This game has a contradictory choice of design elements. The core gameplay loop is going from mini-dungeon to mini-dungeon and clearing out each one in sequence. Nothing carries over between them except for special permanent upgrades.

So why did they do randomly-generated dungeons? The upgrades' primary uses are to continue you along the path to the next dungeon, which makes the game *look* nonlinear, despite its actual linearity.

Why did they make the movement upgrades all temporary and random? The level design can't take upgrades into account because you probably won't have them, which makes them very unhelpful.

Why did they implement a combo system? The randomly generated rooms rarely give you a chance to get higher than x2 due to the enemy layout. (And the only way to heal is to get an x3 combo or bigger - so people who are really good at the game don't need to heal, and the people who aren't so good can't heal)

Why did they give you limited uses of your alternate weapons? They don't do any more damage, and even if they did, most enemies die in one hit anyway.

Why do they have an elaborate scoring/ranking system for each dungeon? They're randomly generated, after all. It doesn't seem to affect anything at least.

Why do they have enemies that weave as they move when you can only aim in 8 directions with a very slow, short-range projectile? The swamp level is where I bailed out because it just wasn't fun.

I feel like there was a lot of potential here, and they tried to go in too many directions at once.

This game has a contradictory choice of design elements. The core gameplay loop is going from mini-dungeon to mini-dungeon and clearing out each one in sequence. Nothing carries over between them except for special permanent upgrades. So why did they do randomly-generated dungeons? The upgrades' primary uses are to continue you along the path to the next dungeon, which makes the game *look* nonlinear, despite its actual linearity. Why did they make the movement upgrades all temporary and random? The level design can't take upgrades into account because you probably won't have them, which makes them very unhelpful. Why did they implement a combo system? The randomly generated rooms rarely give you a chance to get higher than x2 due to the enemy layout. (And the only way to heal is to get an x3 combo or bigger - so people who are really good at the game don't need to heal, and the people who aren't so good can't heal) Why did they give you limited uses of your alternate weapons? They don't do any more damage, and even if they did, most enemies die in one hit anyway. Why do they have an elaborate scoring/ranking system for each dungeon? They're randomly generated, after all. It doesn't seem to affect anything at least. Why do they have enemies that weave as they move when you can only aim in 8 directions with a very slow, short-range projectile? The swamp level is where I bailed out because it just wasn't fun. I feel like there was a lot of potential here, and they tried to go in too many directions at once.