Hi Moon Studios,
I just played NRFW for a little bit, I have already tons of negative feedback, but before that, let me just start with something positive.
I love the emphasis on a good story, even if there is no indication yet whether the story will be good. They say no one cares about story in ARPGs, and they are somehow right, because all ARPG stories from Diablo to Grim Dawn, Last Epoch and Path of Exile are just terrible. Either the writing itself is already bad, or the delivery is also bad (lore notes, self-indulgent writing etc), npcs doesnt talk to the character like they are characters, npc talk to themselves and serves to deliver lore dumps only, there is nothing to care about the npcs in all these ARPGs.
The cinematic environment lighting and the slight elevation of landscape traversing is also very nice, makes the world more alive and not static like all existing arpgsā¦
I also love the idea of not making combat like current arpgs. All current aprgs suffer from a similar problem, the lack of need for positioning and no active defense mechanism like block. Without the need for positioning, all of them devolve into holding down 1 button dps match, tanking damage and hoping boss die before you do. All good action games, good arpgs combat that are not solely isometric like Nioh 2 and Final Fantasy Strangers of Paradise have a need for positioning and active defense system like fast dodge and block/parry.
I want to see this game succeed to provide a fresh and interesting direction in the arpg genre. That said, as far as good things go, thatās about it.
> The BAD:
Character Design is just so ugly.
I donāt understand who decided that the male proportion needs to have needle legs and popeye hands. In comparison to all arpgs, NRFW has the UGLIEST character, itās like the ugly sonic when it first released. You donāt have to go full anime faces, but you also dont have to go full this ugly. Why even bother to provide options when the options are just ugly, uglier and even uglier? Do Devs seriously dont understand why people spend hours on a CC and transmog? Definitely not to ugly-fy their characters. Do you know why people love Hades? Because their characters have nice proportions and are gorgeous. This design seriously has 0 marketing appeal. 1/10
Default movement is unbearably slow
Why make sprinting separate when most people end up sprinting across the world anyway as it doesnt take stamina at all? This is such a stupidly mind boggling decision, it makes the entirety of the game into a slog pace. Movement should always be fast and sprinting, if any, even faster. This is an arpg, not a walking simulator.
Additional unnecessary movement features in an arpg.
If the movement mechanic doesnāt serve as a usable mechanic in āactionā, then itās a useless movement mechanic. Iāve already mentioned that the movement is slow, then thereās another slow crouch stealth? How much content are going to utilize this crouch stealth mechanic? Is it going to be fun to do in the long run? Absolutely useless and a time waster.
Platforming with no real natural jump? Why do devs add these kind of stupid unnecessary road blocks to their game?
Worse of them all, sidle? is this an arpg or is this a slow deliberate stealth game? All these movement features are entirely useless and have never ever been a good feature in any action game. At the end of the day, even stealth in Sekiro doesnt contribute at all to the longevity and replayability of the game. And Sekiro is not an arpg, is a one time stealth action game, if you are doing an arpg with plans of continuous content updates, then this whole sidle, stealth, platforming things are just putting down your game.
Copying Souls-like, just because (huge read)
Obviously, I love Fromsoft games, played almost all of them and tried a few souls-like too. From all the entirety of souls-like that are good, thereās only Lies of P and Nioh 2 worth a mention. Lies of P, being almost a carbon of Souls mechanic 1 to 1, even down to the general gameplay, and Nioh 2, a totally different beast on its own with full combo sets, having the souls-like mechanics only at a very surface level. Every other souls-like are mostly terrible, the worst being their souls mechanic in their game, and yes even Remnant 2, excellent gameplay throughout, the worst being the souls mechanic that is unnecessary in such a game, making everything a slog.
What is your goal here? A souls like or an "Action"rpg? Do you think people play souls like because they are super excited about playing it slow? Or is it not because of the entire mysterious exploration and encountering unknown beast and try beating it with your very limited capabilities?
Not every game needs to be a souls-like and definitely not an āisometric arpgā. Everytime my stamina is out, and im retreating for it to recover, itās all just pointless action downtime, and strangely enough, with the slow pce of the walk and isometric view, your combat is even more sluggish than a Souls game.
Developers these days seem to have their creativity dried up and so afraid to find out whatās fun and copy souls slow paced combat just because.
Check out the arpg scene, what do you think they like? Slow un-cancelable full commit attacks that is limited to 4 strikes then pause due to stamina? If you have asked old Wolcen players, many of them will have asked āis action cancel finally implemented?ā Do you get why they ask this? Because action downtime is NEVER fun. Early Diablo 4 metrics, shown that most players stack up ācooldown reductionā affixes for their build, do you even understand why? Because action downtime is NEVER fun.
