Our Metal Bowl

Finished the game, 100% completion in the menu. If there's more to it, I couldn't find it. A fun little top-down exploration game. The vibes are immaculate from the drop. The puzzles are good and definitely require some out-of-the-box thinking but aren't stupid about it like some games are when they try similar things. There is combat, but it's very minimalistic - you start with 1 HP, You have a short-range spear, and your enemies also die in one hit. You have a little robot buddy who can shoot the nearest enemy once per room - but ammo is limited, so spamming it isn't advised for most of the game either. It's a good base, but unfortunately the further you go, the more frustrating it becomes. Hitboxes are WILDLY inconsistent for both you and your enemies. I was never able to get a proper feel for my range or the range of enemies, which lead to a lot of frustrating deaths. I also have to mention what I'm gonna call "Ambush Rooms" where you get jumped by a bunch of enemies and have to kill them all. Which is fine, conceptually, except where they land in the room is 100% random and they can and WILL land directly on top of you, with nothing you can do about it. These rooms also have every enemy spawn a circle of projectiles when they land - which, again, wouldn't be a big deal if the locations weren't complete RNG. Between the janky hitboxes, being unable to predict where they're going to land, and the projectiles suddenly turning it into a bullet hell, these rooms are consistently the most frustrating and least fun parts of the game, and very nearly made me stop playing. With all that said - I DID finish the game. I liked it enough to complete it 100%, after all. I think there's something here worth seeing, if you can push through it - and honestly, the issues I do have with it are things that could be polished up. Looking forward to whatever these devs make next.

敵の当たり判定がシビアなのに通路が狭過ぎる。回避してようやく通り抜けられるくらいの通路に、序盤から４体以上の敵が居る。 自機はもっさり挙動なのにホーミング弾を撃ってくる奴が居てうざい。そいつを優先的に処理したいところだが、十中八九出口付近に配置されており、道中は数体の他の敵が塞いでいる。嫌がらせとしか思えない。 特定のタイミングでしか攻撃出来ない敵は良いとして、そのタイミング以外に攻撃したらこっちがダメージを受けるのが本当に謎。敵にダメージ与えられないだけで良い。 最初のアップグレードで弾道が見えるようになるものを選択したが、弾道がうっっっすくて全然見えない。 ボス戦でも無いのに、全ての部屋が敵を全滅させるかこちらが死ぬかするまで出られない。よってとりあえず必死で回避に専念して、強化してから挑むという選択肢は無い。 何より序盤はライフが１しか無い。敵の攻撃と体当たりをすべて回避しても、一瞬のダメージ受付タイミングを逃したら死んでやり直し。それも直近の敵が居ないエリアまで戻され、クリアした部屋もやり直し。ようやくライフが２に増えたが、案の定敵の数も増えたので萎えてやめた。 デスペナルティこそ無いが、そもそも有用なアイテムが弾薬しか無い。アイテム自体は色々拾うが、何の説明も無い使途不明のものばかりで、最初こそ「何だろう？」とワクワクしたが、面倒な戦闘を終えた後だと真顔になる。 「パズルを解け」っていうからパズル系アクションゲームなのかと思ったが、パズル要素はほぼ無い。弾道に敵を揃えて一気に消せるのがパズルなのかな。あと謎のアイテムか。 雰囲気はすごく好きで期待していただけに、探索やパズルよりアクションの比重のほうが大きくてがっかり。