Bit Kid

This was my interpretation of the short demo. It's just my opinion and nothing more. Bats are super annoying. They follow you everywhere when you jump. It be easier to attack them with the book of blades but I cannot attack up or down with the "book of blades" which is lame. I cannot jump on top of a wooden platform when underneath it, thats jut my minor pet peeve cause I'm so used to platformers and being able to jump up and down and all. I cannot double jump, it might not be necessary and again it might be a common platform trope of which this game is not but I love double jumping. I don't know what type of game this is but it needs more cool powerups/abilities and cooler weapons, again I'm not sure what the team were going for but so far this demo was boring but the dungeon music was neat. The dungeons looked drab and theres nothing happening in the background. I only hope theres more varied dungeons that are diferent and nice to look at but other than that, i like the metroidvania influence. I want to be able to move fast and I get thats totally a design choice but something ala, "Legend of Zelda" or "metroid" super speed would be fun. Other than that, I kinda enjoyed the demo and well good luck.

Well, let's see here..

1) This "demo" is actually more of a "proof of concept" build that was literally thrown together in a few weeks' time out of existing assets for the sole purpose (originally) of being shown off on the floor of this years' GDC (Game Developer's Conference). As such, it lacks a menu (since you don't want people on a time limit at a conference wasting time in menus) and proper story and NPC interaction (for the same reasons), and only lets you explore 2-3 floors with the most basic of attacks and abilities.

It is in no way representative of the final product other than the style of Pixel Art and the tightness of the controls and basic flow of combat (very Symphony of the Night-esque). Most of the things you mention wanting to see (movement enhancers like double jumps and dashing, more varied environments, "cooler" weapons) are all planned for the final game, but simply haven't been made yet, since the game is about a year away from being ready for a retail release. The final game will have multiple weapon types, a bunch of spell books, a ton of movement enhancers (ledge grabs, double jump, dashes, and maybe even a grappling hook), and six different major areas with 3-ish floors each starting with the Mine levels we see in this limited demo and continuing on down into other areas including a large temple that would have been best left undisturbed. Damn miners, always digging too greedily and too deep, and awakening the nameless fear.

Rest assured that almost all the things that made games like Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night great are planned to be included in this game, time and money permitting, of course.

2) Bats. The trick to bats is to simply let them do their thing and float around in mid-air. DON'T CHASE AFTER THEM. After a few seconds, they will swoop in AT THE EXACT HEIGHT OF YOUR WEAPON. Press the attack button, poof, no more bat. Patience > Bats.

Running out of the room is also a valid strat against bats, as my time attacks have taught me.

Trouble with bats? Buy Scriptures!

Oh wait, wrong game.

Just hold down and spam A.

The v.3 bats drove batty, but as of v.5 I really like them. They are a nice balanced challenge of little damage but difficult to kill. I say the same thing about the rats.

Can't say I like waiting for them to come down for me to hit them. Bats are trash mobs, they're supposed to go down fast and easy. I'd take Castlevania bats over this any day. If you want bats to annoy players than make them special. Like normal bats come straight at you and red bats circle around you like the bats right now. Couldn't hold my opinion back any longer.
Rats are annoying too but that all comes down to reflexes (though another reason they are hard is the short range of the main character). Level design is sometimes flawed though, placing a rats nest right under a drop and with multiple rats each running around on a separate timer there, it is quite impossible to not get hit.
Now the short range might be subjective as the character is smaller than the usual (Castlevania, etc.).

Personally i like that bats aren't as easy as some of the trash mobs in castlevania or in metroid (or megaman or cave story, etc.). Those enemies are too easy to kill on autopilot without a thought. As such they sort of seem like filler. My epiphany of discovering that patience > bats for myself felt quite rewarding, and made future easier encounters with bats feel like something I had earned.

I think the bats are awesome. You just wait for them to fly toward you and strike at the right moment <- I found that to be really fun. Personally I thought those hanging worm things that fall on you were far more annoying.

I have no problem with the bats, also you don't want the enemy's to be too easy to defeat.