Dandara Trials of Fear Edition 12+

This game is by far one of the two best mobile games I have ever played, along with MO: Astray. It has smooth as butter controls, genius fast travel and an immensely various flavour of enemies. The bosses as well are incredibly well done, with clever designs and each one is truly unique. Every area feels fresh and presents a new challenge, and never gets repetitive. Unbelievably, this game even makes a "Dark Souls like" currency and death system actually NOT cause me to quit playing. I enjoy the challenge of reclaiming my glowing corpse and obtaining that precious salt. It just adds to the fun. Honestly, this is the hardest mobile game that isn't actually unfair. You will die. A lot. But it's really, really fun.

The sprite art is excellent, the soundtrack is good; the touch controls are unique in a good, refreshing way that gives the game a fresh feeling from start to end. The backtracking is handled very well and the map is extremely useful for navigation (of a bit vague on detail). My only complaints are that 1) There are almost no invincibility frames after damage and 2) It’s a bit short (I beat it in roughly 6 hours).
Otherwise, it’s a brilliant game that deserves a purchase.
Oh, and don’t worry about the touch screen controls, they work well and I was never damaged or killed by them.

I followed this project for a number of years on TIGSource and think it’s a really novel movement mechanic, love how the game looks and the diverse range of enemies (the squid knights are wonderfully designed).

BUT

This game is hampered by its checkpoint systems. The controls are an amazing way to explore this vast, interlinked world (and I genuinely commend you for trying something new) but they’re too clumsy for the current checkpoint system. The number of times I’ve completed a 20-30 minute section of gameplay only to have a jump snap to the wrong platform and die, losing all that progress.

I should emphasise, the jumping/shooting CAN have those little control hiccups, but only if there’s enough checkpoints to compensate. The extra three kickers of having next to zero post-hit invincibility, having a comically long refill time for health and losing all your salt on death (the body of whom to retrieve has twice been merged into walls I couldn’t reach) make this even more of a problem.

It feels like it’s trying to be like darksouls, but you just don’t have tight enough controls for it. It’d be better to have a shorter, challenging but fun game than a longer, frustrating game with endless backtracking because of occasional flaws in the controls.

Something like a smaller campfire system without a tent that serves as a checkpoint without the ability to upgrade your stuff could be a potential solution.

Thanks again for making this, hope this gives food for thought.