Late feedback - short version: loved it, want QoL polish!
Aug 20, 2018 16:26:51 GMT -6
azdrerios likes this
Post by warmom on Aug 20, 2018 16:26:51 GMT -6
So, I know I'm very late to the party on this, and for that I'm sorry, I kept procrastinating. I found playing the Beta Backer Demo to be a great experience, and the only things I can really critique in a negative fashion are small quality-of-life things to make playing and interfacing with the game a smoother experience. But I'll start with what I liked!
The Good
The Controls and Movement
There's just a really good base to work with here. The act of moving around, controlling Miriam, feeling her respond to controls, it's fundamentally a fun game to play and to have in your hands. Just jumping, fluidly hitting a candle, and continuing on without losing momentum, or jumping and attacking in mid-air feels good. It makes me feel like with even the most basic actions, I am capable of pulling off impressive feats. This is something that I've found important in every Castlevania game, Curse of the Moon did it, and this does it too. Great job! The game's fun to play before I've even done anything!
The Exploration
And the exploration is pretty good too. I liked doubling back and exploring alternate routes. I really liked seeing that golden treasure chest and then figuring out how to get to it! I liked opening up shortcuts and feeling the realisation dawn on me how my options had now expanded. I did feel, at times, that there were a lot of sections of just walking to the right, or that space wasn't being utilised above or below me. It then occurred to me this is partly about giving the player quiet time or rhythm, probably. Symphony of the Night felt huge and expansive, and there's bits in that game where you just walk left or right (and don't forget the bit where you just fall down a shaft). I loved seeing some extra paths being teased just out of reach, knowing that as soon as I got a requisite mobility tool in the full game I'd be coming right back.
The Challenge / Balance
I enjoyed having to learn and improve as a player, for long stretches of hallway, managing my resources. I really liked this, I can't overstate it. I've never cared about whether or not a Castlevania or Metroidvania game is 'hard' (background: I've beaten Chronicles, and got pretty good at the Rondo of Blood remake, thoroughly played SotN, have beaten Curse of the Moon with solo zangetsu); but what I cared about was that difficulty was a part of the process of failing, realising my mistake, learning, improving, and progressing further and further each time to overcome the challenge. It has a buildup-and-release-satisfaction payoff, and I felt this strongly in the corridor with the weeds and the jumping archers. I ran out of resources and died by trying to tank them, but on another attempt I was being patient and attacking when I had windows, and I felt accomplished. The same applied to the Zangetsu fight - having not discovered the cheese strategy, I had to figure out when Zangetsu could and would hit me, when I was safe, and when to save my resources for. This was fun and fair, it was not hard but it was challenging.
I understand that in the full game, 'just tank it with your face' might become a valid strategy for much of the game, especially for thorough players who find all the good gear and stat upgrades, and I'm fine with that. I would rather the base game be accessible to more players if some degree of challenge has to be sacrificed. This is one thing I really admired about Curse of the Moon; Casual Mode is non-judgmental and doesn't block players off from content, while still letting new players (or less experienced players, or more busy players, or disabled players!) experience the game and keep its core mostly intact, with everyone else still having Veteran difficulty. After all, there's going to be a Hard Mode and a Classic Mode in the full game. But from what I've seen, the game has a good handle on challenge!
I wish I could gush about the graphics and music, but I'm just not inclined that way. It'd be like getting theoretical physics advice from a baboon. I can't say anything more substantive than 'I liked it'.
TheBad Mildly Annoying
But there are some issues I'd like to bring up, mostly Quality of Life changes, that make the game smoother to experience. I daresay that if the game were released with these things not altered, I wouldn't complain. But they are things I'd be very happy to see tweaked, and I'm glad some people have brought up these things too so I know I'm not alone!
Lack of PC Graphics Settings
Bluntly, I'd just like to see more customisation options for graphics quality beyond the resolution; anti-aliasing, model / texture quality, shadow quality, etc. because it can make more PC players trade some image quality to their desire for framerate. I prefer to play at 1080p / 60fps and will gladly sacrifice image quality to do so. To give an example, I got 60fps most of the time, but a hull section of the ship which had a water effect running in the background tanked me down to 40fps.
