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(+1)

Going to be blunt, I don't think the game's enjoyable enough for a roguelike, a genre that makes you go over a couple playthroughs or four. There are many things didn't cut it for me.

First, the dialogue. The topics are not fascinating but not too uninteresting, sure, but that's not the problem. The problem I have with this is it feels like a text dump. There's like one or two minutes of reading every 2 levels, which feels like it gets in the way of gameplay. I'd be fine with long convos  at "chapter conclusions" (like getting to the next area or beating a boss) - but this gave me the impression that the game flow gets interrupted quite often.


There are also a couple bugs and poor implementations in this game. Unfortunately, it's the kinds that get in the way.
Like, just the first level, they tell me I could team up with Aya. I look for the button to "equip" her but didn't find it. Then later "I can team up with Reimu" and still haven't found out how I do that. It was until just a level later I figured it has something to do about returning to base, but I knew this was a roguelike, and I really didn't want to lose my progress for one teammate so I just carried on.
So yes that meant I went all the way from base to final level with no purchase at the shop (which allows chests to contain new weapons, potions and spell), and no teammate - collecting only healing potions on the way.
After 4 levels of Scarlet Devil Mansion (each level having 65+ enemies you have to defeat?? This is madness!) I finally get to the final boss and... I get softlocked?? I spent one hour fighting waves of very low variety of enemies (comprising only of melee enemy, sniper enemy and medic enemy) - which quickly became too easy to know how to face them, leading to one monotonous fight after the other - and I'm not even allowed to see the end, That deeply demotivated me.

So I figured it must have been because I didn't choose a partner. I rebooted the game, went with Aya, and farmed a bit of enemy kills to try out things from the shop before going all the way to final boss. One thing real quick, why do the weapons that hurt say they heal, and why does the healing staff says it damages? Anyway, the shop's upgrades feel underwhelming. Quickly found out the naginata (2 range, 5 damage) just negated the need for any other spell or potion or weapons because the enemies are so not tricky to deal with in the first place (I even wished later I didn't buy new chest item variety because that meant there was less healing potions dropped).

And so, with a couple of farming reset (also, the Aya/Reimu sidequest buttons show up when I come back to base, weird) and lots and lots of squeaking enemies later (that quickly became annoying), I finally reach the final doors of SDM and... I can't even enter? 

I gave up. That's a shame, because the portraits are nice to look at, the gameplay is functional at its core (and turn-based roguelike gameplay is kinda based), and the soundtrack is actually a bit enjoyable.


(+1)

Thanks for your feedbacks

Lot of bugs and balancing issues you encountered are issues that were reported to us but that sadly, we weren’t able to fix during the jam itself, especially the one with the black screen that we probably broke while fixing an other bug right before the deadline