Some Beta Thoughts

[RoShamPoe]

This is originally from Reddit:

Greetings,
Due to the scarcity of info, I thought I would post some thoughts and impressions about the game. I currently have 10 hours in the game and am enjoying it, but unfortunately there are a few faults.

PROS: Art Style: "Nuff said.

Combat - The turned based JRPG combat is good. It’s spiced up with quite a few abilities and a combat generating ultimate ability called Burst.
Loot: It’s pretty good actually. It’s hard to do loot in a game where the characters are already established, but I’m liking how they’ve handled it.

Story: Generic chase plot, but seems fine so far.
CONS

Some of the systems are needlessly obtuse. Why can’t I craft enchantments 10 hours in? Why do there only seem to be Blacksmith benches in dungeons.

Pacing: Let me clarify. Story pacing is fine. It’s more about gear and other things. I have to pay 1000G to upgrade the blacksmith to sell uncommon items, but I’ve already found a bunch of uncommon items in the dungeons I’ve had to do to get the 1000G. It seems like a needless barrier and probably should have just scaled with level and rotated each time you “visited.”

Crafting: It’s a little bit obtuse as well. Can I add more items to improve the rarity of a common item? (cause that would have been cool) Why can’t I craft enchantments that I have the mats for? Do I need to find a dungeon with a specific bench?
Dungeon walking speed: This seems like such a nitpick, but it’s HUGE in my opinion. It’s so tedious walking through the dungeon. The character speed needs to be upped 15-20%. I know that breaks some “traps,” but adjust accordingly. It feels like the Devs intentionally lowered the walking speed to squeeze an extra 10 hours out of the game.

“Movie” art sequences: They honestly do not blend well with the colorful art style of the rest of the game, and quite frankly, look phoned in by Joe or done by an understudy.

Fishing: I had really high hopes for fishing because I love it in RPGs. It’s terrible. The first couple of pools are ok, but you have real trouble going further than that. It’s a tedious proposition, with most often not a great reward. I can’t tell if it scales on dungeon or not. It seems like it’s harder to catch the exact same fish in a harder dungeon than not. That doesn’t make much sense. Upgrade your lure and pole you say? Sure did, and I can’t use them until level 14! I’ve already leveled out of the dungeons and spots at that point. It would have made more sense to be able to either catch some fish regardless of lure and pole quality and then maybe save the better fish for later runs. Or, better yet, just make it entirely skill based.

And finally, lack of communication. This is a good game and worthy of the purchase, please don’t let me cons suggest otherwise. The devs have done a really good job of bringing a section of this universe to life.
However, as an initial backer, I’ve been disappointed in the lack of information that has been provided by the devs. I also wish we had gotten to put a bit more input into the game to iron some of the minor issues out. The last thing you want a game to feel is boring at some points. I believe more outside interaction with the fans could’ve helped that. These also may be easy fixes that can be implemented post launch. I do hope going forward that the devs work more with the community and we can further improve on these ideas for a sequel!

[Kracken]

Blacksmith, alchemist and enhancement recipes have to bought from their vendors. in case of the enchantress - you need to talk with her at certain part of the story. For some reason i think that since “you don’t have a recipe”, the bench wont spawn for you

Both Blacksmiths and Enhancements benches ARE appearing in dungeons - its just random and the Enhancement is less common. some dungeons have their own enhancements benches. My first enchant bench was in 3rd dungeon 3rd run.

[RoShamPoe]

I immediately bought all the recipes. Having the benches appear in dungeons is really poor design in my opinion. Why not just make the benches available in their appropriate vendors and make the recipes drop. Convert them to items with different rarity and you have your reason for people to re-run dungeons.

But honestly, as the move speed is now, it’s tedious to move around dungeons and makes it a chore to re-run them. I’m hoping for some changes.

[tahsoos]

My guess is that the enchantress will offer an enchanting workbench after you upgrade her a couple of times (like for the blacksmity), but it’s not in the scope of the beta.

I didn’t have problems with fishing tbh, I guess I got lucky and didn’t buy the best rod/lure that were too high to use My problem with fishing however, is how unresponsive it is while casting the line. You have to press the button to throw half a second before it actually happens. I got used to it eventually and got the timing down, but it’s just so strange…
Whether the mechanics need changing or not though, I’m not so sure. It does seems like a relaxing thing to do in a dungeon, and maybe that was the whole point, so no need to make it skill-intensive.

