Let's start with what I like:
The presentation is gorgeous. Art style is very unique and appealing, and animation is solid. The various visual effects applied across the game make give it some really nice charm. The soundtrack is okay; nothing special, nothing offensive.
Unfortunately, that's all I can really praise.
At first, I was going to detail everything that I don't like about the controls, but I decided to take a different approach and just elaborate on one statement: The controls aren't fun. There's no weight to the player's jump; you fall way too slowly, with no acceleration on your fall. You can fall faster by pressing down, but it still feels floaty and weightless. The shuriken attack is too weak compared to homing slice, and enemies don't feel fun to fight when you can stun them to death with the shurikens or just kill them immediately with the slice. The dash speed is way too slow, there's pretty much no point in dashing normally instead of dash jumping, unless you need the height of an upwards dash. All of this leads to controls that aren't really bad, but they don't feel quite right. It feels unremarkable, mediocre.
What kills this demo, though, is the boss. It's absolutely terrible. It's a massive difficulty spike from the rest of the game, with poorly telegraphed and downright random attacks that are ridiculously unfair. You're expected to avoid a bunch of balls doing different things at the same with no apparent pattern while still trying to keep yourself in mid-air to hit the boss. You're expected to be able to predict from which cannon the boss is going to come out of, because the boss isn't shot from the last cannon it entered and instead is shot from a random cannon for some GODDAMN REASON. The spinning ring attack is the least unfair of the bunch, until the boss comes down and starts spinning alongside the rings, forcing you to keep track of four obstacles at the same time, with one of those obstacles having a different, much faster speed than the other three.
I believe this game can be good, but honestly, I'd advise you guys to play some old-school games like Megaman X2 and especially Shinobi 3, considering the ninja themes. Try to understand what you guys like about those games, and combine those elements into an experience that feels new, yet familiar, but most importantly, make sure those elements complement each other. Try to nail the feel of the player's movement and jump physics, before anything else.
I don't quite know what to think about this game. It doesn't feel very remarkable or fun, but I can't tell exactly why
(except for the boss, it's very clearly terrible). My best guess would be that I can't get a sense of cohesion to the player's arsenal. I can't see how the shurikens complement the homing slices, I can't see how the dash complements the double jump or wall jump. It doesn't feel very focused.
I played this game for roughly 20 minutes, and I don't really quite understand what you guys were aiming for with it. Do you want to make a fast-paced platformer? A combat-focused game with platforming elements? A mixture of both? Whatever the answer is, make sure you guys make an answer, and try to find out the best way to achieve your goals.
I don't know if much of what I said here makes much sense, but I hope I could give you guys something to think about, and I hope this game gets as good as it can possibly be.
We'll try to keep improving the project and make things feel more cohesive and fitting with future updates, hopefully addressing the details you have noted.
Your feedback is very much appreciated and we are glad you had a good time with the demo overall!
Once again, thank you!