Catori

hello! i tried the game out and wanted to give my thoughts, here in no particular order. i hope they are of some use!

• aesthetics:
  • the game makes a good first impression! the main menu animation is charming and the graphics and music are pleasant and relaxing. i also appreciate the dynamic quality to the music.
  • the dialog sounds for the characters don't line up well with the actual dialog (it often keeps going when a line of dialog finishes), and the constant repetition makes it a bit annoying.
  • the circle beneath the player to help with platforming is good but should be darker as it's hard to see
• character control:
  • the controls are responsive, which is very important
  • however, her movement is slow and static, with no sense of momentum. this makes getting around not fun, and although the dash helps, it also makes navigation the opposite of fluid, since you're constantly speeding up and slowing down. it would be very nice if, for example, dashing into the ground could let you run for a time. if the core of this game is 3d platforming, make sure to focus on making that platforming feel as good as possible.
  • combat also feels weak. the attack animations are slow and limp, and not being able to attack in the air is frustrating. it is nice to be able to attack while moving though! if you could attack during the dash, combat would suddenly be a lot more fun, and you could make the enemies more difficult to compensate as they're very easy right now. in general i think the ability to chain together moves would be great.
  • i don't like the feeling of the camera rotating around based on my movement while i'm trying to navigate a jump. this may be subjective, though - a menu option to disable it would be good.
  • player should be able to aim in first person with the left or right control stick, not just the right one
  • it wasn't intuitive at first that the orbs your partner creates need to be activated manually. i thought just touching them would be enough
• misc
  
  • the collectibles should stand out more. since the totems are affected by the lighting system, in dark places they're practically invisible. the staff to collect for the elder also didn't stand out at all, i actually grabbed it by accident. also, make the totems more fun to collect! if you want the player to want to grab them, they should make a pleasant sound, maybe create some particles on collection, etc
  • in the second level, it's weird that the trees are covered in ladders that the player can't climb

great job on this so far - despite my criticisms it's a solid start. looking forward to seeing progress on this and best of luck to you and your team