Plasmarift's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Recital]

The game is simple yet challenging. My only real complaint is that, for the last phase of the boss, the longer it goes on, the more my computer lags. However, if I lose and start the last phase fight over, the lagging immediately stops.

Also, on the end screen, it says "Stat (A)" or something. I'm guessing this means to press A to show stats, but nothing happens.

Lastly, I'd recommend putting the controls in the description.

[MÆRE II: Hypnagogia]

I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy this as much as the first. I didn't really get scared much at all.
- The game had far less visually interesting ghosts and scary things and less disturbing sound effects (though it may have more stuff, it just wasn't as good and diverse in creepiness as the original). I decided to replay the original to make sure I wasn't misremembering, but no, there definitely was a lot going for it. One thing missing in this game was that most of the ghosts never got up close and personal like in the first (without it being a "punishment"). It could have done with some disturbing visual effects or something like a dead body hanging in the corner. Even something talking to you.
- The dream sequences were pretty boring and didn't really add anything to the game except to signify you were dreaming (I actually ended up dying during one of the sequences somehow). I enjoyed the original's "storytelling" dreams; these maintained the tension built up from the gameplay.
- I give you credit for attempting randomization with the sequel (or at least it seemed that way as I certainly didn't notice a pattern). That being said, having a grading system for the player for a randomized experience doesn't seem like the best idea as your score is dependent partly on your luck.
- While it is possible to die in the game unlike the first installment, it's fairly easy to avoid (in both games, it seems players have to try and do it just to see what would happen). It's certainly not a deal breaker since it seems most players can still get a good scare from the game, but I think it could have increased the fear factor far more effectively with more pressure put on the player.
- Having the clock as way of keeping track of time left is pretty cool.
- I guess the last thing is that it's too easy to escape the scaryness, which was an issue for both this and the last game since you can just close your eyes or look away; there's no desperate scramble to escape the scary. I can't think of a good solution for this except to have the escape methods sometimes lead to scary things to make the player anxious about what their next action will bring about.
- For further suggestions, see my review of the previous game in the series.

Nevertheless, I'm glad you are continuing to make games. I look forward to your next project.

Chris responds:

Thanks so much for the in-depth review!

I agree with a lot of your points and think the game is in some ways a step forward and a step back. I’ve definitely got another entry in me where maybe I’ll get the balance right.

I think the randomness might be hurting the game a little as well. With the first one I could control the series of events so it built up in a controlled way. Thats lost in the randomness. Probably need to look at a middle ground solution for a potential MÆRE III

[Madness: Sheriff's Compound]

Unfortunately, I can't give this game a great review:
- The only way I could progress through the game for the most part was by using the bat: luring enemies to me, hiding behind a corner, and slugging them as they came around. Anytime I tried to get into a straight up fire fight with guys who have automatic weapons, I'd be dead within seconds, sometimes less than one second (which is realistic, but I don't play games for realism). I'm sure part of the blame falls on my computer for being too slow, but even the enemies hidden up on the second story that you wouldn't see until they started shooting would have me dead within a second with little time to react, which feels cheap.
- You can't activate the door switches while holding the bat.
- You can't pick up ammo if you're holding the bat.
- If enemies are right up on you, you can't hit them with a bat or shoot them.
- Enemies seem to stop shooting you once they get really close to you (which worked for me and allowed me to beat the game, but seems strange).
- The bat gets replaced if you pick up a gun while holding it, which means if you do this and run out of ammo, you can't progress. It'd been better if new gun pickups just replaced guns.
- The damage an enemy takes when shooting them in the head feels inconsistent, as some will die from one shot, while others require multiple (and I'm referring to the ones that don't have head gear). This honestly takes away from the fun factor, plus I have no idea if shooting an enemy in the head does more damage than hitting just the body so it feels like a waste of time to even try at this point.
- As others have pointed out, ammo is inconsistently dropped, which means you might have to fall back on using the bat or force the player to open up optional doors, which aren't very fun since all they offer are either enemies or, more often than not, just a room with an npc in it and/or ammo.
- There seems to be a time element to this game:
SPOILER AHEAD FOR THOSE READING
as the sheriff can get away (implying you weren't quick enough), which sounds exciting, though I can't attest if you can actually catch as I've never been fast enough.
- The zombie part is interesting, but not as creepy as it could have been. No really creepy sounds or background music to really bring it home, plus it was probably the easiest part since they don't have guns and could just alternate between gun and bat.

