Arcadia Project: False Deity [Demo Release]

[Lorde Kettune]

Arcadia Project: False Deity [Demo Release]

        Hey there. This is the first time I've posted here, and I generally keep my work to myself, so I'm fairly new. I go by Kettune on the internet, and for some time now, I've been working on a Touhou-like game called False Deity. The 3-stage demo is now finished, and this seemed like the most appropriate place to announce it, so here it is!

        Arcadia Project takes place in its own universe with its own canonicity, sorta like Len'en. However, unlike most games that do this, AP strays very far from the usual in terms of theme. It's a science fiction-focused universe, (although not in a futuristic way) and is more centered around European culture as opposed to Japanese.

        Gameplay-wise, this is very basic. I wasn't gonna do anything crazy for my first full game. The bar on the left fills up when you graze or collect point items, and grants you life/bomb shards. That's about it. Everything else should be obvious. However, it should be noted that this is much harder than Touhou.

        Yes, this is intended to be vaguely 80's-themed. It isn't very strongly present in the first three stages, though.

  Story:

        The series takes place on a cold, rocky island called Ravenport. Here, technology is just entering the golden age of 3 1/2 in. floppy disks and 16-bit graphics, while the rest of the world grovels in the dirt.  Strange things occur on a regular basis, usually caused by lunatics with seemingly supernatural abilities, and the safety of the island depends on several individuals with equal power, like the medical scientist with corrosive blood, and main character, Vivian Claravine.

        In False Deity, a record-breaking supercell, far greater than the almost constant storms that plague Ravenport, forms in the sky. However, Vivian can tell it's not a standard weather phenomena. At the same time, a model of sea ship not produced in Ravenport for hundreds of years shows up in the middle of the crescent-shaped island's bay, with lightning consistently striking its mast. Vivian Claravine, and (though not playable in the demo) the young photographer, Axel Wilhelm, set out to investigate.

  Downloads:

 - Main Download: https://mega.nz/#!KUMC2TDK!cEEAT2OeFNhRI3Ks1IirWNRPy7D2wjHCAi9j0bA6Dy4

 - The OST (which I composed) can be downloaded here: https://mega.nz/#!fdNljKyb!AMDJZUtvtI2KDiMLFkVSh3t62hUXNOlNgea_FnzAaQ8

Note: The game probably won't launch until you install the XNA redistributable, which I included in the game's files.

  Additional Information:

        This is the first time I've released a game, and hoo boy was it a mess. Hectic and stressful. There's a decent chance the game has bugs, so if you find any, nag me somehow. (here, or through my email (lefox2@gmail.com), or wherever else floats your boat.)

        [Shameless self-promotion warning] If you like the music in the game, I have a YouTube channel where I post other songs occasionally: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEy1W_sZOAeoQL45QLmhT6w Be warned, I don't upload very often because it takes me a very long time to compose.

        In case you're curious, this was made with C# and XNA.

  Updates:

9/7/16: Balancing for certain spellcards, collider fixes, other small issues.

[Badz]

From my first impressions, the game seems nice overall, but there's one aspect that really needs improvement: cheapshots. Quite a few of the attacks in the game (especially with the stage 2 boss and her survival) simply caught me off-guard and killed me before I could react to them.
Besides this, the player's bomb doesn't actually delete bullets while active, which makes it possible for the player to die as soon as it wears off.
And lastly, practice mode starts the player at 0 power, which isn't representative of a normal run and makes it difficult to pick up the pace and deal with the stage properly.

[Lorde Kettune]

From my first impressions, the game seems nice overall, but there's one aspect that really needs improvement: cheapshots. Quite a few of the attacks in the game (especially with the stage 2 boss and her survival) simply caught me off-guard and killed me before I could react to them.
Besides this, the player's bomb doesn't actually delete bullets while active, which makes it possible for the player to die as soon as it wears off.
And lastly, practice mode starts the player at 0 power, which isn't representative of a normal run and makes it difficult to pick up the pace and deal with the stage properly.

Yeah, other people have told me as well that the stage 2 boss is iffy. I'm thinking about ways I can make that less bullshit. (Most likely, the bullets will start out slow and accelerate so there's more of a warning.)
The other two things are very easy fixes, so I'll deal with them. Thanks for the feedback, mate.

EDIT: I've done my best to fix this stuff, and I've updated the download link.