Alright I’m just going to dump my notes that I took during my 200ish hours playthrough. I got 3 characters up to 30 (1 Twohander, 1 Dagger and 1 Mage) with which I did countless T4s and Crucibles.
This list is basically just alot of stuff, which irritated or threw me off at that moment. They are pretty much in the order of early- to endgame, so in the order of me thinking of it while playing the game.
I could point out plenty of positives aswell, dont get me wrong, but this list would go on for days. Let me just say, that this game is pretty much everything I’ve always wanted from an isometric action game. The combat alone is so very satisfying and everything surrounding it just equally lives up to it. A standard of quality we unfortunately arent used to anymore these days.
So here it is. I’ve sectioned it into 3 parts, as per the tags.
(I google’d the definition of pithy after the list was already done, so in that regard I’m sorry lol)
SUGGESTIONS
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Stamina bar top left
Or atleast a widget with higher visibility. The camera is moving and its hard to make out at times, especially in larger fights with enemies that generate alot of distance. It is also obstructed by terrain and particle effects? Most noticable during the bear boss in the lowlands. HP and Focus is already displayed in the top left, so why not stamina. -
Dodge backwards without input
Just nice to have for a quick dodge into punish. -
Dodge on button press
This ancient workaround is also unsurprisingly annoying in this game. That repeating feeling during the campaign of “I feel like I dodged that” when trying to react is something I didnt really enjoy. I dont enjoy it in any souls game tbh. There has to be another way. You have an open button technically, by not having heavy attacks. I’m sure you can figure something out to move the genre forward in this aspect aswell. I would love to see it. -
Shieldless blocking with 2H or 1H weapons
Just nice to have for utility and animation canceling a running attack into a normal attack for instance. Something that works nicely when using a shield. -
1H weapons in offhand? Dual wield?
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Target lock more visible
I only joined this patch but I saw some older footage with it being a lot more clear which enemy you are targeting. Maybe something in between with more contrast than the current one, since it gets lost easily. -
Auto continue dialogue
Just like main story dialogues, so you can sit back and enjoy what the peasant has to say. -
Recently added currency instead of total, when looting, bottom right.
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Roll to remove burning.
Not fully but maybe like 1/3rd of the buildup per roll or something would be nice. -
Elemental resistance potions/buff food?
Something you can throw on when you see an enemy with an infused weapon for instance. -
Easier quickitem usage.
My suggestion is, that when you are holding down the dpad to select a food item, you can press a button to use it instantly, without having to change back to your original one afterwards. To top yourself off with a lesser food etc. -
Slow health regen at campfire?
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Being able to rearrange runes without having to destroy them.
Just nice if you want a certain rune on a specific keybind. -
Rune storage
Maybe instead of in a box in some sort of interface/cloud? Playing warehouse simulator currently with all these runes. -
Focus bar text.
So you dont have to guess if you have enough for your ability or not. -
Elemental enchantment runes/oil should add elemental damage, not convert physical.
You are coating your weapon arent you? The blade is still in there somewhere. Infusions should convert the damage instead and maybe roll seperate of attack modifiers. -
Would like more cheap runes to combo your auto attacks with.
It just augments the gameplay and makes it more fun. Low cost, low impact but useable often. -
Let us customize the runes from unique Items.
I feel like the rune system is one of the most fun in this game, therefore being forced to play with a certain set on a unique feels a bit dull. They still have modifiers that would make them build-enabling. Would also give us access to some rare runes, which we could strip and put onto other weapons perhaps. -
Offhand runes? Shieldbash etc.
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Unlimited Focus in your house?
To test out runes and experiment. -
Shoulder barge and parry should contribute to the stagger bar.
Atleast in a small way so your stagger progress isnt being hindered by either and the stagger bar reset only starts to occur after the enemies recover from the downed state. -
Have shoulder barge register the input sequentially aswell instead of having to press the buttons at the same time.
Just a bit tricky at times with the controller triggers. Could be made to function with pressing one, then the other. Or just give it a small queue. -
Be able to lock weapon slots again.
So you can weapon swap without having to cycle through an empty slot. -
Rare currency to reroll cost/gain on weapons?
I like the system in general, it makes each weapon rather unique. But in the current state of the game, trying to get an upgrade is basically playing a slotmachine. When in the future you will be able to target farm for certain items, this would probably not be needed. AlI in all I would like this feature to stay though, in one form or the other, since it makes picking up items, which you have already aquired, fun. Rather than seeing them as just some vendor trash. -
Ember drop rates tied to zone difficulty or ease of traversal.
If the current ember system is here to stay I would like to be more rewarded for venturing into dangerous territory, rather than hugging the starting zones for the same outcome. -
Subtitles for inaudible voices even with subtitles disabled.
Turned them off to enjoy the cutscene more. Later figured out the Sayer in the Cerims Chamber actually had something to say. -
Shared houses between realms?
Right now I’m just swapping back to my main realm to deposit all my stuff, instead of making a new house for my characters. I could see myself wanting to give them all their own house but I would still want the stash to be shared in some way.