Check out the Action genre scene? What do you think if excellent game like Hades have limited Stamina for attacks, evade and block? Do you think it will be as good? Has there been ANY action game that is using a Souls-like formula and was popular and loved by the action community? ZERO. Because if any of you know the action genre scene, a souls combat mechanic is not a shining beacon in the action genre. Oh, Nioh 2 is one? thatās where you are wrong, Nioh has an entire mechanic called Flux that is dedicated to reclaiming your stamina with every action, and when you are high skill enough with practice, You can practically do continuous combo with zero downtime because your stamina never runs out.
Your combat system, while having a good idea, doesnāt hit the highs of either genre but in fact felt worse because itās a mish mash of both. I play PoE , Grim Dawn, Diablo, Nioh, DMC, Souls series & Elden Ring, NRFW is at the bottom list, itās everything unfun put together. Slow, sluggish, limited, not fluid. It feels bad when fighting 1 to 1 enemy, absolutely garbage when trying to fight mobs like loot arpgs.
Instead of me just complaining how absolutely bad the combat system is, let me give you an advice, ditch the entire āSouls-likeā system, in fact ditch the entire Souls like mindset, itās a brain rot for developers. It is not suited for isometric view, it will NEVER be suited for an arpg with content/seasonal updates.
Look at the latest isometric arpg with Souls-like combat, Achilles: Legends Untold, is that what you want your games to be? If yes, then enjoy the low sales in the future.
In fact look to isometric action games like Hades, Warm Snow, find what and why it is engaging and implement it in NRFW (hint: itās build variety). You may not want their max high level speed style of gameplay, but you can learn a thing or two on why itās fun with no downtime, and how it can also be implemented when fighting enemy waves. If you are not thinking about enemy waves, then scrap your idea of loot arpg, every loot arpg wants enemy waves, not constant 1 to 1 combat, enemy density is often a complain in all loot arpgs. Your entire combat system needs a whole revamp. And also, donāt make actions uncancellable.
Parry & Guard as seperate button
I wonāt delve to much into this as I have written a whole lot above. In short, itās another very stupid idea. There will be only 2 outcome, usually it will either end up parrying be too risky and not rewarding enough, or parrying being too useful and ppl forgo blocking altogether, it always end up that way, and you will end up endless balancing each other but achieving none. Look at the successful ones like Nioh, itās just timely guard, good timing and it turns to parry, same with Sekiro, a failed parry ends up into guard. Look at Souls, how many people use parry as a regular mechanic? Almost none, because itās too risky and people end up just tanking with heavy shield or dodge. So you end up balancing this mechanic and having an entire user base forgoing it, what a nice effort isnāt it?
Mini map
This is not a 3d 3rd person, you can never see the front and memorize layout. Please have size/zoom adjustable minimap on corner, or minimap overlay. If you are worried people will just look at overlay and not appreciate all the nice designs in your environment, then put a tracking system like Monster Hunter World or the isometric game The Ascent. Where you can put a pin on the map and a button will trigger a nice subtle direction to go without the player constantly switching to see map.
Build Variety
All arpg need to have this, all good successful arpg needs to have depth for people to theory crafting. I love melee and will likely play melee all the way, but you must provide enough theory crafting to allow people go full range or any other style other than generic melee. Path of Exile has probably the worst and most cancerous grind and crafting in any game, you dont have to go there, but why do PoE have just dedicated fanbase that keeps on playing the updates? Itās because of all arpgs, PoE nailed down the theory crafting down to a T. If you have played it, you know other arpgs in the market doesnt even come close. This is one of the most important part for replayability outside a good combat mechanic. Have many wacky items that do wacky things, have many items that do unique interactions, let people combine and produce crazy, wacky, interesting results, and worry about balance later. PoE as of now has 1000+ unique items.
Summary:
Itās a long write, there very little positive i can write about your game, but dont feel cynical and think i want your game to fail, because in fact I want the opposite, that your game succeed and provide a fresh fun experience in the loot arpg genre, a great arpg without having to grind like cancer in PoE, and i think, you just have the potential. But potential just remain potential until itās realized, as of now, as a long time player or arpg, rpg, and action games, your direction is just all wrong and felt like garbage, played an hour and i immediately felt terrible.
Please donāt take lightly about points like Ugly Character design, all the points here i donāt just mention it casually. And itās better to revamp and refine it till its good before releasing it. Because once you release it fully without hitting the truly good features, there might be no way to make a come back for the game. Good luck, hope you really nail it in the genre.