I played this game on stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2877899597?t=01h38m24s

Initially, I though this game was kind of like Slay the Spire, but to my surprise (good surprise), it was more than that. I liked that I had to control the firing of the ships' weapons and I could hit or miss depending on my own reaction time. The card selection was also nice, with different categories and everything.

I played the first chapter (3 levels), but I was surprised/sad to learn that the ultimates didn't reset in each level. That kind of makes sense in hindsight, but perhaps there should be something that tells the player earlier. I used all my ultimates in the first level thinking that I could use it again later on.

Also, the summoned robot's ultimate was to reset a random ship's ultimate, but it seems like it reset its own ultimate in the 2 times I used it. I think that's kind of a sad outcome for the player, so I recommend removing that as an option completely; so the robot only resets another ship's ultimate.

Overall, great game! I liked the story and characters as well!

Hi Triston!

With more  experience this time, I managed to finish all levels without game-over! Funny thing is, I got 2 ships destroyed on the first level (before reaching Dronghur). I am glad the ships got revived on going to the next level. Then after the cutscene, I played the side-quest mission against the stationary boss before going to level 2. I think it really helped me with getting better at the game since the boss has lots of HP and is stationary; so as to serve as a practice mission. This kinda make me think that the enemies for the first few levels are too small to aim at (maybe personal skill issue?). But all in all, I think the difficulty has been toned down since I last played and it now has a better curve.

My strategy is as follow

- Valkyrie as main support to cast shields, healing-aura and dispatch saul-kays since her aim is just too unreliable. I like saul-kay a lot since it is practically an extra unit and moreover, it has randomized skill cards for me to try out. I think Saul-Kay was very crucial in winning the game for me, haha!

- Flinn as the main DPS. I like using sniper legacy with him. It's very satisfying when you get perfect aim with long distance!

- Oyster is more like a wild-card for me with shield, blast-gun, energy restoration, and heal (the rain heal). 

More things that I enjoyed from this playtest:

- The random stuffs that come floating around is such a nice addition to aid you. And sometimes when you shoot several of them, they just have this chaotic effect that can aid you. It feels refreshing to hit several of them in one shot and see various effects come into play.

- I see there are variety in the background now which is nice! Maybe dimming the galaxies/stars brightness a bit to make it blend together into the background will improve the visual readability a bit.

Some things that bugged me:

- The background music can be very repetitive since it is quite short and looping. Having longer song or multiple songs may alleviate it. 

- The victory background music seem to stop after a while (around after 2 minutes). I noticed it when I take a bit of break, then come back to play and didn't hear any sound.

- An undo button would be good. I tend to mis-clicked an ability or finished move on accidents.

- Related to movement, I felt that the fuel got spent quite fast. There are times that I find myself in a very bad aiming spot after moving and have to forfeit the turn. Perhaps making aiming free of fuel may alleviate this, but I am sure you have tested a bunch and decided on making the aim to require fuel. So I'm still not sure about this, just mentioning it.

- I would like to see more abilities that don't require any energy to be available earlier in the game. When I unlocked the recharge ability, I was using it basically almost every turn to charge for bigger abilities. Before having recharge, I didn't use higher-cost abilities that much except for Saul Kay. 

- The initial cut-scene art style felt jarring for me in a way that I can't explain very well. Maybe it's the girl's impression that is a little bit uncanny for me.

But overall, I think the game is shaping up to be quite good! The game ended on a good cliff-hanger. I really want to know what will happen next. Also, I find the game very enjoyable after getting better at positioning and aiming (mostly aiming). I didn't realize 2 hours had gone by playing it!

Let me know if you have any questions, cheers!

Really like the new visuals you've been working on, the backgrounds and updated visual effects really add a lot to the game. Using credits to purchase cards also helps with progression a lot. Like how the game is shaping up, looking forward to seeing new updates. 

I like the parallax backgrounds. There is definitely more sense of movement and action. I do think that they may be a bit to prominent. Some of the galaxies especially feel rather large, vibrant, and close. I think of viewing large galaxies as far away. Some of the spiral ones also feel a bit too precisely spiral. Nature has a bit more variety. I think the very spiral shaped one could use with a bit less perfect spiral. Maybe squash one direction in a bit on a loop, making it more oval. Maybe a bit more wiggle in the lines. It is not bad, just that since I am looking at the new art, and it is a large object, I feel that some parts could be refined. The asteroids work well, especially since they can show up in combat, and space battles are often shown being fought in asteroid fields. They are largely different colors, and constantly moving, but at one point I did step away and when I looked back I saw a background asteroid near one of my ships, and had an initial Oh Shit, reaction, before recognition of being background. Not likely to be an issue, and quickly acknowledged as it moved by, but still something to mention.

