Hello. I’m writing feedback after 9 hours of play. I’ll only write about the negatives for now.
Combat system
About 20 years ago, I first played Nox and, being a child, thought a lot about similar kind of games in ARPG genre, but since then, nothing significant seemed to come out in a similar formula. Probably because such a perspective doesn’t fit that well for skill-based RPGs, I don’t know, but I have to say that at first, I didn’t understand the combat system of NRFTW. Sometimes it was unclear which direction the opponent would strike, whether they will reach my character or not - especially when enemies attack from the bottom of the screen upwards. Or when they spin around, delivering blows. Combat felt very unfamiliar, but I decided that I needed to evaluate the game on its terms and continued, and it got better after a few hours. But sometimes it’s still difficult to understand the destination of incoming flaming bombs; perhaps some flying objects aimed at the player could be telegraphed more clearly. I also want to note that many enemy attacks aimed at knocking down the player shielded are way too sudden and fast, making them too difficult to react to, and they deal damage as if they were three regular hits ( at least ive got that impression). And it’s not just because I always keep the shield raised, I don’t. Also - red dot on selected enemy is hardly readable more times then you would want to. And a color blind person might have a huge struggle with this little dot all the time.
Gameplay
It’s somewhat disappointing that in 9 hours of gameplay, I haven’t encountered that many weapons of different types. It seems I only came across a couple of daggers, straight swords, a claymore, and a hammer. I would like to have a wider selection of weapons from the first blacksmith to try out different types as soon as possible and consciously invest exp points in a certain build. Because I found a decent hammer closer to the start, which was clearly better stat-wise than everything else, I’ve stuck on it. And I don’t even like it much, it’s too slow, but the other weapons were even worse in terms of damage. And investing resources in leveling items up to the level of the hammer just for testing - doesn’t seem very appealing. By the way, if there’s no respec option in the game, it’s a pity - pls consider adding it.
Also, I didn’t quite understand the purpose of realms in the game. Why should player create more than one? At the moment, I see their application only in farming the first boss of the game and opening up more slots for items. Which, by the way, looks like exploiting a game mechanic, which doesn’t give the impression that I outsmarted the game but rather that I did something unintentional in a bad way. Also, I got impression, although I may be mistaken, that unique items are not guaranteed drops from bosses, you can end up with nothing, and for now, the only way to try to get a unique item from a boss is to create a new realm and start the game from the beginning. I’m not sure if this is the best solution to this problem.
Inventory
Perhaps this system caused the most frustration. I didn’t like the durability system either; I don’t see much sense behind it, except for punishing the player by interrupting what they were doing and going to the city for repairs—which isn’t criminal, but still frustrating to the game’s rhythm. But that’s not the biggest problem. Everything related to the inventory is very frustrating - there’s very little space, items and resources instantly fill up the backpack, then soon fill up the chest. I don’t know how the developers intended the game loop, but leaving dungeons and running from the portal to the chest to drop off ore and bones isn’t fun. I understand why there might be a limit on the bag for food ingredients, but managing resources like bones, ore, and wood in the game isn’t a worthwhile time spend. It’s also frustrating that vendors don’t consider the contents of the chest - to upgrade an item or start building you have to run to the chest, and then back again. Also - the need to constantly buy tools for resource gathering is very frustrating. It’s a real source of disappointment. Real-time timers during building projects in the game are also disappointing. I think it’s unnecessary. Also - a lot of the time once some healing option depleted game would autoselect to mushrooms as the next option, yet i had something better on me, but to change it a had to stop and go to the inventory. Dunno, but the way how heals and consumables are working right now is frustrating.
PS. I like the game so far. Once I’ve gone through all the content and thought about it, I’ll write a new post, hopefully more wellthought