List of feedback from a newcomer (post-hotfixes)

[popcar]

I’m about to clock in 10 hours into the game, and I think it’s fantastic. That said, I do have a list of feedback that I hope can be insightful from a new player’s perspective. (Also, I played and finished every single Souls game multiple times so I’m not new to this type of game).

1. I really dislike how you only start with only one main/offhand slot.

It feels so arbitrarily limiting for little reason. I found a bow early on in the game, but I wanted to use a shield too. I kept swapping back and forth every time I wanted to use it which is very awkward. I also had two-handed daggers and a wooden sword. Why couldn’t I switch between them? Isn’t that the point of finding weapons? Not every weapon is good in every scenario. It felt demoralizing that I had to waste two important upgrade materials just to unlock something that should’ve been there from the start. Elden Ring even started you off with 3 slots rather than two.

2. Do negative enchantments need to exist?

I honestly don’t get why rare equipment have negative prefixes. So many times I felt punished for finding newer equipment because there had to be some drawback that stops me from using it. A lot of them don’t even make sense! For example, I found a purple Crestfallen Knight Helm that has this enchantment: Armor decreased by 24%

Yes, it’s purple armor that literally reduces the armor I have. I equipped it, and sure enough, it makes my armor rating worse. You might think to patch these negative prefixes to be less punishing, but I have to ask, is there any reason for them to exist at all? Shouldn’t rarer higher level equipment just be straight upgrades rather than draining my focus in combat or something similar? Sure, maybe I’ll unlock a way to get rid of them, but it makes loot so disappointing.

3. The game needs more super-light armor at the start

Vast majority of armor you find in the first section of the game is too heavy to wear without being in the heavy class. You’re faced with the choice of either being half-naked and not wearing a chestpiece, or being heavy. This issue fixes itself as you level up, but at the start there really should be at least some robes you can find so you aren’t naked. Stats be damned, I just don’t want to be in rags or topless for the first couple of hours.

4. Some paths are too obtuse

You probably heard this one before. I love exploration and I do enjoy the level design of the game, but there are some cases where main paths feel way more hidden than secret ones. Two examples stood out to me:

This path leading to the top left section out of town. I thought this was just decoration, but you have to climb these vines. I spent way too long wondering how to get up there. Maybe it’s obvious when looking at the screenshot, but considering how huge the town is and how I’m running from place to place, it’s too easy to miss.

The second example is the path to climb up in the nameless pass. I don’t have screenshots, but I somehow explored every nook and cranny in the area except the one place I needed to climb. I think it’s another issue of climbing vines not being easy to spot, and the camera obscuring the path upwards.

5. The game has a bias against two-handed weapons

I’ve seen people complain about strength weapons in general, but I think the problem is a bit more than that. The game has a bias against two-handers in general. Dark areas like the cave after nameless pass practically require a torch, which means people HAVE to abandon thier two-handers at that point of the game.

Aside from that, two-handed weapons aren’t as flexible. You can’t use a bow when using one for example, even if you have one equipped in the off-hand. This combined with my first issue meant I can’t use a bow with my daggers at the start of the game, I had to unequip my two-handed daggers to use it.

Two-handed weapons in general aren’t powerful enough to make up for the lack of flexibility. What’s the point of using daggers or a claymore when I can deal as much DPS with a sword, but also have the option to shield or use a bow or wand or whatever else? I think they need to be distinctly more powerful to make up for their drawbacks.

6. I’m not a fan of the torch running out over time

More of a nitpick really, but this bothers me a lot. I know it makes technical sense but there’s a reason most games don’t have the torch be a timer. Nobody likes being forced to explore quickly and not take their time. It feels like I have to teleport to sacrament every time I explore a cave to repair it.

Caves are already challenging enough. It’s bad enough I can barely see and have to use my off-hand to hold a torch, it doesn’t need to constantly stop working and need repairing.

7. Please make repairing equipment more streamlined

Repairing equipment is such a chore. I don’t like putting a pause on my adventure to travel back to sacrement and pay 30 copper to repair my stuff. It costs almost nothing which is great, but do I really have to go through loading screens and waste two minutes just to talk to an NPC every checkpoint or two?

I’m generally not sold on losing durability on death either. I’d rather lose XP, because then you wouldn’t punish people who are bad at the game by wasting even more time. Personally I’d get rid of durability entirely, it existed in Dark Souls and after lots of moaning, Elden Ring got rid of durability. Everybody was happier.

If not, then I at least hope you can consider auto-repairing equipment on checkpoints. Consider this: it’s virtually the same experience, except you don’t have to fast travel to fix your stuff. Durability doesn’t add much to the game rather than waste time.

