I’m really loving this game. The combat is incredible and my favourite element is that there seem to different move sets within weapon archetypes. This is the kind of thing that will keep me coming back.
What I think stops the game from being as fun as it could be is the food/healing system, and to a lesser extent harvesting resources.
I appreciate trying to cut your own path in regards to healing and not doing what all the other souls like games have done… but it’s apparent to me that the “estus flask” solution seems to be the best one. Food and crafting food is a great feature but it seems to me that it should be there to supplement a more renewable health resource. I just find that burning through all of my food that I’ve spent hours gathering to beat a boss is not only punishing, but its the opposite of fun. Not all “challenges” are fun.
The smaller issue i have is with gathering resources such as cutting trees, mining rocks etc. This is an easy one, we shouldnt have to stand there and repeatedly hit a button for am minute to get a resource, I just gave up caring about them, its not worth my time. Tedious is an understatement with this one.
Agree on: I think a limited flask for health, and longer-term buffs from food might be better, but I’m not totally hating the food for health system. I’m never lacking for resources if you pick up what’s around you, though.
Disagree on: I appreciate that some balancing may be appropriate. I’m not a great lover of survival games, but I really like this page they took out of that book, because I think it fits into the world-building that they’ve done. The resources are not hard to find at all, and they refresh quickly.
The upgrades you can purchase to the town through gathering ore, wood, etc, are quite powerful. I like that there is an investment required to be able to marshal these services, and that you won’t have everything available all at once- you are part of the effort to re-build the city.
They’ve invested a lot into the immersion aspects of the world, and I find that this contributes rather than detracts. It’s a run-down city when you get there- if you want a blacksmith who can upgrade powerful weapons, you have to do some adventuring. Also gives you a reason to ‘adventure’ beyond purely following quests- you can go out for a bounty and do some gathering while you’re at it.
This is good momentum, IMO.
As a note- you can hold down the button to gather, though I appreciate that this isn’t your main qualm.
Re: the slow resource gathering - Im not really saying they should be easier to gather, more that there’s this boring, arbitrary and artificial barrier to harvesting them. Maybe if there was some gameplay involved that wasnt just standing there holding a button down, i wouldnt mind how long it took. In lieu of that though, maybe just reduce how long i have to stand there and hold the button.
Just wanted to throw some positive feedback into the mix. The animation team deserves all the praise in the world. The animation in this game adds so much to the experience. It feels weighty and impactful and is just a joy to watch. Really beautiful work.
Early game I thought that too - gathering resources to make healing items was tedious. But after a few hours of playing and getting mid game, I actually have more than enough resources to make healing items. You can also buy food from the cook. I always run with 60+ in my inventory. It actually makes the combat much easier. I don’t think we need a flask.
I agree that the cutting/mining takes too long though. Make it by default 3 swings with level 1 tools, 2 swings with level 2 tools, and 1 swing with level 3 tools. Also add more trees/ore nodes and food resources on the round to gather so overall it takes less time gathering so we can focus more on combat.