I love the visuals! Some of the best I’ve seen in the jam so far. Music was also really good.
Gameplay loop was satisfying, although I was so slow to level up, I feel as if I was doing something wrong. Collecting souls gives XP right? If so, there needs to be a UI component or some visual indicator of your progress to the next level. If that’s what the white edges of the screen were about (although I think they had something to do with the damage I was taking instead?), they need to be clearer what they were for. I think if that’s how you level up, it should take way fewer souls, and enemies need to spawn less often. It’s not satisfying shooting a giant horde one enemy at a time at level 1. I think crowds that size need to be worked up to when you have the upgrades to clear them. There also should be a boundary limit otherwise there’s always going to be enough room to escape and the player will never have to make a hard choice when survival is on the line; there will always just be more room to run.
Sound design was the roughest part. I really appreciate the main volume setting because every sound effect that wasn’t a gunshot or the bgm was way too loud and high pitched. I don’t think the volume slider works on the level up sound because it legit jumpscared me when I hit level 2. There also was a lack of audio clarity, and I often didn’t know why certain chimes were going off (was I getting closer to leveling up? did I get a kill milestone or something:). Biggest room for improvement, but altogether not hard changes to make. Low frequency (bass-y) sounds are more favorable in modern games than chirpy high pitch ones, plus they match your visuals better imo.
I know that was a lot of critique, but that’s only because this is the best gamem I’ve played in the jam so far. You’ve done a fantastic job with visuals, music, and vfx, and the gameplay loop has a lot of promise. I wish I was able to unlock the other classes because I’m missing something and I have the desire to see what else you have in store. Kudos on the good game :)