I love your write-up, and you reflect much of what I am thinking and have been ruminating on with the game.
Your experience of the early game sounds very similar to my takeaway. MOon Studios’ decision to bring this game to EA is precisely because they are trying to blend these different subgenres, while also evolving their own vision in a meaningful way. Design is sensitive, and they want to get it right.
I think what we are experiencing is that the early game is very much a Souls experience. As we unlock more mechanics and more of the Diablo elements come into play, the elements become more at odds with each other. The curve as you get deeper into the game swings harder towards the Diablo end with difficulty bursts.
This issue is also affecting the vision of classless character development, where the state of builds at the moment results in most blended builds feeling very much the same.
I don’t think and don’t really expect MOon to come out and give direct written statements of what they are working towards, because the reality is that these varying elements are shifting around Design Pillars that they have stated. Our feedback and how we play the game will contribute to their discussions, tweaking these systems around these Design Pillars.
With that said, we all feel the potential here and the difficulty is keeping the visceral Souls combat feel with the power scaling of the Diablo loot system.