FEEDBACK
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Input reading projectile attacks feel unfair
You kind of get used to it the more you play, but at the start I was really thrown off by how they know exactly where you dodge or move to in the last second. -
Targeting seems broken at times
Especially in large arenas and multiple enemies. Im sure you know of this already. Best would probably be to differntiate between ranged and melee attacks, where the melee targeting follows your movement and the ranged stays locked unless changed with the right stick. -
Rebinding “Interact” doesnt work with placing furniture.
I came straight off of NIOH 2 so I rebound it to B(xbox) and had to default it every time I wanted to place something in my house. -
Repeating NPC voice lines every time you walk by.
As brilliant as the voice acting is in this game it does get annoying. Maybe a cooldown? -
Downsides on plagued gear seem a bit harsh.
Parry disabled, really? -
Heavy roll stamina regen maybe slightly too long?
Your character is already on his feet and there is still a small delay. -
Some rune damage is delayed and out of sync of their actual animation hitting.
Mainly for when enemies are right on the edge of the hitbox. Almost like they get by slow, expanding hitbox. Noticed on “Dodge Slamdown” and “Slashing Spin”. -
Health on Kill doesn’t work with throwing enemies off ledges.
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Item mods switching after using an ember and then accidentally rolling away the one you wanted to keep feels terrible.
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Input accidentally double clicking doesnt help either.
Not sure if it’s my controller or just not enough leeway, but I’ve seen a few other people comment on this aswell. -
Couldnt complete the tutorial because of a bug.
Noticed a while later that this is actually a recurring bug, where sometimes when you climb up on a ledge or jump across one, your character does a 180 after landing and runs right off. Happened to me during the jump sequence in the tutorial and had to skip it. Might throw some people off(no pun intended). It fixes itself by exiting to main menu. -
Recent bounty changed made them way too easy.
The enemy in the bottom of the prison in the Nameless Pass had more HP than his counterpart bounty. It’s a daily challenge, not a daily loot pinata. -
Boss HP seems a bit too low?
On my first run with a +10 weapon and no crazy amount of points into my stat, I felt like the caretaker went down way too quickly. Shame really, that boss is pretty awesome. Although his waves could probably be a bit quicker. -
Only being able to have one status buildup at the same time sucks.
In most other ARPGs you are basically forced into a single element and it seems like it is no different here sadly. I would have it so that the status you are trying to apply diminishes the one that is currently applied. Not being able to burn a shocked enemy makes no sense. I would love for this to be the game where I can finally play all three elements and combo some cool stuff with them, instead of just being locked into one. Currently it feels like im just shooting myself in the foot. -
Life leech feels overpowered in endgame.
Also invalidates food.
WEAPONS
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2H weapons feel inferior to 1H.
Not only because of the offhand buff, but also in terms of stagger/focus gain. Could 2H weapons fit 2 gems? Have 6 mods? 3 stronger mods? 4 runes on R2 and another 4 on L2? -
Greataxes could do with more stagger.
I played the majority with the Twibill Greataxe. Switching to the Claymore made such a huge difference. It has a higher stagger value, higher speed, greater range, more damage and less weight. -
Greatsword and Staff running animations look silly with the character leaning into the corners.
Would be cool if they were just held with one hand out of combat. -
Crafted weapons should randomize their cost/gain.
Currently they are static and just kinda bad because of it I feel like. -
The majority of weapons are clearly not finished, so I would like to just point out some things that could maybe help in refining the rest.
-Currently there is a delay after certain attacks (mostly the running chain) that hinders you from following it up with normal attack for about half a second. Noticable on the Divine Scimitar, where it seems like the animation has to fully end for it to register a new attack. Or trying to use a rune attack after the third normal attack of the Blood-Rusted Sword, as opposed to after the first or second.
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Claymore’s running and dodge attacks are the same chain. But the dodge attack one is one short.
Seen this on a number of weapons now, where they share the same moveset for multiple scenarios but then are somehow cut short for some reason. Makes no sense to me. -
Gnarled Staff has a unique running attack that follows up with the second normal attack but then just ends with a delay, instead of following up with the third.
I would like to see the different attack chains seemlessly integrate into each other, atleast when they share parts of the same moveset. -
Being animation locked during normal attack chains doesnt feel good. Examples are the third attack of Siren’s Horn/Needle Spear or the first attack of Gnarled Saw.
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Tongue Splitter has a double stab in its normal attack chain? As an axe?
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Spliced Hammer is basically just one attack? Bit boring. Looks awesome though!
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For me the perfect weapon right now is the Blood-Rusted Sword. It has 3 different movesets for normal, running and dodging. Granted its running attack maybe a bit overpowered, but the weapon varies in slashes and stabs, something all spears, apart from the lance, lack for instance. It has quick recovery and minimal delay/animation lock. Being able to charge attacks mid chain is great. It also has something which I absolutely loved, where the swing animation doesnt fully recover and lets you continue from there on. If you press normal attacks with a bit of a delay inbetween you will see what I am saying. It’s great. Felt so good with Milady in Elden Ring, and it feels great here aswell. More of that please!