Hey
So I think I’m kind of done with the game now after 32hours of playtime and I’d like to share what bugged me throughout that experience.
-
Runes should have better explanation. I was really confused when I used Channel for a bunch of times and didn’t get any focus, but instead I lost a lot of HP. I just didn’t know I need to keep it channeling for longer. A minimalistic channeling bar would be great. Also, when shopping for new runes in Sacrament, I have no idea what I’m buying. Heck, I don’t even know what some spells do from the name alone. What even is Return? It was one of the moments when I realized how reliant we are on wikis nowadays, because there’s not enough crucial information in the game itself.
-
The next-to-character UI should be more visible. I was really confused when I’ve noticed, that the circular UI is hidden behind a waterfall when I swam. I wish I could just have a boring, static stamina meter next to the character. It would be great if we could choose what we want to see and if we could adjust the visibility of that element. In Valheim that kind of UI is much more simplistic, but at least it’s perfectly visible no matter what happens.
-
Too much running. Inability to teleport between whispers confuses me. I wish I could teleport to somewhere in Nameless Pass, run to Sacrament while collecting stuff and then tp to the Crucible. I bet this will be more of an issue as the game grows. Also running between vendors and the house is quite annoying. “Oh, you forgot that one Silver Bar? Go all the way back to the house and all the way back to the vendor, just to realize, you need another one thing to grab for the next upgrade”. I wish I could have a chest in between all the vendors, like in Diablo or PoE, or have the ability to have materials taken straight from chests, so that I’m not being forced to being a transport donkey.
-
Enemies attacking from south or exploring downwards as a whole. Quite often I was annoyed with enemies that jump on me even though I had no chance of spotting them. Most of the time that happens when the character runs south. It’s also quite an unpleasant experience to run downwards as I can see muuuuuch less when running towards the camera than when I’m running outwards. Camera movement would definitely fix it, but I understand how this cannot be implemented, because I believe the whole artistic design revolves around relatively static camera (or does it?). It would be great if the camera moved a bit further back when running south maybe? Exploration is definitely hindered by this.
-
Cannot compare items. That’s a weird one for me. In terms of itemization, this is a hack’n’slash, so I’d expect such option to be there out of the box. Right now I need to equip an item, equip the previous item (just so that I have the item I want to compare in the last slot in my inventory) and then I need to repeatedly equip both items to check which one’s better. It’d be quite masochistic to go between the equipped item and an item in the inventory.
-
Crafting feels useless. I got some recipies for consumables that I never needed nor were they ever useful. The weapon enchantment oils were fine when they dropped in the world, but I treated them just like a temporary bonus, like a Diablo shrine. There’s no reason to use such consumables mid-fight with a boss as it takes precious time away from combat for very little benefit. I understand buffing myself for the duration of a boss fight, before the bossfight, but the current consumables just act as source of income. The reagents themselves are quite expensive too, and getting a couple of silver coins per sold skull is just crazy. Crafting gear… I mean, I don’t know in what way would these weapons be better from what I have? I need to really go out of my way to get materials for that crafted gear anyway and there’s no reason ever to pursue that. I would need a good reason to craft a piece of gear, like ability to guarantee a mod during enchanting or I dunno… anything else than a vendor can already offer me.
-
Lack of starting weapons. It bothers me that the player cannot craft themself a starting weapon with some basic weapon crafting kit and a minimal amount of resources. I dunno, like 2 wood and some random thing to create a most basic sword, or a staff, or whatever. When I start a game, I’m forced to play whatever I drop, which is weird. One game I get 2h sword and a staff on the strand, next game I’m going through Mariner’s Keep with my bare hands… IMO the player should have a chance to choose a weapon much before Sacrament.
-
Fallen Embers should be treated as key items. Ok, that one is related to my stupidity, I admit, but I got like 50 embers before the Crucible and I needed money. I didn’t need consumables, so I sold them, and the Embers were sold as well, because I didn’t know if it’s just some trash or if it’s relevant. Now I need to run around the world and look for Embers :x… They seem to be too important to be sellable.
-
% resource on hit on fast weapons is broken. I’ve killed the Echo Knight with a 2h axe and I’m really happy about this, because it was hard. However, the whole magic disappeared right after I realized I could be running around with a Shamshir with %hp on hit mod. Not only have I staggered enemies much faster, I dealt more damage and I was pretty much invincible, because of all the life that I stole from enemies. Suddently healing consumables became completely obsolete and Echo Knight is a piñata.
-
House decor is a pain in the bum. It’s incredibly hard to place stuff around on a controller. I hope there will be a snapping feature in the future, because currently the furniture just stands randomly far from walls and it’s almost impossible to create anything cozy. Also, is there even a gameplay reason to have a cozy house?
-
Mods on items are either great or completely useless. Durability halved curse is the best thing one can get on an item, as it does pretty much nothing, but getting stamina drained with every hit straight up makes the game unplayable, especially when it feels like stamina can go to negative values with this mod.
-
Parrying is useless. I know there are mods that try to make parrying more useful, but it’s just much easier and more reliable to roll through attacks and give yourself a chance for a backstab, rather than fishing for a parry after being hit a few times already, just to realize that all I can do after a parry is to perform one normal attack and nothing else. I have never encountered an enemy that I could fight with more reliably by parrying them instead of dodging. It also doesn’t help, that the animations are quite “jumpy”, quick, abrupt, and it’s unbelievably difficult to time out the parry when the blade of my enemy is already on it’s way towards my face.
-
The combat feels alright although admittedly sometimes it can get annoying with how everything “flails around”. This game definitely shines in 1v1 situations. What bothered me is that I was able to stun enemies much more efficiently with a 1h weapon than with a 2h one. I could notice that especially on the Echo Knight where I could stun him like 3 times per phase reliably with a Shamshir, but I could never get even close to a single stun with the Short Bardiche. Or maybe I’m just bad, I can accept that explanation
-
Inability to test weapons / skills. I don’t want to be forced to watch some YouTuber showcasing all the skills. I want to be able to equip a weapon, go to an arena with some training dummy and just check how it plays. I want to make decisions base on my own information, yet I don’t want to waste time on leveling multiple characters just to be able to check my possibilities.
I think these are the points that bother me the most. Overall the game looks fantastic. I love it that it has an actual style instead of going for realism. Game is fun, but there are too many small things that bother me as of now. You know, it’s like camping when being constantly bitten by something.
I wish you all the best and I have my fingers crossed for you!
Kind Regards,
ashrasmun