Hi! One major comment here, which comes from someone who's fought...
[SPOILERS for all of Episode 3]
...11, with a 2/3 win rate...
...but has never beaten Phase 2 (I only have 1 clear from Beginner)...
I highly suggest to make the layout less RNG-heavy.
From what I've found, getting a mine in the 2x2 boxes on the top left and bottom right gives your run a 50/50 chance of instant death. There is no way to avoid it. Your momentum just dies if you make a single mistake.
Also, sidenote, if Free Play is a practice mode it would make more sense to make bosses available to rehearse the moment you reveal them.
If that's not possible, changing one of these things would make the Phase 2 fight MUCH more enjoyable:
- Reduce the mine rate overall on the board (>40% is a bit harsh for Novice),
- Add a checkpoint just before Phase 2,
- Enable the sonar (would make sense, as Captain Sweeper would want to go all-out on the defenses), or...
- Make 11 punish you less relatively for revealing mines (it still uses the Phase 1 rate on a much smaller board, so even ONE mistake is basically instant death).
I've been at it for 3 hours total. I don't know if it's just me, but Phase 2 just seems like an unfair difficulty spike. When I get a good starting click, I feel any time I lose is deserved, but in actual runs I seem to always run into near-impossible, zero-clue situations like this:
Even the base layout doesn't feel fun to play on when sonar is locked.
Yes, this is a skill issue. And yes, my language was unreasonably harsh. But this is just what I feel from playing.
That's all I have to say. Everything else is great!
By the way, all screenshots are from either 9+10 or nothing, all on the actual Phase 2 layout, in practice mode.