FreddyTheMonkey's detailed feedback (FULL DEMO SPOILERS)
Jun 28, 2018 10:04:15 GMT -6
vitoner, Ciel, and 3 more like this
Post by freddythemonkey on Jun 28, 2018 10:04:15 GMT -6
First of all, sorry for this somewhat egocentric thread title but I wanted to variate a little from the "Initial thoughts" titles lol
ALL OF WHAT IS WRITTEN BELOW IS STRICTLY MY OPINION, SO I'LL REFRAIN TO WRITE "IMO" EVERY TIME.
So I've played the demo somewhat quickly and I wrote down some things I'd like to address. Overall, I am pleased but not as pleased as I hoped to be. Let's go in order:
WHAT I LIKE:
- The core gameplay is as solid as ever. I missed IGAvanias, and the formula hasn't aged a day.
- The audio department. Music is awesome and really upgraded from the first versions. Executioners and Johannes's theme are particularly improved as fare as my tastes are concerned. I love this music. The English dub is phenomenal, the actors made a fantastic job and never once did they make me want to skip their dialogue to proceed faster. Great, great work.
- The writing. It probably won't win awards, but it's really entertaining (VAs contribute to this feeling).
- The overall enemy design and new enemies. Axe Guy and Lion Swordsmaster look awesome, among the others.
- The overall difficulty. The castle is already decently challenging for basically a beginning area. Not to brutal, but stimulating. I think it's a nice middle ground.
- Zangetsu boss fight. THIS is the kind of boss fight I love. He has a varied enough pattern, he's intimidating and hits hard, so it's mandatory to learn the pattern and stay on your toes.
WHAT I DON'T LIKE AND/OR MISC THINGS THAT COULD BE CHANGED (this list is unfortunately longer than I'd like)
- There are some errors in the texts, like the VA says something and the dialogue box is different.
- We really need a crate pushing animation.
- The nets used as platforms should definitely be less stiff and give away under Miriam's weight. They're not solid platforms and it's pretty jarring to see. Chandeliers in the castle has the same problems to an extent: they do react a bit, but not enough.
- The infamous mouth animations problem during dialogues only seems to affect female characters. Johannes, Gebel and Alfred were all right for the most part. Aside from the portrait suggestions that have been made in the past few days, I believe that models are fine, but the mouth animations should be less exaggerated, more subtle, if that makes sense.
- Call me a fool but I liked how Miriam controlled better in the 2016 demo. Jumping feels way too fast, and it can be noted especially when making little jumps. Miriam skyrockets as if she was Gran Torino from MHA. The IGAvania feel is there, but it's not quite perfect.
- The grey outline of Miriam when near to walls or behind things is really ugly. I'd prefer outright not seeing the parts of her body that are covered by elements of the scenario. In the Galleon, when you have multiple nets in the foreground, you just see this grey silhouette intermittently and it's really unpleasant. At least for me.
- I hate the ragdoll effects on Seama and Harpies, mostly on Harpies. It looks out of place. Why not have a standard death animation without the body going crazy as it disappears?
- The effect when smashing fake walls and everything related to debris needs more work. It still looks like a placeholder.
- In the Galleon, when Seama attacks you from high ground, he “floats” too much. It's like it's falling from the moon.
- When we arrive at the bottom of the Galleon (on the edges, more specifically, when you can see the sea in the corner) we should see better effects for the ocean water outside. It seems like there's absolutely nothing there, unless you watch really closely.
- Heavy attacks such as the Claymore and the Dullahammer shard need more recovery frames. They disappear too quickly and Miriam is immediately back in action. It sucks every sense of weight and impact out of the attack, which SHOULD feel heavy.
- Okay this is a more random thing but I find it hilarious that when you meet Dominique she says "As you can see I can expel monsters" when she was doing the human shield and almost getting killed by a Morte instead of obliterating it. I just LOL'd really hard. It's like "Yeah Dominique what are you bragging about, you'd be dead as a doornail if it weren't for me".
- When crafting items, it would be way more convenient to just grey out from the menu the items we can't make yet. It's this way for shards, but not for items for some reason. I trust this will be implemented.
- I appreciate the intent of warning the players, but the flashing red borders when low on health are TERRIBLE. Really, really terrible. I'd say absolutely get rid of those, and if you want something like that make the moon in the HUD bleed again, more and more until you die. It's more stylish and CERTAINLY less jarring than those effect.
