The presentation is extremely solid here. The setup did its job very well and actually had me really nervous as I entered the caves. Love the sound design and visuals as well although maybe the death scene was a bit over the top lol. I really like the dark fantasy setting and era of graphics you went for, it's such a good mix.
The gameplay / combat is what lets it down for me - the goblins are too predictable and also way too tanky. When in a 1 on 1 duel with them, it's a bit drawn out but still kind of fun. But because you attack so slowly without any area of effect, getting ganged on by multiple goblins is a death sentence. Which fits the setting you were going for but it doesn't really leave many options for the player. I think making the slash an aoe attack would make dealing with groups way more viable
Also, I wish the game was more stealthy. Like what if you couldn't easily outrun the goblins because they're faster than you? Or what if there were hiding spots and multiple paths to go down so you can hide from the goblins? This would make the sound mechanic more important since you absolutely don't want them to find you.
I say all that because the game's setting, visuals and audio a lot. I hope you continue development on it!
Viewing post in Beneath The Hill jam comments
Thank you for the amazing feedback! About the tanky goblins, you can actually one shot them. In the center bottom of the screen there is a bar that looks like a sword, when filled up, you deal maximum amount of damage and can oneshot a goblin with the overhead slash. The less it is filled up, the less damage you deal.
I do realize that this mechanic is not really explained to the player, so that's on me.
Ah right, before I was kind of just spamming lol and it took like 10+ hits to kill them because of that.
Because of that, I went back and finished the game! The combat became very fun when I realised it's very similar to Dark Souls (although I'm guessing it's mainly kingsfield that inspired it? Either way you made a pretty nerve wracking horror game because I like how when you make noise, you get ambushed by goblins from above.