Had a really great time with the progression up until the point where the game ramps up the amount of obstacles/ruins in the levels. Which is a deliberate design choice that works well in the normal run of play, but becomes a huge hassle in the boss fights at the end of each run. When these kick off, a circular fence pops up around you wherever you are at when the predetermined time limit runs out, creating an instant boss arena. The problem is that any physical obstacles within the circle don't despawn as this happens, which means your options for dodging and kiting can become extremely curtailed, depending on your position when that fence is raised around you. You could make the argument that making sure to be in an open space at the end of the run is a reasonable demand to make of the player, but given how hectic and chock full of enemies the screen tends to be at that point in the run, I don't think I can give the developers the benefit of the doubt on this one. Especially in the challenge levels that make Spirit Hunters stand out against other games in the auto-shooter survival genre (think Vampire Survivors), it feels deeply unfair to get to the end of a run, having managed to put together the required build, only to lose to the boss because there simply wasn't enough room to avoid the adds. This wouldn't be as much of a problem in a normal run, where your DPS is usually ridiculous enough by the end to kill the boss in seconds, but the challenge runs by design will limit your damage input to the point where boss fights become longer and more challenging. Losing these runs because half of the boss arena was filled with a giant monster rib feels super bad, and unintentionally so.

I'm not going to leave a thumbs down review, because I know how much that hurts discoverability on Steam – I honestly think the developers made a pretty kick-ass game – I just hope the team takes a second look at this aspect of the game, because I'd love to come back to it some day. Spirit Hunters does so many smart things to stand out in a very crowded field. It's just not enough to entice me to work around such a dubious design decision (or oversight, I really have no idea whether it's intentional or not, which makes it even more aggravating).