You beat the boss with all three characters?! That's some dedication hahah! Since the character you get is random, I imagine you had to reload quite a few times to get the one you were looking for :p
Thanks a lot for such a detailed review! I'm really glad you enjoyed the overall feeling of the game, and especially that you noticed the progression through the glitches on the floor. I really wanted to avoid just putting a round counter on the UI and make the world itself reflect the progression.
The glitch effects were also a huge part of what I wanted to achieve. I had a lot more ideas for the story and the whole "glitchy space you end up in because of some weird disconnection" concept, I had to cut a LOT of things and I'm probably the first disappointing about it hahah.
About the standing-still mechanic, I actually think your idea of slowing the player down while charging could make the combat feel more engaging and fluid. I don't think the stop mechanic itself is necessarily bad, though. The idea was to create a commitment when attacking: the Knight can freely move while attacking because he's melee, while Mage needs time to incant a powerful spell, and an Archer needs to stay focused to aim properly. So I actually like the idea of having to choose when to attack and putting yourself at risk while doing it.
Your idea could definitely achieve the same philosophy while giving the player a little more control, though, and it's something I'd be willing to explore if I ever pick the project up again!
As for the upgrades, you actually figured out pretty much exactly how I play the game too hahah. Damage is my favorite for the Knight, while Attack Speed is really strong on the ranged characters, especially because it also reduces the downtime between attacks.
The funny thing is that I originally designed the whole game around the Knight. The Archer and Wizard were added later during development, so I didn't have time to properly build separate systems and stats for each character. They still share a lot of the same underlying logic, which definitely limits how different their gameplay can be.
Anyway, thanks again for actually playing all three characters and for taking the time to write such a detailed review! It really means a lot to me, I really appreciate your opinion about the game and I'm glad you enjoyed it despite all the compromises I had to make! (I'll play your game later in the day!)