Kin and Conquest

I have consistent freezing on - compiling shaders, loading save, after start of first run.

Well, I had. Now it doesn't load.

does not load. just sits there with the "loading game for the first time" message.

and it's not a problem on my end.

RE: freezing- if the basic totem goes off with too many enemies in range it will buffer for a second or two, sometimes more. usually happened on the skeleton floors. also, because of the enemy's movement path, you have to go on manual to beat the bird boss, the auto can't get close enough to hit it.

Really charming little game - fun, but with a few annoyances.
Pros
+ Great art and animations.
+ Cool progression with upgrades and equipment.
+ Gameplay is a lot more engaging than common nodelikes.
So-Sos
~ A few of the early runs felt quite long with little progression being made.
~ "Kill X enemies" challenges are kind of doomed, design-wise. If you do achieve them in normal progression, then why bother having them, if you don't, it just forces the player to slog through the level a few more times.
~ There are a lot of QoL improvements that would elevate the game. e.g. Showing equipment improvement stats on hovering the upgrade button, showing your overall stats in the equipment and skill tree screens (rather than hiding them in the pause menu), better indication that you're closer to finishing a level, giving more indication on when/where you'll swing next... (the fox hiding the completion of the circle doesn't help matters)
Cons
- While the gameplay is engaging, for me, I think the combat is in a weird limbo currently. I enjoy the act of manually controlling the fox, but it's not manual enough for my liking. The weapon still being automatically controlled means that occasionally it'll strike in a direction you weren't planning for, or won't focus the boss when you need it to. WASD + LMB would be great for this, for example.
- Playtest specific: If you're not going to include level 3, don't have its associated challenges in the game. They're exactly the same as the previous levels anyway so it's not showing off anything "new", really.
- Ore nodes only dropping coins is a little disappointing. Part of the satisfaction of a recipe unlocking system is going out and collecting the resources you need to craft it. The mining feels very underutilised as a result.
Overall
I think it's a great early preview. Already a cut above a lot of the games on this site, but a lot of potential to reach the top.

Pretty cool game. I really liked that currencies followed you when progressing towards a new floor. Music is cool too, though it bugs out and becomes cursed sometimes- for me.

Really charming little game - fun, but with a few annoyances.
Pros
+ Great art and animations.
+ Cool progression with upgrades and equipment.
+ Gameplay is a lot more engaging than common nodelikes.
So-Sos
~ A few of the early runs felt quite long with little progression being made.
~ "Kill X enemies" challenges are kind of doomed, design-wise. If you do achieve them in normal progression, then why bother having them, if you don't, it just forces the player to slog through the level a few more times.
~ There are a lot of QoL improvements that would elevate the game. e.g. Showing equipment improvement stats on hovering the upgrade button, showing your overall stats in the equipment and skill tree screens (rather than hiding them in the pause menu), better indication that you're closer to finishing a level, giving more indication on when/where you'll swing next... (the fox hiding the completion of the circle doesn't help matters)
Cons
- While the gameplay is engaging, for me, I think the combat is in a weird limbo currently. I enjoy the act of manually controlling the fox, but it's not manual enough for my liking. The weapon still being automatically controlled means that occasionally it'll strike in a direction you weren't planning for, or won't focus the boss when you need it to. WASD + LMB would be great for this, for example.
- Playtest specific: If you're not going to include level 3, don't have its associated challenges in the game. They're exactly the same as the previous levels anyway so it's not showing off anything "new", really.
- Ore nodes only dropping coins is a little disappointing. Part of the satisfaction of a recipe unlocking system is going out and collecting the resources you need to craft it. The mining feels very underutilised as a result.
Overall
I think it's a great early preview. Already a cut above a lot of the games on this site, but a lot of potential to reach the top.

Really good, but there are occasional freezes.

does not load. just sits there with the "loading game for the first time" message.

and it's not a problem on my end.

I enjoyed the game. I didn't notice any freezes other than when loading. Not sure if I'm missing it, but I think it would be nice to have some sort of indicator for when you are about to drop down a level in a floor.

RE: freezing- if the basic totem goes off with too many enemies in range it will buffer for a second or two, sometimes more. usually happened on the skeleton floors. also, because of the enemy's movement path, you have to go on manual to beat the bird boss, the auto can't get close enough to hit it.