That was awesome, hilarious, and fun! A ton of charm packed into one game. I have a few opinions I'm going to share but this game is way up there for me among everything I've played so far.
Personally I'd probably err towards not even having health as a mechanic for Electra's levels (a contentious take I'm sure, so take it with a grain of salt). I think it would still be very fun to complete them without having to start the entire level over unless you let yemmep get too far. I also think I experienced a bug where I electrified but still died to a fish early on and it led to me not realizing you can just decimate things for a while if you stay plugged in.
I love the retract mechanic, it's super satisfying and the sound effect is great.
For pemmey's sequence, just two thoughts: One, the possibility of having to start all the way over just seems...something I'd want to avoid at all costs as a dev. I love the idea of having your score from Electra's sequence matter, but I'd just start the player with a basic attack so score can be farmed there.
Two, I think the final funny bone progress bar could increase at least 5 times faster and I'd be completely cool with it. I could almost say 10 times and not be exaggerating; that final sequence just seemed weirdly very very long to me compared to the pacing of all prior levels (the funny bone level right before it was fine).
In any case, I very much liked it overall, definitely a fantastic submission for the jam. Well done!!
Viewing post in Animal Connections jam comments
Thank you for playing all the way through to the (admittedly too long) final stage!
I appreciate your insights a ton. I think it's fair to remove the health total in Electra's levels, though I would want to compensate by having the earlier stages have more complex 'puzzles' than how they currently are. It's also an issue of throwing in too many enemies, I think; there are definitely a few spawn points which I regret including. Ideally I wanted the levels to be completable without ever eating a fish, and didn't have time to work that out.
Sorry about the bug, I've heard from someone else that fish passed through an electrified Electra, though I haven't replicated it myself yet to know how to fix it.
For Pemmey's stages, I did want the first attempt to feel (and be) unfair. This is probably a mistake on my part, for the sake of the 'reveal' that there would be upgrades and an ability to fight back afterward. And, definitely, the second stage is much longer than it should have been, given the lack of variety in enemies and the player's options. I simply took the length of the song used and stuck that into the timer. It was late on Sunday when I was finalizing all these things and I made some poor decisions. 😅 (The song is good though, right?)
I glad you still enjoyed it despite the flaws!
I think you could have Tigey (was that the name?) be like "here's a free attack on the house!" after showing up, and that way you still have the initial moment of despair while getting the ability to farm score after that. Because I agree, the sense of despair is a fun part of that bit.
I wondered if it was possible to win without eating fish. There were a few spawn points that just made me way too nervous, anything where you had to curve near the edge of the screen.
Understandable about tying the song length to level length on Sunday, that makes sense! The music you used throughout the entire game was killer, I loved all of it.
Also, wanted to say I remember you from last year and your JRPG is still the game I've put by far the most time into during any of these jams lol