Edit: 0.2.2
Now we're really getting somewhere.
This update includes three new key features: lewd combat for basic enemies, different paths to take for different rewards, and the shop and its resident catgirl.
Shrimpie and Lady Fin have fairly souped movesets now. While Lady Fin plays mostly the same, her new ranged attack keeps you moving and prevents you from face-tanking her like you could in previous iterations. Shrimpie, on the other hand, is actually a bit of a threat now. She now teleports around to prevent infinites from being performed on her, and she actually has to throw out a couple of attacks before she lets you hit her.
Regarding general combat, it plays pretty much the same as 0.2.0, but there is some more quality of life. Ice attacks now apply a blue effect to enemies and the slow effect is much more apparent, so all of the different elements feel like they're evenly matched now. On top of this, there's now the introduction of the lewd mechanics to enemies.
There's a separate status bar that represents the "Horny" effect, and it seems to represent the chance for the enemy to be finished through an in-game h-scene, which relies on timing the spacebar to thrusts. The mechanic is clearly in its infancy with how choppy the exit transition is, but it's quick and unobtrusive and optional, so it's a very welcome addition.
Finally, in true Hades fashion, you now have different gates that you can walk through obtain different rewards, which for now only includes health, the already included upgrades, a new currency known as gems, and then the newly introduced shop and its items. While implemented well, I think that the upgrades need to be slightly revamped to have their own rooms per element, and perhaps more upgrades to alter your moveset, like the dodge.
Speaking of the shop and gems, you can now acquire the new run-based currency by either performing well on the h-scene minigame or going through a gate that gives you them. You can then use that currency to buy items or healing (the following including a
paid h-scene of its own).
Moving onto the h-scenes themselves, it's kind of baffling of the quality between the win scene against Ms. Fin and the first two h-scenes. There's actual transitions between the different parts, and Ms. Fin actually emotes. It makes me wonder why they can't go back and apply that same quality to the first two h-scenes.
At this point though, I'd give the game a solid 4.5 stars now. This is a point where I'd happily recommend playing this game to anyone interested in the genre, but it still has a lot of work to do.