I still enjoyed the experience so thank you for making it.

[Dream Punk]

While the game can be enjoyable at times, this is far out weighed by its many flaws:
- The control scheme for keyboards is very poorly implemented. You have Ctrl key for using Ness, which is not only extremely awkwardly placed compared to the other keys, but the Ctrl button, when used in conjunction with other keys (especially arrow keys), can cause other functions on the computer to activate (for example, on my computer, holding Ctrl and pressing the up arrow causes a screen to come up showing all the different windows I have open on my computer). You could have made the Right Mouse button Ness (or at least added an option to change the key assignments). Also, while you can move around with the arrow keys, you can't use the up arrow key to glide after unlocking the ability or move around Ness with the arrow keys.
- There's no option to mute the sound or to go back to the main menu. Also, there's nothing that tells you that Enter is the pause button.
- For the upgrades, while I understand that you don't want the player to change their upgrades for fear the player could redistribute their abilities at specific moments to easily overcome obstacles (such as maxing out bouncing, and then, after bouncing, switching the points to max out glide so you'd be able to gain massive height and distance). Still, couldn't you simply restrict redistribution of points to the one location and at least allowed players to distribute their points in the pause menu; that way, players wouldn't have to make their way back to the singular location to distribute points every time they find a tape (this would have especially been helpful earlier in my playthrough).
- Your earlier game "That Dream Again" worked well because you confined gameplay to a small area that the player was falling into, kind of like a pachinko machine. Back then, you could literally fall into powerups that made traversal easier and eventually would lead to upward momentum. Now the game's bigger and most of the areas you need to reach are above the player's starting position, all while they're still falling the same as always (and it looks awkward when you are bouncing along the rocks instead of standing on them). You've abandoned putting specific upgrades in areas and instead left tapes to upgrade as the player pleases (which is necessary if the player wants to win), but this almost seems to say "we don't know what ability should be upgraded in this area so we're going to leave that up to you, but since you need specific levels of upgrades to progress, we'll leave an inconvenient option for redistributing the points."
- While the game has the Recall ability, you have to unlock it instead of it being a freebie to account for the game's size. And, as I recall in the previous game, you gave players a map at some point not only showing their position, but the position of the obstacles and upgrades. In a game this large, that map is even more important and knowing where the obstacles are would help the player avoid them, instead of annoyingly running into them when trying to move upward because they moved in front of them (also, you don't indicate that you can bring up any type of map in the description. Maybe a character says it, but it seems rather important). Plus, it's very easy to lose your sense of direction when going between screens and end up missing something you were trying to navigate toward.
- Even with my movement skill fully maxed, it doesn't seem to allow the player to pull off the pin point accuracy you expect of them in bouncing on very small balloons (it almost feels like luck that I do it).
- The Ness ability just seems like a terrible choice for a mechanic in the game, especially considering the original move would usually only ever be used for traversal in that manner in desperate situations so to expect pin point accuracy in some areas is unreasonable. Right now, I'm drawing the line at the essentially "nothing but Ness" traversal section.
As much as I'd like to finish the game, the annoyances keep compounding, along with the aimless wandering and seemingly unfair setbacks where you need to re-tread old ground because you fell looking for things you missed. I wish you luck in your future projects.

[The Gauntlet]

The game's decent though you essentially have disabled enough features (that are only available in the app version of the game) to where it's near impossible to pay off Rune's debt. The best chance someone would have had at paying off Rune's debt would have been to unlock all the available upgrades before moving onto Rune, but I didn't think you'd lock me out of getting money as Dozer (when playing as him after paying off his debt, I think only the first room has money and you no longer accumulate money with the social media power up and beating rooms).

There are sections of the game that just require you to wait, which becomes a real drag after a while (I get that this is fairly realistic, especially in the sense that it would force the audience to look at the advertisements in the background longer, but it doesn't lend itself to gameplay). Aside from the medals, there's nothing that's prompts me to play the game after paying off one of the character's debts because I know now it will just be the same for the others.

blit-blat responds:

I hope even in the app Rune can’t pay her debt. Your description of how to pay Rune’s debts is right - you’ve got to game the system. And that’s the point there is no winning with Capitalism!

