I am loving the game, and I am so excited for its future. As I mention below, I am not a souls-like game player. I am a Path of Exile player. But this game has me wanting to figure out how to play souls-like game combat so I can keep collecting gear and currency - those feel like an impossible combination in my head. But y’all have figured out how to bring them together in a way that I never imagined before. That’s a truly special experience, and I applaud y’all at Moon Studios for a magnificent next generation ARPG.
I have never given feedback about a game before, but I feel excited to be a part of the journey of this game. My feedback is about how it feels to play the game rather than feedback that is technical or even specific.
Difficulty
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Beginning difficulty is too intense compared to how it feels after you upgrade weapons and armor. I am not a souls-like player, and I almost abandoned the game thinking it was going to be as difficult throughout the game as it was in the beginning.
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Related to the above, it is not communicated or understood that players should start a new realm if they get stuck or run out of resources in the tutorial phase. Once I did this, things were exponentially easier and it felt like I had been missing a key piece of information and had been just beating my head against a wall for no reason.
QoL
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No easy way to see what runes do. I still don’t know what the two I have equipped do or how they are targeted.
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The stamina system next to the character model is hard to see and comprehend. The icon needs to be brighter or larger. Or there needs to be a another way to see how much stamina you have left. This might be why the parry system feels bad, because you can’t easily tell if you have enough stamina to parry or not, particularly in a flashy or dark fight.
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The parry systems feels unintuitive to me. Like the dodge roll, it also feels like sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t even when it should. This one might be a skill issue on my end.
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Several systems are unexplained. I can’t figure out why I can’t use the anvil for instance. Every time I try to use it, I can’t place the anvil anywhere. I am guessing this unlocks later?
Bugs/performance?
- The dodge works sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t (irrespective of stamina) - having it on the same button as run seems to be a problem. Almost feels like input lag or something, like the Xbox controller is conflicting with the controls. Feels bugged somehow.
Closing thoughts
After 8 hours, I just reached the sewer area. I could not beat the tutorial boss even after clearing everything else I could find. I think this was clearly a skill issue, but I felt discouraged. I did not know that I should have “restarted” on a new realm and just clear my way to the boss until I read something on Reddit. I am sure that has to do with my unfamiliarity with a different genre of game than I typically play. But, realizing that restarts were a part of the strategy gave me such relief and helped me keep playing long enough to figure out how to beat the boss - which I did shortly after finding a few more gear upgrades on the new realm.
With that major hurdle cleared, I am loving playing something that feels really new to me, something I have never played before. Thank you for such a great experience, and best of luck on the development and cultivation of it!