General thoughts
Playtime: about 15 minutes
There is a lot here for a demo, and the pixel-art Souls-like presentation has a strong identity. The world feels cohesive and there seems to be enough combat and progression depth to keep experimenting.
What worked well
- The art and overall atmosphere work really well together.
- The mix of melee, magic, equipment, and other systems gives the combat room to grow.
- I like that the world encourages exploration rather than feeling like a sequence of isolated fights.
What I would change
- I would keep prioritizing clarity around secondary mechanics and controls so players do not have to guess what an indicator or interaction is asking them to do.
- Key rebinding and broader keyboard-layout support would be a good quality-of-life improvement.
Overall, this feels much further along than a lot of demos I have tried. I would mostly keep polishing clarity and accessibility around the existing systems rather than dramatically changing the core experience. Tightening the core game loop would be my top priority if I was building this game at least.
Please consider giving my game a try, it’s browser based with a tight 2-3 minute game loop: https://barelyplayable.itch.io/blade-baes-brawl
Feedback form submissions preferred: https://forms.gle/fsJrAZDhJtP1CFXX8
Let me know if you’d like an invite to try the invite-only full alpha build :)