This game is amazing!

Personally, I don't find it too hard. It gave me a nice challenge, and was pretty much a nostalgia trip for me. I grew up with platformers, myself.
I'd really like to see more from you sometime, if you're still around. ^^

This is awesome, you really have to play the game, you can't just burn through it.

this reminds me of XDRAGOON from

I didn't know where to do o_O

this is very fun!

I'm in love with your game
very addictive^^

NICE'n gorgeous!!XD
and nice music,
however what can I do after get magic tropie??

All I can say is wow, this is amazing! Very addictive!

Since I don't really know what the critique function is exactly for on this site, I'm just going to post this as a comment.
Sorry if I don't respond, I don't know of any notification system on DeviantArt, and I forget to check things easily.
Warning: Lots of parentheses to follow. I'm going to ask my grammar, nazzi (that comma is supposed to be there) buddy how a semi-colon is used.

I'm writing this after playing both chapter 1, and 2 in completion (on easy for both and then medium for chapter 1).

Difficulty
Perfect difficulty (a few deaths, but no major frustration leading to a rage quit) until the boss. Since the game is primarily a platformer, it just doesn't really prepare you for a boss battle like that. I was able to defeat him on easy eventually, but after going back on intermediate (or whatever the middle difficulty is), I couldn't deal more than a third of his life before I was killed each time. It's difficult enough dodging the energy balls and their shockwaves, but to shoot him as well is practically impossible. If the game had some situations similar to the boss fight (serious dodging skills tested, better accuracy checks, etc.) earlier on in the game, it would be much easier while still presenting a good challenge.
I got an E on all three occasions I played, primarily due to the extreme difficulty of the boss battles.

Music/Graphics
I love the music! It has a very Metroid feel (which is what I assume you were kinda going for in gameplay with the quote "seems to be a staple of the genre") without being Metroid. The beepy-style instruments is my favorite style for video games. Playing a small bit of the dragon game (not my genre), and the first bit (still playing) of Mardek, the music you make is one of my favorite parts of your games. The first being the graphics in this game. Old school, extra-pixely is easily my favorite style for anything but an FPS. Considering I didn't really play video games when this was the standard, I can't say why I like it so much. Anyways, I digress. Often... Weither the graphics and beepy music are the best of your capabilities, or an artistic choice (fingers crossed on the latter), the graphics and music for this game are perfect in my eyes.

Controls/Gameplay
First, let me say, the shift+jump is brilliant! Light jumps are difficult to achieve in these type of games and they're necessary. Thank you for making them worlds easier.
There's not really much more to say on the controls. You perfected them, from seperate buttons to jump and climb/activate, to jump strength. Bravo, sir.
Level design is great. I never felt hopelessly lost, but it wasn't always immidiately apparent what I was supposed to do. The only complaint would be that it's all very similar. You've seen one row of ladders, you've seen them all. Though there were some in 2 that tripped up the standard. The ones where you start them off or end them with a full jump are very deceptive.

Story/Characters
Arkus is absolutely perfect. The comments he has with the signs is hilarious. A great, flat-style-cool space pirate.
Not a whole lot's developed in the story yet, so there's not really much to say about it. The plot looks good so far, and I hope the story keeps up with it.

Something I'd like to see in the future is maybe some sort of space battle. Looking at his ship makes me wish I could do awesome things with it. Also, the ability to move and shoot would REALLY help with boss battles and make minion slaying much more enjoyable, rather than feeling like a timed door.

I understand it's not the style of this game, and that you've layed nearly everything out already, but I would really like to see a side-scrolling RPG of a similar universe from you. I haven't gotten very far in Mardek, but the battle graphics are very strange to me, especially when put together with the (gorgeous) pixelated overworld. What I'm getting at is something more with a Raider feel with RPG elements. Gun upgrades, health increases, movement speed, etc.

Other notes
In the "How to play this game", page 5, you typed "Conglaturation!'' which is most definitely not the correct way to spell congratulation, which is usually followed by an s. Then again, it's probably a quote from some game I never got a chance to play.
I noticed a download option on the left menu for DeviantArt. Is there really a way to download this game to my computer for offline play, is it just to present it in that different window?
I'd like to tell you that I didn't play old games except for Metroid, F-Zero, and FFV (though this wasn't challenging at all) in recent years. This series ranks very high on my list of favorites.