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Starbuster 2021 demo

This game is just as good if not better than last year!

pros;
-cassie's portrait art in the char select may have changed and she looks way better now!
-jounal reports now add extra lore yeah!
-enemies have alternative ways to die [sliced with sword or exloded by gun wound
-damn alpha must have some reactor to break out of a containment centre and kill 2 minibosses
-upwards slash mod is awesome
-that ending cutscene is still hype
-cassie's stage before mission 0 song is best song
-cassies ledge grabing gives me smash flashbacks

cons;
-after stage 1; your timeslow mechanic is gone. was that delberate from the reactor overload or a glitch?
-people are mean to cassie, someone hug her
-leaving a jounal entry is the same button as abillity but thats minior
-it's almost the same build as last years but I'm cool with that!

glitches;
-glitch 1; some journal reports help scroll downwards but there's a large amount of blank space
-glitch 2; in cassie's 2nd stage, talking to the guard before opening the door saying 'as i said it's your funeral' I've never met this guard before lmao
-glitch 3; if cassie grapples an enemy near a ledge cassie will stage on the ledge until she jumps
-glitch 4; if cassie talks to someone and an enemy comes by, she'll get hit but still be in dialogue. maybe give her invincibillity while talking?

I really hope to see some more of the relationship between cassie and alpha grow and see more of that character in the ending cutscene.
I have a strong hunch this ending character may be playable after finishing the full game hmmmmm?

but anyways you guys did a bang up job and I wish you guys the best of luck on this game's development!
Proto
Proto
The timeslow dissappearing is actually a plot point. Though if you look carefully enough you might find a better version somewhere.

Every time Cassie causes technical issues I create another NPC to bully her. She knows what she did.
Fun, but there's a pretty stark difference to me in how well Alpha plays versus Cassie. Alpha flows incredibly well and aside from a few troll-ish enemies it's hard to break that flow. With Cassie, at least when using a controller, her grapple feels kind of awkward and weird to control, and as such makes it hard to gain momentum as her. It's really easy to lose that momentum too. I'm not unwilling to say I might just be bad at the game, but it took me a while to break through the glass in her intro level.

I might just be used to how Axiom Verge 2's grapple works, but maybe Cassie would flow better if hers worked a bit like that - press to launch the grapple and if it latches onto something, it pulls you rapidly towards it till you let go. Alternatively, if you wanted to keep the current way the grapple works, maybe tapping the grapple button will pull you, while holding it will let you swing?

Either way, I'd heavily recommend adding some kind of axial deadzone for the controller's right stick to help the crosshairs snap to horizontal, vertical and diagonal axes. I think this would help the issue too without changing the current vision for her grapple, and also make it a little easier to aim Cassie's gun while using a controller.

So yeah, again - the game's fun, but Alpha just feels better to control to me.
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