Here we go. Title screen looks nice, but as others have said the text looks a little plain.
Okay so the first thing I want to talk about is this boat, which from what I've played so far I understand to be the save point and health point. It's a nice looking boat, but at a glance I don't know how to use this thing, or more specifically, where to use this thing. The part I'm standing at right now I can't interact with, and if I go too far to the right I'll also reach a spot where the boat is not interactable. The first few times I used it I actually wasn't sure if it was a run on contact or an interactable event because of the vagueness regarding this, and once I even ran straight past it and into the water when I wanted to save, which cost me a lot of progress. I'd recommend making how this boat works more obvious and also maybe not letting the player go past the edge of the dock, although I will take some of the blame for jumping into the water.
I've seen this issue reported before too and I can confirm that dying to the first area sucks, since you lose your ability to attack for some reason. I'm also not a fan of these spikes in the first area instantly killing me, especially when I'm just getting used to how this character controls (since you adjusted their jumping physics, at the very least).
I figure I'll just mention right away that I'm not a big fan of the combat so far. Coming to a complete stop when swinging the shovel really limits mobility when attacking, and so does not being able to swing at all in mid-air. Unless something is dead center in front of me I'm not hitting it, and if I miss I'm getting punished because there's no hope in getting out of the way in time. I can't say that it's super terrible just based on that, but something about it doesn't feel very
fun. Feels like a change of pace from cave story's combat for the sake of being a change of pace.
This is a little design choice that I like. The sign to the left tells me I can hop down through some platforms, like this bridge over the water, and I am immediately rewarded for doing so by finding a secret. It's like the game is teaching me its mechanics! But one thing I don't like about this is that it's a bit confusing in terms of hazards, since this was the first area besides the dock that I saw water I could jump into. So naturally, after finding this secret, I tried jumping into a similar looking water hole and the game rewarded me with death. Not fun. Maybe the water here could look a bit different visually so its more discernible from the deadly water?
I wish there was a way to get HP outside of using the boat, since I find myself getting hurt sometimes from the enemies and/or bosses while learning the new combat.
It's nice that getting a major treasure also gives me an extra hp point in my bar in addition to the ones that are just flat out hp upgrades, but it would be nice if this was explained the first time it happened? I didn't even notice until the 2nd time it did.
I came back up here again when re-exploring this place and I was able to pick up the mimic again. It disappears after I get it, but if I come back to the map it respawns. Also, why are there spikes down and to the left of this mimic chest, in the perfect spot so if I jump off and hold left I land on them? If you're going to make me do a blind jump off of this it'd be nice to not have to worry about instant death.
I'll never get why people love putting 1 tile wide platforms in jumping puzzles. I think they should always be at least 2 tiles wide, especially if the player needs momentum going forward on the jump off of it.
Also one thing I don't like about using the shovel is the size of the hitbox. Where it hits in front of the player is fine, but it doesn't seem to hit anything on or behind the player, not even a little bit, despite the swing visually covering that area.
I don't mind all the platforming but does it all have to be over insta-kill spikes? It's a long way back to the boat every time.
This clue doesn't actually give me a clue. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not?
Wait, there's a checkpoint here? I'm fine with this, but it would have been nice to know that I didn't have to go all the way back to the boat to save. Maybe there should be some non-boat save points, given how big these islands can be?
Oh also I was able to get this life upgrade again after coming back to the island. I think I can get it as many times as I want, actually.
So I guess I kind of got stuck here for awhile, since it's not very obvious that you should interact with this door-thing. It just looks like a weird wall to me, and there's nothing to "stand in front of" to interact with, since you normally interact with things directly behind you. Maybe this could've been a run on contact event, at least the first time you come to it after the map is loaded?
At first I thought this was a secret path due to this suspicious looking corner here leading to a place where I could get into the wall, but apparently it just leads me off the map entirely? You might want to fix whatever funky collision you have going on here.
Oh so, I guess I can just get this as many times as I want? I don't even have to leave the map and come back, every time I dig now I get a new life-thing.
Wooo I found the secret spot, this place was neat. I like secrets.
I don't think I would have found this one if I didn't ask you for a hint in the chat Noxid. Not that it's super hard to find but I thought I already found a treasure on this island. There should be a system or something that keeps track of where a treasure has been found, like maybe an exclamation point after the map name on the main map?
I like getting these boots and that shovel upgrade, but it's kind of odd for these upgrades to be just in the final dungeon? I would've liked to have these when exploring the main islands.
Oh we're fighting ganondorf now, are we?
It's a shame she only has like 1 hp, she has some neat attack patterns if you just try to avoid her for awhile.
Haha this is fun. I like this ending.
Overall it was pretty fun, asides from what I noted above. The art was all good and the music too, but the cave story enemies look slightly out of place in the game. That one music track also gets a bit boring after awhile, since it's used on ALL the major islands, but otherwise it's all good.
