I had a blast with this one, the combat was really fun and the animations made you feel like a badass! There were many different events on the map making choosing your route a brand new experience, not to mention the enemies and scenery changing depending which way you went on the map as well!

Maybe given more time and playing more of it I might find some balancing issues but for the time I played I just had a good time!


Time Stamped YT VOD

Hi Bermrad!

I enjoyed the game even though I died just barely killing the last boss! GAHH! It's a great combination of familiar game genres and designs in a mashup that makes the game uniquely stand on it's own. I know we spoke plenty during my gameplay but here's a quick recap of my feedback for you.

Music/Audio:

• The music you have is good enough as a filler but I'd definitely be looking forward to what you have in store to add more excitement to the combat. I did mention that I understood that the music shouldn't switch between map and combat cause it would get annoying fast. I was thinking if maybe you could have a layered/dynamic music that the drums and a few instruments persist on the map but more actionable layers would play on top of the map music to add intensity to the fighting. (Check out the left video on my website for an example of the music layers being added during combat and out of combat)
• One thing that I mentioned stood out negatively was how much the low health effects were affecting the game audio making it harder to hear audio triggers and feel the music, which you mentioned you'd adjust.

Gameplay:

• Need to fix the map randomization to avoid back to back merchants, especially if her twin would "almost wear the same sexy goblin outfit" as me. Maybe need a few more lines there. xD
• I'd like a warning on the skills to let you know you don't have enough mana to cast or use the skills.
• A little warning that removing infected boots after contracting foot disease (avoiding what I said on stream here) was not going to remove the disease in the future =P
• I think you need some kind of symbol like stars to help those colorblind like me to see that tier/rank of the gear being picked up. I was especially confused by the overall rarity and the color of the text being used on the items.

Visuals:

• As I had mentioned, I'm a bad judge for most visual outside of commenting on my ability/accessibility to colorblindness, but everything regarding combat, level design, and UI was clear and didn't affect my play outside of the color issues I mentioned in gameplay.

Overall, the game is headed is a really great direction that I feel would attract it's own unique set of players, especially streamers and those looking who enjoy the combat. Keep me posted on any updates!

Thank you for your time and for creating a fun game for everyone to enjoy!

Regards,
- Glim

• Timestamped Youtube Link
• Graphics : Good if a bit generic
• Music / Sfx: Good.
•  GUI : Fine, albeit a little generic.
• Gameplay : One of the best out of the jam I've played , I'm not a really fan of fighters or these types of Roguelikes but the game felt really polished in the combat encounters and would be the big draw to myself. The combat feels really quite rewarding and usually quite fair with it being down to the player being able to equalize some unfair RNG by sheer skill and timing their blocks/attacks.
• Notes :
  • I don't have many negatives for this game, one of the few I have is some enemies seem to have some 'phantom' range/attacks , especially the 'crow' bossfight , it felt like I got killed by a bug or some cheap game-mechanic / attack I didn't really see.
  • How is this only version "0.4" it feels like this would be a 0.8/0.9 beta.
  • Another small complaint I have is the voice on the trader, maybe some more lines or sound balancing, something on it feels 'off' to me.

Looking forward to seeing what this game offers in it's final state, maybe some of the randomized items / RNG could be a bit better but overall this is already a very solid game.

An interesting mix of a slay the spire-type roguelike and fighting game.

I ended up playing 3 runs of it, Two as the fighter and one as the rogue. My first run, as the fighter ended in failure as I didn't really plan ahead and had no idea what I was doing. On the second run, as the rouge, I was able to reach the final boss, but couldn't beat him (that run had me relying heavily on ranged cheese, and that strategy stopped working when the enemies got ranged attacks too). On my final run as the fighter, I once again unfortunately lost to the final boss, this time because I didn't have enough health (though my block button also inconveniently seemed to stop working? That might have been a bug, or I might have been mistaken).

+ The game has a good concept, and it executes on it well. It's fun integrating the character building strategy of traditionally turn based games like Slay the Spire with a skill-based fighting game. 

+ The strategic aspects of the game are very well balanced. It felt like success depended on effective planning ahead, scoping out the map and ensuring you had the right path. I feel like if I had kept trying a few more runs, I probably would have eventually beat it, it's a tough challenge but about as tough as a roguelike should be.

+ The games visuals are pretty good. Locations are full of background detail that makes them feel realer. There's very nice attention to detail, with the backgrounds all reflecting what part of the map you're on, and I was pleased to note that equipping different items visually shows up on your character (an oft-left out detail that really helps sell the fantasy). I think (though I'm not certain) that at least some of the assets are from unity asset packs, but they're used well, and for a (presumably) small indie team it's not really a big issue. The game ran quite well, occasionally stuttering but I'm on a low end computer so that's not really it's fault.

- While the game does have the option to block and dodge enemy attacks, they both run on very limited resources, and movement is somewhat limited too, meaning that it's almost inevitable that you will take at least some damage (or at least it feels that way, this may be a skill issue on my end). This compounds with how rare and inefficient healing is, leaving you feeling as though you are more at the mercy of attrition than your own skill.

- While you gain upgrades at a pretty good pace throughout the game, most of them seem to be fairly low-impact stat increases rather than more exciting bonuses. This is especially notable with the charms, which, while presented as quite valuable, often just seemed to increase certain stats. This isn't true of everything though, unlocking the different moves your character could use and trying them out was always fun, and there were some fun effects on the gear and charms, like an explosion when you dodge or gaining money when you hit an enemy.

Overall, while it had a few issues, I really enjoyed this demo! I wish you good luck on further development, with time I think this concept could be something really great!