## Graphics

The graphics look very impressive. I love the occasional cutscenes/images that appear in important moments. You could make the grass and tries slightly less saturated to make it easier to distinguish enemies and walls in the level.

## Sound

Very minimalistic, but when it's used, it fits the situation very well.

## Difficulty

I could not even get past the first forest. The second blue guy just always kills me!

## Overall

Great game! I like the story and the gameplay. I just didn't see much of the game because of hard enemies.

oufff this game is too hard for me. looks great tho, and i really dig the story telling through images like that. i dig how helpless you feel when down on 1 health, since you can't save, so it feels like you're just desperately scouting what's to come, hoping to do better on your next try.
a bit frustrating at times tho, the floating enemies that shoot bullets all around them very early on took me a good handful of tries to get past haha.

As others said the game is a bit too hard. The cutscene art is beautiful but it should be skippable because of the amount of times you respawn. Also I think the game needs a more intuitive way to explain the mechanics. Really loved the art and feel of the world, good job!

Look very good, very difficult: the second mage in the forest feel impossible to pass.

Yeah the second mage is hell. I would find it perhaps more enticing if the cutscene didn't happen every dang time I went to the enemies, but only once.

Nice game,but very hard.I barely managed getting out of the forest.But the art is nice,would be better if more sound and music were added.

This is probably my favorite game of the jam. Super difficult but simple. Great job!

Wow, best story-telling I've seen until now in LD44! Hard but the cutscene make this really rewarding.

Well if that wasn't the hardest game of the Jam so far. But it was a good one! I got angry while playing this game, and thought that the game is unfair, but in the end i think that that's a good thing. It took me the advertised 20 minutes to get through it.
But in the end I had a good time and that's what counts.

If I had one wish I would with for music, something to round off the general feeling you are setting.

Great Job!

Love the pixelated storyboards, really heightens the game. Neato.

@pvp i added some hints to the itchio page. the seccond mage is easier to pass if you bait him, running back to safety so that he follows, and then run past.

It is very beautiful and i like this game but it is difficult.

Hi! I played this game during my livestream today. You can find the video here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/418104572?t=00h58m17s

REALLY impressive artwork and when you said this was hard, you weren't lying :smile:

@syrapt0r why thank you! i'll have a look see :D

edit: i watched the clip. thanks again! it was very enjoyable. you almost made it to the end too! :D hope you enjoyed it as well.

absolutely my favorite. good game. fun and difficult.

Great game, love the challenge. The cutscene art is fantastic as well!

Nice entry. Quite challenging

This is a great game! Looks amazing, especially the cutscenes. The story is simple but uncommon and intriguing. Gameplay is challenging but fun. The only problem is that the character sometimes can't fit into a narrow hallway and you get stuck, which is really frustrating. Other than that I loved playing it. Sound is sparse, but the effects fit. Only thing I'd add is some ambient or soundtrack for the mood. This is the best game I've ever seen on a jam.

Darn, these bushes are hypnotic. X_X

As it was mentioned, narrow halways and cutscenes make a gameplay slightly annoying. Also, I found it tricky to trace enemies' walk patterns, are they just wondering around in random directions?

Esthetic-wise the game is beautiful. Nice pixel art skill you've got! =)

As you've noted, this game is HARD! I couldn't get passed the second forest. It is super pretty though, the cutscenes and animations, it's all so coherent, really impressive.

From a usability stand point it would be nice if you could skip / shorten the cutscenes once you've seen them. I died a lot, and waited at each cutscene a lot. I also couldn't work out how to quit the game. Had to force quit.

What did the rock before the water that shows a heart do? It didn't give me any more health, and it didn't act as a save point, which would've been helpful. I don't think save points would make the game less difficult, just less punishing.

Considering everything this is quite excellent. The best I've played!

@fazz that was a save point, but you need to spend a heart to save. if you only have one heart, the game doesnt letyou kill yourself to save :)

@bwalter - oh right! That makes perfect sense. I got a little confused at the start as the stone there does cost you a heart but when you respawn you can pick up the red circle again and get back to 4 lives.

Great game!

The idea is nice. The terrain need refinement though. Sometime opening ground would block me.

I enjoyed the graphics and the general feel of the game. Very impressive for a Compo game.

Captivating story and great visuals! Narrow paths where a pain (horizontal paths on the dock area when getting the skull) Apart from that, solid entry!

Cool game, liked the art style. It was really difficult though and I feel like stuff should've been explained in the beginning. Enjoyed it nonetheless.

i thought the implementation of the theme was really smart, and how you put that into a game was really well done! great work!

A really visually stunning game! The execution of the topic and storytelling were superb. The lack of any tutorial /dialogue for me wasn't an issue - because the core was simple enough to figure out myself. However I have some remarks about what should be changed. Firstly and most importantly - fix the collision detection. Either snap the player to the absolute grid values (as your whole game is based around the grid) or make more space to move in. Trying to fit in the pixel-perfect spaces made this game not hard, but frustrating. And that's never a good thing - especially if you're throwing around dozens of enemies. Also - the full randomness of the standard roaming enemy was the second source of frustration. I think you should either decrease their number or make them more predictable by level design - as I found myself waiting for them to line up just perfectly before I could progress. Lastly - I'm not a big fan of ultra-low-pixel art but your graphics (especially these story screens) made me appreciate this form of art a little bit more. However, the idea to make the grass and trees wave a little bit just made my eyes hurt, because it caused these nasty pixel seams on the sprites. I think you should either try to apply some filtering to this waving effect or get rid of it completely. Okay, that's enough, I really like this game and if it wasn't as frustrating as it is now, it would easily fit in my top 3 jam games so far. Anyways, keep up the great work!

Really like the depth add by cutscenes, I would have liked to finish it but the game is too hard for me !

Beautiful art, but how do I get past this enemy. It was also not clear to me that the stone with the x is a checkpoint and that you can choose to sacrifice a heart in order to use it. I also think that you show the screensize art for too long, disrupting the flow of the game.


@mika-la-grand that enemy needs to be baited away from his post. he will follow you if you run away.

Your art is really incredible, and with some tuning on the difficulty you could have an awesome game! I have one question: what's the use of the skull we can find on the docks? I wasn't able to go really farther than that zone, so maybe it's useful later and I haven't seen it ^^

@reality-blind there are two skulls needed to unlock a door in that section of the forest :)

Nice art (especially the "cutscenes") and a pretty fun challenge. I got a bit frustrated occasionally but I managed to win.

Love the art and it is really amazing how you were able to display so much things. The atmosphere really got me and truth is that it can be hard, however it serves it's purpose well and in my opinion everything works really well! Great Job!