The second I opened this game it was apparent that you have a really impressive understanding of the engine. The amount of customization from the title screen on is so refreshing to see, and I enjoyed exploring the novelty of it all. It's astounding that you could accomplish this much in the span of a month.
The story seemed to be just a method of delivering the novel gameplay, but it had its charming moments. I was a bit confused by some early points. Some may take issue with the story, as there wasn't really dialog or character development or much of a story arc that I could perceive, but it doesn't really detract from the experience for me.
To me, the execution and presentation are crucial for a good jam game. In that sense I think the game hit the mark in many places and offered some real enjoyment, but there were some issues that prevented this game from totally knocking it out of the park.
My main critique is that the gameplay elements were too often frustrating or unpleasant. For example the bag minigame very quickly tired me out. I also found both the crits and the misses to reduce my enjoyment substantially. The feedback of getting a lot of points for clicking fast is the most satisfying part, but the slowdown of misses and crits both made me feel like I was straining myself for nothing. I also noticed the 100% crit potion tended to lower my score due to the slowdown. I eventually avoided this mode altogether due to
The moon howling game felt like it was mostly luck since the moons would fall a bit too fast, especially after the first bounce. They also went way too high, which often meant that 2-3 moons were still in the air when the game timed out, effectively making the last 10 seconds of the game pointless to play. I did notice on occasions the moons didn't bounce too high, so maybe it was a skill thing, but I don't anticipate many people to achieve that mastery if it is more than lucky angles.
Meditation was fun and decently satisfying. Fast feats was also really fun. My only critique with these is that it felt like too much grinding was necessary to become decently strong (although with my post game understanding of the rebirth mechanic, that may not be the case). Generally in jam games, I feel like something like repetitive random encounters don't value player's time, and it felt this way after 3-4 rounds of even the more enjoyable minigames.
Adventure mode offered some frustrations as well. I would train in a few modes for (in game) hours, then return to adventure mode expecting to mow down some monsters, only to be one-shotted by a crab. I imagine most players will be on 8x after one or two rounds, so the speed of losing just made it feel discouraging after all that training. Eventually I think I figured out that the rebirth mechanic would help with this, but not before throwing my hands up in the air many times in exasperation at some powerful slime wrecking me.
Ultimately I still think this entry deserves a high rating, and I can't help but be impressed by the whole thing. I think finding a way to ensure the gameplay loop is more fun and satisfying could have really made the difference with this one.