Yeah, I have no idea how you made it through some of the complicated platforming segments in the later areas without the double jump. I'm having to mix up double jumps -> grapples -> double jumps -> glides -> grapples -> etc... on some of these sections like the final optional section in the cloud level. I feel like the controls are a little finicky, especially the horizontal jumping slash to jump and hold into glide down slash, so I probably have like 500 deaths Super Meat Boy/Celeste style but a lot of them don't feel deserved unlike those games.
That being said, I'm surprised 2 of you guys had trouble on the fire demon general? I struggled on some of the bosses for a bit but thought he was one of the easier ones. I mean his moveset is:
-Standstill for a very long time whirling up and then dashing and standing still - You get a shitton of slashes in and then jump up as he dashes and then a ton of slashes after
-Jumping to the ceiling and back over and over - literally can just dodge by moving left or right and then getting some slashes in
-Hanging in a corner while whack a mole demons fill the screen with fire below - you can basically just mash jump + slash over and over while heading in the direction of him and then hit him a bunch and change sides and repeat
I think he had one other easy free hits move too maybe? Don't remember.
I had a tougher time on the mushroom whip gal, the dragon and the temple of time final boss. But once I figured out each of their patterns they were all pretty easy to beat almost no-hit. Like the boss of temple of time felt like it took foreeeeever since I could only get a few hits in when the hands moved horizontal across at the bottom since the rest of the time he's covered by a circle of light.
...then I figured out when he claps his hands you can glide and land on his raised hands and you get to dodge the run left/right jumping through balls phase AND now the upper hands while doing that left/right become platforms leading you right to the boss to hit him a bunch. Once I figured that out instead of being a 10 min endurance fight that was tough was like a 2 min easy fight. So far I feel like all the bosses have good patterns that once it clicks they're pretty easy and it's fun figuring the patterns out.
I'm surprised you missed that as that's the game's main hook.
It was occurring prior for sure but I hadn't realized that the indication was an extra jump that was 'stored' and could be used at any time following. Before I knew about the cloudjump but thought it required execution immediately following a slash to a stone as a button sequence (also noticed this for the ghosts in the 16-bit mode area), which is why I had the impression of it feeling hit or miss earlier as it felt unclear when it would work and not.
Currently got my first note. I don't mind the backtracking so far although I did go through a couple spots a few times after trying to figure out how to cross some pit in an alternate mode (couldn't find a way so far to get there in what I'm guessing is the correct mode).
Ah, yeah I didn't realize about the way it was stored until some of the complex platforming bits later on. On the fire general whack a mole bit though didn't need to store it, I just mashed jump and slash to hop from one to another.