Hello to the Dark Stain's team !
Disclaimer : This comment review is subject to change with futures updates :)
First of all, this project has a really unique gameplay and great visuals and it must be noted. I am able to go to the second phase of the boss again, after (of course) multiple failed attempts.
I don't know if this version is an earlier prototype of what was shown in your booth at the Geekali, because multiple elements seems to have changed. Notably how to approch certain boss' attacks.
In all cases, I find it quite interesting to dash more often, which offers a "larger" panel of gameplay than just parrying perfectly every attack.
Thinking of newbie players that launches the game for the first time, even though this is only a prototype, adding some text boxes that explains gameplay such as :
- How does the level up of attack, meditation (healing) and stamina/dash works
- Controls (even though it is marked on this itch page, I learned that people rarely read here lol)
I know that the goal is to be as minimalistic as possible and never take the player by the hand, but meh...
Even better, this bridge sequence could be used as a diagetic tutorial for attacking (by road-blocking with destroyable crates). You could even use an NPC, like a crow (to justify the flying camera angles) to explain everything making it much more enjoyable!
On another topic, using the mouse on the main menu is borderline impossible. You could either make the player able to use only the keyboard (up and down key to cycle buttons and space to select) or detect the mouse and display a cool cursor, both would be great.
An optional (and I insist on optional, because this not your vision on the game) signal/marker to know WHEN to parry and/or IF you can parry would be great. I had this impression while playing that some attacks where impossible to parry. A great indicator in Mortal Shell display a red glow in the back of player to indicate that the attack is impossible to parry and need to be dodged.
I also find that the parry, one of the key points of your game, needs to be rewarded more. You already recieve a big punishment when failing, which is a good thing to do, but I recieve nothing by parrying. Making the enemy staggered for even a short half to a second duration would be more than enough to offset this feeling.
One attack of the boss, the "dash", is one of the hardest to overcome but is pretty satisfying to parry. However, I see that there is a small animation where it feels disoriented and I thought of something. Maybe (4-6) rocks could fall on the battleground in a circle manner, that the player could hide behind to counter before being forced to learn to parry the attack if they want to win. The rocks are, of course, destroyed everytime and damage the boss only really slightly. They would be only a temporary solution to the player's cowardness.
The player's health bar and stats should be in the bottom-left, and the boss bar should be top centered in my opinion.
That is all for now! I will greatly appreciate a job as game designer :p jkjk
I know this is only a prototype, but seeing some of these ideas would benefit greatly the game's accessibility and fun factor.
(Désolé d'avoir écrit un gros pavé ET EN ANGLAIS, mais bon, bonne continuation !)