[DARK SWORD: The Light of Ainn]

Well, here’s some feedback and possible bugs/things that could be fixed:
- When you grab the two collectibles from the beginning of the game, the shadows underneath them remain.
- Why does the game sometimes take you to the upgrade area whenever you collect stuff? Just leave the player where they are. The only except would be the dungeon.
- I managed to glitch past a section of the wall with no way to get back (it was to the right of the necromancer area where the book was, away from the enemies).
- You added more collectibles yet you don’t actually tell the player what they do (the descriptions in the menu don’t always help), and a giant picture of them will appear on screen, blocking the screen. Why not just have some text in the corner tell you “you picked up…” with a small picture maybe?
- Why can’t I skip the opening cutscene?
- What happened to the sword bosses music? There was a horrible bass-y overlay. I had to turn off the sound completely because just lowering it wasn’t enough.
- You have regular enemies scattered throughout the game. Why? They aren’t a real danger and killing them does nothing. I can dash passed them. Having them appear in boss fights is interesting though.
- Why did you have to add bonfires for saving? Why not save before fighting the boss? You can still have bonfires if you want, just make it so the game saves at a boss room and you appear outside a boss room if you lose.
- Once the boss is defeated, make it so all the enemies they summoned die as well. Otherwise, the player might just be killed.
- Why does the red flash indicting you’ve been hit appear during the tutorial of the game?
- On the left side entrance (the area that’s covered in blood), just as it switches to a regular floor, it still makes the squishing noises/
- Should the music that plays when you’re near the girl continue to play while in the common area? Because it continued to play.
- Maybe make it so common enemies will stop pursuing you when entering miniboss rooms.
- Upon switching to the hammer, you need to press the right mouse button before it will appear and work (I switch to the hammer and the claws were showing until I did this. Before equipping the hammer, I had the sword equipped, but, in the past, I had equipped the claws)
- A piece of the castle wall isn’t appearing properly on the right side of the map (to the left of the pile of rumble you can hit)
- Maybe make it so if you stop using the healing spell, the sound for it cuts off.
- No choice to change difficulty (that’ll come into play down below)
- Why does the timer have a “:” on the end?
- I thought the whole thing with the “heart of the corrupted core” was to take out it’s minions, but while you’re doing that, it gets stronger or if you take too long, it will wake up. Now it wakes up as soon as you attack it so you can just go after the minions first. You could have had it where it slowly gains a second health bar or something. Speaking on this matter, my “partner” woke up the heart when I didn’t want it to; not sure much can be done about that though.
- After beating the “heart of the corrupted core”, it showed the statue, but it didn’t break; it screen just stayed on it (the game wasn’t froze because I used the “2” spell).

I’m sorry, but every time you’ve updated the game, something always seems to be broken or just off in general and it’s usually pretty obvious. It’s important that you play your own game extensively before release to catch this stuff, otherwise it just makes you look bad and upsets the players. Either that, or get way more beta testers.

Personally, I think you’re making this too complicated in a way. The first version of the game was simple; you just fight bosses. It was great! Further updates added more bosses, which was good, and changes to combat (I was a bit non-plussed about that, but it made things interesting), then you started adding exploration, upgrades, a bunch of lore (a bit of lore wouldn’t be bad, but the lore you included comes off as meaningless as it just feels like generic confusing fantasy writing. The gameplay isn't influenced by it; knowing it doesn't change anything, reveal any secrets, change our interaction with the surrounds, etc. Less is more when it comes to writing. You want just enough to get the player to fantasize about the meaning. As it stands, it just doesn’t feel interesting because, me personally, I just want to get to the fights). It feels like you went from emulating Shadow of the Colossus to Dark Souls and now you’re stuck in-between them and you’re burying your game underneath stuff that doesn’t need to be there (weapons that most people won’t use, lore people won’t read, small enemies that are just distractions when not fighting bosses, extra graphics that might look nice, but add nothing to the game, etc.).

The upgrade system is killing the difficulty. I upgraded the standard gun to max and I started tearing through the bosses easily, sometimes in less than a minute (granted, I’ve fought some of them in previous versions so I knew generally what to expect, but it has been awhile). Then I upgraded the sword completely, I killed the boss in the upper right corner on the first try and that one was always difficult, even when I knew what I was doing. Another thing, when I came across an actual tough boss, like the witch queen, I thought “I’ll come back later after I’ve upgraded more”. It discourages players from taking on challenges. Another personal thing, some of bosses are far too easy since you included the healing function because, if you’re patient enough, you can just hit and run away from them until they die (my biggest concerns were stray bullets that I didn’t see coming). Maybe the enemies could do with being more aggressive, or a smaller area. Now, I get this is just my experience; others might be saying “it’s too hard” and the truth is you’re never going to please both crowds. The question is which crowd do you want to please? Keep in mind, a person who finds the game hard can become better at the game if they play it longer while, if the game’s too easy, skilled players will find it boring and will stop playing and won’t talk about it. It'll be a glorified art gallery.

