itch.io

Down+Attack isn't coming out as a kick for you? What controller are you using?

I'm glad you enjoyed the game.
You'll need to check if you have the latest version, I made some changes to the options menu that should fix that.

I've changed how the options menu reads data now to avoid this so let me know if it works in this latest build

I'm so sorry that happened. Does the game get stuck in a tiny minimized window?

Thank you for playing. Can you explain the softlock a little more? Did it respawn you outside a closed room or something?

Thank you for playing, I was able to determine the levels weren't unlocking for players that died to the tutorial boss and have fixed it.

I'll replace the font next time promise

Thank you for playing more and I'm glad the axe centaur was your favorite.

I think I understand why the boss rush got locked I forgot to change the number of unlocks back on that one.

I'm curious how that clipping happened, did you walk through there normally and it was just like that? I'm assuming you had transformed into the small form prior so maybe the collision didn't change back?

Did the screen tearing happen even with V-Sync on in the options menu?

I forgot to include in the movelist/tutorial that transforming from base costs 50 meter now, that was likely why you couldn't transform against the Red guy.

What controller are you using that's making motion inputs difficult? Does the same precision issue happen when you do the motion attack from neutral?

Thank you for getting it to work, I forgot spacebar was the confirm key for KB+M

I really need to figure out why the unlocked levels don't save but if you're in the options files anyways you can change the saved levels text from 0 to 4 to get the rest

Death truly is virtue's last reward.

This game is sick aesthetically and thematically. Unironically love it when the killing game is interrupted by a wiki deep dive, though the ones in this chapter could've been spaced out a bit more. 

I really dig this concept and the execution is pretty satisfying once I get the hang of it.

Initially I was overwhelmed with having a full party and list of spells, I wasn't sure how to target specific heroes for a while, it's much easier to click on them in the menu since there isn't as much feedback clicking on them in the overworld (e.g. a highlighted aura for heroes I mouse over)

I assume in the ideal game you'll have a smaller party at the start and less spells.

I think the mana regeneration could use some work. It makes sense as a way to punish a poor rotation of spells but since I can get it back by just waiting around I don't feel pressured to go into the next fight unprepared so I'll just wait around. It might as well just refill automatically after every encounter. Maybe if I had to siphon enemy MP or search for potions instead? Something more active could be interesting.

A feature I would like is the ability to change targets mid spell channeling because there were often times where I'd want to swap my cast to a different party member as the battle changed but was unable to without canceling the spell, even though I was allowed to click on them it would only affect the person I targeted when I started.

Cute style , feels pretty good to punch the enemies, appreciate the warning stereo sound of the running kick vegeta guy.

When punching the skateboarder he would often freeze indefinitely if I only hit him once.

"Error: Couldn't load project data at path ".". Is the .pck file missing?" happened when I tried to download but browser worked fine.

Hitting an enemy/taking damage could use a lot more feedback, Hit stop, flashing frames, clearer visual effects. I couldn't tell if I had damaged the slime until it split apart as its health bar didn't deplete until it entered its final form. I noticed when attacking any enemy they would be invulnerable to any other attacks unless I moved away? It wasn't clear if they were in an invul state as they didn't flash or show anything different about them. I would mash the attack button against the mushroom and only the first attack did anything.

Orca was very annoying since it never telegraphed its attacks, especially the underwater one since it does like half your health.

The castle walls prevent you from moving anywhere once you touch them but slashing them lets you clip through and trivializes the encounter, was this intended?

Alright here's the blind menu combo to fix the resolution

1. Launch game
2. Wait 10 seconds
3. Start/Esc
4. Down x3
5. X/A/Enter to select options
6. if still nothing shows
7. Down x4
8. Right x4
9. Down x 3
10. X/A/Enter to select save options

Ah sorry. Try deleting the options file in AppData and re-installing

Thank you for playing, what would you say is the hardest part of the boss to deal with

Biggest changes:

• - Overhauled Mad Bomber (Mall Boss)
  • Slowed down rate of attacks
  • Added new moves and re-worked old ones for variety
• - Overhauled Godsteed (Factory Boss)
  • Increased movement of previous attacks and made them more complex
  • new Axe Throw move
• - Changed enemy attack selection to be pattern based than pure random
• - Completed animation update for Armament Form(Sword)
  • Longer range attacks and cooler poses
• - Added Boss Rush Level
  • Survive the 6 bosses to unlock Pursuer Form (Bike) early

Game is pretty sick and stylish. Car controls pretty well, I was expecting drifting or running into zombies to give me a speed boost of some kind to try and optimize the races, maybe those two actions will do something later on? I had a rendering issue where zombies and targets would be on a weird layer. When I chased the white guy his "neener neener" voice would loop endlessly after I had lost sight of him. I also wish the mission giver's text would go faster or could be completed by pressing continue.

I appreciated your playtest, it made me instantly separate the menus so a save overwrite like that wouldn't happen again. Also sorry for the bullshit boss, those bomb deflections were signaling that you were invul but it's not really clear when they still explode so I'll have to fix that.