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Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk. Thanks for making a great game. Ori is one of my favorite games, hopefully No Rest for the Wicked can be as well with some tweaking.

[fushuan]

2. I had this complaint before, and that blue gear was stronger, but after they made embers more common honestly rerolling a bad red into a whatever red is not too bad, and purple mods are generally stronger. If you really want to eliminate any drawback consider that you can get unbreakable+unrepairable, + 3 other mods, making it strictly better than a blue. Also, I’m running a light weight build, after upgrading my load a little bit all I did was find some thieving purple gear which I have slowly upgraded and rerolled through all campaign into very good purples.
3. Sooo, free money! Depends a lot on which kinda weapons you wanna wear, but I was able to be glove/headgearless with decently covering gear pretty early on, and as stated, getting some equip load and the load ring helped. Now I don’t even need reduced weight mods on gear to wear it all.
4. you don’t HAVE to climb those vines, they lead to a chest in the glades area and some enemies. I found that after trying to guess how I could reach the chest and looking around. That’s completely optional. You showcasing that kinda defeats your point that “main paths feel way more hidden than secret ones” since this is very much a “secret path”. Agree with nameless pass, that we need to climb a crane to progress is not that obvious at first glace but it’s not too bad, by then I was exploring everything and climbing anything climbable.
5. I use dual gauntlets so your points should affect me too. There’s a rune that illuminates surroundings for 2 minutes, I have it on my swap wand. Elemental infusion runes or gems also produce light.

What’s the point of using daggers

The huge mobility they have where you can easily get back into the fight, or kill enemies that flee just by pressing attack.

or a claymore

…or a paddle. The huge amount of stagger damage they deal in comparison (pre busted 1h stagger overbuff) so enemies don’t fight back as much, they get more coverage in damage and they can more efficiently use “on stagger” mods.

but also have the option to shield or use a bow or wand or whatever else

Wands are mainhand but w/e. Why block hits for chip dmg wehn i can dodge out and hit with a faster paced combo? dw has more uptime, 2H doesn’t need to block as much. Bows? I ahve ranged runes that deal waaay more dmg with comparable focus efficiency, I don’t need those.
6. Agree, but my only torch that activates on swap (because main is dw) never ran out. Probably because illuminate and fire enchanted gauntlets don’t make me use it on caves.
7. Uhhh, without trying to sound like an ass, die less? after getting health on kill, repair rune, healing aura rune, and some indestructible mods I barely repair my gear. Maybe it should be smoother out before a builds gets “online”.

I’m generally not sold on losing durability on death either

I’m not either, but as stated in the Zizaran podcast that their compromise lol. I don’t think losing EXP would matter much tbh, it’s way too easy to reach max lvl anyway.

So summarizing, there are tools to circumvent most of the pain points you have. I agree that post 1h stagger buff slow 2h weapons have kinda lost their identity, but coverage and stagger should be where it’s at. dw daggers, claws and gauntlets have a lot of forward momentum to compensate the use of both hands (Tucked Falcon is busted on that, I know, but the moveset is way slower).

[popcar]

A lot of this comment boils down to “just find better gear”. I’m talking more about the early game experience, as I wrote this before I had 10 hours into the game. The early game is a bit rough, but the game does get easier once you have more tools to deal with the game.

but after they made embers more common honestly rerolling a bad red into a whatever red is not too bad

But why does there have to be a drawback at all is my question. I don’t think rare loot should come with negative effects at all.

and as stated, getting some equip load and the load ring helped.

Talking about the early game where you don’t have much equip load.

There’s a rune that illuminates surroundings for 2 minutes, I have it on my swap wand.

I didn’t have an empty rune slot at that point in the game.

Bows? I ahve ranged runes that deal waaay more dmg with comparable focus efficiency, I don’t need those.

I don’t.

Uhhh, without trying to sound like an ass, die less? after getting health on kill, repair rune, healing aura rune, and some indestructible mods I barely repair my gear.

You’re trolling at this point lol. I also don’t die enough to break my equipment, but it’s annoying that I have to worry about it at all.

[Zenith]

Another annoyance in dark areas is that when you’re gathering ore or digging,etc or climbing the source of light is stowed and you go back to pitch dark. Torch running out of durability as it’s used is just cumbersome realism that doesn’t make for enjoyable gameplay.

Torches should also not take a weapon slot, they should be a tool slot and just provide the lighting on your character. Crippling yourself in combat to have vision seems just needlessly annoying.