I’ve played this game for hours, and I sense both the potential for it to become an excellent title and the possibility of it turning into a terrible work.
I’ve grown to like the game after playing it all day today, so I intend to play it for a long time, even if the updates I hope for don’t materialize.
I’m particularly looking forward to this game’s weapon collection, visuals, and story.
However, I still think there are some points that should be fixed if possible.
This game feels like a combination of the bad aspects of Elden Ring and Dark Souls 2, with the added element of “poor visibility.” (Those who have played Elden Ring and Dark Souls 2 will understand what I mean.)
With that in mind, I’d like to suggest fixing the following points:
1.Increase the overall speed of player character movement and responsiveness to controls
2.Increase the initial stamina and speed up stamina recovery
3.Reduce the HP of non-boss enemies and increase their knockback when taking damage
4.Overall improvement of minor usability issues
My opinion on this game is quite long,
so I’d like to provide detailed explanations in the following three posts.
[Action-related problems]
Let me refer to non-boss enemy characters as regular enemies here.
The regular enemies’ combo attacks are unnecessarily long and fast, so even when players skillfully dodge enemy attacks, it doesn’t lead to an opportunity for the player to counterattack.
(In Elden Ring, the long combo attacks of bosses were an issue, but in this game, the regular enemies have long combo attacks while the bosses are not as bad.)
I rarely find combat with regular enemies in this game enjoyable.
It should be possible to maintain the game’s difficulty while giving players an appropriate sense of accomplishment.
Conversely, I think it’s a mistake to assume that simply not giving players a sense of achievement leads to game difficulty or complexity.
Even in games where enemy attacks are equally intense,
if there’s proper time for the player to attack afterwards, it can provide a sense of accomplishment.
And there were many instances where I felt I was unfairly damaged, regardless of my control skills or strategy.
Whether this is actually the case or not, I think it’s bad game mechanics to make players feel this way.
This game has poor visibility and many areas with narrow footing.
Regular enemies’ combo attacks usually consist of 3 to 5 hits, but they have long reach and are fast, so players often can’t avoid taking damage or fall from high places, interrupting the battle.
Moreover, there are many scenes where you have to fight multiple enemies simultaneously in poor visibility.
Regular enemies notice the player even when they are outside the player’s field of view, making it difficult to avoid fighting multiple enemies at once.
There are also many instances where enemies launch rushing attacks or ranged attacks from outside the player’s field of view.
Also, due to the slowness of the player character’s evasion, when players jump from one platform to another or climb a ladder, if there’s an enemy at the destination, they’re almost certain to be hit by a preemptive attack.
[Minor Usability Issues]
-Fast travel destinations are limited to only one choice
-The player character sometimes automatically locks onto enemies, making it difficult to move as intended
-Climbing, dodging, and dashing are all assigned to the same button (you might climb an object when trying to dodge, or dodge when trying to climb an object)
-The same button is used for picking up items, climbing ladders, and sidling along narrow paths near walls
-It’s difficult to specify the direction of the player character’s jumps or walks (leading to unintentional movement and falls)
-Poor visibility is constant due to camera movement and various obstacles
[Detailed explanation of improvement suggestions]
Ideally, it would be preferable to fundamentally revise the action system and level design if possible,
but if that’s not feasible, I believe the improvements I’ve suggested would have a considerable effect.
Enemy attacks are often surprise attacks,
but they’re not so sudden that players can’t notice them. If the player character’s movement and response speed were faster,
it would significantly improve playability.
Increasing stamina and speeding up stamina recovery would greatly reduce situations where
players use up their stamina avoiding one enemy’s attack,
then find themselves unable to avoid attacks from other enemies or lose the chance to counterattack.
(I’m aware that equipment can improve player speed and stamina to some extent,
but if these improvements are necessary to avoid unfairly taking damage in many situations,
it feels like poor game design as it reduces fairness and limits players’ freedom in choosing equipment.)
When fighting multiple mob enemies,
if players could defeat them quickly one by one, the burden would be significantly reduced.
When battling multiple mob enemies,
if player attacks could properly knock back enemies and restrict their actions,
it would allow players to reduce the number of enemies they need to focus on at once.
Regarding usability issues, I don’t think a detailed explanation is necessary as many players seem to be mentioning these problems.