There's a lot I enjoy about the game, but I feel like it has issues that are holding it back:
- Why can't you pause the game when you're in a fight? Sometimes, I want to restart right away and this means I either need to beat the enemies in the room or just let them kill me, both of which waste time.
- There's no option to replay the tutorial, no way to replay the opening cutscene, and no way to skip the opening cutscene.
- You can't cycle through NPC text fast. It makes you wait before initiating another dialogue box.
- A lot of things in the game go unexplained with only vague descriptions (if any) and must be learned, like $(gun); I thought this meant I could pay money for a gun. It actually meant they'd take my gun for money. While this can be fun to some extent, it should be cleared up soon in the game. I ended up buying something at a shop that had no directions and it ended up being a book or a tank of gas (the latter of which has no immediate use and the former of which I was unimpressed by).
- The control layout for the melee attack is awkward. While I know you said that you couldn't map it to the mouse easily due to limitations of the program you used to develop the game (and that the right mouse button would be used for something else), it really is something that is killing the experience a bit for me because the melee attack is actually pretty important, with it doing so much damage and having the ability to knock enemies back and in some cases cancel out their attacks. I would literally need to undo years of conditioning from other games and change the way I position my hand on the keyboard to make it work. The melee attack is already difficult to utilize effectively because it locks you into it when you use it and touching enemies hurts you, which means you need to position yourself just right, so it doesn't couple well when I imagine most people like me having to take their finger away from a movement key to use it. For now, I've reassigned the button to the crouch button since I never use it so maybe that will help.
- I appreciate a game that is difficult and rewards you for accomplishments (though the game doesn't do a lot of the latter). I really did like the game giving me a bonus for beating the first boss without taking damage. Still, I can't imagine beating the second boss without a number of powerups and the golden revolver. Maybe if I had more practice with them, it would be doable (for instance I just realized I could keep pushing the melee guy back by repeated, well-timed melee attacks), but that would involve making it to them multiple times, meaning I need to fight through the first and second floors just to reach them. In a game where no upgrades are permanent and there's no health given for the next level, both skill and pattern memorization is a must. It kind of feels like the gameplay time is being artificially stretched out due to this. Sometimes, it feels like I should just restart the game if I take too much damage because if your health is too low or you still haven't gotten enough upgrades or good weapons, it seems like you'll just end up dying later anyway.
- I honestly feel like about half the shops are useless, specifically the slot machine (why does it take health instead of money?), mafia person, and person who takes health for health. Saying there's more risk than reward would be an understatement. They can negatively affect the rest of your run if it doesn't pay off and depending on whether or not you can make up for what you lost.
- What purpose does the crouch mechanic serve?
- What's the point of having some guns that launch you upward?
- When I turned off sound and music, some sounds still play, like when moving over dialogue boxes (mafia person) and when the meters number decreases when entering an area.
Still, the game has many great qualities:
- You do describe the game as "tough-as-nails" so you did give fair warning. And the game is very addictive.
- The graphics are charming and music is actiony and fun.
- Most of the NPC are well designed, but are kinda boring to me since their personalities don't really shine through, except for jacket giving girl. I was actually curious what would happen between the main character and her.
- It took me a while to realize you could actually go back to previous rooms, allowing you to revisit shops. You even made it so health drops don't disappear so you can go back and get them later if you wanted to.
- The enemies and NPCs are well designed and each have their own attack patterns (Mind you, I've only reached the 3rd floor once).
- I really feel like some interesting stuff will be coming up in the game, both storywise and fight wise, though I don't know if I'm skilled enough to reach it.
- Combat feels rather smooth.
- I like that you put in a mechanic that brings all the coins to you after beating all the enemies in the room. It saves time and prevents you from missing them.
Let me be clear; I'm not asking you to nerf the game. I hate it when developers do this because some people say it's too difficult. I just wanted to offer my opinion on the matter. I also want to make it clear that despite my criticisms, I'm intrigued by the game. I used to comment a lot on games years ago and now I only typically comment on games that I find both impressive and that have issues because I want to see both the game and developers truly shine.
I wish you luck in your future endeavors.