Spectral Slash
A combat-focused deckbuilder where your weapon deals no damage. Slash enemies to gain energy, use energy to play powerful cards. I highly recommend playing the tutorial before starting a new run.
Controls are fully remappable. Gamepad highly-recommended.
Default Controls
| Control | Keyboard | Gamepad |
| Move | Arrow keys / WASD | Left stick |
| Jump | Space or Up arrow or W | A (xbox), X (PS4) |
| Slash | Q or J | X (xbox), Square (PS4) |
| Dash | W or K | B (xbox), Circle (PS4) |
| Play Card | E or L | Y (xbox), Triangle (PS4) |
Add creative modifiers to your cards! Build a powerful deck!
Each loadout has unique playstyle. Try out all 6 loadouts and see which one you like most!
An average complete run takes around 15 minutes. There are an additional 5 "challenge modes" that give you an increased score multiplier. Let me know what your final score is in the comments!
If you're having FPS issues in the downloadable windows version, try going to the pause menu ("escape" or "start" on a controller), and go to options -> video -> and try disabling vsync or disabling the framerate cap.
If you like the game's music, feel free to listen to it on my soundcloud here! https://soundcloud.com/abhisundu/sets/spectral-slash-ost-1
Download
Install instructions
Unzip the zip archive and run the exe "SpectralSlash.exe" to play.
Comments
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I love this game, my favorite weapon are the floating swords, in fact I only boosted that card, in particular I think I will use the pray mechanic by removing HP or increasing the damage of the enemies to have more money.
my best score is -4061
music hits as hard as the epic gameplay
super polished and really fun
Hey Abhimonk! Remember I made Shadow Shot? Well now its revamped and is a LOT more expansive! Here's the link: https://pexited.itch.io/lightrigger
Still keep in mind that you were the one who started this game idea and I built apon it! Thanks a lot man, and I hope you make more amazing games like this! And I hope you get TONS of support!
PS: Spectral Slash used to be the main inspiration before I found Revita and Downwell
Your coolest fan, Pexited.
Just gave Lightrigger a try, it’s sick! Super juicy, seems like it has a great foundation. Really cool to see you expand on the ideas from Shadow Shot. Thanks for the kind words, hope you stay inspired and keep making games too!
Revita and Downwell are great inspirations, I see the Revita influence a lot in Lightrigger and it’s really well-done.
forgot how many times i chose endless mode but i just went until i died also i collected many more power ups than this but the screen is only so big (would be nice if it showed power ups with numbers like before death or just the picture and than something like x3)
Hello there! Great game! Since it's made with Love2D and it's pixel art and it's playable on web browser I have a couple of quick quetstions if you don't mind:
1) Have you used Love.js for exporting for web?
2) Did you draw first in a canvas and then scale the canvas up?
Thanks! Keep it up!
Hello, thanks for playing!
Yes, I used Love.js to export to the web (specifically Davidobot’s repo of love.js)
I first draw in a low-resolution 320x180 canvas and then draw that canvas at a 3x scale on a 960x540 canvas, and then draw that final canvas to the window. There’s some intricacies in the middle like having an intermediary “shader” canvas and a UI canvas that gets scaled separately, but that’s mostly it.
Glad you liked the game!
Thanks for your tips and keep it up with making games!!
I DID IT, I BEAT SKULL STORM (kaycee's mod reference) WITH THE SIMPLETON. the bosses swords are actually pretty easy to dodge, and once you get used to using the nascent star to gain energy, bosses are much more manageable. this is truly the culmination of all i have learned, also i had stars on hit, stars per energy, and pulse on hit as the mods on my fireworks spam attack, it created the coolest blitz ever
beat it twice in a row on gunslinger, current score 9K
I have 10 mods on my rapid arrows. I stopped after 3 loops, I got homework and sleep and life to do, here's some screenshots
Damn this is all awesome. You’re a beast! Thanks a ton for playing and for mastering the game like this, it’s so cool to see.
