In terms of objective quality of art and concept, this is a very, very good game. Not much to it, but for one week it's pretty impressive. I have just a couple issues that keep it from being a full 5 stars, the first being that when you get into the Zelda-esque tennis match, hitting the parry and getting the musical effect that tells you you got it should mean you don't take the hit. I imagine what happened is the hitbox of the ropes is still active the whole time and it doesn't matter if you hit the parry, it's just looking for contact with either you or the enemy. Especially with the final boss, major pain point.
That said, the atmosphere of the game is top notch. Could use some passes on the exact phrasing of dialogue, and I'd like to see some more iteration on the idea that enemies get tied up in stages, perhaps they throw different attacks in desperation, or the fights sometimes get easier as they lose mobility. Additionally, in future versions I'd love to see some more agency on the part of the player, or some rhythm game elements, since that's a lot of what this is in terms of gameplay.
4/5 vibes immaculate, some trouble with the execution
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Thanks mate! I personally love how the parry turned out... there's some moments where the slowmo happens and I'm not sure if I've made the parry in time and when it successfully bounces back I get a wave of dopamine haha.
With regard to your other points, I originally was going to have different attacks based on different bindings, etc. but this game was already scoped really big for one week of work and I had to drop the concept.
Thanks for the thoughtful review!
Personally I'm a big fan of the parry. Sure, it confused me a bit at first that it could hit despite feeling like a hit, but then it felt more like a fail right on the edge of success. Definitely felt that dopamine when it just managed to return! Please don't change it if you make more (although difficulty settings might be needed for some).