I didn't enjoy the game, but I still liked the cutscenes and the animation on the character, so if you can work more on level design specifically, as well as improving the feel of the combat, it could drastically change how it feels.
The main problem is that these stages are too big, flat, and repetitive - like a big box with sporadic platforming, so I don't get a good sense of level layout, it's just a lot of space to cover. Now, the very last area (the mansion), feels a bit better because it's more of a room-to-room zone, so you could start with that, but also, I think you want to zoom in a bit closer on the character, as well as having shorter platforming range with more platforming challenges. What I am trying to say, try to think of a level design where every room presents some kind of unique layout or challenge, if it's just big open area, you do not get much enjoyment out of navigating it. Also, I didn't think the stages had much personality to them, you did put like a lightning effect in the window, but thematically the town and the forest didn't feel like they belonged in the game. So overall, I would say make smaller stages, focus more on second-to-second platforming, and zoom in closer on the character, add more detail to the levels if you can.
Another thing I didn't like is that for some reason you wanted to have a lot of enemies that the character can't kill, I assume she just does not want to hurt innocent animals, but it's not satisfying for a game to have enemies that you can't damage properly, so maybe next time replace the enemies with something like those werewolves in the end, something she is not afraid to damage. On that note, hitting things in the game didn't feel good, you might want to add a more prominent sound effect for her attacks, as well as having a better indication of enemies taking damage. The sprites on the enemies often felt too large or too small, it would feel better if you could keep them somewhat relative to the character. In general, when you hit enemies you want it to feel chunky, it kinda feels like you hit bags of air here, maybe if the attacks would stagger on hit it would be better.
The platforming was a bit floaty but I didn't mind it too much, you can even use the reverse dash as a triple jump which I found pretty useful. I still felt like the game could have used another form of mobility, anything else you can add to the traditional double jump always makes it fun, maybe a slide or air stomp. You could even add a bit more depth to her attacks, instead of having just a ranged projectile, give her a few different ranged sub-weapons, and you could hide those around the level which will help you with making level design more interesting.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
(+) Maybe a guilty pleasure, but I liked the cutscenes.
(+) I assume the sprite is original to the game, the level design feels so generic it's hard to say. But I liked the animation on the character, if you could zoom in on her more and have more compact level design it will feel and look better.
(+) A few of the songs felt a bit out of place, but I liked 2 of them a lot.
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
The biggest thing, try to make smaller rooms instead of one big open area, and focus on platforming challenge or platforming navigation, the game might benefit if you zoom in more, perhaps make her jumps shorter, but make a denser platforming section. You could try adding a few sub-weapons and hide them around the level to make exploration better.
(for the zoom, if you want to check out Kaze and the Wild Masks, see how far the camera is from the character, and work within that range, it's too far here, and the platforming challenges are too far apart)
Make it more enjoyable to hit enemies, make sure you have sound effects for all attacks, as well as make a good impact feel when you hit or kill something, none of that immortal enemy crap. Try to keep the enemy sprites somewhat relative to the character, too many small enemies.
Add a bit more depth to the movement tech and design the platforming around it, something like a slide or dive kick. On a side note, maybe to make the enemies more useful, you could give her some energy weapon that would charge from kills or something, just an idea.
[b] Overall Thoughts: 4/10 [/b]
Since you mentioned C&D, I would recommend taking one of those classic games and just mimicking the general stage scale and format and then making it yours, you need to make smaller stages with more content in them, not big stages with boring sections. Honestly, platformers are 80% level design, and every screen that you navigate should feel like it has a purpose and a challenge. The cutscenes and the character sprite were nice, but everything else was underwhelming (love that trailer song though).
[code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