I'll expand the tutorial and replace the font as well.

Thank you for playing, I'll definitely need to make a more readable font.

I wanted the camera to be pixel perfect which is great for most effects but if it's causing issues I may need to look at it again or make it optional. I dunno about tweening though, will have to play with it but the times I did try it looked off trying to catch up.

Will also be continuously nerfing that first boss until morale improves.

Once I get more environment art assets done I'd like to start a Steam page and a trailer.

Thank you for all the notes, I noticed the cause of a bunch of xbox controller related issues and have already fixed a few (i.e. menus, d-pad movement, weird input overlap) so hopefully thats working on your end now. Confused about the holding attack thing because I haven't experienced that, a 4th hit should only happen if you pressed it again in the buffer.

Also tweaked the variable jump height for xbox to work now as well as tap jump working more consistently. I'll take a look at the jump buffer.

Bombs/bullets bounce off when characters are invulnerable, maybe that's not obvious enough or its the wrong effect for that?

I've also changed the civ forms attacks to move in mid-air, before they would assume you were still grounded and force you to stand in place.

Thank you for the feedback on the Bomber, I'm still thinking of ways to make him easier, may need to just reduce the number of bombs he throws along with more animation.

Now that I've separated the options menu code I can work on implementing it into the pause menu as well.

I don't know why the game didn't award you with the rest of the levels, if you go into the save file in appdata/locallow/fxy/masqz/0 you can notepad edit levels unlocked to 4 in the meant time until I figure that out.

I really like the idea of a Hawaiian ARPG and you have a lot of interesting mechanics. I find some elements of the game way too punishing in a way that seems almost Souls inspired.

My base character felt very weak against the Axe enemy who would often two-touch me while I had to juggle a slow stamina recovery and weapon speed. It got slightly more manageable when I ate the food that buffed those stats but it became the routine to always eat the attack speed food since I didn't engage with that many of the other effects.

The status effects feel extremely oppressive with little counter play beyond just eating the anti-poison consumable or jumping in water with how long they last. I think it would be interesting to borrow from Monster Hunter and use stamina intensive movement to cure certain statuses in battle (e.g. dodge rolling to put out fires/dry off wetness, standing in place to staunch bleeding, etc.)

I only got as far as Smithy since the lava one shots discouraged me from trying to navigate. I think the enemies should die if they get knocked off cliffs since they just fall endlessly anyways.

I liked using the grab attack the most.

The game runs really badly in browser, having an executable option would be a much better way for me to give feedback but I have a few notes.

The attacks doesn't feel responsive enough, if the goal is for it to be a slow attack I'd appreciate if there was a readying stance I could go into by holding the attack button and then instantly getting the attack as I release after a flash, sort of like in the Boktai games where you can aim before you fire.

Would also appreciate if the enemy reacted to my attacks in a more effective way, knockback, flashing, being stunned in place, hit effects, etc.

MC is cute and I'm interested in the graphical effects you have going on with the terrain. Hopefully you'll have at least a mini dungeon for the next DD.

I wanna install this through the Itch launcher can you tick the windows icon next to your upload?

Appreciate the keyboard feedback. If you think there's any awkward keys that should be re-mapped let me know.

Thank you for the feedback, especially on the bosses. I can definitely stand to tune down the tutorial boss I was really pushing what I could get away with when he should be much easier. If there are any mechanics you think I should explain better in the tutorial let me know.

Also glad that I inspired you to watch more Kamen Rider, Geats was pretty good!

Thank you so much for your kind words. 

Go for it, would be interested to see what you come up with.

I really liked making the sprites and bullet reflect mechanics for Hex Dungeon. I'll definitely re-use the idea in the future, probably as a more structured game than as a proc gen one. Will definitely be studying how other devs graphically showed how the chambered bullets looked in the UI

I like the paintover for the cover art alot

Thank you for expanding on this, I had run out of time trying to make my Day 2 version so I'm looking forward to attempting this one.

Thanks for playing, the slope behavior was not intentional and has been fixed now finally along with that text issue. Thank you for pointing those out.

Thank you for going into so much depth with this review, I have a lot to think on now. I probably need to buy a 360 pad so I can figure out why the buttons I got from unity docs don't work for movement.

-That's right on the bug's function, long range single target lockdown

- I'll do another pass on camera confiners and spawn locations, thank you for pointing that out and the clipping issue.

- Interesting ideas in regards to metered moves needing better reward, I could play around with an ex kill bonus for score the same way I do for RB finishers or find some other way to encourage it. I could also stand to make the power dunk as flashy as it is in KOF or something with bigger hitboxes and shockwaves.

- Noted on enemy/player balance, I'm not attached to so many bullets being like that so if it's unfair I can fix that. I'll have to think about the strength of shoryu if you find that combo too braindead to be fun. 

- Interesting to hear you find the other bosses less interesting than the Highschooler. Is it just that they wait too long to attack or that they move less than her?

