+gorgeous architecture, excellent pixel art, distinctive character designs
+once the combat options open up it feels pretty rewarding, especially once you get meatier guns that can server the majority of your damage output
+overall I think the text-less nature of the game suits it, partially because each area follows a pattern in terms of progression so there's never any confusion over what to do
+I actually quite liked the final boss in this game, it's easy to fumble a final boss by trying to make it too wild or insane but this boss felt challenging and momentous without throwing the combat design out the window. the bosses in general succeeded when they took inspiration from bullet hell games to create interesting obstacles for the player, and/or had dynamic patterns as the fight went on; the bosses that did this really struck a chord with me
+other than the west quadrant each other quadrant felt like they had a natural progression when figuring out where to go next and what to do. it's more linear than the zelda games it was based on no question, but it felt comfortable to be always moving forward
+exploration is virtually always rewarded, whether with upgrade currency, extra health packs, or even keys or hidden modules
-the west quadrant... wow what a terrible start to the game for me. the modules in this area were significantly more hidden than in the others, and the backtracking to comb over areas where I had already been was not fun at all
-certain aspects definitely reflect the indie game maker development of this game. what stuck out to me most were objects with incorrect priority that would hover over the drifter when they were supposed to be behind him
-boss design is a little all over the place, some seem very undercooked and trivial to take down
-didn't really care for the enemy and encounter design that much. the enemy patterns didn't feel distinctive in how they were meant to be taken down, and "difficult" encounters just consisted of throwing a bunch of enemies at you at once
-aiming the gun sucks lol. aiming in place is never worth it and even when I would move and shoot in a direction sometimes it felt like the bullets would skew
I really did not like this game initially because of the issues I mentioend with the west quadrant, but for the rest of the game I found it to be quite relaxing because of the ease of progression and pretty locales. afterwards I really felt no push to continue exploring, but for the 7 or 8 hours I spent playing it otherwise I was quite content. it's not a long game and pretty cheap, so I would absolutely recommend as a quick game to go through if you're proficient with 2d combat and looking for a solid entry in that space
+once the combat options open up it feels pretty rewarding, especially once you get meatier guns that can server the majority of your damage output
+overall I think the text-less nature of the game suits it, partially because each area follows a pattern in terms of progression so there's never any confusion over what to do
+I actually quite liked the final boss in this game, it's easy to fumble a final boss by trying to make it too wild or insane but this boss felt challenging and momentous without throwing the combat design out the window. the bosses in general succeeded when they took inspiration from bullet hell games to create interesting obstacles for the player, and/or had dynamic patterns as the fight went on; the bosses that did this really struck a chord with me
+other than the west quadrant each other quadrant felt like they had a natural progression when figuring out where to go next and what to do. it's more linear than the zelda games it was based on no question, but it felt comfortable to be always moving forward
+exploration is virtually always rewarded, whether with upgrade currency, extra health packs, or even keys or hidden modules
-the west quadrant... wow what a terrible start to the game for me. the modules in this area were significantly more hidden than in the others, and the backtracking to comb over areas where I had already been was not fun at all
-certain aspects definitely reflect the indie game maker development of this game. what stuck out to me most were objects with incorrect priority that would hover over the drifter when they were supposed to be behind him
-boss design is a little all over the place, some seem very undercooked and trivial to take down
-didn't really care for the enemy and encounter design that much. the enemy patterns didn't feel distinctive in how they were meant to be taken down, and "difficult" encounters just consisted of throwing a bunch of enemies at you at once
-aiming the gun sucks lol. aiming in place is never worth it and even when I would move and shoot in a direction sometimes it felt like the bullets would skew
I really did not like this game initially because of the issues I mentioend with the west quadrant, but for the rest of the game I found it to be quite relaxing because of the ease of progression and pretty locales. afterwards I really felt no push to continue exploring, but for the 7 or 8 hours I spent playing it otherwise I was quite content. it's not a long game and pretty cheap, so I would absolutely recommend as a quick game to go through if you're proficient with 2d combat and looking for a solid entry in that space