the bosses on max challenge settings (took me like 3 hours of runs to get to even the first one) are actual bosses, also why is the second boss the first one on max challenges, is there a third one just for this challenge (I died to dashing a few frames too early and my I-frames running out right as I dashed into a bolt strike I thought I was dodging)
beat the first boss using a certain rapid shot strategy mentioned below, score around 2000, tomorrow will make it to second boss
simpleton is 9/10, second best to gunslinger, seeker spam just looks so cool
Gaining energy with star is a little annoying tho, I also like how its a reference to the wretch starting classes in the souls games. PS is conqueror shraya from spectral slash a reference to Pontiff Sulyvahn's phase 2 from DS3?
That’s right! Shraya’s clone attack patterns were indeed heavily influenced by Pointiff’s phase 2 clone.
YOU GAVE MORE AGRESSIVE BOSSES SWORD BOSS SHRAYAS SPECTRAL SWORDS. epic but so annoying, truly a final boss for 5 skulls mode
finally came back after many, many months and still gunslinger is so broken all you need is the broken rulers + the good gun upgrade and it's already broken enough
another broken combo is the rapid fire attack fully decked with homing shot especially when they're the ones that fire after hitting enemie
(Ignore this or whatever lol)
Okay, I have to say. I LOVE This game and has inspired me to make my own! If you have the time to check it out, feel free to.
I made this out of pure love and I'm not trying to advertise, I simply want you to see a passion project I made for the love of your game.
https://blankboiyt.itch.io/shadow-shot.
Hey! I’m really glad you liked the game. I gave shadow-shot a try, it’s really cool! I finished the non-endless mode and had a ton of fun. I ended up getting a bunch of fire-rate upgrades and machine-gunning everything down, really satisfying. The bosses (or rather, boss x 3 phases) felt a little on the easy side, but I’m assuming that’s a work in-progress.
Your game is super stylish: The dash, the transition between the basic stages and the shop, the red ‘on hit’ VFX, it’s all really polished and impressive. The upgrades are compelling and it feels so good to stack them together. You did great! I’m humbled that my game inspired you to make something so cool.
omg, thanks man :D
this is probably one of if not the best game hes realeased
yessir
Interesting little thing, my menuing only works with d-pad. This certainly could be a side effect of me using a wii u pro controller masquerading as an xbox controlle, but if not I thought you might like to know.
whenever i try to open this game it opens up like a blue screen that says:
"Error
Engine/Lighting.lua:46: Shader uniform 'lights[0].position' does not exist.
A common error is to define but not use the variable.
Traceback
conf.lua:276: in function 'handler'
[C]: in function 'send'
Engine/Lighting.lua:46: in function 'sendShader'
main.lua:394: in function 'draw'
[C]: in function 'xpcall' "
and i cant fix it nor play the game,any help please?
Hey, sorry that’s happening, not sure why. Does this happen when you run the web version or the downloadable version (or both?)
If it happens on the web version, can you tell me what OS and browser you’re using?
Well the web version works just fine(its lags ALOT but thats on my part,using Opera btw).Its only the downloadable version,ill try it again now though.(redownloaded it and still doesnt work,strange)
Hmm gotcha, you’re on windows right? (Windows 10 or 11?)
I can do some research to see if I can fix it; I’m guessing some setups handle the lighting shaders differently.
yeah im on Windows 10
Quick question: do you have the latest graphics drivers for your hardware? If so, can you tell me what graphics drivers you’re using?
Died on the first floor, game window permanently turned red after I quit to title. 10/10 game
Is there a discord server or similar where I can report bugs? Only the web release download works, on the other version I get a pastable bug report trying to start the game.
Sorry you’re running into issues, there’s no discord server but you can post any bugs or errors here in the comments. What error do you get when trying to launch the downloadable version?
Hello you all! I was playing as Ninja when I realized about a really strong build for that character. At the image you can see all the trinkets and cards that I picked (I actually didn't pick any card) and also some things that I realized in my run. I expect this can help someone who wants to play Ninja, and also maybe help the creator to fix this playstile (?
