I thought this was really fun; I felt that the combat was maybe a little bit over complex and I found I generally did better by judging distances and not trying to block or position my sword than trying to counter the enemies. If there's a sekiro style blocking mechanic I didn't figure it out. I also wasn't quite sure what the elements did. These issues didn't hold it back from being very enjoyable though.

I don't really have too much experience with sword fighting games, although I did enjoy nidhogg quite a bit back in the day. I wanted the game to be a bit more responsive, and felt very restricted. I couldn't win the first fight after 3 attempts so I would say the game could be made a lot easier to protect us noobs. My rule of thumb is to cut the difficuly level roughly in half based on my own experience as a dev. I did find the game interesting and complete, so kudos!

Wow this one is great 🗡

I loved the nidhogg inspiration.
The game feels good, sounds good, and looks incredible.

Thanks for the game 💕

A wonderfully told story, a beautifully realized title screen and intriguing sword combat all tied into a neat, atmospheric package. Really well done, especially for a one man team.

Wow this is a really unique one! Super tough at first, I died against the first samurai about 10 times haha. But once I got the hang of the combat system I got through to the end, it was a very fun little story, and I really liked the 'dialogue' sprinkled in-between deaths in the story mode. Also very cool you added in a local MP!

I'm very impressed by these, it felt very cohesive and well polished. The gameplay was really nice, feeling responsive and quite challenging (or I'm just bad, either way I had a good time!).

Loved the animations and sound!

I really like your game, at start was difficult to use the controls but after was funny. Good Job

Your graphics are absolutely gorgeous! I felt the sound was a little loud, just as a heads up. My only criticism of the game itself was the difficulty of story mode- I would have liked to see some kind of penalty for getting blocked, perhaps getting knocked back or losing more stamina than just a wild swing, or an opening for the blocker to counterattack. Otherwise, the local multiplayer is fun and interesting.

I will say, though, that this game doesn't deliver super well on the theme. Respawning for finishing a level being counted as "stuck in a loop" is kind of low hanging fruit- games do that anyway. I will say including some narrative about the being keeping you coming back did save you a little bit, but I still felt it was a little light.

Now, all that being said, I'm positively amazed you accomplished this in a weekend. The pixel art is gorgeous, the gameplay is fun, and you did an amazing job. I'd be interested in seeing a post-jam version of this- It was really engaging.

Absolutely superb pixel art, and the unexpected poetry when you die in the tutorial is great for the mood. And I reckon the theme integration is actually pretty decent, if maybe quite subtle.

The menu music is very nice too, but it didn't seem to play the first time round - only after returning to the menu when I finished the game.

The swordplay is actually pretty decent once you realise that you can hold shift to block rather than timing it perfectly, so maybe this could be communicated better.

Impressive game!

Here are my feedback:

_Positive points
- Superb pixel art
- SFX are neat, it gives more juice to the hits
- Cool combat system, with some depths...

_Negative points
- ...it was hard for me to touch well the opponents in story mode, I felt that there was a sort of "input lag" when attacking
- Missing music, it would have added a nicer ambiance to the game

Overall: nice work!

Omg! This game is wonderful.

grapichs , sounds , gameplay , mood,... all aowsome

Great work. Would love to have some ambience music. Controls felt a little bit laggy. I like the art style. Solid entry

Great game! I feel therte could be more enemies, that might exporer different fighting styles, as it seems there isn't a lot of tactic involved in the fights, but I guess that's also a matter of the time constraint.