The basic card hover effects are nice. A subtle touch that helps to focus on the hovered card. The specials, I'm not sure what I think. It's not like I'm going to hover them often or for long, and they are powerful, but they felt maybe a bit too much. The first I hovered was Sheer Gumption, and I'm not sure on it. It certainly drew attention. I'm not even sure what it is supposed to be. It sounds like a repeating rapid pulse of maybe burning/cutting torch. I like the slashing sound when used, and this one just feels so different. The slashing with a sword feel of the symbol and use animation, make me think something like drawing a sword from a sheath would fit better here. I'm not really sure, as a repeating sound it can be tough to get something good that really feels right. It also sounds louder and not a s smooth as the others. Doom Pulse sounds a bit quite compared to the other two. I'm only starting, so this is comparing the 3 original ships. And, again, this is not really meant to be a focal point where players leave it hovered to constantly listen, so I may be over focusing on it as I look at the new stuff.

The music after the first combat ended did feel a bit out of place. Not that it was bad, but that it felt like a strong shift from what we were hearing. As victory music I suppose it can make sense, or even travel music for the team to cover the long boring journey through space. The music did only play a short time, then went silent. I did click away to write my notes, but even after clicking back it did not continue playing. I'm guessing the track was not set to loop.

When I got to the card select screen the regular music started back up, though after the loud fast music, it felt like it took a while and it starts really quiet. The transition is something you may want to think on.

I did take damage in the first combat. Normally I'd just click to repair each ship and move on. The new need to purchase cards means I have to think about how to spend the credits. Before I'd just use the practically unlimited credits to fully heal between fights, and equipped only minimal healing cards. Now I have to weight the value of using an action in combat to heal, over the use of credits. I'm also more likely to use the Shield cards, especially with the new ones offering a wider range of options. Once the valuable stuff is unlocked, and we are making enough, I'm sure things could hit a point where money is plentiful and paying to repair wins, but I have 2,000 credits, and many cards cost that, so I can't do any repairs and still get one of those cards. The damage is minimal, with 1 point each to 2 ships, so getting a card is going to win. Now to decide on which card to get...

So far I am seeing cards at 500, 2,000, and 3,000. It feels like there should be some at 1,000. You have 2 shields, with one clearly being the upgraded version of the other, both at 500. I feel like the Sturdy Shield should probably cost 1,000, just to give that feel of progression. The Spectral Shield is also at 2,000, so this would feel more natural.

Early game choices are limited, and now having to pick only 1 to get is tough. I was thinking about going back to my old favorite, the Blast Gun. Double Attack is also tempting to hit a bit harder on the first turn, and I think it is winning, as I'll keep it as a basic first turn attack for much of the game, while Blast Gun will likely be replaced, or used situationally.

It is a bit odd going into the next fight without a full loadout. It adds a bit more challenge to the early levels. It is also probably good for new players to not have as many choices in combat to think about. Even the confirmation popup warns about not being at full, but it is all we have.

I spent a fair amount of the fight with Oyster using Band Aid to heal up my ships, and used some repair crystals, which previously I'd often ignore in favor of finishing the fight quickly and healing with credits

Getting 5,000 credits after the second fight is much nicer. Now I can start to fill in those gaps. Remorse Flower was an immediate pick. Need some high power options for boss fights, beyond the specials. I also grabbed Recharge Ally, to speed up being able to use the Flower. With 1,000 credits left, I decided to heal the ships to full.

Rion the Destroyer fight did not show the Battle Log on the enemy turn. Flinn's line at the end of the fight "what are you afraid of? We have a Doom cannon now." is missing capitalization of the first word. Doom Cannon also feels like both words should be capitalized. In the cutscene sequence Pearl's has a line missing a space "Already done. But they will take atleast a week to reach".

It never really mattered before, but the Rion mission says the reward is 30,000. It doesn't say what, but Credits would be assumed. The 3 fights gave 2,000, 5,000, and 10,000, totaling to 17,000. The mission select screen should probably be updated with the current numbers.

The Doom Cannon being 5,000 seems reasonable, but I also rarely used it, so it will likely be a while before I buy it. Laser of Lamentation, however, is a top pick. Healing is more important now, so while there are others I'm more likely to use, I'm going to get Uplifting Aura for Valkyrie. The card says "Heals set amount". It should probably be updated to clarify what the amount is, or how it is decided. I finished my shopping with Blast Gun & Snipers Dream. I still have some credits, but the team has a full loadout now, so I'll save the rest for potential repairs.

I really like being able to now drag cards around to swap, instead of right-click to clear and then replace.

One of the End Bots fired (Basic Shot), then moved, but the movement started at about the same time as firing, so it was traveling alongside the shot, though at slightly different angles. It might be good to add a short delay if they fire first and then move, as it looked a bit odd to see it traveling with the shot.

It sucks when you keep your ships back and the enemy uses one of the Snipers on you. Didn't lose the ship, but the repair bill now matters. I was rearranging cards, and forgot to move the shield over to Valkyrie. It would have been nice to have used in this battle. I picked up the Spectral Shield to have something I could use every turn.

