I quite liked this, but there's a ton holding it back from being great. I played on hard with level resets enabled, for reference.

The game has a quaint, simple aesthetic, but the action all has some heft to it with some cute action. It's satisfying to watch the little guys go at it in the same way you'd enjoy Totally Accurate Battle Simulator.

The structure works well enough, it was obviously intended to be replayable, though I felt no desire to do so. Each scenario felt like it went too far in one direction; either it was a walk in the park or a waking nightmare. Where the game excelled is in the micro adjustments you can make to your plan when re-doing the levels. The final level was crushing me, to the point I was about to give up. But, I made some slightly different decisions and suddenly I was trouncing the enemy. It was intense and the most fun I had with the game.

The game's simplicity is its downfall. It feels difficult to carve out meaningful strategies as the play space is so limited. There's little room for creativity so I imagine you'd need clairvoyancy in order to beat the game on harder difficulties without resets.

I had a good time with frustrations aplenty, was happy to be finished with this one.