-Also noted all the points on bugs and better feedback, especially on a tutorial. Maybe I should make that my next goal now rather than at end of dev

I played until the screen went dark because it became very difficult to see the game anymore, is that a day/night cycle? I like the idea of a ninja action platformer where you fight with projectiles a la Shinobi/Ghosts n Goblins but I don't understand why enemies need to take so many hits to die. When they run away from me I'm not really being challenged any more by their tanky-ness.

Not sure what the purpose of shuriken only being airborne is if there is no grounded attack on that button since the airborne horizontal movement is the same I'd understand it if I could throw in more directions when airborne but as it is there's no risk/reward to not jump so I might as well be automatically jumping when I press attack. I put 5 points into Agility hoping to get a better jump/movement speed and couldn't tell the difference.

I think I installed the wrong one but I managed to clip OOB

Thank you so much for playing, I've been absent from Demo Days for almost a year thanks to other work but made sure to give myself deadlines again for these.

Thanks for pointing out the enemies being hidden by the hud, I'll take care to leave them out of that quadrant during enemy rooms. Also appreciate the reminder on fixing the results screen, right now it acts like pause and I've left it alone for too long.

Did you enter that soft-lock zone by dashing into that little crevice? I should put some signs there for the Transformation button because the Bombardier Form has a flight ability on Dash that can get you into and out of there. Actually I just re-read that and you mentioned being stuck in another enemy room and I found the problem, one of the flying enemies clipped out of the room. Fixing that now.

Good point on the bad telegraphing, I didn't notice how used to the enemies attack patterns I was and assumed it was fine. Which ones have the most bullshit attacks? Also where in the Factory Stage did you clip through?

Cute game, I like the idea of alchemizing the world around me.

This might be a lack of patience talking but I think a lot of things in the intro could be condensed. The tutorial has a lot of text explaining systems back to back without letting me try it out after to solidify that information. When the mayor took me to every shop in town I had forgotten where they all were by the end of it and just ran into doors looking for where to go, this could be helped if the buildings had unique props to show their purpose. I'd prefer if the tour had me interact with the shops as they were needed as well rather than all at once so I could see their function before moving on to the next one.

The main town is quite large and empty, very easy to get lost in. Comparing this to other RPG towns like Dragon Quest which are much more compactly designed and easy to see what purpose most buildings serve.

Got killed by a bee when I went outside, not really sure how I'm meant to mitigate damage when the melee attack locks me in place, am I meant to wait for the enemy to attack and punish or just heal off the damage as I go?

Beautiful art, effects, and animations.

Movement could use some work. The current speed could probably be fine if areas weren't so huge and empty. Jumping up platforms often had my capsule stuck just on the edge or falling in place, either an auto ledge climb/run/jump, or other helper would ease this.

The camera's position would work better if that's where it sat during lock on, it gets in the way of exploration when it's so close to the player as it is. No More Heroes has a similar position

Getting stuck in place for so long while attacking with no real way to cancel out of it to dodge incoming attacks really sucks against the bigger tanky enemies. I wasn't sure if there was a better way to deal with them as they barely responded to my attacks but mashing through them took them out just as well.

Despite the game being linear the cave entrances being the same shade of gray as the sides of mountains makes it difficult to see where I should go, better signposting would be appreciated.

Controller support pls I love Dao 

Beautifully difficult game here. I might just be a slow learner but it took a while to understand the parry and may take even longer to get how to control spirit form. I ended up going through my first few runs assuming I'm meant to platform just with the shell casings which still helps keep the game going until I get it. Parries are satisfying once you finally get it. I didn't quite understand how to deal with the minigun enemies so they're still nuking my health pool before I get to the boss. I'm sure if I keep coming back to it I'll get there but it would be nice if it were more clear how to get through some of it.

Great spritework here and a solid base for a hori danmaku.

When I died while holding slow-mo it continued throughout the first cutscene until I returned to gameplay, making a very slow unskippable cutscene even slower.

Had some visual clarity issues my first few runs where some bullets and the powerups blended into the background. I'd also like to see what hitbox the player has. Some sprites clip through/block part of the hud as well.

The tanky enemies combined with losing all power for getting hit once made the boss fights a slog. It would be cool if there was a way to reclaim some of that lost power. The Touhou games accomplish this by having your power explode out of you as you get hit and you have to collect as much as you can across the screen without getting hit before it falls off screen, that could be a way to handle it aside from rebalancing health values.

The weapon upgrades are mostly good though I don't like how Multi loses its spread properties even though I like the punch ghost, maybe that power up makes more sense for neutral?

The 2nd boss has much more interesting patterns to avoid than the first but the idea of its moveset changing depending on which body part is focused would be pretty dope if there were more oppressive attacks coming from some of them, especially the 3 shot arm cannon.

You could pull a lot of inspiration for bullet patterns from other hori shooters like Salamander, Darius, or Deathsmiles while keeping in mind bullet density to not make it too crazy. Good luck with the development.