Hello there, first of all, im in love with the game, you guys did an amazing job, there are some problems with performance and some bugs, but it’s an EA so nothing that bad really.
Good things:
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Combat system: the combat system is very satisfying and fun and what’s even better is that the more you progress and learn, the more fun it becomes.
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Graphic and Artistic style: It’s simply sensational, I don’t think there’s anything else to say.
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Exploration and level design: exploration is super fun, the fact that you can climb and parkour almost everywhere makes exploration very satisfying. the level design is fantastic (especially in the areas before sacrament) and the interconnection between the various areas is incredible, it becomes more linear after sacrament, but still very enjoyable.
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Mob, chest respawn and loot: I really appreciate the mechanics you have adopted, the respawn of enemies and chests allows you to re-explore areas already visited without making them monotonous and boring. the random loot is an excellent idea, perhaps the only flaw is that the drop of the bosses’ weapons is also random (this could perhaps be solved by allowing you to face the bosses already faced again, so as to also allow for a possible min-maxing)
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daily/weekly quests/challenges: excellent idea to always give a reason to return to areas already explored and give that extra reward to the player.
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Ichor system: i love this mechanic, it gives you a great sense of progression, maybe the starting inventory slots should be increased, but the mechanic is great
Neutral:
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Heal and Healing system : I really like being able to cook “infinite” cures, but perhaps a cooldown of 20 seconds of use is a little too long, especially if I want to use foods for their buffs in order to face a boss as best as possible, to enter the arena I have to wait about a minute in total (atk bonus, health bonus, stamina bonus, focus bonus), I understand having to balance the possibility of having infinite healing, but in my opinion it is something that needs to be changed in some other way, it really is a big waste of time
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Story and lore: The story is not bad at the moment, nothing special, nothing bad, but it’s too early to give a real impression. i really like to read the journals around the world to discover some background, good idea.
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Cerim Crucible: I really like the idea, but I think it needs to be modified a bit, having to repeat the floors all over again before being able to get to the boss in case of death can become frustrating and boring, both when you are too weak and when you become too strong compared to the area of the crucible that you face, when you are too “weak” and manage to get to the boss the first few times, not allowing you to face it again without redoing the entire crucible could make the player lose the desire to face the “End game” after trying a couple of times. on the other hand, when you are too strong, it can become boring to have to go through all those rooms before getting to the boss, because the only thing you do is jump on the heads of all the enemies knowing that you will destroy them in order to get to the boss. Excellent starting idea, but it should be tweaked a bit.
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Durability system: im ok with it, not a problem for me, but i understand it can be a problem for some players, maybe do not destroy the item but just make it uselles until the repair if durability reaches 0? and maybe make the fee higher if the item has 0 durabilitry? idk
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Enchant/Infuse/Runes mechanics: Hard to say if I love it or hate it, sometimes weapons or armor come out that make me say “wow”, other times, throwing away armor or weapons because the enchanting went wrong can be a bit frustrating, i really appreciate the “balance good buffs with possible downsides” but most of the time the downside is too heavy (e.g. - #% carry weight makes pretty much any armor useless). the infusions are very interesting, especially the fact that each piece of armor has a different effect with the same infusion, I also believe that if the weapon already has an elemental effect, it should not be possible to use another elemental infusion, seeing as, rightly, the second elemental effect does not occur. The rune system makes the build up very interesting, but it’s a shame that enchanting weapons no longer allows you to insert other runes into the weapon, decreasing the player’s choices. Also allow the player to extract runes from weapons, is an excellent choice.
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Finley: I really like the idea of a traveling merchant who occasionally returns to the city with various weapons/armor that can be purchased, but having him appear only one day a week seems too little to me, especially in early access, there’s a risk that many people don’t even know about his existence (for example, having released him on Sunday, I will have to wait until next Saturday to see what he can propose), perhaps it would be better to have him come back to the city several times a week, maybe once every 2 or 3 days. I really like the exploration you have to do to free him, not too visible, but not too hidden, again, beautiful level design.
Bad Things:
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gathering system: this is almost the only weak point of the game in my opinion, the collection of resources takes a little too much time, too many hits for resources, too few resources given by the various spots, it could be solved by giving a minimum of guaranteed resources based on the tier of the tool used (?) (for example copper axe : minimum one piece of wood, maximum 3, iron axe minimum 2 pieces, maximum 4 etc. idk, just my idea).
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Crafting/updating system: this is the other weak point in my opinion, in general, too much time for smelting, tanning etc. having to wait 30 minutes for a single silver bar or soft skin is really too much (considering that 10 are required to upgrade tier 3 armor) I can’t wait an hour to upgrade my weapon, it’s a huge waste of time , and having to settle for playing with a non-optimized weapon when I could have already optimized it is a big flaw in my opinion, the crafting time should be drastically decreased, ofc if you upgrade the blacksmith to T3 you can buy silver bars from him, but still, it requires a lot of time and a lot of resources, especially the CLAY which is still way too rare, same thing for city upgrades, it makes sense that it takes a little time , but 1 hour for each upgrade (which then becomes 4 for the next upgrade) seems a bit too much to me, especially considering that upgrades allow you to expand crafting and considering that gathering resources takes time. it’s a big waste of time, I’m not saying it should be instantaneous, because immersion in the world could be affected, but not even that long.
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Inventory and quick inventory management: I don’t find the inventory itself problematic, but its management (especially within the city) needs to be modified, in my opinion. Not being able to automatically use the materials in the chests when upgrading equipment, or to upgrade the city, for example, makes having to go back and forth a bit boring, but not too problematic if you carry everything you need with you before talking to the blacksmith. The real problem, in my opinion, is the quick inventory, especially the one for healing, having all the healing in the quick menu makes navigation during fights almost impossible, I think being able to choose which items to have in the quick menu and which not to have may be the right solution, especially during the bossfights (and especially during the bossfight in the Crucible) having to choose the food to use from everything you have in your inventory makes everything artificially risky.
That’s everything i can say after 30 hours (i’ll keep updating this post if i find something else that i like/dislike), as i said, you did a great job and the game is fantastic, i can see how much passion and effort you put into the game, and i love it. thanks for everthing. sorry if my english is not that good, not my first language.
Keep up the good work guys, you are insane.
