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About the game:

Grim Phantasm is a 9 weeks WIP school project that isn’t your average hack-and-slash side-scroller game. Utilizing extremely fast-paced gameplay with frame-by-frame hand-drawn sprites and visual effects, the game pits the player as a Grim Reaper in a ferocious mission to send the most dangerous Hellspawns back to the Underworld!
As Grim Phantasm is a University project constrained by time, it is being released as work in progress one-mission-demo. In due time, a fully functional game with all the missions will be released.

(http://img.itch.io/aW1hZ2UvODgyNy8yNTEwNy5qcGc=/347x500/Hs31Ji.jpg)(http://img.itch.io/aW1hZ2UvODgyNy8yNTEwOC5qcGc=/347x500/ycYPWT.jpg)


Key Features:

- Play as Arciel, the most merciless and skilled of the Undertaker under the guise of an ordinary girl with a harmonious poker face to undertake a deadly mission from the Underworld!

- Hack and slash your way to the evil incarnate tower erected by the Hellspawns, which cloaks itself as a harmless independent global environmental campaign organization.

- Quick-draw your faithful katana 'Rengoku' to slay your foes with grace, or transform it to the powerful soul-reaping scythe 'Thanatos' to deliver a world of pain and replenish your own life energy!

- Utilize your lightning reflexes to perform a dangerous yet rewarding counter-attack in a 60 frames-per-second gameplay for maximum technical gaming experience!

- Enjoy beautifully crisp hand-drawn anime-styled sprites with smooth animation for the retro, arcade-styled hack and slash / beat 'em up feel of the old days!

(http://img.itch.io/aW1hZ2UvODgyNy8yNTEwOS5qcGc=/347x500/8Fdaxz.jpg)
(http://img.itch.io/aW1hZ2UvODgyNy8yNTExMS5qcGc=/347x500/NOLE9w.jpg)


Information
Platform: Windows7
Price: Free
Release Date: 24/06/2014
Version: WIP (Work in progress) Alpha Version 1.6
Recommended: At least 2 GB of RAMS, headphones or speaker for maximum audio experience, and screen of at least 1000x600 screen resolution.


Characters

Arciel Cievrenova (Ciel) the Undertaker - When word reaches the Underworld that a few of their Hellspawns had illegally push themselves to the mortal world to cause mayhem and demise, Ciel was sent as the Underworld agent to bring them back to the world of the damned.

Demons - The Hellspawns wish for nothing but power and virtue to fill their infinite greed. Guising themselves as savvy humans, they build a tower to perform every kind of gut-wrenching evil behind the shadow.

Uzodorra the Terrible - The worst of them all, Uzodorra is the conductor of the evil-orchestra. Defeat him to complete your mission and bring these malevolent creatures back to where they belong!
Fear is phantasmal, but pain is real. Happy reaping!


Instruction
Install   - No need to install, double click that one file you downloaded!
Move   - A/D
Katana   - J
Parry   - K
Scythe   - L
Dash   - Spacebar


About me
I am a self-taught artist with a great interest in video-games and video-game development. As a first year of Media Design School studying game design and development, Grim Phantasm is my very first game I created and I really do hope you enjoyed what I put together in 9 weeks. I still have a long way to go, so the comments and criticism will serve as great feedback to help improve or finish my game and any future games I will develop.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please e-mail me at: [email protected]


Play/Download link :

http://sol-zero.itch.io/grim-phantasm (http://sol-zero.itch.io/grim-phantasm)

http://gamejolt.com/games/action/grim-phantasm/28672/ (http://gamejolt.com/games/action/grim-phantasm/28672/)

(http://img.itch.io/aW1hZ2UvODgyNy8yNTExMi5qcGc=/347x500/9ce7r3.jpg)
(http://img.itch.io/aW1hZ2UvODgyNy8yNTExMy5qcGc=/347x500/56YboU.jpg)
(http://img.itch.io/aW1hZ2UvODgyNy8yNTEyNi5qcGc=/347x500/iz8VfU.jpg)

First of all, great animation work.

I found the combat really clunky. It seems impossible to flow from one attack to the next because there's a pause after every attack. I can't even block when I want to because I have to wait, so I'd rather just attack when I get the chance. The basic enemies also take ages to recover from their own attacks, which means all I have to do is dash behind them and slash them.

I wish there was a checkpoint system in place, even if it just sent me to the beginning of the level after the controls/objectives. I didn't like having to skip through that every time.

Some more decor in the background would be great to differentiate the areas from one another.

I also wish there was a tiny bit more leeway when it came to blocking/counter-attacking. With guns, even when I feel like I've done it perfectly, it doesn't work for me 90% of the time. With swords, I feel like I have to purposely do it late, even though it looks and feels wrong to me.

I feel like enemies should stop being solid as soon as they're down on their knees. I seem to get stuck on them a lot, especially when they've just fallen.

Why are the areas so incredibly small? Having to stop and start every few seconds because I entered a new area that didn't remember the key was pressed is a bit irritating and strange.


Bugs/Weirdness:

-I ran up to the first enemy and then ran back and it seemed to break his AI. As I write this, he's standing there with a gun pointed at my character's head but he's not firing.
-Sometimes I die instantly, while other times I burn up. At least once, I burned up twice in a row before getting sent to the title screen.


I guess all real my issues are related to the lack of fluidity in the game. It looks great, animates really well and the music is pretty good. The controls are solid and the character's running speed is good. I like the little touches like the shadows as well. It's good work.

Thank you so much for the comment!

Unfortunately there weren't much time to work on the game (9 weeks + other assignments is a little suffocating to me  :lol:).

Because I am more of an artist than a coder, I spent the majority of the game production time on the art (and was a little too excited and left little time to code). But enough excuse, this was a great experience to me and having any sorts of feedback is much appreciated.

Thank you!  :gentleman: