Game Introduction:

"Spiritfall" is a 2D side-scrolling game that blends elements of brawler and fixed long-line Roguelike construction. In this game, you can clearly see the influences of "Hades" and "Super Smash Brothers." In addition to these, it also features non-linear route selection and fast-paced side-scrolling action settings.

"Spiritfall" also categorizes player actions into five categories: light attack, heavy attack, throwing bombs, dodging, and skill support. Players can encounter various deities, each with specific builds for these five actions, and these builds also have different quality settings.

These settings as a whole are identical to "Hades", and the game's fixed long-line construction mode is also the same. Players can only choose a specific weapon to clear the game, and all constructions will be designed based on this weapon. Players can expand their operation and process experience by choosing different weapons. This part of the content will not be introduced too much, it is consistent with "Hades", even the NPC events in non-linear levels will be the same.

The most unique aspect of "Spiritfall" is the introduction of a brawler-style control scheme in a 2D side-scrolling action game. Note, it's a 2D side-scrolling action game, not a 2D side-scrolling fighting game. The attack methods in the game are extremely diverse and come with strong displacement settings, which are identical to those in brawlers. Players can use combinations of the four direction keys and two attack keys to launch different attacks (e.g., horizontal T: horizontal direction key + light attack, up T: up direction key + light attack), and these attacks often enable player displacement, making the player's positioning in the scene more flexible. In addition to this, special throwing techniques and edge-guarding strategies from brawlers are also woven into the game.

However, since "Spiritfall" is a side-scrolling action game and not a fighting game, it does not fully incorporate the core mechanics of brawlers (knockback-based combat). Instead, many interactive platforms are designed in the game's maps, perfectly adapting to the strong displacement settings of the game's brawler-style control scheme. Although the knockback-based elimination mechanism is not fully incorporated, the knockback-centric settings are retained. Most of the monsters in the game can be knocked back and have their own knockback trajectories (which are identical to those in brawlers), but to defeat them, you still need to deplete their health bars. The same is true for boss battles in the game.

However, "Spiritfall" does incorporate the core mechanics of brawlers, but it integrates them into a mini-level within the game's non-linear progression. In this mini-level, players need to constantly attack the monster in the level (there is only one monster in the level). The more times the monster is hit, the higher the percentage on it, and the higher the percentage, the easier it is to be knocked back. Knocking back the monster three times completes the mini-level. This setting can be said to be identical to that of brawlers, even the special effects for being knocked out of the arena are the same.

Game Analysis:

• Cross-genre fusion of "Smash" gameplay

In "Spiritfall", the most distinctive feature is the innovative integration of "Smash" style fighting gameplay.

There are no shortage of fighting games on the market that mimic "Super Smash Bro", but very few non-fighting games adopt "Smash" style gameplay mechanics.

Because the "Samsh" mode itself is designed for fighting games, it features attack methods with strong displacement properties, attack types strongly bound to direction keys, and a unique throwing technique setting. Mechanically, it also has a unique knockback-based elimination method, and the core objective of the game is to knock opponents off, with match strategies extending around edge-guarding and returning to the arena. The binding of the control system and core mechanics firmly frames the Smash-like game mode within the framework of 2D side-scrolling fighting games.

Most games like "Spuer Smash Bro" follow this formula, whether it's the recent "Honor of Kings: Dawn" or "Flash Party". But they didn't do well in the simplest control feel adjustment, and they didn't make any special innovations or changes, so the response was poor.

But "Spiritfall" is different, it's not a 2D side-scrolling fighting game, but a non-linear Roguelike 2D side-scrolling action game. Its mechanics are PVE rather than PVP, the core is about progressing through levels rather than fighting in fixed situations.

Therefore, it is not suitable to directly copy "Super Smash Bro" gameplay and mechanics. The method adopted in "Spiritfall" is to disassemble and integrate the mechanics of "Super Smash Bro", borrowing from the mechanics and control system of brawlers separately. It adopts the control mode of "Smash" to improve the flexibility and mobility of game characters in side-scrolling games, and designs multiple interactive platforms in the game to fully adapt to the game's strong displacement control properties. It also introduces the original "Super Smash Bro" mechanics into the game's physics engine and mini-levels, allowing players to experience the fun of knockback.

The disassembly and integration of the "Smash" game mode is where "Spiritfall" is most successful in integrating gameplay, achieving cross-genre fusion of "Smash" gameplay, and most importantly, it has indeed received a good response.

• Roguelike Fixed Long-Line Build Setting

Speaking of the setting of Roguelike's diverse long-line builds, one must mention the game "Hades". "Spiritfall" borrows from "Hades" in many aspects of the game. Their Roguelike mechanics are different from most games on the market, as many Roguelike games (like "Dead Cells") focus more on the diverse experience of players in the gameplay process, rather than attaching importance to a relatively fixed procedural experience.

A typical characteristic is that most Roguelike games have many weapons and skill settings with different abilities or uses. Players can freely arrange them in the game process according to the random mechanism of Roguelike, thus having as different a gaming experience as possible.

But long-line fixed builds like "Hades" and "Spiritfall" don't do this, they give players some inherent settings in the process, such as fixed 5 types of actions (light attack, heavy attack, throwing, dodging, skill assistance), or the only weapon choice in each process. And the strength build of the players in the game is based on the inherent setting, not a completely random build.

This non-fully random long-line build setting differentiates the game experience of players to a certain extent, and also ensures that players can have higher quality and more coherent gameplay experience in the current process.

Player Research:

• Player's Need for Position Control in Side-scrolling 2D Games (Strong Displacement)

Speaking of side-scrolling 2D action games, what most players probably value the most is smoothness and a sense of impact, but sometimes control over displacement is equally important.

We can see that many games on the market today have set up strong displacement mechanisms, or what we often call displacement dodges. This mechanism allows players to control the position of the character in the scene at any time, especially in side-scrolling 2D action games, which are fast-paced in themselves.

Many players often complain about the wind-up when attacking or releasing skills or the buffer time when jumping in such games. These factors all cause delays in player displacement, resulting in damage from enemy hits. The player's intuitive experience is that the game's controls are not responsive, that is, they can't complete the desired displacement in a short time to dodge attacks.

Of course, many games have implemented a dodge cancel mechanism in response to this player need, where the dodge operation has the highest priority and can cancel the player's current operation. But no game has added a strong displacement setting for attack operations based on a side-scrolling 2D non-fighting game, which is the attack mode of brawlers. Because the core of brawlers is displacement (knockback), its attack operations generally have strong displacement characteristics (e.g., returning to the arena).

"Spiritfall" integrates the strong displacement attack mode of brawlers into the mode of side-scrolling 2D action level crossing. A more intuitive experience is that the character's displacement is more responsive, because different attacks often have their own displacement properties, and players can control the position of the character in the scene at any time. This point is also loved by many side-scrolling 2D players.

• Meeting the Player's Need for Established Diverse Gameplay (Stitching)

From "Spiritfall", we don't see any completely original or innovative gameplay and mechanics. Almost all the gameplay and settings in the game can be found in other games.

But the success of "Spiritfall" also shows us that players don't actually hate the stitching of games, but the key is how to do a good job of stitching. The stitching between games is different from the fusion between games. Fusion is between different gameplay, while stitching includes not only gameplay but also corresponding settings.

Whether it's the stitching of the Roguelike mechanics and settings from "Hades" or the stitching from "Super Smash Bros.", "Spiritfall" has done a good job. The deconstruction and separate integration of the brawler mechanics and control mode really achieved the purpose of taking the essence and removing the dross, providing a new idea for the control mode of side-scrolling 2D games. Meanwhile, the borrowing of the mechanics and settings from "Hades" also achieved good results, and the fixed Roguelike long-line construction also ensured the excellent process experience of the game itself.

Design Analysis:

• The direct impact of skills is too singular, causing a significant decrease in the game's playability

As mentioned before, although "Spiritfall" is borrowing from "Hades" in many aspects, it still hasn't achieved the same excellent level as "Hades".

Although the game also has similar deity and blessing mechanics, there is no linkage between different mechanics, let alone the double blessing in "Hades" that can greatly enhance the game's playability.

The deities in the game are more just purely helping players, rather than doing more differentiated dialogues like "Hades", allowing players to better immerse themselves in the role and experience the vivid and charismatic personalities of the gods.

This part of the game content needs further debugging, but since there is already a relatively certain and relatively successful stitching object (Hades), the ideas and directions for optimization are also quite clear - to enhance the differentiation between blessings, while introducing more influencing factors (such as: double blessings, legendary blessings), and to improve the setting content of related deities.

The strong displacement control system brings higher flexibility to side-scrolling games

The game innovatively introduces the strong displacement attack method into side-scrolling action games, rather than just limiting it to brawler-style side-scrolling fighting games. This design can also be borrowed into more side-scrolling 2D categories that emphasize displacement (like Galaxy City), enhancing the control of 2D side-scrolling players over character position and control. The intuitive feeling is a more responsive operation experience.

Summary & Outlook:

• The strong displacement control system brings higher flexibility to side-scrolling games

The game innovatively introduces the strong displacement attack method into side-scrolling action games, rather than just limiting it to brawler-style side-scrolling fighting games. This design can also be borrowed into more side-scrolling 2D categories that emphasize displacement (like Galaxy City), enhancing the control of 2D side-scrolling players over character position and control. The intuitive feeling is a more responsive operation experience.

• Deconstruction and Integration in Borrowing Game Mechanics and Gameplay

"Spiritfall" did not directly copy the Super Smash Bros. mode, but instead deeply deconstructed and separately borrowed from it. Because a mature game mode itself greatly limits the game's genre, gameplay, and settings, directly copying this mode can easily be accused of plagiarism, and it is difficult to surpass the original game's play experience and its influence on players by purely competing in this field.

In this case, the game mode can be deconstructed, because a set game mode includes the game's related gameplay and mechanics. Borrowing and integrating them separately, and incorporating them into the game's gameplay or mechanics (or even stitching them with other game modes), can potentially achieve good results.