I think it’s also important that you keep in mind the perspective. You can have so much happening on screen that attacks and special effects overlap (even the enemy can block sight of the attacks) and players can miss this, end up getting hit, and wonder “why did that happen?” because we’re looking down on the action, we’re not actually close up to it. I'd say keep this in mind when including special effects.

While the graphics are good, they can blend together at times due to the limited color palette. My beef the graphics is that I can't interact with the environment much at all; you put all this work into it (and I'm astounded by the effort and detail) and it's just a backdrop; it’s like having a tray of desserts in front of you and told not to eat them. And the environment only influences gameplay minimally. You can hide behind objects and some objects can be destroyed, but there's no environmental dangers, no way for you or the enemies to use the environment their advantage, like shooting through fire to light your bullets on fire. Or cold weather slowing you down. It just doesn't feel like a living breathing world.

I’m being negative, but you have done good in the game and in the previous version (otherwise. I wouldn't have spent so long writing this review). The way you hid the key (new hiding spot) was clever, some of the bosses really do present a challenge, and, I enjoy the combat. The music is great and the graphics are good.

I'm sorry to say I've beaten about six main bosses and I’m just bored now (I stopped after the game got stuck on the heart statue not breaking. You put so much area in-between the bosses that it can feel like a slog sometimes. This kind of thing worked for Shadow of the Colossus because it built anticipation and there was generally nice scenery and you could look for small upgrades. Your game, despite having well put together scenery is pixelated and the upgrades are large and require that you return to the main hub to upgrade (same with changing the weapon). Please take my review with a grain of salt as I’m just one voice here.

[Rabbit Hole 1.06]

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.

[MÆRE]

It's definitely scary in a number of different ways, brilliantly utilizing both visuals, sound, and a bit of storytelling. The artwork is good and the game mechanics are well implemented and designed. It is short, but I'd prefer a short good experience rather than a long average one.

SPOILERS AHEAD
My issue is that the game is not just easy; it appears impossible to lose (I know because I've tried). The closest you can come to losing is on the last level and, even then, you have to make a conscious effort to stare at the ghosts as well as closing your eyes to keep the fear meter from draining when ghosts aren't around. Plus, on each level, scary stuff will just stop happening after about a minute or so. I'm guessing it was developed as a no lose scenario so people wouldn't replay the game and see the same scares in the same place (I'm guessing it was also designed to be easy so that a player trying to complete the level would complete it at around the time that scary events stopped happening). If you ever decide to expand on this, a few suggestions:
- Have the fear meter go up when the player character is uncertain of what's going on in the room, with it rising in response to how uncertain you are.
- Utilize a bit more sound effects. Sound effects can be reused more than artwork without it seeming forced or out of place, especially in a horror game.
- In the last level, you have a laughing face appear when the player closes their eyes. While this is good (and could increase the fear meter as well), I'd also suggest strange visual effects at times when the eyes are closed, such as seeing veins, a dim light, a few shapes well placed to look like a face. Basically things to always keep it interesting and keep the player on their toes, thinking "it's safer when I close my eyes, but maybe it's not always completely safe...". I'd also like to note I like the fact that you have an almost static effect when the eyes are closed and I like it.
- Perhaps have more visuals in the room move from one place to another when the eyes are closed, like a picture frame moved on a wall or the tv is on the floor now. When this happens, the fear meter can go up and the player has to be aware of what's going on.
- You can also add "check under the covers" with the down button, maybe add an indicator of sensation of something touching the player character.

Well done and I wish you luck in your future projects.