Stereo balancing can cause discomfort with headphones
This is something that I found quite grating - when sound is in stereo, audio is output relative to its onscreen source. This becomes very apparent when using headphones and something happens at the the extreme edge of the screen. For example, if Miriam makes a noise near a door, and Zangetsu has triggered this when near an edge of the screen. This results in a sound effect / voice clip playing harshly in one ear, and it's discomforting. I hope this could be fixed or toned down somewhat for headphones users.
Voice & Portrait segues in shop menus
It can feel irritating when I want to talk to Johannes, the shopkeeper nun, or the quest lady and have to thumb through their dialogue and model pop-up before reaching the menu, as I'll often find myself hopping between them a few times before heading out. Thankfully they can be skipped once they start, but the seconds pile up, and they feel like they slow down the exprience, interfering with me trying to interface with the game. A potential solution would be to have the recurring audio play as the menu comes up, a la the Librarian in Symphony of the Night, or the Maiden in Black from Demon's Souls.
Moving between crafting and shop can be frustrating
This may just be a 'me' thing - I don't have a great short-term memory - but I would often feel annoyed if I wanted to craft something with Johannes, walk out of the room, enter the other room, talk to the nun so I can buy some of the crafting materials I need and...oh. I've forgotten some of the things I need. Time to get what I can remeber, stop talking, leave the room, move through the main hall, enter the other room, talk to Johannes and try to remember the rest before repeating. Maybe the rooms could be rearranged to have them closer together, but I'm willing to concede this may be an uncommon problem and just my memory.
Quest information doesn't update with each kill
Last of all, I want to bring up the quest UI and the fact that the 'kill x' numbers do not update to count down. Only when the quest is finished is there any change in the interface. I thought that when it said 'Kill [4] doohickeys', the text would update to 'Kill [3] doohickeys' et cetera. It'd be nice to know, from the interface, how much there is left to do. It may seem insignificant now, but imagine what it's like when a quest requires 20 kills, or 10 rare drops?
And that's it all said and done, I think. I feel the game is in really good hands. It's fun to play, it's got pretty good challenge, good playstyle variety, and just only falls short in minor ways that won't be the end of the world if unfixed. Best of luck, I look forward to seeing the game grow!
The Good
The Controls and Movement
There's just a really good base to work with here. The act of moving around, controlling Miriam, feeling her respond to controls, it's fundamentally a fun game to play and to have in your hands. Just jumping, fluidly hitting a candle, and continuing on without losing momentum, or jumping and attacking in mid-air feels good. It makes me feel like with even the most basic actions, I am capable of pulling off impressive feats. This is something that I've found important in every Castlevania game, Curse of the Moon did it, and this does it too. Great job! The game's fun to play before I've even done anything!
The Exploration
And the exploration is pretty good too. I liked doubling back and exploring alternate routes. I really liked seeing that golden treasure chest and then figuring out how to get to it! I liked opening up shortcuts and feeling the realisation dawn on me how my options had now expanded. I did feel, at times, that there were a lot of sections of just walking to the right, or that space wasn't being utilised above or below me. It then occurred to me this is partly about giving the player quiet time or rhythm, probably. Symphony of the Night felt huge and expansive, and there's bits in that game where you just walk left or right (and don't forget the bit where you just fall down a shaft). I loved seeing some extra paths being teased just out of reach, knowing that as soon as I got a requisite mobility tool in the full game I'd be coming right back.
The Challenge / Balance
I enjoyed having to learn and improve as a player, for long stretches of hallway, managing my resources. I really liked this, I can't overstate it. I've never cared about whether or not a Castlevania or Metroidvania game is 'hard' (background: I've beaten Chronicles, and got pretty good at the Rondo of Blood remake, thoroughly played SotN, have beaten Curse of the Moon with solo zangetsu); but what I cared about was that difficulty was a part of the process of failing, realising my mistake, learning, improving, and progressing further and further each time to overcome the challenge. It has a buildup-and-release-satisfaction payoff, and I felt this strongly in the corridor with the weeds and the jumping archers. I ran out of resources and died by trying to tank them, but on another attempt I was being patient and attacking when I had windows, and I felt accomplished. The same applied to the Zangetsu fight - having not discovered the cheese strategy, I had to figure out when Zangetsu could and would hit me, when I was safe, and when to save my resources for. This was fun and fair, it was not hard but it was challenging.
