights, I can only ever either jump too high or too low I'm afraid.
I also really hate using my pinky.... It is the thumb's evil brother, it's the frailest of fingers, so it was really not made to keep a button pressed for long periods of time... I just wish slowdown was a toggle instead, like, pressing shift once makes me slow until I press it again, that would have felt wayt better imo. Due to that I actually never used slowing down at all during the fights, and honestly they're completely fine without it, I just think it would be more cool if I did use all of the mechanics, you know?
But again, control schemes are subjective, these are very personal details lol
The art is actually very simple, I don't have much to comment on that, althought I do really like the lore you added, and I love that dying to the final boss is actually an ending too, and a very sweet one at that!
I did REALLY miss music tho! I'm am a very music powered person, and even thought I usually don't mind lack of music that much on most entries, on a game as epic to play as THIS? I MUST have music playing for these fights, so after a few attempts I could not resist, I had to open youtube and leave some bossfighty music on the background x)
I actually also think a lot of the bosses attacks really missed sound effects too, actually.... Everything feels very oddly silent, specially since some attacks felt like they would be a lot heavier (Like all of the spear moves from the final boss, or everything the Construct's mecha does, or Rust's box throws, etc.)
Anyway, I think that's kinda it?
lovely game, might probably play again