- Speaking of death, I think Miriam would need a longer/better death animation and/or scream rather than transitioning in a split second into the game over screen. Death should have its impact.
- Speaking of death (again), I think a CONTINUE FROM SAVE POINT SCREEN is almost mandatory rather than getting thrown all the way to the main title again.
- We need a way to simply unequip accessories. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention, but when I wanted to remove the Elf Ears there was no button to just do so, I had to replace them with the Ring which vanished from the other slot to go in the second. I mean, it works, but a dedicated button/function would be much better. (THERE IS THE UNEQUIP OPTION BUT I'M DENSE AS HELL
)
- This is just a nitpick as I know it's only there for stopping progression, but Iron Maiden doing only 1 point of damage? With all that blood? it just looked strange.
- THIS IS A BIG ONE: if the moon is in the background, then what is casting the shadows of Miriam and the enemies? The contrast between an external light source and the moon in the background creates a really unpleasant "fake" effect on most environment for me, and I think it really should be tweaked somehow.
- In general, I still don't like the "feel" of some environments. It's hard to properly explain, I think it's still a bit of a "doll house effect". Surely related to the lighting, but I think that sometimes I'm watching miniature figurines move in an artificial environment, instead of characters and monsters in an organic one.
- The Shards: this is a personal point and maybe I'm just irrational, but I had the impression there were too many "summon" shards. You summon the bats, toads, flying pigs, Gieremund, ghosts... I know that this was a thing in previous IGAvanias, but maybe those powers were spread more widely, I don't know, but playing the demo I almost had an impression of a lack of creativity. That's why I really appreciated the Lion Swordsman's shard. Pretty cool.
- Balance issues: this will be undoubtedly fixed upon release, but Vepar's shard and Dullahammer's shard (the first one in particular) are way too powerful for their MP cost. Vepar's shard obliterates pretty much everything on the screen for little MPs.
- Why does the village area have no music? It's a bit strange and made the area a little boring.
- Why can you hit Vepar in the background during her boss fight? This still doesn't feel right.
- I don't like how the guns work. They seem powerful, but equipping them instead of a primary weapons makes them very tedious to use. Not to mention that you have this feeling that you want to save bullets so I personally never used them aside from a quick test. If you combine the desire to save bullets to the hassle of equipping the gun ONLY WHEN YOU NEED IT you can easily end up never equipping them at all. I think there should be a dedicated "GUN SLOT" with a button that has just the function to fire the gun. Kind of like how Trigger Shards have their own button. Also, I personally would prefer them to be directional, like Purple Shards. It just breaks my immersion (and limits the usefulness of the guns) if I can aim my power wherever I want and my gun can only shoot straight. If these changes are implemented, guns would have to be nerfed. I know this probably won't ever change, but still I don't like how guns are implemented now so I state my dream scenario.
- Quests are... strange. I don't remember how the killing quest worked in Order of Ecclesia, but here they seem narratively weird. "Kill 8 Morte and avenge my husband", why 8 Morte? Did those 8 Morte specifically kill your husband? Why not 10 or 6? I know it's a nitpick, but it feels weird and not really encouraging in doing the quest itself.
- Also, from a gameplay perspective, I think that a popup signaling when the quest is over and what reward we're getting is necessary. Without them, it becomes a bit of a forgettable manner and the payoff is diminished. The same can be said for the ability to accept multiple quests at once, being kicked out of the menu everytime is not ideal, to say the least.
- The transition in and out of dialogues could be skipped entirely because as reported in other threads it does get annoying every time you do something with the shopkeepers.
- Bats appear awkwardly through the stairs, but I assume that's going to be fixed regardless.
- The doors to new areas could open in the opposite direction from Miriam. It's a bit jarring to go to a door and seeing Miriam backstep rapidly for a second to avoid getting hit in the face lol
IN CONCLUSION
I had some great fun playing this demo. Not gonna lie. I am really excited for this game to approach the "final phases" of the development, but I do have quite a bit of issues. Some are pretty serious, some are less important. I don't think any of them can make me dislike the game, BUT I have very high expectations from an IGAvania game, so I'll state each and every gripe I have because I want this game to be incredible. But polishing and issues aside, the basis is fantastic and however it goes I'll have fun with Bloodstained from the very day it comes out. Thank you.
