Hey-ooooh! Feedback time!
I played the game twice and overall I really loved it: it's fun to play, the story is simple but cool and it has a really nice aesthetic and atmosphere.
And now you get lists. Because that's what I do.
--What I loved--
- Controls and game feel is really nice: it really feels good moving around, dashing and slaying vampires;
- Story, dialogues, sound and level design reinforced the theme quite well. The big stairway near the end had a similar vibe to the stairway to Dracula's room in Castlevania <3;
- Bosses were fun to fight and test player's mastery of the latest ability learned (loved the Countess <3);
- Camera variations are flawless;
-Really nice UI *chef's kiss*.
--What went wrong--
- Though audio feedbacks are alright I would have love to receive more visual feedbacks to enhance clarity: particularly visual feedbacks on hit, like flashing (for both player and enemies) and some feedback (audio and video) to tell the player has no garlic blood to perform a skill. It could be, for example, the garlic blood icon with an X appearing on top of the character (I noticed the skill flashing red but while playing my gaze was focused was on the character);
- Obtaining the garlic blood skill ("U" key) unlocks every other skill;
- On my first playthrough Dracula got stuck on the floor in the well at the end of the room, phased the floor and changed room (leaving me trapped in the boss arena);
- Garlic blood waves skill ("O" key) could use some balancing because it is REALLY powerful and it's easy to abuse it (it gives a good power fantasy feeling, though);
- Dashing with "C" is a little uncomfortable because it uses the same finger needed to go forward, I would have preferred dashing with my pinky finger (using "Shift" or something like that);
- It's a shame that Dracula doesn't have his own sprite but I guess it was a time-related issue (loved him nonetheless).
--Ideas for future iterations--
- Crouching could add more complexity and room for mastery: it could be used to aim on stairs or to dodge certain attacks;
- Adding a tooltip with skill descriptions, appearing when holding down a skill button, could make them easier to undestand and add flavour with skill names.
I hope this comment will be helpful, I loved this game and I look forward its next version <3 Keep up the good work!