It's tedious to walk through 3+ screens every time you die to get back to the boss again. Especially since the enemies respawn.
Provide a way to get your essence back from a boss room without beating the boss
I had a ton of excess essence and went into a boss room. I've tried the boss many times. I would like to take a break and explore other areas I haven't been to, but then I'd risk losing my essence forever if I died before making it back to the boss room.
Longer weapons/backdash
I've tried the forward sword, the knuckles, and the overhead swinging sword and they all have terrible range. It's really hard to avoid enemies but also hit them. Particularly annoying when you happen to be standing 1 pixel too close to a boss during its stunned phase and it hits you when turning... Perhaps alternately or in addition, a backdash would be a great way to provide some more safety to melee attacks.
Larger platforms
I'm sort of surprised at how picky the platforming is in this game so far. You have a nice jump in this game but the target platforms are extremely narrow (especially those buckets...).
All this being said...
So far the game feels pretty dang awesome and I'm happy I backed it
And one question...
Can you lose essence? I came back to the town and noticed I could level up twice at the bonfire, but decided to wait until buying/selling a few things. After that, I could only level up once
