itch.io

What's that I song on the title menu?  Is it posted anywhere?  I think it's neat.

So you're saying the AI is sus?

This is great!  It demonstrates a genuinely a better understanding of the non-linear structure of Metroidvanias than a lot of games that claim that genre and sell well.  The map construction is great even besides that.

If this had sound it would be incredible.  As a minor aside, if you want to put audio feedback in games but don't have time to make the sounds, an indie dev created a little program that randomly writes sound effects for just that purpose.  Look up "rsfx"

I kind of wish that after the boss you could do a new game +, since I apparently missed one of the charms.

That's a good solution!  I think as a teaching tool it would take special handling to keep it from getting lost in the weeds, but framing it as determining how much power in what ability is "necessary" could be a place to start.

Theoretically, yes, but high-control characters would be able to complete any level a low-control character with the same physics could.  For example, there's no elegant way to make predetermined jump arcs (like "Ghouls and Goblins") necessary, even though they can greatly enhance a game.

Am I missing a mechanic or is this the ending?

Please fix the text on the Command Lists.  Many of them are poorly formatted and/or missing huge swaths of labels.  Several have the same move, with the same input, repeated like 4 times, meaning some specials appear 12 times (4 times for each of L, M, and H).

The art is goddam radical for some of the characters!  Great job!!

Also, very solid jokes and visual comedy.  This is an excellent project all around aside from the battle system itself.

<3

Game looks cool and I look forward to playing it!

One thing:  The term "fren" has iffy connotations, at least to people who are overly online, so it might be worth considering using a different term.

Also the font on this page has some spacing issues, but you probably know that already.

Arrow keys to move, Z to attack, X for slomo, C to enter doors.  I think either Z or C can be used in the promotion menu.

If I wanted to write a review, should it be here or on your Discord?

Things you'd especially care about:

I got the ladder platform clipping bug, but was never permanently stuck.

I got the bug where Bezos walks off the edge and does not respawn.  I then used Levitate Object and won shortly after, but I have no idea if the two are actually connected.

For the love of God, make the lights breakable.  Crawling between them and car roofs in the garage is terrible.

More transparency about XP and the wage system (is it difficulty?) would be cool.

Consider making Dodge a bit snappier, even if that requires adding more end lag or something.

It looks like you forgot to update the aerial Hadouken's projectile.

Overall a great game that I look forward to getting in full eventually.

It might be good to make it so you can't fire the flamethrower through walls, since it trivializes a lot of the game.

Also more of an audio cue indicating getting hit would be helpful.  With the lack of animation, it can be easy to miss without continuously checking the healthbar.

The GUI is essentially perfect as far as I could tell.  A little bit of folly would have made the UI even better altogether (for example, during the level reset screen wipe).

Great concept, though the tracks don't look great and feel arbitrary (even though, on repeated tries, it's clear that there's a logic to them).  I got stuck at the shot around the t-4 seconds on stage 3, though that might just be because I didn't understand the mechanics very well.

Cool concept.
I think that it would be a lot easier to play if the ship floor didn't blend in with the walls.  It probably could have forgone having that floor grid and (if feasible given the time constraints) have the reticle follow the floor divisions [e.g. round to nearest int from player location +/- 1 x/y based on player direction] instead to give the player an idea of the space.

Great job on the music. 
You probably already know this, but there's a green square that can appear over the middle half of the screen upon entering the second phase, which seems to be a bug.  Game's still perfectly playable with that, though.

Would you consider making Combo moves auto-complete if the other participant is able to act and it's not immediately the enemy's turn?  Scrolling up and down through the menu for characters that I happened to add further apart that have a combo is a pain.  Speaking of, is there a way to reorder the party?

I have a lot that I could say about QoL issues with the game, but you said you didn't have plans for that sort of thing, so the part I mentioned was the only thing that I thought you might consider.

There are a ton of problems, even beyond what one might expect from a game that is, in spirit, a very high-effort s***post, but it's still an really interesting game and I'm glad that I had the chance to play it on account of the super-bundle that you so kindly added it to.  The character interactions are great and I only regret that there aren't more of them.

I'm looking forward to finishing this game and playing the other ones you added to that bundle.  Let me know if there's any type of feedback on this game that would still be useful to you.