Before starting, I want to say that I WANT to like this game. It looks visually appealing to me and I'm interested by the setting. I wanna know what went wrong there and what the player character is going to have to go through to fix it.
Speaking of, I do think that with a small number of tweaks, the game could benefit greatly and become more of a skill-based game than what feels sometimes like a bag of cheap tricks (speaking about combat being so unpredictable).
The Good:
1. Shield is automatically up if you are not attacking or moving (duck to block lower. don't duck to block upper). This reminds me of Zelda 2 a lot.
2. You can also attack lower and upper areas of enemy. This provides some challenge/mix in the enemy approach and I'm sure offers some options for AI (difficult enemies could switch more often, etc)
The Bad:
1. Anticipation frames are either too short or non-existent (perhaps this was a mistake on the dev's end?). These are the animation frames that queue the player into knowing what the enemy is doing next with enough time to react. Dark Souls, for example, bakes this into every enemy, every move. Because you cannot anticipate the actions of these enemies, you cannot overcome the possibility of being damaged even with enough practice and skill... and this is really a deal-breaker for a game that's around 98% combat system. Don't believe me? Here's what I mean: In a game where the emphasis is on skill, one could easily go 30 minutes straight of watching, anticipating, and blocking the first skeleton you encounter without taking a single hit. A newbie couldn't do this, but skill could. And I don't mean weeks of skill. This should be possible as soon as you're done learning about the enemy (maybe a dozen minutes?) and are perceptive. The problem is that I don't believe this is actually possible on a consistent basis as the game currently stands.
2. You receive damage when an ememy touches you. This wouldn't be so bad if enemies weren't constantly approaching during a fight, but they are. Because of this, you are forced to either jump backwards or shove the enemy back with your shield very regularly. The shield shove isn't a bad idea - I think it's great! But making it so that I have to press this button almost as much as I press attack just feels... cheap?
3. You cannot shove with the shield when crouched. Some of you are probably thinking that this totally makes sense.. and it does. Could you imagine shoving someone from a crouched position in real life? No way. But this isn't what I'm talking about. I mean the Shove Button is DISABLED when crouched! So if you're in a pinch, you have to not only press [shove], but you also have to remember to first let go of [crouch]. This can be overcome with practice, but it seems like a design mistake: like he knows it works this way, but has been playing his own game so long, he doesn't realize this is actually not a great experience (especially for first time players yelling wtf at their screens when the moment of truth costs them another precious bar of life).
4. You start the game with 3 lives (well, +1 for the live you currently are using), but if you lose a life, you are instantly reset to the starting sword/shield. This is widly frustrating for Bad Reasons #1 & #2. I completely understand this for a roguelike, but I would NOT classify this game as a roguelike.
Recommendations
1. I think the anticipation frames should be increased... maybe start by adding 1 extra frame and see how long you can last in testing without getting hit... you are the dev, so you'd be better than anyone at this (though this is assuming that you're using a random number generator for the actions the skeleton will take next). If 1 extra frame isn't enough, then maybe try 2 or 3 and so on. If you feel like the game is too easy once you reach this point, try testing it out on someone new! You may be surprised to find that it still takes time to master and is definitely not reducing the quality of the experience.
That's my only recommendation. This kind of adjustment would mean that it's totally realistic for a skilled enough player to never die once in your game. So that takes care of Issue #4... Issue #2 will feel more like a valued mechanic than an annoyance since you don't run the risk of trying to shove right before the enemy issues a leg attack or something.
