Overall thoughts on .130.99 build
Apr 22, 2018 10:03:19 GMT -8
Post by fuckea on Apr 22, 2018 10:03:19 GMT -8
I been following this game for sometime now (Used to go by Qinlongfei, but since Hotmail can't receive the activation email to save its life, I had to register a gmail account using my second favorite user name), and I think this game has great potential when it's fleshed out with more content in future. But after playing .130.99 build for two morning, I do have a lots of things I want to say about the current build. Please don't take whatever I wrote as an attack on the game or the team since I know I can be a very blunt asshole, but I truly like the concept of this game and want to see it live to its potential.
First the good thing. The writing for the game is really good. I actually do take my time to read through all the text to immerse myself into this medieval high fantasy knighthood simulator as opposed to simply fast click through every line of dialogue like Towergirl: Kingdom Conquest. The absolute highlight of the game is still the boss encounter in the Enchanted Tower. Being able to beat the mirror in a verbal clash of wits while listening to the catchy title music (I think it might be a bug since the music started playing in the dungeon when I reload a save, but I'm not complaining) is something that puts a grin on my face whenever I redo this encounter.
Unfortunately, the gameplay part of the current iteration feels flat out awful. The first problem start out with how quickly each random battle can go south for the entire party. Each enemy has the ability to do about 5 points of damage everytime they make a move, and battles typically throw 2 to 3 enemies at the player in every battle. It feels like the game is balanced with a 3 to 4 party member in mind, but since right now the companion characters never permanently join the player or join a party outside of their respective quest dungeon I can only have 2 active character. When considering the mechanic based on a single battle encounter, this is great: Each random battle is high stake, so battle never devolve into 'click attack to continue' fest like most RPG. But in actuality, this is awful because each dungeon is very long and usually consist a dozen random battle encounters. This kind of high stake combat all the time mechanic quickly drains my resource in my playthrough.
The problem build into the next one: The battle themselves aren't always rewarding. Since enemy don't always drop money or items after their defeat, it's very hard to replenish the healing items used because how quickly combat encounter go south. Which in my case, leads to a lots of gameplay time wasted because I need to load a previous saved file in the hope of the battle encounter ends more in my favor. And considering each battle can take several minutes because the game currently uses a tabletop style mechanic, about half of the time I spend was wasted due to reloading.
And my problem with current gameplay mechanic culminate into the final point: The game isn't balanced properly for the current iteration. This shows both in the character progression during a level up, and the amount of money (which as we already established, not every combat encounter drops) needed for everything and how little reward it gives the player when they are reached. First, every level up gives player the ability to assign 2 points twice to health, stamina or magic, 1 points to prime stats, and 1 perk points. This doesn't feel nearly enough for the amount of battle encounter, to the point where I feel no distinct difference of my level 5 Ser Knight than level 1 Ser Knight in battle aside from he barely miss an attack now since I dumped all my points to agility and gotten the 'Intense Training' perk. Same thing goes for the equipment, which cost so many gold coins with only a few minor points of additional stats to the base equipment I honestly don't see the points to spend the time and grind for them. Granted, much of the problem with the balancing may due to the lack of content for this very early build, but I feel even when there are more things to do in the future, the slow progression rate for character growth would still feel like padding.
I think if this game wants to keep each combat encounter high stake in the current version, than an easy mode (like the story mode of Baldur's Gate Remastered) can be highly beneficial for players like me who doesn't like the combat mechanic being bogged down by a practice in tedium and only want to get to the story part. Maybe a difficulty selector that let us tick on and off different aspect of the game. For example, free rest that doesn't cost camping equipment, regenerate some health points after each combat encounter, more stats points for each level up, or boost item drop rate for enemies. Something along those lines that either make going through a dungeon much easier, or give player more advantage so the time spend can feel more rewarding.
First the good thing. The writing for the game is really good. I actually do take my time to read through all the text to immerse myself into this medieval high fantasy knighthood simulator as opposed to simply fast click through every line of dialogue like Towergirl: Kingdom Conquest. The absolute highlight of the game is still the boss encounter in the Enchanted Tower. Being able to beat the mirror in a verbal clash of wits while listening to the catchy title music (I think it might be a bug since the music started playing in the dungeon when I reload a save, but I'm not complaining) is something that puts a grin on my face whenever I redo this encounter.
Unfortunately, the gameplay part of the current iteration feels flat out awful. The first problem start out with how quickly each random battle can go south for the entire party. Each enemy has the ability to do about 5 points of damage everytime they make a move, and battles typically throw 2 to 3 enemies at the player in every battle. It feels like the game is balanced with a 3 to 4 party member in mind, but since right now the companion characters never permanently join the player or join a party outside of their respective quest dungeon I can only have 2 active character. When considering the mechanic based on a single battle encounter, this is great: Each random battle is high stake, so battle never devolve into 'click attack to continue' fest like most RPG. But in actuality, this is awful because each dungeon is very long and usually consist a dozen random battle encounters. This kind of high stake combat all the time mechanic quickly drains my resource in my playthrough.
The problem build into the next one: The battle themselves aren't always rewarding. Since enemy don't always drop money or items after their defeat, it's very hard to replenish the healing items used because how quickly combat encounter go south. Which in my case, leads to a lots of gameplay time wasted because I need to load a previous saved file in the hope of the battle encounter ends more in my favor. And considering each battle can take several minutes because the game currently uses a tabletop style mechanic, about half of the time I spend was wasted due to reloading.
And my problem with current gameplay mechanic culminate into the final point: The game isn't balanced properly for the current iteration. This shows both in the character progression during a level up, and the amount of money (which as we already established, not every combat encounter drops) needed for everything and how little reward it gives the player when they are reached. First, every level up gives player the ability to assign 2 points twice to health, stamina or magic, 1 points to prime stats, and 1 perk points. This doesn't feel nearly enough for the amount of battle encounter, to the point where I feel no distinct difference of my level 5 Ser Knight than level 1 Ser Knight in battle aside from he barely miss an attack now since I dumped all my points to agility and gotten the 'Intense Training' perk. Same thing goes for the equipment, which cost so many gold coins with only a few minor points of additional stats to the base equipment I honestly don't see the points to spend the time and grind for them. Granted, much of the problem with the balancing may due to the lack of content for this very early build, but I feel even when there are more things to do in the future, the slow progression rate for character growth would still feel like padding.
I think if this game wants to keep each combat encounter high stake in the current version, than an easy mode (like the story mode of Baldur's Gate Remastered) can be highly beneficial for players like me who doesn't like the combat mechanic being bogged down by a practice in tedium and only want to get to the story part. Maybe a difficulty selector that let us tick on and off different aspect of the game. For example, free rest that doesn't cost camping equipment, regenerate some health points after each combat encounter, more stats points for each level up, or boost item drop rate for enemies. Something along those lines that either make going through a dungeon much easier, or give player more advantage so the time spend can feel more rewarding.