I understand that in the full game, 'just tank it with your face' might become a valid strategy for much of the game, especially for thorough players who find all the good gear and stat upgrades, and I'm fine with that. I would rather the base game be accessible to more players if some degree of challenge has to be sacrificed. This is one thing I really admired about Curse of the Moon; Casual Mode is non-judgmental and doesn't block players off from content, while still letting new players (or less experienced players, or more busy players, or disabled players!) experience the game and keep its core mostly intact, with everyone else still having Veteran difficulty. After all, there's going to be a Hard Mode and a Classic Mode in the full game. But from what I've seen, the game has a good handle on challenge!
I wish I could gush about the graphics and music, but I'm just not inclined that way. It'd be like getting theoretical physics advice from a baboon. I can't say anything more substantive than 'I liked it'.
The
But there are some issues I'd like to bring up, mostly Quality of Life changes, that make the game smoother to experience. I daresay that if the game were released with these things not altered, I wouldn't complain. But they are things I'd be very happy to see tweaked, and I'm glad some people have brought up these things too so I know I'm not alone!
Lack of PC Graphics Settings
Bluntly, I'd just like to see more customisation options for graphics quality beyond the resolution; anti-aliasing, model / texture quality, shadow quality, etc. because it can make more PC players trade some image quality to their desire for framerate. I prefer to play at 1080p / 60fps and will gladly sacrifice image quality to do so. To give an example, I got 60fps most of the time, but a hull section of the ship which had a water effect running in the background tanked me down to 40fps.
Stereo balancing can cause discomfort with headphones
This is something that I found quite grating - when sound is in stereo, audio is output relative to its onscreen source. This becomes very apparent when using headphones and something happens at the the extreme edge of the screen. For example, if Miriam makes a noise near a door, and Zangetsu has triggered this when near an edge of the screen. This results in a sound effect / voice clip playing harshly in one ear, and it's discomforting. I hope this could be fixed or toned down somewhat for headphones users.
Voice & Portrait segues in shop menus
It can feel irritating when I want to talk to Johannes, the shopkeeper nun, or the quest lady and have to thumb through their dialogue and model pop-up before reaching the menu, as I'll often find myself hopping between them a few times before heading out. Thankfully they can be skipped once they start, but the seconds pile up, and they feel like they slow down the exprience, interfering with me trying to interface with the game. A potential solution would be to have the recurring audio play as the menu comes up, a la the Librarian in Symphony of the Night, or the Maiden in Black from Demon's Souls.
Moving between crafting and shop can be frustrating
This may just be a 'me' thing - I don't have a great short-term memory - but I would often feel annoyed if I wanted to craft something with Johannes, walk out of the room, enter the other room, talk to the nun so I can buy some of the crafting materials I need and...oh. I've forgotten some of the things I need. Time to get what I can remeber, stop talking, leave the room, move through the main hall, enter the other room, talk to Johannes and try to remember the rest before repeating. Maybe the rooms could be rearranged to have them closer together, but I'm willing to concede this may be an uncommon problem and just my memory.
Quest information doesn't update with each kill
Last of all, I want to bring up the quest UI and the fact that the 'kill x' numbers do not update to count down. Only when the quest is finished is there any change in the interface. I thought that when it said 'Kill [4] doohickeys', the text would update to 'Kill [3] doohickeys' et cetera. It'd be nice to know, from the interface, how much there is left to do. It may seem insignificant now, but imagine what it's like when a quest requires 20 kills, or 10 rare drops?
And that's it all said and done, I think. I feel the game is in really good hands. It's fun to play, it's got pretty good challenge, good playstyle variety, and just only falls short in minor ways that won't be the end of the world if unfixed. Best of luck, I look forward to seeing the game grow!
yey