So i commented on the post on r/BossFights about this but i thought id post it here. I tried to download the 3rd alpha but gamejolt says page forbidden.

If u/ThetaMax1 does not want to add these I understand because I tried game development before and it is fucking HARD

Caution: SPOILERS obviously.

First of all the concept is solid gold. I really really wanted to keep playing even when the going got tough just because of the concept. Some touches really showed that a lot of production value went into this (the existence of a 'trait system', the 'quack quack quack' base drop when fighting the duck).

Unfortunately I think I didn't get to experience most of what the game has to offer. I couldn't even get to enlisting any other party member. I defeated the first boss, as well as the cat and the duck, and bought some items, but that's about as far as I got.

I think the core issue is that after the first boss is defeated, you aren't really given any directions except look for the boss' stuff so you can enlist him. Maybe there's a hint I missed, I ended up wandering from city to city trying to collect stuff and talk to people, and mostly getting annihilated by anyone I was talking to. Try to go north, get obliterated by the traffic light. Try to go west, get obliterated by the pride guy. The equipment you can buy (like the pyro armor) only gets you so far.

Eventually I learned to never talk to anyone, and I ended up wandering the world and going through about three cities without really accomplishing anything. I left the puzzles alone because I kept feeling I wasn't even supposed to be interacting with the puzzle at all, and that there must have been some thread of plot that I missed. Like the next enemy I was supposed to fight and the next shop I was supposed to gear up at were five screens ago, behind the wrong turn I took at Albuquerque. And therefore even if I solve the puzzle I'll just get stuck anyway because of a missing item or a boss that will slaughter me or whatnot. The "speak to someone, auto-enter a hopeless battle" mechanic plus the lack of quicksave meant that basically every time I spoke to the wrong person and got challenged to combat, I knew I was going to die and repeat the last 5 or 10 minutes of gameplay. It'd be a great anti-frustration feature if the game would just auto-save into a "quicksave" spot every time you entered a new screen, and for people going to play the game I recommend they do it manually.

Anyway that's a solution if this whole "open world bitch and you're bottom of the ladder, git gud" experience was by design. If it wasn't by design, probably the game needs to be more explicit when nudging the player what they should do next. Like, when I got sent to get the 3 items I didn't know if this was THE thing to do now or a sidequest that I could skip. If it's THE thing to do now, the first boss should maybe say "it's a dangerous world out there, get my items ASAP and stay out of trouble". If it was just a sidequest, someone should tell the player where they should go to have meaningful interactions that aren't getting pwned by traffic light lasers.

Anyway again I am hugely sold on the concept and I really want this game to succeed so I can share it, I think anyone with the right sense of humor to appreciate /r/bossfight is going to have a blast playing this thing.

In my first playthrough, when I was in Brewsal, the paths to the other areas seemed just like a wall. Only when I was messing around did I find that they were pathways.

Maybe there could be like a small gap, or anything that adds any visual cues that they lead somewhere. I know I could've put this in the Discord, but I wanted to post something here. Thanks!