New Review: After some sleep and thinking about this game, I've finally finished al the endings. The bell has tolled, the bad moon rose, I've served all the gods, slayed all the gods, and ventured into the twilight! Hehe. I loved this experience. I've been at it for hours, and it's an incredible ride. I think your strength is in giving your puzzles depth. In the library statues puzzle, I remember thinking "how do i know what order the statues go in?" and being rewarded for putting them in either forward or backwards is a really good way to remove that uncertainty.
I also loved scraping for secret passages, and always felt excited to see another new one, to uncover a shortcut. And thank you so much for the Black Ebon hint! It sure is easy to get lost in a labyrinth xD I personally felt that the eyes pointing to secret passages made it a bit too obvious. Getting the Helm of vision and being able to see everything felt like a reward for all my exploration! I understand you want your game to be more accessible though, so I'm glad I got to play the OG version XD
I think good puzzles need a delicate balance, you want things to be tricky, but not impossible. And you want the players to work hard and feel accomplished when they solve a puzzle! There are a lot of areas here that are strong in that, and it's really exciting to see such innovative puzzle games from an independent developer! I adore the combat style and upgrades to the way fights work. The Argos fight was REALLY tricky but enjoyable. It feels like I'm playing a rhythm game, and I really like playing rhythm games haha. And seeing Frank's name on the Journals!!! Wow!! That's so interesting. I can hope only that our future ends up better than the masked man's did.
Excellent work. I love seeing how you've improved from 1-Bit Explorer and I look forward to what you're up to in the future!
Old Review:
My eyes are bloodshot I'll come back to this and give you a real review tomorrow. 4.5 stars, fantastic work, very tricky, love the combat love the puzzles. Definitely needs floor clues for the block pushing puzzle, and a better tell for falling through the dark maze floor, as others have said. I've got hearing problems so I didn't realise there was a ticking noise! I think an audio cue like "you hear a timer counting down" or even "the floor beneath your feet seems weak" would work without ruining the surprise. Or even putting the hint in Journal 7, like "I hope there are no more dark mazes!" or such. I'm VERY tired. If you make another game in English I'd be happy to proofread for you if you're interested! The grammar issues are tiny, not a big deal to me, but I love your work and I'd be happy to contribute :)
Fuller review after I get some sleep ;-; I've been working on this for DAYS!
(Also... how much money do I have to give you for you to tell me where all 4 Ebon Ores are... pls... I only have 3 and i'm suffering... )