This game had a tonne of heart poured into it. Great, but some flaws. DNF for the time being (you'll see why below), but I'm certain I'll get a hankering to fire it up and beat it proper at some point.

Pros:
+ Very satisfying, free-flowing movement.
+ Gorgeous pixel art, animation, and art direction.
+ Tense combat encounters with tough but well designed enemies: you need to make use of all of your abilities, prioritise enemies, and think on your feet. Heavy attacks can stagger enemies in vulnerable wind-ups as well as deflect enemy projectiles, and the dash is an oh so satisfying gap closer.
+ Good level design; effective use of terrain and new hazards to make you evaluate each situation a little differently. It plays a huge role in enemy prioritisation.
+ Heavy OST
+ Customisable game speed and difficulty in the options (you'll see a number of reviews call this game too hard: just enable additional pickups and turn the bullet speed way down, should be easier then :) )
+ Some fun guns (Cross Grenade my love <3 )
+ Interesting boss fights
+ Decent meta-progression

- Besides the early-game meta-progression, the roguelite aspects very lacking; stats and perks feel very inconsequential at the end of the day. Some perks genuinely feel as if they're nearly completely useless. I can see the original intent in their design, but they're so ill-applicable for most situations, or so generic that you'll always end up with them. Stat increases are cool, but so minor that you barely feel the impact. It's there for sure, and does make a difference, but it is very minor. There are some exceptions, like the floor is lava perk (my favourite, although I almost always die with it because I just jump and wallrun into bullets lmao), or one of the hidden perks later in the game that lets you sacrifice half your max HP for 50% extra sword damage. Now there's big ones.
- This lack of variety makes the game a bit tedious to revisit in later runs, as very little actually changes. No wacky builds and so on. Pair this with larger maps more suited to the roguelite formula a la Isaac, Synthetik 1 and Gungeon. Traversing rooms with arena combat after arena combat. It really starts to drag after the first few hours.

Overall, I recommend this game, despite the issues I've had. If you aren't the best with action games that require fast thinking and fast reflexes, just tweak the difficulty in the settings right at the start, rather than fumbling around too much.

Looking forward to whatever else these guys make!

This game had a tonne of heart poured into it. Great, but some flaws. DNF for the time being (you'll see why below), but I'm certain I'll get a hankering to fire it up and beat it proper at some point. Pros: + Very satisfying, free-flowing movement. + Gorgeous pixel art, animation, and art direction. + Tense combat encounters with tough but well designed enemies: you need to make use of all of your abilities, prioritise enemies, and think on your feet. Heavy attacks can stagger enemies in vulnerable wind-ups as well as deflect enemy projectiles, and the dash is an oh so satisfying gap closer. + Good level design; effective use of terrain and new hazards to make you evaluate each situation a little differently. It plays a huge role in enemy prioritisation. + Heavy OST + Customisable game speed and difficulty in the options (you'll see a number of reviews call this game too hard: just enable additional pickups and turn the bullet speed way down, should be easier then :) ) + Some fun guns [spoiler](Cross Grenade my love <3 )[/spoiler] + Interesting boss fights + Decent meta-progression - Besides the early-game meta-progression, the roguelite aspects very lacking; stats and perks feel very inconsequential at the end of the day. Some perks genuinely feel as if they're nearly completely useless. I can see the original intent in their design, but they're so ill-applicable for most situations, or so generic that you'll always end up with them. Stat increases are cool, but so minor that you barely feel the impact. It's there for sure, and does make a difference, but it is very minor. [spoiler]There are some exceptions, like the floor is lava perk (my favourite, although I almost always die with it because I just jump and wallrun into bullets lmao), or one of the hidden perks later in the game that lets you sacrifice half your max HP for 50% extra sword damage. Now there's big ones.[/spoiler] - This lack of variety makes the game a bit tedious to revisit in later runs, as [i]very little actually changes[/i]. No wacky builds and so on. Pair this with larger maps more suited to the roguelite formula a la Isaac, Synthetik 1 and Gungeon. Traversing rooms with arena combat after arena combat. It really starts to drag after the first few hours. Overall, I recommend this game, despite the issues I've had. If you aren't the best with action games that require fast thinking and fast reflexes, just tweak the difficulty in the settings right at the start, rather than fumbling around too much. Looking forward to whatever else these guys make!