(Pd: this is a "spam Quick Pierce" build btw)
who is the best character?
depends on your playstyle. I'm good with all of them but mostly star and gun characters. Play with your choice man
i just wanted people opinions
Great game!
I really like this game. Super Well done!
I managed to do this lmao. (I died and went to menu and uh.. glitched it lol) Don't patch this, I wanna play the game like this and I'm sure other people do too XD
the background turned red?
ye
This game is Awesome! Some things that I would love to see tho would be bigger maps and things to interact with in those maps (e.g. moving/crumbling platforms etc.) and also a different color for the character than white bc it's pretty hard to tell where you are sometimes. Other than that, very addicting and fun :D (+ cool music!)
Thanks for the feedback and for the suggestions. I think I might add a “highlight player” option in a future update, it should be pretty simple to do. Glad you liked it!
simpleton plus firework trinket plus homing flare mod = rocket
is this a good build?
decent could be better
Great game! Just the right level of challenging with lots of characters and weapon combinations to try.
Please make challenge modes give you more xp than the increase in respawn cost.
Whenever an enemy spawns I get max health
P.S. That trinket is broken AF
Also i have now become the literal God of Light for every time i fight the whole game lights up
they should take down this game for being too addicting and fun to play
real lmao
watch now gameplay with commentary
Great game. i think it would be better if the player could see enemy health so that you could feel the impact of the cards more.
Thanks! I can consider adding that as some kind of toggle in the options menu in the future. I get what you mean, it’s tough to see exactly how well your damage scales relative to enemy health scaling without enemy health bars.
after continuously just playing endless I have gained more power than an individual should have and transcended to heights beyond all knowledge of the concept of power. I have become... a god...
P.S. I love this game.
Hahaha I honestly haven’t tried multiple endless-mode runs in a row, I’d be curious to see if anything broke or got weird. Stacking a ton of trinkets gets pretty crazy. Really glad you enjoyed the game enough to do multiple endless runs in a row!
It becomes a little unwatchable after 6 or so run throughs and the mosey system breaks after 4 of those fancy money dudes but I like the funny numbers after that :)
I...uh...beat the game multiple times in a row bc I just kept continuing
yeah...you can go negative points
with the loadout that I had I beat the game in record time for my personal best, and without a single death, honestly personal favorite starting weapon is gunslinger especially when you get broken rulers.
Ooh yeah gunslinger feels really good with a few broken rulers and a couple ‘better guns’. Beating the game deathless is awesome, nice job!
Quite nice, would love to see this fleshed out more
Thank you! I’m considering expanding on it in the future, but it might be a while before I return to it.
YOOOO new abhimonk game, very nice game
Just beat normal mode. I feel like this is a fusion of any combination of all the best parts of all of your games:
1. the cards from six cards under
2. the aerial movement and dashing of planet D4RK
3. the basic movement and melee attack from Olden Peak
4. the roguelike upgrades and special moves from putrid shot
5. Your general art style and design ideas
Definitely your best work yet
Thanks a bunch for the comment, I’m really glad you liked it. This game is definitely the culmination of a lot of different ideas I’ve tried out in previous games, I’m really proud of how it came out. Glad you noticed all the pieces from my other games that went into this one. Thanks for playing!
watch now gameplay with commentary
Thanks for making a video and for playing! Ninja is one of the tougher classes to play when you first start out, nice job finishing a run with it.
Fantastic game =) had a blast. My first go i did horribly but the fool I was I skipped the tutorial and did not realize regular attack's merely gives you energy xD but redeemed myself later. Keep up the amazing work and left a follow!!! Your game is first in the video
Thanks for playing; that first boss is definitely a tough one, you did well for your first run!
No worries on missing the tutorial, I’m glad you figured out how it worked, thanks for making a video!
I've done it on two tries, but with one death. It's a great game - unfortunately it was kind of hard for me to not get confused with controls (when trying to jump off from a platform, I dashed instead of pressing jump and down). Overall it's great game!
Thanks for playing and for the video, you ended with a great score on your second run!