First, I’ll say that the current system of sacrificing random items sucks and offers nothing to the game, and we agree with that.
You only end up throwing away consumable items and the items to craft them, which in turn are poorly balanced and therefore useless xD.
But the idea of unlocking teleporters isn’t a bad idea in itself, it’s just been poorly implemented.
It is important to say that the developers intended to have direct teleportation only in cities. The reason is that they spent a lot of effort in making the world interconnected and full of shortcuts and therefore it does not take much time to cross it if you learn the map. The developers therefore wanted to make their interconnected map well learned by the players since they made it in such a way as to make it perfectly navigable without TP.
Despite this, there was strong feedback from players who wanted to implement fast travel, so they implemented it, but they introduced these costs because they essentially wanted to encourage players to learn the map and then upgrade all the Wispers.
In theory, this is a sensible decision, as it would be a good choice for players who are just learning how to quickly navigate the map using shortcuts, And the TP is for experienced players who have already mastered the map.
But in practice it doesn’t work like that, upgrading the whisper doesn’t require having learned the map but only sacrificing random items.
Also the devs wanted to place the empowered whispers, one at the beginning of an area and one at the end but for some reason at the end of the Nameless Pass there is no TP, and the TP of the Lowland Meadows is only one and it is in the center.
If the 2nd Nameless Pass TP is added you would actually find that navigating from the map is quite fast, and intermediate TP are not necessary, traveling starting from the TPs that have already been given to us by the devs feels good, the only TP that is missing is the one at the end of the Nameless Pass.
This is the TP that is missing from the End of Nameless Pass:
I think it would make more sense if the intermediate TPs were unlocked with story events or in any case in a different system that guarantees that the player has actually learned the map or at least had time to do so rather than the current system.
As for Elden Ring and Zelda, they are very different games when it comes to re-exploring the map, the only reason you return to an area you’ve already completed in those games is to talk to an NPC (and other things but they happen rarely), while in NRFTW re-exploring an area is very incentivized.
The NRFTW map is more similar to the Dark Souls 1 map than the Elden Ring map, and is completely different from Zelda BOTW & TOTK map, In size, Interconnections, verticality and traversal speed.
If it helps you visualize the thing better: imagine riding around on a horse in Elden Ring and Zelda, and try to imagine the same thing in NRFTW and Dark Souls, it wouldn’t work very well and wouldn’t make much sense.
Here too, the negative effects work well as a concept, but in practice they suck, and the same goes for the enchantment system.
They’re not just to counterbalance the extra effects of purple items. They should practically change the way the game is played, the way you behave in a fight.
Obviously as you also criticized this does not happen, the negative effects are very unbalanced, either they are so strong as to render an item unusable or they can be overridden by other positive effects and are essentially ignored.
I talk about this here: The RNG Problem, Enchantment System & Gem System “TOGETHER” (BETA) and I provide a functional solution if you’re interested.
If you only care about the negative effects these are the ones I conceived/reworked (ignore the fact that they are gems, you’ll understand if you read the topic):
Cursed Chipped Moon Stone
Same for all gear: Add 2 gem slots but Lose 7-5 to 30-20 Focus (based on Damage taken) each time you take Damage
Cursed Small Skull
Same for all gear: Add 2 gem slots but take 15%-10% extra damage for 10-7 seconds each time you take Damage, this effect can stack up to 4 times
Cursed Chipped Emerald
Same for all gear: Add 2 gem slots but Lose 25-17 Stamina on Focus Use
Cursed Chipped Marble
Same for all gear: Add 2 gem slots but The gem effects of this item only work when you have more than 60%-40% Health (excluding balanced gems)
Cursed Chipped Topaz
Same for all gear: Add 2 gem slots but The gem effects of this item only work when you have more than 53%-30% Focus (excluding balanced gems)
Cursed Chipped Jede
Same for all gear: Add 2 gem slots but take 30%-20% extra damage for 3-2 seconds each time you roll
Cursed Tiny Feather
Same for all gear: Add 2 gem slots but Equip Load Decreased by 6%-4% for 6-4 seconds each time you roll this effect can stack up to 4 times
Cursed Chipped Granite
Same for all gear: Add 2 gem slots but Stagger Resistance decreased by 38%-25%
Obviously these effects change the way you play and they are not just statistical de-buffs, but the numbers are not perfect but this would really need some playtesting.
When I wrote this I’m thinking about the fact that the curses should punish the player only when he does something wrong and not just for existing to reinforce the idea that purple items are for more experienced players who can take extra risks.
Yes the game is not balanced, the weapons are not balanced against each other, progression doesn’t work as it should, It’s easy to play the game but at the same time it’s difficult to make creative builds (due to the enchantment system and incorrect use of RNG).
If you try to do things like crafting (and therefore also buying materials at the shops), or trying different weapons or changing runes, or upgrading weapons, or using and trying to make builds, you’ll actually run out of money too quickly.
But I agree that there is a problem, the system seems to either give you too much money or nothing at all, Those who want to try different things never have money, while those who like to have only one build have nothing to do with all the money they have.