Hello fellow gamers of Moon Studios! I’ve only managed about 10-15 hours so far in the breach but I have over 100 total. I thought I would write an initial feedback post and then another final one after I’ve “finished” 
I don’t think I can give impartial feedback about tuning. My first playthrough I was new to a lot of the mechanics and I thought going heavy was along my generally preferred playstyle of “be tanky, take it slow, the longer you survive the more you learn.” Going heavy was an awful choice. I will try it again at some point in Breach to see if it’s viable but in Crucible it led to an awful experience and me dying to the first boss 50ish times whereas in Breach I easily one shot him with unfamiliar weapons and medium weight. I can say the early game doesn’t feel too hard. The jump in difficulty when I started into the black trench for the quest line there was MASSIVE. I went from danger level 3 or so to 15 and it was a kick in the gut.
Between Crucible and Breach I finally got around to playing Elden Ring. I also started my own game officially. The feedback I’ve been getting and my experience in Elden Ring has made me hyper aware of when a feature isn’t clear. I’ve been shocked at how things I’ve gone out of my way to explain are confusing players in my game, and it blows my mind how many features of Elden Ring are truly awful yet seem to be completely forgiven (like the fact that great runes are central to the plot and major rewards for slaying demigods yet many players beat the game never using them). I appreciate how much effort ya’ll have put into NOT letting things like that happen in your game. Here’s some areas I think players need more of a nudge:
- Direction to where you can respec
- Understanding that weapon upgrade damage and stat bonus damage is multiplicative
- Clarity that getting lots of “junk” gear is intentional and extra should be sold because it’s going to be a primary income source (Maybe Fillmore makes comments about the militia always needing more gear or him breaking down gear to reforge)
- Clarity that there’s three different quest lines once you get to Sacrament that are independent, with developing the city as a more passive “parallel” task. Basically that the black trench quest line is separate and doesn’t interfere with heading into nameless path and the third option going to the crucible is also totally separate but is pretty key for character development and customization. You could be super on-the-nose about this and give quests categories so black trench could be “story quest” nameless pass could be “main story quest” and crucible could be “character advancement quest” or something.
Okay please read this with a gentle tone because I know how much it sucks to work hard on something and have someone say I hate it… I hate the new enchantments. Some enemies are easy to backstab, many literally can’t be backstabbed. Some enemies are easy to parry, others primarily cast spells or use attacks that can’t be parried. Some enemies are best just aggressively rushed and chopped down. Some you really NEED to dodge roll huge sweeping attacks and for others optimal engagement doesn’t involve dodging at all. Using an enchant slot that only helps me in one of those scenarios feels like a huge waste. I also REALLY miss my passive health and focus regeneration. I loved being able to go all out in a fight and then go pick flowers and catch fish while I recharged. All that said I LOVE the new enchantment customization system, thank you so much.
I really appreciate the item stack cap increase. I am still in favor of just infinite inventory for non-equippped items. It ruins my groove when I’m out having a blast collecting loot and oh, I need to stop and go to town even though I’m excited to explore the new cave I just found because I can’t pick up this mushroom.
I saw the post about eliminating the stat system so I won’t bother writing up all my feelings about that other than the things I hope will be fixed after reworking the system are:
-having to choose between offense and defense and really not knowing what the correct answer is until you’ve tried it but respecs are locked behind semi difficult content
-having to commit stats to trying new gear but then learning you really don’t like the gear and the gear you do enjoy using is now significantly weaker because you didn’t spend the stat points on the gear you like and respecs are locked behind semi hard content
-not stat system, but similar to making offense and defense compete I think that having ichor unlock both quality of life features like more crafting inventory and also huge power boosts like new ring slots can result in some serious buyer’s remorse.
I think that’s it for now. My Steam review is glowing and nothing will change that. Keep up the great work!