ALL OF WHAT IS WRITTEN BELOW IS STRICTLY MY OPINION, SO I'LL REFRAIN TO WRITE "IMO" EVERY TIME.
So I've played the demo somewhat quickly and I wrote down some things I'd like to address. Overall, I am pleased but not as pleased as I hoped to be. Let's go in order:
WHAT I LIKE:
- The core gameplay is as solid as ever. I missed IGAvanias, and the formula hasn't aged a day.
- The audio department. Music is awesome and really upgraded from the first versions. Executioners and Johannes's theme are particularly improved as fare as my tastes are concerned. I love this music. The English dub is phenomenal, the actors made a fantastic job and never once did they make me want to skip their dialogue to proceed faster. Great, great work.
- The writing. It probably won't win awards, but it's really entertaining (VAs contribute to this feeling).
- The overall enemy design and new enemies. Axe Guy and Lion Swordsmaster look awesome, among the others.
- The overall difficulty. The castle is already decently challenging for basically a beginning area. Not to brutal, but stimulating. I think it's a nice middle ground.
- Zangetsu boss fight. THIS is the kind of boss fight I love. He has a varied enough pattern, he's intimidating and hits hard, so it's mandatory to learn the pattern and stay on your toes.
WHAT I DON'T LIKE AND/OR MISC THINGS THAT COULD BE CHANGED (this list is unfortunately longer than I'd like)
- There are some errors in the texts, like the VA says something and the dialogue box is different.
- We really need a crate pushing animation.
- The nets used as platforms should definitely be less stiff and give away under Miriam's weight. They're not solid platforms and it's pretty jarring to see. Chandeliers in the castle has the same problems to an extent: they do react a bit, but not enough.
- The infamous mouth animations problem during dialogues only seems to affect female characters. Johannes, Gebel and Alfred were all right for the most part. Aside from the portrait suggestions that have been made in the past few days, I believe that models are fine, but the mouth animations should be less exaggerated, more subtle, if that makes sense.
- Call me a fool but I liked how Miriam controlled better in the 2016 demo. Jumping feels way too fast, and it can be noted especially when making little jumps. Miriam skyrockets as if she was Gran Torino from MHA. The IGAvania feel is there, but it's not quite perfect.
- The grey outline of Miriam when near to walls or behind things is really ugly. I'd prefer outright not seeing the parts of her body that are covered by elements of the scenario. In the Galleon, when you have multiple nets in the foreground, you just see this grey silhouette intermittently and it's really unpleasant. At least for me.
- I hate the ragdoll effects on Seama and Harpies, mostly on Harpies. It looks out of place. Why not have a standard death animation without the body going crazy as it disappears?
- The effect when smashing fake walls and everything related to debris needs more work. It still looks like a placeholder.
- In the Galleon, when Seama attacks you from high ground, he “floats” too much. It's like it's falling from the moon.
- When we arrive at the bottom of the Galleon (on the edges, more specifically, when you can see the sea in the corner) we should see better effects for the ocean water outside. It seems like there's absolutely nothing there, unless you watch really closely.
- Heavy attacks such as the Claymore and the Dullahammer shard need more recovery frames. They disappear too quickly and Miriam is immediately back in action. It sucks every sense of weight and impact out of the attack, which SHOULD feel heavy.
- Okay this is a more random thing but I find it hilarious that when you meet Dominique she says "As you can see I can expel monsters" when she was doing the human shield and almost getting killed by a Morte instead of obliterating it. I just LOL'd really hard. It's like "Yeah Dominique what are you bragging about, you'd be dead as a doornail if it weren't for me".
- When crafting items, it would be way more convenient to just grey out from the menu the items we can't make yet. It's this way for shards, but not for items for some reason. I trust this will be implemented.
- I appreciate the intent of warning the players, but the flashing red borders when low on health are TERRIBLE. Really, really terrible. I'd say absolutely get rid of those, and if you want something like that make the moon in the HUD bleed again, more and more until you die. It's more stylish and CERTAINLY less jarring than those effect.
- Speaking of death, I think Miriam would need a longer/better death animation and/or scream rather than transitioning in a split second into the game over screen. Death should have its impact.
