Ok, after playing this for a while, I have a few pieces of genuine constructive criticism. I thought this was a skill issue at first, but the shield/parry is REALLY unreliable and barely ever even worth it outside of when it is required. I had the Gynoid right in front of an enemy and outright tested it multiple times and out of the many times I had the shield up, it only worked about 30% of the time, including when I clearly had it up and ready prior to the projectile making contact. It costs energy and parrying SHOULD be a fun way of flexing your skills, so making the shield strong when it does cost a resource to use is totally justified.
Secondly, the strong attack was almost useless, outside of very VERY specific circumstances. This is because it makes you a sitting duck in a game wear stun chaining is better than any of the current increases to raw damage. This can easily be fixed by allowing the Gynoid to be able to move while charging the heavy attack. This small change allows for a far greater number of cases wear it can be used.
The butt plug rockets are fine as they are, because their intended use it to eliminate particularly annoying enemies. No enemies in the game are currently worth it, but, as the game expands and more enemy types are introduced, that issue will naturally be fixed.
The Bomb, on the other hand is tragically ineffective, when taking into account it's scarcity. This can be fixed either, increasing the supply, increasing the blast radius/damage, or by allowing upgrades to increase both.
The ranged attack is nice, but with the amount of stuff on screen, I often forget that it is their, though, I will admit that is an issue with my own skill level.
Because of the aforementioned flaws in nearly every other combat option, that vast majority of the time, but best strategy is to spam light attacks into a large group to push them into a corner, dodge the projectiles from the one or tow that you can't push into a corner at any given time and repeat.
Yes, the grab exists and is VERY satisfying to use, but, unless the target has a bare bottom, it only serves to deal minor damage to a single target while leaving you open. Of course, if the target's bottom is bared and you are NOT in a swarm of projectiles or fast moving attacks, it is great and, in addition the spankings being VERY enjoyable to use also rewards the skill for setup, but it too can be improved upon. Instead of having use have to do a disappointing release that only strips off a layer or two of clothes when catching a target without a bared bottom, let us strip off a layer with a push of the "E" button.
On the more positive side of things, the animations are great, the character variety is fun and full of personality, and I would love a mode where in between levels you get to punish the captured naughty enemies in various ways. I also enjoyed the little touch of giving each target a wedgie when grabbing them and I think it would be fun to have a wedgie variant of the grab attack when grabbing a clothed foe.
hey, thank you so much for writing such a detailed reply :D You've definitely put thought into this! This is a proof of concept slice, but I'll try to polish the combat more. The explanations that follow aren't meant to be reflexive/defensive, I'm just laying out the use-cases I've found in testing:
The power-attack has much longer range than the normal one, so I mainly use it to more safely deal with the melee range enemies who charge at you, and the normal grab is mostly useful because you can throw enemies at each other, dealing damage + stagger. Also for using the benches - I have plans for more interactible environmental objects where you need the grab.
You're right about the 'light attack staggering crowds into a corner' strategy. I want to nerf that somewhat, maybe by letting enemies duck out of light attacks somehow. The 2 items are a light-weight feature for now, I use them both as panic-buttons - the bomb deals 4 damge to everything in range, so if you hit 4-5 enemies it's quite efficient, and the missile is nice for just getting rid of an enemy or dealing massive damage to the boss.
Block and parry works as intended, so there's some miscomunication about what the intention is I guess. Is it he parry window that felt inconsistent to you? If it needs better explanation in game I want to fix that.
I am planning on having a 'free mode' in between levels where you're on the spaceship and can play around with the girls. 'One handed play mode' you might call it xD
Oh, one last thing, the animations for the Finisher Hers are superb and I LOVE them, but I strongly believe that they should grant invincibility. They require full rage, rage does not get retained between lives, and only target one enemy. So, it's not like invincibility during would make it OP and NOTHING is more frustrating than finally landing it on an enemy you haven't used it on yet, only to be interrupted 0.3 seconds in by a projectile, because you are a sitting duck whenever there are other enemies around.
Interesting... The last part of this comment (regarding the grab) gives me some real insight on how unique my playstyle is. Personally, the grab is my go-to option when I manage to lure a girl far enough away from a crowd. It feels more reliable than the light attack, and can be chained infinitely by throwing the girl forward and immediately grabbing her again once she hits the ground (or charging a heavy attack while she's stunned after being thrown, for quick damage if I'm confident I can grab her again), repeating as many times as necessary. The only downside is that you need a lot of free space (and time, lol) to defeat an enemy this way, so it usually ends with me back at the start and having to walk all the way back to the next encounter. And I personally second the suggestion of being able to strip a layer from a held girl with E.