[Frogmouth]

About crafting, while I understand the devs decision, for some players, dungeons are where they enjoy adventures while town/hub activities are for relaxing/researching/preparations. I’m also suspecting that upgrading would let these players get what they want eventually, though, after seeing quite many factors seem to have already been put some thoughts on. My personal gripe is the party roaster inflexibility or being unable to change the party on the fly or handle equipment of the members who are not in the current party or even let them rest once and for all in town (shouldn’t the cost be damage based?). Also, I have my doubts on the utility abilities since the limited usage makes me very hesitant to use them, which can be a different story once we can save/quick save anywhere, though (I do use up the Revitalize before resting in the inn, though).

“Movie” art sequences: They honestly do not blend well with the colorful art style of the rest of the game, and quite frankly, look phoned in by Joe or done by an understudy.

I couldn’t but notice it, too. The cut-scenes are only parts where I felt inconsistency in art design direction, which is a shame. If the devs want to sell the material as a franchise, which is an interesting attempt as an individual cartoonist rather than a big company like Disney (may be more similar to Marvel?), they may want to be more careful about the quality consistency.

Fishing: I had really high hopes for fishing because I love it in RPGs. It’s terrible. The first couple of pools are ok, but you have real trouble going further than that. It’s a tedious proposition, with most often not a great reward. I can’t tell if it scales on dungeon or not. It seems like it’s harder to catch the exact same fish in a harder dungeon than not. That doesn’t make much sense. Upgrade your lure and pole you say? Sure did, and I can’t use them until level 14! I’ve already leveled out of the dungeons and spots at that point. It would have made more sense to be able to either catch some fish regardless of lure and pole quality and then maybe save the better fish for later runs. Or, better yet, just make it entirely skill based.

Personally, I’d like fishing to be optional and not to have non-negligible impact on the core part. Also, I’m not totally happy with feeling that some parts of this game are designed for game pad (I know – I should buy it but I’m not a great fan of action games in general and there are good RTS and TB games popping up nowadays).

Concerning communication, I saw quite a few cases that some of the early disclosure of information ended up badly. Admittedly, this may sound paradoxical: Especially when the devs have clear design decisions, it could be better off if they just let themselves concentrate on their works till potential players can have access to more tangible like the beta release, which would be the case of this one while I understand the sentiment. I can only say this is a mixed bug.

[Kagenryu]

“Movie” art sequences: They honestly do not blend well with the colorful art style of the rest of the game, and quite frankly, look phoned in by Joe or done by an understudy.

I couldn’t but notice it, too. The cut-scenes are only parts where I felt inconsistency in art design direction, which is a shame. If the devs want to sell the material as a franchise, which is an interesting attempt as an individual cartoonist rather than a big company like Disney (may be more similar to Marvel?), they may want to be more careful about the quality consistency.

I wonder if it is intentional or placeholder for when the game releases. If not, I don’t mind the art, but the subtitles are not framed like speech bubbles which does feel thematically different from the rest of the game.

[Frogmouth]

Actually, I had searched for some images of Battlechaser comics and found mostly they have better quality than the presentations in the 2D cut-scenes. There are already people asking for digital arts and the author, who is one of the devs, is planning to release some more content, so, I feel it’s a shame if they end up with misleading.

There are still demands for games combined with more conventional arts, which doesn’t require extremely expensive middleware and massive graphic team. One of my eyes are looking at Fate/Steins Gate series, having started as relatively humble games. Devs might be interested in Asian game industry in general, where illustrators appear to be pretty appreciated. While western artists definitely don’t need to copy everything, there should be some room in market worldwide. Of course, this is merely a possibility but, in fact, I hadn’t even known the existence of the comic series till I came across with this one at the crowd-funding site.

I wonder if it is intentional or placeholder for when the game releases. If not, I don’t mind the art, but the subtitles are not framed like speech bubbles which does feel thematically different from the rest of the game.

If you mean re-designing the dialogue UI, it would be possible but it can take time to get it feel “right” for variety of people, I guess.

[Kagenryu]

If you mean re-designing the dialogue UI, it would be possible but it can take time to get it feel “right” for variety of people, I guess.

The dialog in-game is fine. I mean the movie dialog which appears to be subtitles. Sure it’s an aesthetic preference, but it breaks thematically with the rest of the game. Since it is present in the beta, I am not sure if it is placeholder art, or that is their intention.