Wow! Your atmosphere and gameplay are so well done. An awesome take on the theme that left me thinking "why didn't we think of that?" If the game does a little more to mix up the formula from attempt to attempt, you could definitely work to move this into a complete game. Nice job!

@aasimow thank you so much, glad you enjoyed!

Great art, great music, great dialog! The controls were *just* sluggish enough that it felt like I was really playing as a big boss. Great work! :smile:

I love the atmosphere, art, and general style of this game. It is very pleasing to look at, and the animation really kicks it up to eleven! Nice work!

This game is really entertaining and I loved everything about it! The fact you have multiple phases that unlock stronger attacks (while also making the music more intense) and the level up screen giving visual feedback through the player's stats is genius. The only real feedback I have is that the combat is not too engaging, but I didn't mind too much because it adds to the feeling of the player being weak/bad at the game. I think this is one of those games that I'm going to be thinking about for a long time.

I'm... legitimately impressed. You actually displayed a dialogue that shows people bonding over simply talking things out. The line "can you ask her to give me a raise?" at the end shows not only a newfound trust in Paige, but an acceptance that maybe this Empress isn't the best for him.

The supplementary lore doesn't make sense to anyone who hasn't read your entire body of work, but it doesn't really matter to these two characters, as it provides a topic of conversation to build trust over.

Plus the premise of the gameplay was interesting. I didn't think you had it in you.

Surprisingly, the feeling of playing a boss is very accurate。

Aaaahh. That was cool, I wanna end all story, but I died after 15th level.. So bad I am not good in fightings, the plot is too breathtaking for me

And should mention artstyle and music. Beautiful

I can only notice that the game is a little slow for me

Ok, this is it. The one game from a game jam that will just stick in my brain for weeks, and I'm gonna run around and tell everyone about it and think about the concept and wish I could have more of this story in some form to learn more about the world and the characters. This is just too good, couldn't set it aside until I finished it. Thank you :)

That was interesting twist to the theme! Gorgeous art and really well made game. Only negative thing I can say is that gameplay felt bit too repetitive. Gave you follow on itch so I can see what you will publish next!

@sapazu thanks! yeah that was something i struggled with a bit, thought that introducing new abilities for the "player" as they levelled up would spice things up a bit but unfortunately it didn't by much

I loved the story but died before I could finish (at least I think so?) and unfortunately the gameplay was a bit too repetitive to replay all the way from the beginning again. With a continue option this would be GOTY for me!

this game is beyond awesome. i loved the story line you built around a really solid game. superb!

Paige vs Xora, an epic battle which will be remembered for generations.
.... let's hope Paige doesn't forget to ask Empress to give Xora a raise.

Ahem, back to game, this reversed role is awesome. Glad to know that Xora could vary his/her magic attack allowing different tactics against Paige.

Loved this game

The gradually fleshed out dynamic between the two, from knowing that eventually the hero was gonna win to the two becoming frenemies was done perfectly.
Great job :)

Wow the art in this game is crazy, very good choice of colors, the music is also very good, I really enjoy the 'plot twist' and the gameplay was fun, just one thing, the movement was quite erratic at times , but overall it's a very good game, good job!

The game is really cool
It's incredible, that this amount of work was done in that small period of time! Big kudos

Thank you for this beautiful game! This was so awesome, in every regard. The music is perfect, the sounds are awesome, especially the starting sound, when the big guy raises his sword. Reminded me of Crawl, which i adore. The art style is suberb. It fits the mood and is very satisfying with all those animations. The idea itself is very good, too. I like how you fit the delay the inevitable into such a delightful fighting game and with such a captivating story. For me, the fighting wasn't repetitive at all, since the tactics and difficulty and thus pace of a fighting round changed with every level. Giving the characters such a beautifully told background story made me to not wanting to stop and i was actually sad when I (the big guy) died. So ... many words from me, in trying to tell you how much(!) i enjoyed the game. Very well done. For me, the best game in the jam so far.

