itch.io

i don't know if this is still an active project or not, but i'd like to chip my thoughts in anyhow, because it's a very fun game. on the subject of difficulty spikes, to be honest, i like the game's direction. it's very fast, and breakneck. what i like about this is that it forces you to strategize; what kind of gamestyle you're gonna go into, which upgrades to get and when etc. losing becomes part of the gameplay loop which removes the frustration, a bit like a rogue-like. something i think needs work more than anything are the controls. spread out keyboard bindings for all the different moves doesn't make any sense in a game where one second's mistake can lead to death. throughout the entire time i played the game i've pretty much never used the grapple or parry etc because of that. they should be more integrated with the core controls, i.e. double presses, shift clicks, and those sorts of things. the attempted verticality is something which honestly conflicts with the rest of the game. i respect what you're going for, however the implementation leaves a lot to be desired. there's no way to actually get up the tall cylinder both because of the aforementioned grappling control issue, and the map itself had no way to climb up until you're several waves worth of upgrades in. all of it basically makes it a horizontal game until the Remilias show up and force you to buy the jump upgrades. and because the game is horizontal, but the map is a narrow cylinder, the gameplay loop is a literal loop; you're running in backwards circles while the entire wave chases you. this also renders every weapon besides reimu and occasionally cirno useless, because there's literally no situation where other weapons (especially the Remilia bow) would be viable. all of which conflicts with the premise of a an arcadey, high replay value type of game. once you've got to wave 20, there's just nothing more to play for. to be honest, if i were developer, i think the best course of action would be to forgo the verticality and instead focus on a wide horizontal map with nooks, crannies, caves, big obstacles, and little easter eggs every now and then. this would also force the enemy formation to break up, and come in from different points and quantities. that would allow much more opportunity for different strategies, and situations to use all the different weapons, essentially freeing the game to be what it wants to be. expanding on that concept, it would be super fun if you could collect the different fumos and gain them as a weapon. exploration and collecting would work really well for the concept as a whole, there's tons of replay value to be had if you had both the combat replayability, and an excuse to go out and search for easter eggs, collectibles, cosmetics, maybe even weapons and upgrades, all of which with the heaps of personality and charm this game already has. (though most of collectible and roguelike stuff is probably already planned as far as i can tell in the discord.)