- Speaking of death (again), I think a CONTINUE FROM SAVE POINT SCREEN is almost mandatory rather than getting thrown all the way to the main title again.
- We need a way to simply unequip accessories. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention, but when I wanted to remove the Elf Ears there was no button to just do so, I had to replace them with the Ring which vanished from the other slot to go in the second. I mean, it works, but a dedicated button/function would be much better. (THERE IS THE UNEQUIP OPTION BUT I'M DENSE AS HELL
)- This is just a nitpick as I know it's only there for stopping progression, but Iron Maiden doing only 1 point of damage? With all that blood? it just looked strange.
- THIS IS A BIG ONE: if the moon is in the background, then what is casting the shadows of Miriam and the enemies? The contrast between an external light source and the moon in the background creates a really unpleasant "fake" effect on most environment for me, and I think it really should be tweaked somehow.
- In general, I still don't like the "feel" of some environments. It's hard to properly explain, I think it's still a bit of a "doll house effect". Surely related to the lighting, but I think that sometimes I'm watching miniature figurines move in an artificial environment, instead of characters and monsters in an organic one.
- The Shards: this is a personal point and maybe I'm just irrational, but I had the impression there were too many "summon" shards. You summon the bats, toads, flying pigs, Gieremund, ghosts... I know that this was a thing in previous IGAvanias, but maybe those powers were spread more widely, I don't know, but playing the demo I almost had an impression of a lack of creativity. That's why I really appreciated the Lion Swordsman's shard. Pretty cool.
- Balance issues: this will be undoubtedly fixed upon release, but Vepar's shard and Dullahammer's shard (the first one in particular) are way too powerful for their MP cost. Vepar's shard obliterates pretty much everything on the screen for little MPs.
- Why does the village area have no music? It's a bit strange and made the area a little boring.
- Why can you hit Vepar in the background during her boss fight? This still doesn't feel right.
- I don't like how the guns work. They seem powerful, but equipping them instead of a primary weapons makes them very tedious to use. Not to mention that you have this feeling that you want to save bullets so I personally never used them aside from a quick test. If you combine the desire to save bullets to the hassle of equipping the gun ONLY WHEN YOU NEED IT you can easily end up never equipping them at all. I think there should be a dedicated "GUN SLOT" with a button that has just the function to fire the gun. Kind of like how Trigger Shards have their own button. Also, I personally would prefer them to be directional, like Purple Shards. It just breaks my immersion (and limits the usefulness of the guns) if I can aim my power wherever I want and my gun can only shoot straight. If these changes are implemented, guns would have to be nerfed. I know this probably won't ever change, but still I don't like how guns are implemented now so I state my dream scenario.
- Quests are... strange. I don't remember how the killing quest worked in Order of Ecclesia, but here they seem narratively weird. "Kill 8 Morte and avenge my husband", why 8 Morte? Did those 8 Morte specifically kill your husband? Why not 10 or 6? I know it's a nitpick, but it feels weird and not really encouraging in doing the quest itself.
- Also, from a gameplay perspective, I think that a popup signaling when the quest is over and what reward we're getting is necessary. Without them, it becomes a bit of a forgettable manner and the payoff is diminished. The same can be said for the ability to accept multiple quests at once, being kicked out of the menu everytime is not ideal, to say the least.
- The transition in and out of dialogues could be skipped entirely because as reported in other threads it does get annoying every time you do something with the shopkeepers.
- Bats appear awkwardly through the stairs, but I assume that's going to be fixed regardless.
- The doors to new areas could open in the opposite direction from Miriam. It's a bit jarring to go to a door and seeing Miriam backstep rapidly for a second to avoid getting hit in the face lol
IN CONCLUSION
I had some great fun playing this demo. Not gonna lie. I am really excited for this game to approach the "final phases" of the development, but I do have quite a bit of issues. Some are pretty serious, some are less important. I don't think any of them can make me dislike the game, BUT I have very high expectations from an IGAvania game, so I'll state each and every gripe I have because I want this game to be incredible. But polishing and issues aside, the basis is fantastic and however it goes I'll have fun with Bloodstained from the very day it comes out. Thank you.
especially regarding the second, I would really prefer some kind of subtler effect maybe on the HUD.
