It looks amazing (my kind of art style), the soundtrack is banging, the writing so far is pretty funny (team Alsar!) but the progression rates? Very steep curves, everywhere, slow burn, milestones for tasks and purchases are way too far apart. 100k for the first/cheapest upgrade when your first few runs only get you 800~ each? I'm going to be needing a lot of achievements for this game to keep me going, and don't get me wrong, I want it to. Yeah, once you unlock your 3rd npc it gets easier, but still. Speedrunners would love this though.

From an accessibility pov, it's kinda nice to be able to play w one hand/finger (I use the L thumbstick on my gamepad), but I do miss the option to aim for myself, as the game does not always prioritize enemies the way I'd like it to...

There're no rerolls, lock-ins, discards, or health drops, only an increasable chance to purchase a heal/th upgrade, no wave/in-between bosses, no real waves either (that I've noticed), the enemies just gradually become more numerous and advanced with time it seems. Feels like a matter of memorizing the map and praying for RNGesus. Still experimenting, but def adds to the difficulty, only slightly missing those features. I'm probably just a few stat points away from no longer feeling like I'd need that.

That said, I really like starting with the shield weapon. 4 shields w/ range & damage upgrades? Thank you for respecting my personal space x'D

Interface is not too distracting, but edging on bland. It fits the theme of the game but would like to see more personality. Like the NPCs.

The map and level design are very inviting in the sense that I keep trying to go into places/through doors that are apparently decoration only. x'D Sorry, explorer at heart. (This is not a negative, I just wish there were more, though I may simply not have unlocked anything beyond the main lobby yet. Would love confirm or otherwise from dev)

Looking forward to future QoL updates and of course, the achievements :3 (pls stagger more achievements/milestones instead of just at immense milestones, like a cookie crumb trail for my crippling addiction)

I just now wanted to respec my stats and I think I went too fast, bc the game crashed... first time as of posting.

All in all, for this price, I have no regrets, and all the hopes that this dev keeps going bc I'm feeling this, I want to know the rest of the story, get to meet more NPC, see more of the levels, weapon synergies would be cool, more/different kinds of passives.

Dev said 10ish hrs depending on luck, but I'm sure there could be a lot more *meat* to this game.

We'll see how many hrs I'll rack up eventually.

Tried for almost 2 hours to play and did everything possible to stay alive. Its just so unbalanced and easy mode is like nightmare mode if there was one. 500 enemies at full speed attack a hero that is slow as a snail, even with upgrades maxed he is slow and weak. The skills and weapons dont do enough damage as the enemies catch the hero every time. Bosses and explosions happen 2mins into the game with nothing to show in progress. Game has to lower the difficulty immensely and raise the stats of everything on the hero to be playable. Also the exp is so low and takes forever to earn you hardly level at all. Its a lose lose situation. Had to refund because the dev seems like he has never played one of these games before. Otherwise he would have made it balanced and fair, and want players to enjoy the game. The reason this genre became so big and made the dev of Vampire Survivors so much money...is because of the balance and progression. You earned things at a steady pace but enough to see big damage if you followed certain guidelines that werent overly complicated. The skills and passives and weapons felt good and rewarding. Games that have tried to mirror VS...even slightly...fail mostly because they ignore the things that are most important to players and take control out of their hands. We end up feeling desperate to live and its not fun in this game. I was shocked when I was level 5 at 3 mins in...bosses were rushing at me and 500 bugs were surrounding me. You cant dash through them or hurt them hardly at all and they catch up always. Then there are explosions all over that will kill you...even if no enemies were on the field...you get one shot by these explosions that come every second. I think the game is some sort of troll attempt because no dev who was serious would make a game that is like this. Will give dev another chance if all these are fixed and buy game again, as well as change my review to positive. Like I said I tried so hard to like it and knew I had till the 2 hour mark to get a refund so had to stop playing due to no chance of living and no progress made. Meta upgrade system is also bad and you dont get enough currency to upgrade much. BUT even if you did get tons of currency the increments at which the upgrades in the meta store are so small it doesnt do a thing for progression. If I was seeing boosts in the 50 percent range per an upgrade point in the metas....that might work for the level of difficulty on the field. But instead you get tiny tiny amounts.