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I have a couple thoughts to share but wow holy cow what a unique interpretation of loop--the idea of being stuck in inside Ouroboros is terrifying. 

First off, the artwork and mood are very strong. Something about the composition of the environment is really satisfying, I think it's the deep reds of the "ceiling" with the tailbone that fades into the silhouette of the horizon broken by jagged rocks and the murky green water. Between that and the ever-dimming lantern, holy moly this place is scary. Speaking of the lanterns, having all of the most important things (main character and the two npcs) be lit by them made navigation no problem, for better or for worse.

I like the core feedback loop of the game, the more planks you have the easier it is to keep you lantern bright so you can avoid jagged rocks which cost planks to repair and find other planks in the water, but when you're out it feels like you're fumbling through the dark to regain a foothold, and I think that fits with the mood and narrative. I will say though, that as long as I can maintain a decent amount, it feels almost trivial to maintain that, and with no noticeable increase in difficulty between loops as I got better at navigating my boat the less they felt like a lifeline and the more they felt like a chore to maintain as I tried to make my way back to the npcs.

The snake enemies look pretty scary on the horizon when I can only make out the shape of their tails slithering around, but when they're lit up by the lantern they look kinda goofy, which I think in the case of your game breaks immersion a little bit. That said, them snapping and latching onto the boat caught my by surprise the first time and YEESH I jumped. I love the choice to only be able to throw harpoons backwards, despite the fact that you're primarily moving forwards, that makes it really feel like you're defending yourself in a hostile environment you're trying to escape, rather than like going guns blazing. 

The UI has a nice layout, and for a game of game jam scale, having the controls present on screen was definitely not a bad idea. If you plan to continue development, though, I'd suggest that you consider paring down the lantern fill bar and just letting the player feel out the brightness of the lantern, as well as reducing the amount of text. I also really loved the character art, both their models and the dialogue portraits. Our player character feels so mysterious, and having a portrait of the granny and a short moment of warmth in conversation in an otherwise hostile environment made me like her, which of course payed off narratively in the following few loops :( I'm not sure why, but I was only able to activate conversation with the hunter one time, which was after restarting the game (because the first time I wasn't able to). If that was a scope issue/bug I totally get it, but based on the fact that I was able to talk to her once, I felt like I was doing something wrong, even though it showed the button prompt to talk to her.

Lastly, I really wish the way the game looped back to the start was smoother. I think more than anything, having my character obviously snap back to the start really broke the immersion of travelling through the inside of Ouroboros. I've not worked with 3d games yet so I have no idea how difficult that'd be, but I think it would've really benefitted the environmental mood of the game, which is, in my opinion, it's greatest strength.

Thank you so much for submitting, I really enjoyed trying out your game!

This is unbelievable! I was planning to sit down and rate some other jammer's games but I got sucked into playing your game for an hour. I have a lot of thoughts so I'll just rant them all out.

1. About the shield enemies, I shared the same frustrations as a lot of other people at first about not being able to kill them. I think in general, people don't give the benefit of the doubt enough to jam games and assume anything that seems off is a bug, so I kept playing and eventually realized that the shield comes out of the back panel and can be deactivated by shooting them in the back. Not only was that an "aha" moment I didn't expect at all from playing a shooter, but it opened up the floor for new strategies of dealing with enemies. I'd learned up until that point that it's probably best to spec into  regen and draw enemies fire away from the thing you have to defend, but that wouldn't work with them as they'd face me.

2. As far as the gunplay goes, first off I love that there's diagetic gun elements--the glow decreasing on the secondary rifle and the light bulbs on the beam rifle are so cool, and the color swap for v2 of each gun is a nice touch. I wish they felt a little more powerful, though. I love that each of the three guns have a different niche, which is why I wish the swapping was a little faster.

3.  The roguelite elements had solid implementation, like the shop having a decent pool of random upgrades on top of the four basic, persistent ones. Unfortunately, I just didn't feel like they were varied enough to warrant different synergies or "builds," it was more of a stat buff thing, but I still think it's worthwhile and adds some variation and strategy. I will say though, that unless there's something I'm missing, I don't know why the player would ever want to buff their stats mid-game, as opposed to waiting until the end so they can be permanent upgrades. 

4. The vibes are just awesome, having the disembodied voice narrate the game state is a classic, and the environment having the structure from the intro cutscene in the center is really cool. Also, having the red version for the game over screen really cemented the feeling of having lost.

5. I'm not sure if there's a win state and I'm just buns or if it's infinite, but either way the difficulty ramp and my ability to improve at the game both felt pretty natural. 

6. To be honest, I'm not sure how well the game complies to the theme. I think having a circular map was a good idea, and the nature of a roguelite game structure is pretty loopy, but otherwise I don't really see it.

I had a great time figuring out your game and improving how long I could last! I can't believe a team of only two people could make a shooter with this level of concept, execution, and polish in like, four days. Thank you for submitting!

Cool concept! I do wish there were more opportunities to control enemies, and that controlling them was more intuitive/lasted longer. I'm also not a fan of the sliding movement style for a bullet hell game. Still fun though, thanks for submitting :)

This is really creative and fun! The bonk physics are fun to control and the difficulty is pretty well adjusted. Thanks for submitting :)

Very silly game, I like it a lot! The controls are strange, but weirdly intuitive. After a little while, they felt pretty natural.  Thanks for submitting :)

I like that you can phase through walls, but it's much slower than just moving normally.  I  wish the enemy moved slower so there was a bit more strategy involved, but still pretty cool :)

Unique game, I like it! The controls were a bit awkward, but getting the gravity control down was pretty satisfying. This may  just be a skill issue but it's very difficult, and after ~20 minutes I still couldn't take down the red one :( I wish the roads were a little bit wider and the wall collisions didn't stop me in my tracks, I was never really able to keep up with the red one, so I tried camping it out but that didn't work either haha. Thanks for submitting!

The concept is really smart! I always wondered how the dungeon is always perfectly set up for the adventurer so this is such a great headcanon for Zelda games lol. It took some time, but once I finally figured out that backtracking through doors returned the key to me, finishing the puzzle was really fun, although it did have me wishing for more levels to put my newfound knowledge to use! I like the graphic style even though it's very similar to to A Link to the Past.

This game is super creative and fun! I think you made the strategy spin on the classic road crossing game work really well. The style is also really cute. I tried my best but got stuck at 28 (likely due to poor planning). I hope you continue to develop this idea, because a more full game, maybe with different car types, level designs, etc. would be really really cool! Also, on the game page, the line "try dying, or die trying" is so clever LMAO

In the description you said this is more of a proof of concept, and I think it's a great one! The reverse tower defense mechanics reminds me of Bloons Tower Defense Battles, but more focused on the "bloons" part. Also, the perspective is visually interesting and I love the orc's walk cycle :)

I like the painted look! It's a little confusing to know what to do next but the concept of a blacksmith, who's usually the "honest, simple" type in games, to get a starring role is cool!

This game felt like it had a great concept that went a bit underdeveloped, ultimately making the gameplay confusing. Thanks for submitting, and I hope you continue developing your idea!