Call me a MILG, cuz man i love (this) game. Lots of build variety, really good worldbuilding and amazing cutscenes, the art style is beautiful too, but the combat is just missing something, especially in the melee department. Why is it that my stomp attack costs focus, the same essence mages use to cast magic, when all im doing is stepping forward a little hard? Melee runes, with exceptions, should use stamina instead of focus…for obvious reasons. you are doing near similar actions to your base moveset, albeit with a little more oomph, but why does it have to cost focus, especially since melee builds are forced to build into stamina and stamina regen, even moreso for heavier set melee builds or two handed weapons in general.
While on that topic, greatswords are just unfun to use. Despite being in full plate armor, an enemies kitchen knife can stagger me out of my insanely slow, heavy sword swing. The attack either needs to get off faster, or the player needs some extra poise when using these attacks. The weapons attack so slow you cant even punish a parry. Several instances of my early gameplay were filled with me parrying an enemies, starting to swing at them, and then them hitting me before my swing even connected with them. The is unusable in a parry based build, and the weapons weight does not constitute trying to build into light weight for dodging purposes. It certainly needs to be reworked.
At some point of one of my playthroughs, i picked up the laquered bow. Out of curiousity (especially since i specced into dexterity at some point) i decided to use it, and instantly it made the game 10x easier. The damage the weapon does is stupid, and not in a good way. Even while underleveled, and without any build set up whatsoever for the bow, and despite me not using a quiver or any stamina management, i killed darak and his second parasitic phase, literally in under 30 seconds. I was taking off about 15% of his health bar a shot, not to mention the status buildup I was doing as well. This isnt just about the laquered bow, but bows in general, since they change the game from an engaging soulslike atmosphere where you have to worry about think about your build, to early game diablo vibes.
The mage side of the game seems fine, i didn’t touch upon it for much more than an hour in the early game, but i wonder why mages basic cast costs stamina instead of a low focus amount. 5 focus to 10 focus would be more than fine, since its magic by technicality. These casts also allow mages to build up focus originally, but why not just gives staves melee attacks, which are probably never used, a large focus gain buff, so that it influences a dual playstyle, and makes the class more engaging than just being another gunner. I also find it weird that there aren’t really any elemental resistances on enemies in the game? Like inflicting a frost wielding giant with ice themselves, or plaguing and torn bear, it doesn’t make sense to me, and would help balance mages even more, alongside giving them incentive to diversify out of one element if they so choose.
Death is also not punishing enough. The most dangerous thing in the game is more than 2 enemies being in one area, instead of the games bosses. Why is it, that when i die, i only lose 2-3 durability on my 100-150 durability item. Even moreso if i get indestructible, death has no punishment at all. It very much strays away from the typical soulslike punishment for death. Repairing your gear, isn’t even hard at all. I carry about 30 repair powder, including my mediums and larges, on me, and after dying 10 times, i pop one and never have to worry about it for the next hour anyhow. Death needs to institute another form of setback, because currently it is doing literally nothing.
I had a ton of fun with this game in my 50 hours of playing it, but it teeters between too easy on one side, and much too punishing on the other. I can’t wait for the next update in the story, but i would love some combat-based patches soon to fix these things.