[Madness: Fueled By Hotdogs]

The game was short yet I enjoyed the first person action. However, I feel like there are a few problems and missed opportunities:
- On the last and second to last (mostly the last) level, sometimes enemies that come out of the doors start spinning in circles and basically don't really attack.
- The idea of running around and scarfing down hotdogs while fighting off enemies is appealing. However, it doesn't really work out that way because in order to pick up a hotdog, you need to drop one of your weapons (if you're holding two) and, when you're in a rush, you can end up picking back up the weapon you dropped or an enemy could end up picking up your weapon in the mean time. It probably would have been better if you couldn't store them and could simply pick up a hotdog and eat it while still holding your weapon (with a few seconds of vulnerability between eating it and getting the effect to build tension). That way, when the effect runs out or your health is low, you could swing by the hotdog stand for another.
- Trying to pick up weapons in this game is a pain for a multitude of reasons. You need to be looking at it in order to pick it up, which means you're looking away from the action. Plus, you could end up picking up a gun you already used up (maybe it'd been better if those guns just disappeared after throwing them). Also, when the enemies are piled up, their weapons are as well, making it even more difficult to pick up a specific weapon during a fight.
- I'd have liked it if I could throw the weapon immediately after it runs out of ammo instead of waiting a moment for the character to realize that the gun is out of ammo. It would lend itself to much more fast paced action (it'd also seem fair considering the enemy never runs out of ammo and would keep shooting you while you realize you're out).
- The dive mechanic, while interesting, doesn't really help much. Since it launches you forward haphazardly, you could end up launching yourself passed enemies, putting your back to them and leaving you vulnerable. As a platforming ability, I could only think of one segment of the game where it was useful to jump across a gap, but there was no point to it (except maybe to sneak up on the first enemies of the level perhaps). Plus, it feels clunky to pull off in general, which makes it even more awkward to pull off in combat. While you are invulnerable while using it, it also uses up tac and you can't effectively attack someone while using it due to how fast you'll be moving. It'd been cool if you could dive into enemies to knock them down.
- Speaking of the diving mechanic, as well as the vents, it'd been interesting to see them more integrated into the gameplay, like maybe a level where you sneak up behind people using a vent to kill them (there was one level where you could use a vent, but it just dropped you in front of the enemies I think) or using the dive to jump across a gap to sneak up on enemies (though I think with the level I mentioned before, that was the intent, correct?).
- The aim in the game seems off for some reason though I don't know why. I could have my gun pointed straight at a stationary enemy and somehow miss while other times, it seems to work great. Sometimes, I found using the gun sight didn't actually help much.
- It's pretty easy for enemies to sneak up on you with the player only realizing this once their attacked or dead (I know it's the nature of 3D games and the game being 3D also contributes to a few of the problems I already mentioned). Part of this is due to the fact that enemies make no noise when moving. The only indication that more enemies are coming is the opening and closing doors, which is greatly appreciated. It'd be cool if there was a peripheral vision feature where if an enemy is on your right or left, there's a red glow on the right or left (the closer they are, the brighter it gets).
- I kind of wish there was a way to restart the entire game from the menu instead of refreshing the page, but this is just a small detail.

Overall, it was an interesting play. Often times I've played 2D games and wondered "how would this handle as a fps?" It's cool to see what it would look like and you did it. I wish you luck on your future projects.

frdy responds:

Best review I've gotten.
- diving can be done in any direction, and you can still control your movement in midair. Shooting enemies will diving is hard, but a very good strategy if you can pull it off.
The level design absolutely should have had diving in mind, and a lot of them are nothing but enclosed halls.
I may have messed up somewhere, but you are supposed to be able to pick up nearby weapons regardless of where you aim, and aiming directly at weapons was supposed to give it higher priority.
Enemy indicatiors absolutely should have been put in.
Bullets originate from gun muzzles, and aiming was not originally going to be put in the game. That leads to the case where aiming does little more than give you more consistent hits at close range. It was an interesting idea that didn't really pan out.
I.... changed the x button from immediately letting you throw into instantly dropping it at the last minute. That was because I got a complaint about not being able to skip the throwing animation.
Being able to instantly eat hotdogs is a great idea I never considered. I'm wondering how one could control saving it in your inventory vs using it instantly

[Train Journey]

