heya, i'm a little late to the party but i wanted to weigh in a bit. i think the art style, music, and overall design are very solid with the main weakness being the gameplay / feel. so i'm going to be a negative nancy and focus on that (sorry!).
the movement is okay. it's certainly on the floater side, which isn't necessarily bad, but i feel it's a bit sluggish. i think ways to move faster in both axises would be good. maybe being able to fast fall by holding down in the air, and some sort of way to travel faster on the ground like a dash or run, or even even just a small lurch forward when you attack as an extra movement option.
also, maybe consider extending the jump buffer. might just be a skill issue but it felt like the game was dropping some jump inputs at times.
EDIT: i noticed after writing this there's a dash in the trailer, good!!!!!!!!!!!!
i think the combat plays pretty good and i enjoyed the worm boss, but it feels a bit weightless. i can't quite put my finger on it, but compared to hollow knight which has similar combat, the hits don't feel nearly as powerful. i think some combination of adjustments to sound effects, particles, and hit stop could help with this.
while i think it's good for the first area, the combat is rather simple and i think it would really need to ramp up in complexity for future areas. if there's only a moderate amount of development throughout the game, i think i would get bored of it.
the seed system is a really cool idea, but i feel in the game currently the execution isn't that great. the effects don't feel game changing enough to really affect how you play that much. i think making them more impactful, with perhaps even some modification to the basic movement / sword strikes depending on what seed you have might be good.
also, i feel it might be good to provide an incentive to switch seeds, such as perhaps limited uses, or maybe when you drop one it's destroyed and unleashes a powerful attack. when i played, i kinda just found one i liked and stuck with it, which isn't ideal
i think botanica has a lot of potential, it just feels a bit one-note. but despite that, i enjoyed playing it overall (the orchestra in the silk woods was <3), and i'm looking forward to the final game.
i hope the best for you and second fiddle, genuinely :)
While the style of the game is adorable in more than one sense and the comedy is quite okay (with the exception of the buster sword plant, that was pretty good), it unfortunately lost me by the worm boss fight.
This is due to the game being quite slow up until that point and not really doing anything or grabbing my attention in any way, and the only thing that really kept it going was maybe a slightly interesting plot and the chance of a bust-my-gut joke. Salt on the wound was the need to restart from the very start of the boss level (which is just unnecessary) and the quite poor hitbox of the worm making dodging his attacks only possible if you hug the shit outta him and hold jump (this is only if there isn't some dodge move that I'm missing, I don't think I missed anything in the tutorial).
So, in conclusion, the art and style carries it, the comedy could be better to make it more worth it, and the gameplay really really needs some spice. Since it is only an okay game as it is, but filled with potential and the ability to exploit the attention grabbed by its charm.
Thanks for the detailed feedback, we're planning on reworking a lot of things in its final release. I felt the worm boss was relatively balanced as there isn't that much restriction in mobility; you can move away from the worm and if he's closing in you are able to jump over him and move away. That being said hitboxes are an issue right now and I am currently working on improving them. Restarting as well I felt was generally fine as the path to the boss itself is very short and there are no enemies to worry about leading up to it.
We'll be working much more on content and picking up the pace. Thanks for the feedback once again.
To elaborate, the attacks are just a bit too fast and wide that either doesn't allow for said dodging or doesn't telegram (at least to me) that dodging is possible.
And, you said it best, if the rest of the level is unnotable then, for lack of better words, save me time.
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
heya, i'm a little late to the party but i wanted to weigh in a bit. i think the art style, music, and overall design are very solid with the main weakness being the gameplay / feel. so i'm going to be a negative nancy and focus on that (sorry!).
i think botanica has a lot of potential, it just feels a bit one-note. but despite that, i enjoyed playing it overall (the orchestra in the silk woods was <3), and i'm looking forward to the final game.
i hope the best for you and second fiddle, genuinely :)
While the style of the game is adorable in more than one sense and the comedy is quite okay (with the exception of the buster sword plant, that was pretty good), it unfortunately lost me by the worm boss fight.
This is due to the game being quite slow up until that point and not really doing anything or grabbing my attention in any way, and the only thing that really kept it going was maybe a slightly interesting plot and the chance of a bust-my-gut joke.
Salt on the wound was the need to restart from the very start of the boss level (which is just unnecessary) and the quite poor hitbox of the worm making dodging his attacks only possible if you hug the shit outta him and hold jump (this is only if there isn't some dodge move that I'm missing, I don't think I missed anything in the tutorial).
So, in conclusion, the art and style carries it, the comedy could be better to make it more worth it, and the gameplay really really needs some spice.
Since it is only an okay game as it is, but filled with potential and the ability to exploit the attention grabbed by its charm.
Thanks for the detailed feedback, we're planning on reworking a lot of things in its final release. I felt the worm boss was relatively balanced as there isn't that much restriction in mobility; you can move away from the worm and if he's closing in you are able to jump over him and move away. That being said hitboxes are an issue right now and I am currently working on improving them. Restarting as well I felt was generally fine as the path to the boss itself is very short and there are no enemies to worry about leading up to it.
We'll be working much more on content and picking up the pace. Thanks for the feedback once again.
To elaborate, the attacks are just a bit too fast and wide that either doesn't allow for said dodging or doesn't telegram (at least to me) that dodging is possible.
And, you said it best, if the rest of the level is unnotable then, for lack of better words, save me time.