SG: shadow spiral

• I didn't feel there was issue with the water or wall jumping, although the water felt a bit awkward
• Okay, about the path thing, it took me a while to realize that "a path" was during a full loop. I assumed a "path" was a portion of the stage. Like, the first time we can choose wether to go up or down, it's a path. So we go "ok, i am supposed to go middle now", then when another choice is present "now up", etc... And that I had to take that same path three times. Anyway
• What would have helped to figure it out alone would have been to add something in each path to help. For example, activating a panel or something.
• The dialogues felt very long. It's good to have some character development in the mix, but when you try to figure out your goal and the controls, it felt like it was too long, especially since skipping would leave out info. The characters could have a bit less of "chatting" comment. Or maybe you could have conversations really focused on the mechanics and have others that you can skip. (like, that "attacking while jumping" shtick didn't feel necessary while trying to figure out what to do; i ended up skipping the controls to figure them out alone. Btw we can't attack while jumping? I didn't figure out how to do it, so I assume she keeps ignoring him - btw i liked that she was ignoring his remarks)
• Not sure that the battle system had a real point. It felt a bit clumsy, I assume because the hitboxes didn't feel so clear, or because there was some bit of slowliness in the mix, especially with the power quick. Quicker fights would have been good, since the game mostly focuses on platforming.
• Btw, I beat the final boss without fighting, it felt way too hard. Instead, I was able to spam jump on him at the edge of the screen, and I assume this was not intended lol. I guess a fix to this would have the enemy to switch between "chasing" mode and, idk, a ranged attack mode. But I assume this was a matter of time. It's already great that you managed to add a boss!

can't write more sorry, limit :(

Cool game with nice 16-bit-era style!

What I liked: -The art is very good -gameplay feels nice and solid (I didn't struggle with walljumps or getting out of the water) -Music is cool -fun to play, overall

What I'd like to see improved: -The puzzle, as others pointed out, is not really "solveable". I couldn't even figure out which path was which, because they were so interconnected, so I didn't know how to get through the course each time. -The combat felt kinda weird

Despite the issues, I really did enjoy playing through the loop a few times!

Great job for the amazing art and the music !! The game has a great finition, the only issue i have is that the sprint is useless and the explosion aren't as pretty as the rest of the game. Like Loates said, it would have been great that we could guess the solution without the help of the npc but anyway the run is really pleasant. Congrats for the boss : his pattern is easy to read and he is neither too difficult nor too easy.

It was really cool to play your game !

The game had a slow start? I mean it was a lot of dialogue and when the girl? said "oh btw, you can skip this" and because the intro was slow I skipped everything and then didn't know what I was suppose to do and then I did the level but I didn't because the level is a loop and then she started talking again but from the begining it was long so I skipped again... I guess I got stuck in a loop looping though your game xD.

Awesome job on the art, music and gameplay? the wall jumping was a little finicky but overall it was a fun time

Alright, before I say anything; I do have to admit that I really like the art, music and how they work together, they make a really nice atmosphere for the game which I enjoyed. There was clearly a lot of effort put into it.

However, I do have a couple of issues I'd like to point out.

Firstly, in my opinion, the controls seemed hard to handle; not in the case of a lack of understanding of what they do, but more so struggling to use them. As an example, like Wangle said, I struggled to get out of the water a couple of times. Also, for some reason, I really struggled to do the consecutive wall-jump, which ended up leaving me frustrated.

The other main issues I have is regarding the solution to the puzzle and the use of the theme. I felt that there was no way anybody could have predicted the solution as it wouldn't make sense in the context of what we've seen in the game. Therefore, for most people, the only way to find out the solution is to loop around 5 times. However, that seems to be the only use of the theme alongside the Puzzle of solving a "loop", making me feel that the theme's usage was quite weak.

I would comment on the ending, but because of the frustrating movement, I was really struggling to complete the top path and had to leave it in the end, despite these issues I found with game play and theme however, I do believe that this game was quite enjoyable because of the atmosphere it created. For future advice, I'd say to make the puzzle to solve a bit more fair, as most people like me would have just tried all the possible routes and left it there. However, I could easily be wrong about that.

Thanks for your entry!

• Loates

The controls are very un-intuitive and a bit... exotic, if you ask me! I struggled to get out of the water for a while~