Universal Dojo Slash (pixel art, hack and slash)

What an awesome game...
The icon on the other hand...
Well...the game, it's really good.

 

damit, this game and the dev have so much potential here! I really hope you get the player feedback, and if not as paid content on Dojo Slash, release a Premium new game in the same vein, with all our feedback and ideas in this thread added!

This could easily become equal to, or even top, Shadow Blade and OMG Pirates!, the two best ninja ios games for me, with a different style! And please*10, add a virtual joystick in an update for Dojo Slash, if you can!

 

Ok, after extensive playing i have a bit more feedback regarding the weapons

I now have all weapons except unlimited throwing and i'm not really sure the more expensive weapons are worth it

The sabre as fantastic. The increased range with no penalties is awesome and the 2 dmg will last you until the red ninjas and by then you've had plenty of times to upgrade

Bloodrage - meh, it's ok but i wont sacrifice range for 1 health/5 combos

Sai - is crippled by the lack of range imo

Katana - no perks but 3 dmg doesn't really bring it up to par with the sabre imo. Range is far more important than +1 dmg and that extra dmg wont make a difference with the red ninjas

The Grandmother - Extra range and 3 dmg is very nice and the movement speed penalty isn't a big deal. However, i find that Thorns is the weakest of the upgrades (along with the invincibility for 1 sec after being hit) so being locked into that from the start makes it less desirable. If it didn't lock you in with Thorns i could see myself using it more

Huge Bone - 4 dmg is nice but the problem is that you still have to upgrade dmg for the red ninjas and the mini bosses while also having to upgrade it's range at least a few times so in the end i don't feel it's worth twice the sabre though it's still a good weapon

As you probably tell by now i find range to be the biggest bonus and i'd love to see more expensive weapons with nice dmg and nice extra range

As for the upgrades -

The Thorns and invincibility after being hit are low tier imo. My strategy is to not get hit so i tend to skip those completely

The teleport when hit is decent though i'd prefer to teleport, stop my motion and then give a short period of invincibility to find my bearings

The slippery and the fast recover are my go to upgrades. Both are really good, with the first being slightly more fun and the second being just a bit more useful but they both work very well

Finally a question - what are the benefits of getting multiple item magnet upgrades?

 

Glad to help

This game really is fantastic and it's easily my most played game since it's release

 

wohoo for the joystick coming! for the icon, i can't speak for Lazer Kat, but i sort of see, the icon is a very simplistic ninja star. Since the name is Dojo Slash, make an icon of a dojo with a slice in the middle, or just a gong in the dojo? and a bit more polished.
Btw, i am not bothered at all by icons, i think they are trivial - like book covers, you can see some really crappy games having fantastic icons.. it doesn't say anything-

 

Hi Groquest,

Thank you for an enjoyable game, it is great fun!

A little feedback

About the weapons:
When you make a stat-budget in order to balance stuff, a good rule of thumb is that a good unique stat is always better than several common (good) stats. In that regard the Bloodrage and Shuriken are better than the rest of the weapons, simply because they offer something which cannot otherwise be obtained while playing.
Now the Shuriken is pretty broken (as you have said) so i'll leave that out, but that means the Bloodrage is actually the best weapon of choice in the long run (my high score is 140.000 with it)
- A suggestion would be to give more of the (expensive) weapons some unique properties to offer more interesting choices when unlocking stuff.

It would also be great to have a way of seeing which upgrades you have already bought while playing - perhaps just an icon in the lower right corner or some info in the level-up menu, when the game is paused anyway.

Some info on the potions would be great, hard to tell exactly what they do.

Some skills may or may not stack (like Regenerate 1 life per 10 sec) - it would be great to have clarification on how/if that actually works.

An enemy can "hide" behind the Pause-icon in the upper-right corner, that can be quite annoying because you can't attack without pausing the game

- And lastly just a second opinion on the skills, jn2002dk mentioned that the "1 sec immunity" is lower tier - In my experience it is actually one of the most useful ones later on in the game, simply because you sometimes get hit 5+ times in one go (I would just mention that before you consider changing it .

Keep up the good work!

 

Yellow pot - 2 x XP
Green pot - increased move and recovery speed
Grey pot - invincibility
Red pot - heal

As for the skill, i haven't been hit 5 times in a row yet but i suppose it can be good for other types of builds. For a range/move speed build it is definitely low tier

 

Ninjin and Bleeding Edge may have something to say about that list.


Also dark slash (another dojo of death inspired game) is worth a mention

 

i like Bleeding Edge and Dark Slash, but they don't have unlockables (yet?) just highscore chasers. I *love* unlockables. Ninjin's style didn't do it for me though, but to each his own and as the above line, this is just my personal opinion. Thanks for bringing them up though LazerKat! Btw, do you agree with my icon reply above?

 

I agree that nearly anything would be better than it's current icon.
Developers don't seem to understand the importance of icons.
I know we say icons don't really matter to us, but the facts are the facts:

We scan blogs, forums, and the App Store and usually see 10 or more icons on the same page. If the icon doesn't catch our eye we don't click on it.

It's as important to the game's marketing as anything else.

 

Suggestion

For each upgrade/lvl up stat you chose put an icon for it in the upper right corner or on upgrade/ lvl up screen ( similar to the combo icon in upper left) because I find myself forgetting what upgrades I've chosen this run, when I play round after round.

It will also give it a more thematic visual when you see how many you have. It make you fell like a badass seeing 8 little hearts/slashes/etc and your that much more invested. This visual approach would be similar to the PC game Risk of Rain.

 

Love the update!

Looks like i can finally invest in the unlimited throw though the greedy part of me wants the Midas sword

 

Thanks for info, yellow pot can make a big difference when used right i guess

 

Yup

Now imagine the new sword, which doubles the length of potion effects, with the coin magnet and getting a yellow + grey at the start of a big wave

 

The huge full screen Dojo Slash logo on the start screen is now staying there during gameplay, and blocking the game. I can play in the background, but I can't see most of the action.

 

I bought the throwing star and it's really underwhelming, is there a way for me to sell it for a full/partial refund?

Alternatively, let it scale with a stat so it can be improved