fight foxy fight

Review: 

I like it! 

1. Art Style - I like the colors, and I like the black border around the moving sprites.

2.  Gameplay - I would like to suggest you consider what the "gameplay loop" of this game would be.  What I'm seeing, is that you move around and you fight animals and kill them. (Just bats so far).  It feels very...idk, floaty?  I don't know how much control you have over that with a web presentation.  I didn't make it to the end, but I got past about 6 bats.

3. Audio - it sounded like no audio was present

Suggested Changes:

A. There's no way to regain health, so I find the game kind of punishing so far.  It reminds me of zelda, so I tried to cut down the bushes to get hearts, but it seems you can't cut down bushes.  I think the game would be well served by reducing the number of hearts available at start, and dropping hearts sometimes when an enemy dies (say, 33% chance).  That way, the player doesn't have to being their game experience with a souls-like grind.

B. I like the roll animation, but I did not find it to be a useful skill to help me play.  Suggest doubling the current roll distance, deactivating collision during roll, and giving the player invulnerability for the first ~ 1/3 of the roll.  That way, using the roll becomes a skill you could use to escape an enemy.  For bats, I think it should be possible to just roll beneath them.

C. I think you should consider giving the bats more restricted movement, or slower movement.   You know how a knight moves in chess?  Some kind of shape that allows the bat to approach the player, but not exactly land on the player

D. I think it would be good to increase the knockback by x3, when the player strikes a bat, and the bat should flash white for 1-2 frames.  (If available, the bat flashes white for 1 frame, but then the game simulation pauses for about 60 milliseconds).  Especially without having sfx, this will help the strike to feel as though it has registered.  I know there's vfx that draw when you do the strike, but I think you should try just swapping that out for flashing the sprite to white for a frame.

E. Since the player is a fox, why not remove collision from the bushes, but hide the player when they go inside, giving a kind of "assassin's creed stealth" mechanic to the system.  Maybe some enemies could follow you into the bushes, but not all of them.  (Another fox could follow you into the bushes, but not a bat, for example)

F. I like the visual clarity of the sword swing, but I find it very "slow" feeling.  Would like it a bit snappier.  I don't know if you can make it look like it takes 85% as long to complete as right now or not.  The hitbox on the sword feels really small to me--especially given the current knockback distance.  Maybe try changing one, then the other, then both, to see which permutation feels the best to you

G. Would like a jump, even if it was just the roll animation, and it looked like the character did a jump flip.  I just like being able to jump in games.

H. When doing the sword animation, it prevents movement and is not-interruptible.  If the goal is something more souls-like, then that's probably fine.  However, if the goal of playing as a fox is to feel agile, then consider allowing the player to interrupt the sword swing by rolling out of it.  Even if you made no other changes to the roll, that could be a beneficial change, because it would allow the player to bail on an attack, if they can tell they've misjudged their positioning.  If you don't like the idea of infinite rolling, then add a stamina bar, or show the roll skill on screen, and indicate it has a cooldown after use.

I. When the player receives damage from a damage source, I think it would help to make them 50% transparent for 300-1000 milliseconds*, and to prevent them from taking damage while in this state.  Right now, it might be possible for the player to get into a circle of several enemies, who all just land a bunch of strikes until the player dies.

*shorter time when the player has more health, longer time when the player has less health, if you want to kind of even-out the stress of combat

I like it! I think you've done a really good job here.  I find the combat very difficult, b/c the sword seems like too slow of a weapon to fight the bats with, and positioning is quite difficult, because the bats can attack you from a front-diagonal position, where the sword cannot hit them back.  That, combined with no ability to regain health means I would never finish this fame with the current mechanics, b/c I would just give up.

But it is very charming, and I look forward to see how you develop it as time goes on.  Good job!