Hi Triston, this is a very solid update! Since you've made a ton of changes, I'll also be posting much this time.
This is gonna be a long post, so prepare a popcorn and brace yourself!
Difficulty-wise. this version seems to be easier than last updates, probably to the point of being very easy. Maybe it's because I'm a recurring player? But one thing that I like this time is that Gwen's horrendous aim is so much tolerable in this version. With more focus, I could at least aim with her and do something this time around. Perhaps you tweaked her aim a bit to make it less difficult this time, and I for sure like it.
The background objects also blend-in smoother and less distracting compared to last update, good job!
For the new ability select screen, it is mostly fine. Everything is understandable from the get-go. But there are still some bugs there, yet.
First-off, when I click on repair all, sometimes the credit goes to minus values (see below). It seems that it got calculated twice.
One game-breaking bug here... after pressing shown the "ship-select" or quit button, and come back again, there is a game breaking bug where nothing happens after finishing the card selection as shown below this paragraph. Pressing space will prompt the confirmation again, but nothing also happens when you either select accept or cancel. So I had to quit the game and come back again.
Small nitpick regarding the card moving around...
So, the card slot container only detects your mouse cursor instead of the card. There are numerous times where I failed at slotting a card in because I thought it's already there, but my mouse cursor is still outside the card slot. I would love for the card slot container to detect a new card will be slotted into it without me having to precisely hover with the mouse cursor.
For illustration I am attaching a screenshot below. Let's say I want to swap Common Shield and Uplifting Aura. I grab Common Shield's upper left corner and move it over the Uplifting Aura. I would assume that since the card that I am grabbing already covers the target slot, it would just slot in. But, it failed since my mouse cursor is still outside the target slot container (since I am holding common shield's upper left corner). This is not a game-breaking one per se, but it would be more intuitive to have the card slot detect a card and apply the changes based on how much area of the grabbed card is covering the slot.
Another small nitpick I would like to see the ability to swap cards between party members quickly. Right now, I have to un-equip the card first by clicking right-click, then select another party member, and finally slot in the card that I un-equipped previously.
That's all I have for the new ability select screen. After the game-breaking bug, I quit and restarted the game.
This time, I tried using newer abilities and ships by activating the cheats.
For the newer abilities...
Before using it, I thought Saul Over would be broken, but considering that it needs 6 energy and aim, it feels quite balanced as only Gwen could have access to it at first without using max energy increase ability. I only managed to turn over 1 enemy ship into a Saul Kay before finishing the fight.
I tried using the void bullet twice. And the screen just went blank while killing the user (Gwen) in the process the first time I used it. The second time, I moved her a bit further in front and fire the void bullet, she managed to survive with low health and insta-kill the boss. I don't know what to think about this ability though... probably I would not want to use it in my strategy in a normal play.
I didn't get to try out the Anachronium Wave, since it doesn't really have any new effect for me as a player. I don't consider adding a new turn for your team is a new gameplay effect. Although I can see it as a viable strategy in a normal play. Since for this playtest, I mostly want to know the new abilities effect, so I skipped trying out this one since it's understandable just by reading the description.
For Meteor Shower, this is one of those classic high-damaging move. One nitpick I have with it seems to have not so much visual impact. I imagine meteor showers to come flying at a high speed, so although it has a considerable gamplay effect, visually it lacks the power for me.
Regarding the new ships...
It gets a bit of getting used to, but Gwen can be a monster with the massive energy prod while low health. I could either spam the shield or Saul Kay with her. But I feel this has a good balance for a high-risk/high-reward play.
For the Kunai ship, that is a good trade-off of having diminished aim plus +1 energy with every basic shot. Nice touch! I don't know why, but I find it harder to aim with lesser aim circumference. Somehow, this makes Gwen's aim on a similar level with Kunai.
For Flinn, his upgraded ship just rocks, no comment on it.
For your remaining questions...
Since you are the designer and developer of the game, you are the one that should be answering these, right?
But hey, I'll play along and try to answer them :D
Steam worthiness in its current state
I would say it has a nice polished quality, especially in the UI/UX department. Content-wise, it has enough ability cards to encourage different play-style. So, I think it's worthy as a demo game. Compared to the low-effort/low-quality games that are flooding Steam, Anachrnoium (Time Crusader) is the kind of games that I would like to see it being put there.
Weakest part of the game and the best.
Weakest part: Slow story pacing
Best part: Polished UI/UX
What sets this game apart from other games?
I would say... the game is trying to mix two different play styles of "turn-based strategy" (positioning, timing, and ability selection) and "skill-based" (with the aim). It does it quite well thematically. I don't know this kind of game already existed or not, so I can't tell what would set this game apart from similar games. But one thing for sure is that gameplay mechanics and UI have strong thematic cohesion.
What are the four things that you consider to be a part of the game loop?
1. Energy accumulation / setting up defenses / heal -> Damaging enemies -> repeat
2. Battle -> trying out newly unlocked abilities/ship -> repeat
3. Level Victory -> Story -> repeat
I can't think of another more.
That's it for now, this post is already long enough so I'll stop it here.
Ask me around if you have any specific questions.
Overall, I felt that you've made a ton of progress and everything (except story) has been improved overall.
Great job!