itch.io

What I like:

• The awesome crab names
• The fact that I'm a crab collecting relics on a beach
  
• The art is very colorful and bright
• The combat system was very fun and sort of reminds me of League
• The depth of abilities and run customization

What I disliked:

• I have an older computer so this may just be my hardware limitations but it ran very slowly for me
• I was confused on what some of the upgrades did as the difference was sometimes hard to tell
• I'm sure the enemy blocks are placeholder but it would cool if they had more character

Overall I think this idea has a lot of potential. If it was polished I could see this being extremely fun to play especially on mobile and I would love to experiment more with the different crab combinations to try to make something unstoppable.

Hey, thank you so much for taking the time to leave a detailed review!

I really appreciate you taking the time to make so far into the game. You've made some really good observations that I will be implementing into the next few and likely final updates for the game.

• For the tutorial, I definitely forgot to mention in the tutorial that the 3rd enemy (aka the Boss) also drops an item, but they only drop one and it's always the same for each boss.
• The "path is unchanged" text is a leftover from a previous idea I had (I was originally going for a more poetic atmosphere, but that idea was mostly scrapped for time saving purposes). Rewriting all of the text for the game is one of my main priorities for the next update.
• That's definitely a bug. I can't let the player beat the game that easily haha
• I know exactly which enemy you're referring to because he one-shots me often too and I almost changed it, but I decided to keep him that way to force players to level up their resilience and fortitude (because almost no one does). Also, the reason why this happens in the first place is because I gave that particular enemy casts a spell that allows it to occasionally bypass shields and deal 50% of it's usual damage as direct damage. And this enemy happens to deal 16 damage  whereas the player's base health is  8.
• I'm planning to include an in-game spellbook that will allow the player to see all of their unlocked spells and their casting requirements.
• I'm glad that you had fun with the spells and buffs! I wanted them to feel significant but not game breaking. Especially since the enemies also have access to many of them as well.

I'm really pleased to see that you enjoyed the game and I hope you'll come back to check out the final product.

Good luck to you as well!

Thank you for checking it out! Please let me know what you think

The first stage reminded me of old Metal Gear games. I ran past most of the guards and stabbed the rest of them with no issue. I loved that the second stage was very different from the first, but I struggled because I'm a terrible driver. I love games that switch genres and would love to see more. 

I'm so glad that you enjoyed Alkahest enough to finish it 3 times! There's going to be an update very soon that will add spells (triggered by combinations of gems), new enemies, a new area, some story elements, more music and bosses! (and of course, a fix for the infamous sign haha)

And I'm really excited that the game was intuitive enough to be learned through gameplay.  I have a ton planned for it and I hope you'll try it again in the future!

Thank you for an in-depth review! Some of the things mentioned are unfortunately due to the actual constraints of the GameBoy hardware. Things like VFX would be difficult to implement without reworking how the game is built and the SFX are built into the GB Studio engine and can't really be changed.

As for combining gems to create spells, that's something that I have planned for a future update and I believe that it will really make the combat feel much more dynamic!

I've seen a few people mention the sign and I'll be addressing that among other issues very soon in a future update.

I'm very glad that you found the game unique and hope you'll come back to check out future versions of it!

Also, I wish I could give +2 just for that pun

I'm glad to hear that it's working smoothly!

Sorry! I thought I had read the jam description correctly.

Oh, I really love this. It reminds me of the original Dragon Quest games. I'm probably going to sink quite a few hours into throughout the week.

Thank you! This is my first attempt at making a game and I've learned a lot about game dev doing this. I plan to add items, bosses, more locations, and a story soon in a future update. And I'll make sure to fix that sign too. Thank you for the feedback!

I found the controls a bit slippery, but I like the concept!

I like the concept but the game was very difficult after the second level. On the first level, I died after hitting the wall behind thar and it felt somewhat unfair. Maybe making walls safe and adding hazards like spikes would be easier to navigate. Also the ball continues to slowly travel if you interrupt it midflight. This tends to make it feel slippery and difficult to move in tight spaces.

I enjoyed the gameboy aesthetic and the unique mechanic of having limited steps. Combat was interesting as well, being based on having enough health to win the fight.  Definitely a game that I'll have to take some time to complete.

The upgrades apply to multiple situations and the double jump is a fast fall. I love it when games break expectations. Fantastic game.

Fun, but also challenging. The spells are versatile, but since they consume a turn, I often end up facing accidental deaths when surrounded. The 3D graphics look really nice.

Really fun and I loved the art style!

Thank you!

I've gotten so used to the systems in the game that I forgot to spend time making them clear! That'll be my next goal in a future update.

Interesting concept that's surprisingly innovative. I was going to originally note that it lacked a scoreboard but after going back to check, I noticed that the text border was the scoreboard. Absolutely superb.

I've never been so unnerved by pixels. The atmosphere was unsettling enough that I couldn't finish because I was expecting a jumpscare. Amazing work. 10/10

I love simple rogue-likes. If there was a way to progress or lose, I'd probably sink an hour or 2 into it. Love the soundtrack btw.

I love classic sliding puzzle games and this one is small enough to not be overwhelming. Great job!

Most of my work is in the form of theme songs/soundtracks for animations as well as environmental sound design. I've also done sound design fitted for mobile games. I would be very excited to work on a larger scale gaming project to really express my large toolset of sounds that I've crafted over the years!