One more thing: Please update the game with a story mode later. I want to see, how the relationship between the two evolves, without worrying about being killed by Paige.

Good things:
Very cool and interesting reverse concept. The animations of the boss (us) is on point and the total aesthetics are very very eye-pleasing! Also, I like how it gets progressively harder.
Sound effects are really nice, music was just okay. It's impressive that you managed to pull off a decent boss fight on a 72 hours timeline. Congrats!!

Bad things:
The responsiveness is not that good unfortunately. I understand that one action has to end in order to begin a new one, but I think it takes way too long to give you access on your next move. Sometimes controls don't response (especially on left-right movements) even when there was no action before. Small tweak will make the game way more enjoyable!
Too many dialogues :P Providing dialogues at the start of every combat makes sense and it's funny at first. After a while though, I ended up skipping them because I wanted to play, so it's a pity that your writing work has to be skipped because of the game's repeatability. The skip option is always good though, so it's a minor issue.

Overall, great submission, fun game and has a lot of potential! I enjoyed playing it, keep it on!

Amazing concept. Reminds me of Hades in all the right ways lol. The writing could have been better in a few lines, though that's just a nitpick since the overall strength of the writing of the characters is great. I loved how you really nailed the feel of the boss, how his attacks had some delay between them and the weight of all his actions. Also loved the fact that you have different phases lol. Another cool thing was how the camera was actually centered around the player. Really emphasising how you're the boss. And of course, the art and audio are fitting and great ( SPOLIER : Loved how the colour of the words being said was different to reflect which character is speaking at certain times ). A phenomenal entry and probably one of the best of the jam. Amazing work on this. I honestly have no complaints

The idea behind this game is awesome and the conversation between the two is also really cool. Love it!

Love the art style. Was pleasantly surprised that you play as the boss. Very innovative!

Pretty original idea. Lots of humor, good music and art.

This was a beautiful game, a real unique take on the theme that I enjoyed. I've always wanted to be a dungeon boss! I had a huge grin the entire time, bravo.

I love big bosses! But I don't often get to play for them! Thanks a lot!)

Excellent complete package. Not sure how much further the relationship can go, I last managed to have a chat with ~~redacted~~ the hero at level 15. Nice work.

I really enjoyed this made it to level 14 I think. Tried my best to beat Paige but died :,( I enjoyed the small conversations. The fighting felt good as well, although I wasn't great at telling the attack cooldowns of the boss. I did learn some attack patterns to use when Paige does specific things.

Really, REALLY well done. I hope more people play and leave ratings.

What a cute game! Playing as the boss is a great concept, implemented very well. The dialogues were well written and made this a narrative, emotional, very human game. Great take of the theme too!

you do a great job of making the player want to kill the player over and over

So cool, absolutely loved the aesthetic and sound FX.

You have a really good, distinct art style. Instantly recognized you from a post on reddit about one of your bigger projects. For constructive criticism I really have to agree with the comments about the responsiveness, the cutscenes are so juicy that when it gets to combat it feels slow and clunky

I like the theme very much. The art is great and the intro to the game was cool! Having the dialogue change was a good touch too. Having the hero grow every time was great. Also having the boss grow with each HP phase was great polish. The combat was probably the weakest element. Maybe having a visible cooldown for the skills and being able to move/turn around right after attacking would help the combat feel less clunky. Great work.

The progression of dialogue and relationship between the boss and hero were definitely the highlight of the game. It's certainly not something you see terribly often, and even more so from the boss' perspective. That meant there was good opportunity to throw in some novel dialogue and you delivered there.

There was good combat depth for the amount of controls you gave the player. I hadn't expected jump and magic to be wielded in several ways but the game system ended up allowing for that.

I LOVED that game ! I wish I would have been that inspired by the theme, such a cool take on it !
I was aiming for level 20 but got killed at 19

Great game! Amazing dialogue, great art and sound. Very impressive entry!

Really incredible compelling entry! Found it because somebody covered it on youtube! Congrats! I liked the simple loop that really lent itself to the story and theme. I particularly liked how Xora mentions he can direct the magic, which made me realize there were different moves available and made me more effective. Cool little piece of midgame tutorializing that, really slick.