Uplifting Aura seems to have a dark square area show up before the animation fully starts and it blends in.

Just unlocked Pravarshan. 5,000 is a fair amount, but being able to group heal, with most ships getting more than 1 HP, is useful. That tends to be my preferred heal. With the increased need for healing, I'm also going to get Quick Repairs and swap it in place of Band Aid. Not enough to also get Sniper's Legacy, so that will have to wait. A critical Triple Attack can do a lot on its own for less, so has been enough so far, especially with a Flower for higher power, but the upgraded Sniper would be nice. After the purchase I acknowledged that the next fight is a boss fight where the upgrades Sniper could have been useful, and might have been the better choice over 2 healing abilities... oh well.

It would be nice if hovering cards that target closest ally would highlight the target, so you know for sure when the ships are close to the same distance.

Crusher used Doom Cannon on an already damaged ship, but thankfully only hit for 2 damage, and the other 2 ships were outside of the field of fire. It can be powerful, but only when aimed well.

EMP drains energy, and also seems to prevent you from attacking at all. It should remove the icon showing you can still attack.

Prepping for the Phantom fight. Picked up Sniper's Legacy. Doom Cannon also seems like a good idea, in place of Blast Gun.

Phantom is too far forward, and big, so Sniper's Legacy only did 9 when it hit, even moving back to the edge. Using Remorse Flower next did 14. It is more energy, but can also be used from anywhere. I suppose I should have moved to a corner, and aimed at the far edge, to boost distance... but a lot of work compared to a Flower. Shields or lined up enemies make for a better use, but wanted to do some testing here. With such a large target, Doom Cannon worked well. I did not get up close enough, so not all beams hit, but it still did a lot of damage. Remorse Flower was my favorite for the fight.

Of course I purchased both Phantom abilities right away. Phantom Flower replaced Doom Cannon. Phantom Ray replaced Sniper's Legacy.

The Mobile Destroyers are really nice lining up like they do. Makes for a quick end to the fight.

As expected, the cost of repairing ships is not really a concern after the first few fights, especially once you have the cards yo like. Getting enough to unlock the new ships will take a while, but the repair costs aren't going to have a huge impact on how long that takes.

I'm amused that I finally unlocked the basic Flower, so long after having the upgraded version I prefer. I purchased Therapeutic Grapple, and swapping it in place of Quick Repairs.

Another level where they line up so nicely and Laser of Lamentation deals with most of their HP. Triple Attack cleans up those who remain.

Having played through several times, I have a decent feel for the fights, and they mostly go pretty quickly. The boss fights especially go well, since I save the special abilities for them, and open up hitting hard. My average accuracy was lower than I'd like, dropping a bit as I played more and took riskier shots, with an overall average around 70%. Crits averaged around 89%.

Heading back to the Ship Select screen, it would be nice to see your current credits, at least when showing the button to buy. Clicking it does show a message with the total, and if you have enough, but seeing before clicking would be good.

I played a bit on Battle Mode, but my accuracy was dropping, so I'm taking a break.

I exited and refreshed the page. With the recent changes, I think it is time for saving. Sure, you have the settings to unlock things, but it would be nice to be able to play over multiple sessions to earn up to unlocking ships and cards.

Hey, I know you were in chat during my playtest so you likely got what you needed, but I also uploaded the recroding to youtube in case you need to reference anything: 

i loved the turn based combat! the deck builder is also solid and unique. the character design stands out a lot. personally i think the fonts are a bit bland, maybe you could find something that matches the energy of the rest of your visual elements. overall, solid game idea, good job!

I completed like till the Third Level, so basically the boss fight one, and considering that I reached that far, means the game is pretty good, all things considered. There are a few things that still have to be taken care of though.

Mainly the lack of SFX is very much noticeable, so a lot of things that should have very high impact, do kinda lose a bit of there Juice, but i am sure that's something you are already working on. The other thing that felt a bit off was the Character Designs, i imagine what you are trying to do was something akin to how different worlds have different types of people in it so they feel and look different, but that doesn't as much work in this, especially the Dronghur Leader he when compared to the Main Characters feel a bit too jarring.

Also the Main UI screen probably could do with a bit of Rework in style, especially considering I do like the style its in the Play Menu, so just anything that doesn't feel like the default font options of Godot.

The Gameplay itself I am not sure I have much to critique for since I don't play enough of these types of Games, but all the cards and the way they work feels like a unique enough compared to the other deck builder games i have tried before, and it all works in the Setting. Also while the first cutscene did feel a bit goofy, the second one was pretty cool, even though stylistically it felt way different then anything else in the game.

gg ! it is really shaping up, gameplay is pretty fun, i will need more time for a better review but the clock is ticking for me to review it rn