Suggestion

[Falex]

-The visual clutter needs to be toned down. The UI occupies too much space on the screen and moves FAR too much. This can be quite distracting (also headache inducing) and as such, damaging to the active gameplay. I suggest removing the vibrating horizontal lines -depicting the trajectory of the "notes"- and the moving black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, as they don't really add anything to the experience. Also, the pulsating heart is a nice addition but the black health-bar, underneath it, should stay still (it's difficult to read it properly if it's constantly moving). Basically, what I'm saying is that the UI shouldn't move MORE than the notes.

-The default sound for hitting the notes is a bit too "distinct" and interferes with the melody.

-The circle closing in on the "notes" and the change in color are quite helpful but it's also damaging the visual aesthetic of the mobs. Maybe have the "encircling" occur on the white circles -the ones on the vertical line-, see if it fits better.

-I feel like the secondary character (blue hair) should get an idle animation during the rhythm-game section.

-It might be a good idea to have multiple size options for the UI (score, multiplier etc)

-The popup announcing the shift in direction isn't really indicative of what's going to happen. Maybe an arrow at the edge of the screen might be more fitting and less obstructive.

-The directional input is a bit weird since the visual indicators (upper circle and lower circle) are on a vertical line and the input methods (D-pad/face buttons or keys) are placed "more horizontally". Keyboard rebinding option is very much necessary.

Apart from that, the game seems decent enough. I'm quite curious to see the full experience.

[Solidus]

I greatly agree with the visual clutter suggestion. Even with all the additional effects turned off there's still a lot of extra motion in the UI that distracts me from cleanly making out the notes, not quite unplayable but frustrating none the less. It makes me want to only play on an ultrawide monitor that I don't have just so I have more time to see the notes. The shifts between sides should also happen sooner and faster, the "up next" indicator doesn't help at all for actually preparing to hit the next note.

[Green]

I totally agree. The visual clutter made my brain hurt after a while.

Even when I found myself hyper focusing at the game, putting too much time into a piece would find my eyes confused and wobbling and eventually I'd have to take a break and come back later. Perhaps the colors of the game is to blame also: very intense saturated colors, plus a high speed, plus the aforementioned white lines, black bars, and health bar make for a very chaotic game play experience (not in a good way.)

Oddly I appreciate visual clutter in video games at times though. I appreciate the adrenaline that the game gives when you're unable to absorb all the information thrown at you, so I want to suggest that instead of making the visual clutter a constant streamline part of the game perhaps you can incorporate it into the rhythm of the songs. Maybe the scene could change after hitting the chorus: a train passes by, the sun starts setting, maybe even the band mates start levitating or something. Out of pocket stuff like that would feel so much more fluid and would add a lot more impact to not only the game play, but also the song as this imagery could really hone in on the story of the game.

Speaking of scenery where's my waifu-blue-haired girl?! She's got no idle animation!! Not only that, but the other band mates feel like filler as they don't really do anything. Not saying that they have to be a function of the game, but maybe they can have animations during specific sections of songs: like when the screen centers the protagonist in the middle of the screen, every character can take a position on each corner of the play area! Now the band mates have a role to play other than just jamming out in the background!

To be honest, I didn't even recognize that black bar at the top was a health bar until I noticed it read "heartbreak." The imagery of it isn't really helpful to the allusion of a health bar so I found difficulty in recognizing it's purpose. Kind of a confusing function of the game, for a quarter of my playtime I was in assumption that you fail a piece when you dip below 60% accuracy.

On the other hand, I appreciate the sound effect of landing the notes. It's very satisfying, and it's a good sensory indicator to whether you're off beat or not. Maybe for customization purposes you could include a setting to allow users to tweak the sound of the auditory que? I feel like that's a decent compromise.

Keybinding for me wasn't necessary, I found "J/K" to work really well for my play style. I don't speak for everyone tho. Finding the settings for songs was really annoying, it felt hidden under the cassette tape. Perhaps some visual indicator would've made things easier for me. Not only that, but I wish I could tweak my song settings mid-set, it would make practice wayyy more easier instead of having to quit the song, go back to menu, click play, scroll to the song, select the difficulty, tweak the settings, then play. Such a jog just to slow down the song a little bit.

YOU GUYS ARE DOING SO ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ GOOD, I'M SO EXCITED FOR THE FULL RELEASE!!

[Hawthorne]

Was just going to make a thread, and honestly still tempted to due to how important this issue is.

Despite immediately turning the VHS effects off, the gameplay still look hugely noisy/messy.

I really am interested in the game, so I hope this can be fixed! :)

but yeah, please take this feedback to heart.

[龍 Chi Xu]

Visual stuff like that will take a lot of different tweaking and adjustments over time, as well as expanding our options to include more toggles and the like. We hear y'all - this is a really core aspect of the game and is something we'll be regularly monitoring and trying to improve on leading up to the game release (good thing we've got this [white label] thing out to test it upfront haha)