I was able to play the game quite a bit yesterday, and got to level 11, beat several of the bosses and unlocked the housing system, just for context. My constructive feedback below:
EXPLORATION:
BIGGEST CONCERN HERE: Please consider removing the inventory limitations! In a game that has many items to pick up, of many different types, with low stack count limits on particular items (20 mushroom stacks instead of 99 etc.), having inventory be as limited as it is feels just awful. Having to leave items on the ground because I’m full feels bad, running back to the last teleporter to go back to town and manually run to my stash to store things, to then run back and teleport back really breaks the fun gameplay loop/dungeon immersion for me. I’ve even cleared out my inventory before starting an area and still end up maxed out before too long.
The rewards for boss ichor (boss drops) being tied to inventory expansion feels pretty bad too. It feels like I just beat a hard boss and get QoL as a reward instead of player power. The only option that feels somewhat tied to player power is the extra ring slots.
Tweak the sprint and regular walk values. The walk speed is far too slow to where I just hold sprint all the time. If not tweaking these, add an option to default to sprint instead of having to hold a button down to do it. This ties into my next point:
Rebind jumping and climbing from the sprint/roll button. Having all of these functions on one button causes me as the player to feel restricted in what I’m trying to do in the world, and has caused a number of jumping deaths that would have not killed me if I were allowed to just walk off of the edge (yes I know I could just not hold sprint, but the walk animation was painfully slow)
Reduce gathering time. The FEEL of gathering is actually surprisingly fun and visceral, it just takes too long for tiny amounts of rewards. Maybe consider also adding a sparkle type animation to gathering points like some quest objectives have to make them stand out a bit more (After 8h of playtime, I STILL don’t have 10 wood to start one of the building projects).
Make all quest objects more visible (sparkly effect etc.). The lever in the sewers comes to mind for this. I grabbed it and had no idea it was a reusable item, and then could barely see where I was supposed to use it in the environment.
COMBAT
GEAR DURABILITY. I can understand possibly wanting there to be some kind of money sink in the game to prevent the player from getting too rich later on, but currently durability feels like it is punishing me for playing normally or well. If it just reduced on death or on getting hit even, that would be much better, instead of my weapon durability reducing every time I hit an enemy. I had my weapon break mid boss fight after several repeated tries (armor was still fine) and this caused me let the boss kill me so that I could run back to town and repair, run all the way back to the teleporter and run back to the boss to try again.
Initial stamina and weight limit feel very restrictive. Trying to wear heavy armor early feels impossible, which stifles player freedom. If not tweaking these initial values, maybe consider reducing overall armor weight values to allow for more build freedom.
Enemy respawns seem to be tied to zoning back into an area after leaving it? This was the best I could tell. Maybe have a pop-up style tutorial explaining what this mechanic is tied to would be helpful. Maybe it is the fog of war returning to an area?
Overall I think the game has a great foundation and looks to have a promising future. When I was able to engage with the core gameplay loop without inventory restrictions or accidentally jumping off of cliffs etc. I had a lot of fun. Thanks for working so hard on the game and I’m looking forward to seeing the improvements you all make.
Took more notes as I was playing today. I’m now level 15 and nearly done with the main story I believe. Here are the bullet points that stood out that could use tweaking/improvement.
MAP
-Unclear what area of the map is what when actually viewing the map
-Area markers for daily/weekly bounties?
INVENTORY
-Item stack amount increased (to 99 for everything?)
-Cooking shouldn’t take time
-Ability to sort items in storage
-Cerim Ichor isn’t clear when it drops. I’ve had some in my inventory and I have no idea how I got it (bounties?)
-Items that have gone over their stack limit don’t recombine after the maxed item has been consumed (I currently have a stack of 7 and a stack of 6 mushroom soup with no way to combine them)
TRAVEL
-Make routes to important locations quicker (storage chests etc.)
-More clearly defined area boundaries (exiting a cave etc. isn’t obvious)
-Fast travel needs to be improved.
-----Make which point you are attuned to more obvious.
-----Make it so you can set several points as travel points?
-----Make it so you can choose where to travel?
-Stamina decreasing when swimming doesn’t feel meaningful.
PROGRESSION
-Ability to respec character (consumable item?)
-Armor weight decrease to allow for more build customization
-Cooler looking armor (currently all feels lame)
-Glamour system
COMBAT
-Unclear how many enemies left in a bounty (bounty mark above enemy heads?)
GATHERING
-Make gather resources easier to spot on map (trees especially)
-No gathering durability/gathering items don’t actually break, they just become unusable until repaired
-Ability to upgrade gathering items instead of random drops (feels better, more character progression focused)
CRAFTING
-Ability to craft using stored items. Currently very frustrating to have to run back and forth to storage chests
-Currently no indication that a building job has been completed (would feel good to see the message pop up)
-Artemisia herb required for too many recipes early on. Feels like a bottleneck.
I always find it funny when games have limited item space like this. Is it in an effort to seem more realistic? Surely it’s easier to carry 1000x herbs than a single plank of wood.
After beating the first boss, I was actually stunned that the reward was more inventory space. Very disappointing. It’s like getting a box of envelopes at work as a bonus for great performance.
This. This. This.
I’ve died sooo many times, and more often than not it’s from doing weird ass things over rocks rather than dodging. Moreover, I can’t help but feel there’s an input delay on dodging because the button is multi-function.
I literally played the first few levels unarmed so that stamina didn’t feel as restrictive. Lol.
