heya, i'm a little late to the party but i wanted to weigh in a bit. i think the art style, music, and overall design are very solid with the main weakness being the gameplay / feel. so i'm going to be a negative nancy and focus on that (sorry!).
- the movement is okay. it's certainly on the floater side, which isn't necessarily bad, but i feel it's a bit sluggish. i think ways to move faster in both axises would be good. maybe being able to fast fall by holding down in the air, and some sort of way to travel faster on the ground like a dash or run, or even even just a small lurch forward when you attack as an extra movement option.
- also, maybe consider extending the jump buffer. might just be a skill issue but it felt like the game was dropping some jump inputs at times.
- EDIT: i noticed after writing this there's a dash in the trailer, good!!!!!!!!!!!!
- i think the combat plays pretty good and i enjoyed the worm boss, but it feels a bit weightless. i can't quite put my finger on it, but compared to hollow knight which has similar combat, the hits don't feel nearly as powerful. i think some combination of adjustments to sound effects, particles, and hit stop could help with this.
- while i think it's good for the first area, the combat is rather simple and i think it would really need to ramp up in complexity for future areas. if there's only a moderate amount of development throughout the game, i think i would get bored of it.
- the seed system is a really cool idea, but i feel in the game currently the execution isn't that great. the effects don't feel game changing enough to really affect how you play that much. i think making them more impactful, with perhaps even some modification to the basic movement / sword strikes depending on what seed you have might be good.
- also, i feel it might be good to provide an incentive to switch seeds, such as perhaps limited uses, or maybe when you drop one it's destroyed and unleashes a powerful attack. when i played, i kinda just found one i liked and stuck with it, which isn't ideal
i think botanica has a lot of potential, it just feels a bit one-note. but despite that, i enjoyed playing it overall (the orchestra in the silk woods was <3), and i'm looking forward to the final game.
i hope the best for you and second fiddle, genuinely :)