Okay, so I played the demo. I'll admit up from I have not played Hades, in fact I've only played Bastion from Supergiant.
First of all, it seems like ranged attacks is what I ended up taking the most damage from. That might just be the way I played,or it count be a sign the hit detection on them is spotty, but it seems like a future perk beyond the current damage mitigations ones would be something to deal with that, perhaps a shield since that would have better overall sync, or even just a reduction to projectile damage.
Second, combat with enemies is fine, if a bit weird feeling, but combat with bosses... there's just something off about it. I think it's not just one thing, because right now it feels like the only reliable method to kill them is to go for a single attack, back off and wait, then repeat until they die. Actually fighting them head on just quickly ends with you losing all of your health with not really a clear sign of what went wrong. Doing anything other than the primary attack feels like a complete waste and bosses seem to exit any sort of stunned state unpredictably. A lot of this might be me not being used to the dash escape, since I'm more used to an I-Frame dodge roll in these style of games, so I don't want to be that guy and just scream "ADD A DODGE
ROLL! THAT'S WHAT I'M USED TO!" but uhh, dodge roll perk planned? I could also probably work with a parry system.
Third, The AOE attack, even upgraded, feels like a complete waste of a click. Perhaps if it stunned enemies or something?
Fourth, is some kind of post-run progression planned? like slightly increases your damage/health that'll carry over even if you don't complete a run? Because I feel like the combat in it's current state is going to massively filter a lot of people if there isn't something to help them.
I might record my footage of what I mean with the current state of the boss fights, because it really doesn't feel like that should be the intended way to beat them.
While I adore that you guys made the actual game part fun, I think it's kind of catch 22 situation, as you filter people who want to just get right to the action unless you add some kind of "check this box to win instantly" option (this is why post-run progression is a good idea IMO, much more natural feeling), but the game part also has to be polished to a certain degree.
Sorry if this review comes off a bit scatterbrained/unreadable. In my head it looks clear, but reading it back makes it seem a bit messy. Hopefully my points come off clear enough.
I guess the pose would make more sense. I made the wrong assumption that losing would just mean no scene, since battling her the first time (and losing) gives you nothing. Thanks for pointing it out!
