Wow this entry was also very different! I’m… not sure what part is Magical Girl or Metroidvania though. We’re actually piloting a mech?

Visuals

A green goblin in pink suit, quite funny. Although it’s supposed to be a mech?

Shaky breasts generally get instant negative points from me, but I’ll overlook this one because for the first time, it actually feels like second degree humor (like a big mama goblin joke or something) and not added as some cheap selling point.

Audio

It’s pretty out of range too! It made me remember Intergalatic Wizard Force (I played the LocJam version: https://locjam.itch.io/intergalactic-wizard-force-locjam-edition ), complete with the fullbody skinsuit, it’s perfect!

Gameplay

I have about the same remarks as winterbraid. Past level 1 gem there seems to be no upgrade, and since there is no life upgrade (max 3 hearts) it’s very hard to survive bullet hell without using bombs repeatedly (and each bomb sacrifices a diamond for that area so your firepower gets weaker, so you must calculate it well to use them at the end).

3 hearts is general for a traditional bullet hell, but we’re facing (non-boss) enemies with a lot of HP so we can’t really apply the same rules.

It’s cool to shoot left and right and that’s important for the final goblin lady boss, however in many cases I just want to strafe. I found out later about the focus button explained on the main game page, that it also locks direction. However sometimes I want to move fast and strafe, so a separate trigger would be nice (but maybe one button that does makes sense for some players, and it simplifies input, I concede).

Some enemies don’t have a clear blinking when they get hit (esp. the “snails” that are small but have a lot of HP) which gives the impression that they are invincible.

The first boss throws money (and the last one diamonds too) and indeed you get a few coins when you get hit but it’s not worth it. Maybe it was to reuse the sprites for budget reasons, and play with the theme of fantasy creatures holding on money, but it would feel better to use different sprites for projectiles, to keep game design symbolism consistency.

It’s not exactly rogue-like since you can continue from last shop but it was in fact a relief for me, allowed to reach the end of the map at least.

Mostly, if progression with lifebar, weapon upgrade and bomb effects worked, it could be much easier to balance and make it a good roguelike adrenaline rush game.

UI

Some UI glitches like the popup that appears then disappears when you enter shop area, and player shooting in the background of the shop reacting to user input in the menu instead of having a separate “testing weapon” mode… that you must be aware of.