We got some feedback, and while we've been working on finishing the game, we've also reworked and added quite a lot of stuff.
Rework Update (31.10.25, 1:06pm UTC, Steam Build ID 20627191)
Major changes:
Difficulty reworked: The enemies have much lower health, but there are more of them now, they don't spawn in groups of the same type anymore, making them more varied, and some of them are faster.
Style Points system and Leaderboards added: Now, after you kill 2 enemies in quick succession, a style meter pops up, and tracks points for your kills (with different point values for different kills). If you keep killing enemies, you'll eventually gain a point multiplier that decays over time if you don't keep it up with more kills. At the end of a run, your score is added to a leaderboard, and you can view the global leaderboard and your friends' leaderboard.
Slam added: Now, if you press the slide button in midair (Ctrl by default), you'll perform a slam. If you slam repetedly, you'll gain more height.
Parry added: You can now parry projectiles back into enemies (F by default). Successful parries also restore stamina.
Tutorial expanded to feature slam, barrels, and parry.
Slide reworked: Sliding no longer consumes stamina, and it allows you to cover much longer distances with more speed. The slide+jump combo still consumes stamina,
Alternative First Arena added: Now, when you start a run, you may randomly end up in an alternative arena. The alternative arena shares all the enemies and the boss with the usual one.
New enemy added: Hawk now spawns at the first arena starting from Wave 5. It follows the player at a certain distance and throws steel-lined feathers.
Balance tweaks: arenas now last 8 waves instead of 10, katana now recharges in 5 seconds instead of 15, and the shotgun is buffed a lot - higher magazine capacity (8 instead of 6), much faster reloads and fire rate, and damage and range are also probably increased (our programmer is sleeping while I write this changelog, and our modeler, who may also know the exact changes, just went to sleep as well).
Minor changes:
Spanish localization fixed: While making a localization spreadsheet for our publisher to proofread and for another translator to use, I found some blunders I overlooked, so they're fixed now. I still can't promise it's as good as it could possibly be, but I've tried my best.
Short description of the items are now seen before you pick them up. You can also press P while looking at an artifact to open its journal entry, provided you've picked the item up before.
Movement slightly adjusted: jumping now feels less floaty and more sharp, katana now stores your initial momentum (which pairs with repeated slams pretty well), and the camera now doesn't jitter if you step on something too uneven.
You can now carry explosive barrels by tapping the interact button (E by default), rather than holding it.
The server room in the lobby is now available: The credits and completion screens have been moved there, and the leaderboards are also there. Although some things related to a few secrets will still be unavailable in the demo.
UI slightly reworked: When our programmer made the style meter, it looked a lot cooler than the UI he's made before, so the rest of the gameplay UI has been adjusted to suit the style meter better. The screen for the end of the run has also been reworked to feature the leaderboard.
The Hive and Blizzard sounds added: I have no idea how I managed to forget to make the sounds for them before the previous update, but I did, and now that's fixed.
Language change button added to the main menu: If the game launches in a wrong language for some reason, now you'll be able to change the language without having to figure out the settings in an unfamiliar language.
Hints for how enemy leveling works now show up the first time you start a game.
Axel and Lancea enemies have received slight remodels.
First arena renamed to Midnight Cross, since the first alternative arena is now called "Sandspire Coliseum".
Lighting now may look slightly differently due to us upgrading from UE5 5.4.4 to 5.5.4, which reworks lighting that we've been using, and probably optimizes it a bit.
Minor bugfixes.
And, as you may have seen already, the game is now delayed from November 2025 to January 22nd 2026. We're pretty sure that we'll need more time to polish the game, and maybe change or add some things again based on the feedback that we get, just like we did this time.
So please, if you have any feedback, good or bad, please tell us - on Steam discussions, on Discord, or wherever you please - we do listen, and we'll try to make the game more fun.