Awesome job! The dialogue was engaging and the whole vibe of repetitive boss battles was captured perfectly. Thanks for this one!

Great concept ! The story is fun and the art is pretty cool, however the combats aren't much fun and get a bit tedious, you end up being impatient of the gameplay bit being over to see the next cut scene. Went to level 15 and I don't have the patience to try again to see where the story goes after that (especially since it doesn't fill like I can get good at the game, it feels like it boils down to getting lucky and get a round where the hero doesn't feel like attacking), but it was definetely going in an interesting direction

Wow, this game was truly awesome. The mood, the setting, the CHARACTER PROGRESSION. I was amazed overall with the presentation and the spin that you made in Delaying the Invetable is very innovative, going from the use of the boss to the dialog. I think that makes us think more about the person that we are fighting and I would love to see this implementation in more games, none only to idle taunt the character but to embrace what makes them different and form a relationship.
I love that when I was in low health the music and the attacks changed, it sure makes you feel like a Boss(no pun intended).
I died at level 15 and I feel that Paige really learn something from Xora. Maybe in a future game, I would love to see an alternative in which both Paige and Xora fight the Empress. Overall a Must Play on this Ludum.

Wow, I'm super invested on the narrative and the characters knowing each other over time. Loved the aesthetics and the script, the gameplay is ok, but the really important part of the game is the narrative and the characters.


Super great entry, loved it.

Absolutely fantastic and pretty much amazing in every way. The gameplay is fun for the first few minutes of the game, but can feel slow or lacking at times. The story and art on the other hand, are completely amazing. I found myself super invested in the relationship between Paige and Xoramir, and loved the worldbuilding elements that get sprinkled in over time. Great job.

Very cool game you made here my guy I love it.
Gameplay
https://youtu.be/h7PkP9LaTcw

Love the graphics and story!

I only realized at the end that I could do different types of magic.

I'm guessing the "slowness" was intentional, being that I am a giant boss.

The one complaint I would have is that the camera seems to move with the hero, rather than with my character. A bit jarring at times when I am pushed offscreen.

Great game! My only concern is that I found the main loop of the game quite long with the boss being pretty slow and hard to control. The pixel art is great and I love the music! I really enjoyed to follow the evolution of the relationship between the two protagonists, well done!

That is a great entry. I love the intro music to the battle it gives me power. I wish the difficulty level would increase a bit faster.

Amazing game! Best use of the theme I've seen so far, so innovative!

this is by far my favorite LD50 game. i think you took a very uninspiring theme and made something wonderful, playing as a dark souls boss! i love the visuals, character design, and game design. especially that the boss even has three phases! having the ranged attack become more powerful over time was such a cool touch.

i found the melee attack to be very unreliable, rarely actually making contact. it seemed to me like it never hit all the way to the ground. also, it was a bit unintuitive at first that i couldn't turn around without jumping or attacking. i guess it makes sense, because i might want to backup without turning my back on paige, but i found myself several times wishing i could turn around right away, and paige was going back and forth so it was hard to stay facing her. but, i suppose that's pretty common behavior / strategy for a dark souls boss, so i guess its quite fitting!

i made it to level 16. at that point, it seemed like there wasn't any more unique dialogue, so i just let paige kill me without doing anything. that was actually a pretty interesting experience. as i just sat there, so did paige, for like 30 seconds. then she attacked me a few times, and then just sat there again. in the end, it took her quite a while to defeat me, with a few pokes in between long periods of just standing there doing nothing. it was rather emotional experience, it felt like in the end, she didn't really want to kill me, and i didn't want to kill her. i don't know if this was intentional or not, but it was very moving.

i found that my best strategy was backing myself into the right hand wall and use ranged attacks. paige didn't seem to do very well with that, it seemed like she was pretty confused about where to find and attack me:

thank you so much for such a wonderful game!

That was interesting twist to the theme!

good

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