I can see the game had a lot of passion and imagination put into it. Almost every one of the train stops (including the train) feel like their own world with their own behaviors and rules. I finished the game. However, I almost feel like I shouldn't have. Let me explain (SPOILERS AHEAD):
- Trying to dig was annoying because you couldn't dig horizontal while standing on a pile of dirt; you would dig down, reach solid ground, then dig horizontal. This made things more tedious, especially the free the spirits part.
- There were so many parts of the game that just forced you to wait or ate up your time. Wait for an enemy to finish their attack before you move, wait for an enemy to move out of the way, hold down the fire button and wait for the enemy in your way to die, wait for the boss appearance animation and/or dialogue to play every time you go to fight them, wait for that long awkward cutscene after stopping the conductor to finish, kill this group of enemies because you'll die if you try to run by them or they'll interfere with your jump. I can understand waiting being an aspect of the game, but I don't think it's a good idea to be a core aspect of the game, especially when the character isn't moving fast and killed enemies come back when you leave the screen. While you can take the hit in some parts, there are just so many that it will whittle your health down quickly if you aren't careful.
- Back tracking is also annoying, especially when you take the prior point about waiting, movement speed, and enemy respawn into account. Having to backtrack on the train to get upgrades and clock parts and reach the exit, look around the confusing moon base level looking for keys, being sent all the way back to your seat after losing to the conductor, having to backtrack with the diary pages (This one is especially annoying because it is set up for backtracking, but the player doesn't know this, especially if they missed the rock like structure near the beginning with the skeletons so I ended up going back into the cave after getting all the diary pages because the text said something like "I should put these with the rest". Plus, I asked myself how would returning pages to a diary help progress the game when I knew I needed a shovel?). Backing track should only be done when there is something to be gained from it in some way or if the experience will be different somehow, such as unlocking a new power and applying it to places you've been or if it's in small doses. Going back to the train in every world was slightly annoying, but in the first level at least, you got to reach areas you'd passed that you weren't able to before, like a letter and the clock piece.
- There was at least two glitches; the diary page count broke on me and started going into the negatives (luckily it still recognized when I collected them all) and it seems to save outside of the conductor room, but still sends you back to your seat). There might be one more; after getting the rocket pogo, it wouldn't always work. It would act like a regular pogo. Sometimes, I think this was due to me holding down the jump button, using the rocket, returning to the ground still holding the jump button (and it wouldn't rocket up again) while other times, it felt like it just didn't work.
- I like that you included two endings, though the ending where you got all the clock parts was annoying. You had the player go through a long section where they are freeing spirits that hurt them on touching them. This part felt unnecessary as it wasn't enjoyable, added nothing to the story, and just felt tedious, as did fighting the bosses again because it added nothing to the game experience since you beat them already (boss rushes typically work if the bosses are slightly different, attack you all at once, or they occur one after another because then it's not just about beating them since the player would have done that already; it's beating them while making sure they're combined efforts don't drain your health to zero. With the new blaster, it would have been an interesting fight; new blaster vs. 4 bosses, no health recovery inbetween). The part where you have to go back to the apartment was less bothersome than the spirit freeing one, but still had its problems. Story wise, why was everything possessed by darkness? Having to go through this part was hampered by the fact that there were enemy that could attack you from below (which you really couldn't do much about accept jump and potentially get hit by something while vulnerable in the air) and there was very little health and no save states (though I liked the health upgrades. It went well with preparing for the final boss and was much appreciated).
- Finally, due to the game being pixelated, there were parts where it wasn't clear what was background scenery and things you could step on though I've found this issue in other Pico-8 games so I don't think much can be done. To be fair, I think you did a pretty decent job on making this clear usually.

There were definitely good things in the game which is why I ended up playing it to the end (the final boss of the good ending was good), but it just almost didn't feel worth the grind to get there by the time I reached it. The artwork and music were good. The story was good as well though the epilogue of the good ending was a little weird. I don't comment on games as much as I used to, but when I do, it's because I see a lot of potential in those ones and the people making them. I wish you luck in your future endeavors.

Meivuu responds:

Thank you so much for all the feedback!! This was really helpful to read! I was aware of some of these gameplay issues in a sense but it was really really helpful to read a player's experience with these issues. I'm sure you realize that I won't likely change this game very significantly anymore, (I did mention a remake in another reply so if that even happens I'll definitely use your feedback very directly when making it) but this certainly helps for future projects! And thanks for the bug reports, anything going into the negatives is a yikes lol, that thing had been causing trouble but I thought I fixed it. Anyway before I get into spoilers, I wanna thank you again for this feedback! My favorite reviews and comments are always the ones with loads upon loads of feedback like this, and I really appreciate you taking so much time to write this and explain your experience with the game.

(SECRET ENDING SPOILER AHEAD plus major plot point explanation in case you want to figure that out on your own)
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