How well thought out was the design of all characters involved?
Pawn does a good job at telling you how to play the game and having a voice gives the character a lot of personality. There is a solid variety of enemies with distinct movement and behaviours. The invisible ninjas are my favourite mechanically and the pandas are my favourite aesthetically. On the defensive side - the archers, knights and monks that can be purchased are great for the strategy of defending the towers and it’s good to have archers in the tower that enable you to engage with enemies directly.
How much fun was the Boss Fight to play?
Unfortunately my towers were destroyed just one wave before facing the Troll King in battle. The buildup felt good though and even though I only saw him on the start and end screen, his design with that massive club looks awesome and certainly makes for an imposing boss presence.
Rate the Technical Complexity & Execution.
The match 3 game has surprising depth. The swap mechanics are interesting and the fast pace of the combos felt good. Also, the addition of the upgrade cards adds a nice layer of complexity to the economy. One technical observation - the knights tend to overlap and clump together. While I'm unsure if this affects their hitboxes and makes them die faster, improving their spatial distribution would improve the battlefield visually.
Did the game include 2 distinct game genres and how well did they mash together?
Absolutely. There is a lot of synergy between the match 3 and lane defence genres. While it doesn't have strict lanes per se, the horizontal attacks remind me of Plants vs. Zombies. Using the puzzle side to generate cash for hiring units (knights, archers and monks) works well with the battlefield side for defending the towers.
Was the game well polished?
Perfectly. The world came to life with all of the little details like the trees swaying in the wind, the tides of the sea and the translucent clouds floating by. The smoke particles and sprite layering were great. I also liked the UI polish such as the cursor changing and the way the box zooms forward with the number of waves until the boss is timed well. Having an end screen when you lose is great and I love how it shows piles of dead bodies that fill the entire screen to show the scale of the conflict. Just a minor observation - there does seem to be a terminology mismatch in the how to play section where it refers to items as gems but it doesn’t subtract from how I’ve rated.