Hello fam,
Please note that while my feedback might seems critical, because I am speaking to areas I would like to see improved, I’ve been absolutely loving No Rest For The Wicked and can’t wait for the full release.
You have all done an amazing job with the early access release, and I’d like to offer some initial feedback and suggestions to assist in the development process of an already incredible game.
I’ll do my best to keep it short and to the point.
- PARRYING
There seems to be a delay to the parry animation hovering somewhere between 0.3 - 0.5 seconds from button press. Maybe more.
This means the parry often needs to be timed to the end point of an enemy’s wind-up animation, rather than during their actual attack, which is frustrating as a reflex / precision action.
Considering many of the enemies have wide variation in their wind-ups and lightning fast attacks, parrying BEFORE the enemy attacks feels off, and frustratingly so.
I can’t count the number of times I parried at what felt like the perfect moment, only to have it not register due to the animation delay.
I would suggest eliminating or reducing the parry animation timing so that it registers from 0.0 - 0.2 seconds of button press. This way we can time parries with enemies’ attack animations.
- STATS / BUILDS / RUNES
I know this will be changed when classes are implemented, but currently tying stats to such a small weapon pool, the efficacy of which is dependant upon your rune & stat load-out, is unecessarily limiting.
I want to be able to try out a wider variety of weapons and builds without having to start a brand new character, get them to lvl 20+, farm random-drop runes, and use a limited high-value consumable to roll for appropriate enhancements.
It is currently a lot of work to make multiple viable builds on a single character without investing dozens of hours for each, leading me to be “stuck” with a certain weapon loadout for much longer than I’d like.
- RESPEC
Using the same high-value currency to re-roll enhancements AND re-allocate stat points makes it even more challenging to experiment with different weapons / builds.
One potential solution is to have a separate consumable item used exclusively to fully respec, similar to the larval tear from Elden Ring.
Being able to experiment with build-crafting is (in my opinion) essential for these types of games, so it would be helpful to have a viable pathway to do so.
- RESOURCE ECONOMY
I’m not sure how home / town upgrades will carry forward in the full release from act to act. If we are required to start from scratch every single act (if we move towns for example), the current resource gathering mechanic will become a massive chore.
Even just in the early access areas I have already grown bored of the tedium of revisiting old zones purely to gather materials. Before finishing the available story quests, I must have re-visited the earlier zones 10+ times, and the later ones 3-5 times.
The time required simply to gather resources does not add to the enjoyment of the game - it just adds to the amount of time required to progress. Which isn’t fun.
This would be somewhat understandable as an end-game activity for high-value craftables, but as a required mechanic from the very beginning of the game it leads to way too much backtracking across familiar terrain, which quickly becomes tedious and boring.
My suggestion would be to either increase the amount of resources that are harvested, or reduce the amount of resources required to upgrade the town / craft basic supplies for the home base, at least in the early / mid game.
Thank you so much for all your hard work.
Looking forward to more!