The biggest issue with Act 3 isnt just that *minor spoiler*

[deoxxys]

The biggest issue with Act 3 isnt just that it changes sub-genre.

While I prefer the table top roguelike rpg flavor in act one as compared to the video game rpg, that isn't the biggest issue. For one the overworld in-game is boring and the card fights dont have atmosphere, it could use some spice, like how boss fights in act one get all these cool environmental changes, and music and fog.

Also I could forgive the lack of pretty things, but the Card game is kinda bland too. First off I love an energy/mana system. But this game isnt even balanced around the energy resource well. Most of the card have expensive energy costs meaning you are forced to play passive/defensively until you get the right amount of energy. The basic card is the empty vessel, which is a blocker, but thats it. At least squirrels let you sacrifice turn one and get the offensive started right away. Basically the game pace is too slow, there needs to be more low level energy monsters.

Which is what I WOULD say but besides the energy system being poorly balanced, I feel like the whole aspect was just kinda slapped together because the robot clan could have been really interesting, but I feel like most of their abilities are just trying to copy what the beast clan does. Its a cheap imitation and coupled with the lack of low energy offensive cards the pace just becomes unbearable. Even though it also could have used more polish, I may rather prefer the undead deck instead.

Oh and dying and loosing your money and having to fight everyone again isnt a fun loop.

[Loko+]

I agree with the criticisms of the energy system and other mechanics of Act III. They are not exactly 'fun' as implemented.. I like to think Act III was deliberately made as a poor version of Act I for narrative reasons. Like, just to show how much of a trash scribe P03 is compared to Leshy. IDK, it helps me cope.

Going to add another issue with Act III - You get the Lonely Wizard Card from the far right puzzle drawer; which is WAY harder than all the previous puzzles and uses mechanics you haven't even seen yet. Having the Lonely Wizard card around for company and its fun dialog made Act III much less of a joyless experience for me. It should be more accessible.. like the contents of the left and right puzzles should be switched or something. I'm sure some people complete Act III never getting the Lonely Wizard Card, which is just such a shame.

[ManiacOverlord]

That's kind of the point.
Poe is only interested in proving he can do the mechanical stuff better than everyone else. He doesn't really care about things like story or atmosphere, so he slapped together what minimal representation of it he could to satisfy the player character. Otherwise it'd all just be 0s and 1s.

It was done this way very deliberately to align with Poe's theming.

[TemmieNeko]

Originally posted by deoxxys:

The biggest issue with Act 3 isnt just that it changes sub-genre.

While I prefer the table top roguelike rpg flavor in act one as compared to the video game rpg the biggest issue isnt the biggest problem. For one the overworld in-game is boring and the card fights dont have atmosphere, it could use some spice, like how boss fights in act one get all these cool environmental changes, and music and fog.

Also I could forgive the lack of pretty things, but the Card game is kinda bland too. First off I love an energy/mana system. But this game isnt even balanced around the energy resource well. Most of the card have expensive energy costs meaning you are forced to play passive/defensively until you get the right amount of energy. The basic card is the empty vessel, which is a blocker, but thats it. At least squirrels let you sacrifice turn one and get the offensive started right away. Basically the game pace is too slow, there needs to be more low level energy monsters.

Which is what I WOULD say but besides the energy system being poorly balanced, I feel like the whole aspect was just kinda slapped together because the robot clan could have been really interesting, but I feel like most of their abilities are just trying to copy what the beast clan does. Its a cheap imitation and coupled with the lack of low energy offensive cards the pace just becomes unbearable. Even though it also could have used more polish, I may rather prefer the undead deck instead.

Oh and dying and loosing your money and having to fight everyone again isnt a fun loop.

see, the energy appears this way, but when you learn the battery sigil adds to your max energy allowance by just plying a card that has it, you realize energy is actually broken beyond belief.
you can never endingly cast ourboros in act 2 and 3. you cannot without fecundity in act 1

[Soft Lockpick]

Originally posted by Loko+:

I agree with the criticisms of the energy system and other mechanics of Act III. They are not exactly 'fun' as implemented.. I like to think Act III was deliberately made as a poor version of Act I for narrative reasons. Like, just to show how much of a trash scribe P03 is compared to Leshy. IDK, it helps me cope.

If you intentionally make your game boring for "narrative reasons" maybe you should reconsider the medium you're using to tell your story.

[mldb88]

Originally posted by Soft Lockpick:

Originally posted by Loko+:

I agree with the criticisms of the energy system and other mechanics of Act III. They are not exactly 'fun' as implemented.. I like to think Act III was deliberately made as a poor version of Act I for narrative reasons. Like, just to show how much of a trash scribe P03 is compared to Leshy. IDK, it helps me cope.

If you intentionally make your game boring for "narrative reasons" maybe you should reconsider the medium you're using to tell your story.

It's been done well with other games in the past (though usually more played for laughs in other cases, see doing the same puzzle over and over in Portal 2), and it's not so horrendous in this case to where the game becomes so boring its unplayable (definitely more dry and with a lot less flavor than other acts). The main problem IMO is just that Act 3 outstays its welcome and drags on a bit too long, or some of the narrative gags just wasted a bit too much time and fell flat (the card creation waiting for the result of the other player's battle for the Golly fight for instance).

[deoxxys]

Originally posted by TemmieNeko:

Originally posted by deoxxys:

The biggest issue with Act 3 isnt just that it changes sub-genre.

While I prefer the table top roguelike rpg flavor in act one as compared to the video game rpg the biggest issue isnt the biggest problem. For one the overworld in-game is boring and the card fights dont have atmosphere, it could use some spice, like how boss fights in act one get all these cool environmental changes, and music and fog.

Also I could forgive the lack of pretty things, but the Card game is kinda bland too. First off I love an energy/mana system. But this game isnt even balanced around the energy resource well. Most of the card have expensive energy costs meaning you are forced to play passive/defensively until you get the right amount of energy. The basic card is the empty vessel, which is a blocker, but thats it. At least squirrels let you sacrifice turn one and get the offensive started right away. Basically the game pace is too slow, there needs to be more low level energy monsters.

Which is what I WOULD say but besides the energy system being poorly balanced, I feel like the whole aspect was just kinda slapped together because the robot clan could have been really interesting, but I feel like most of their abilities are just trying to copy what the beast clan does. Its a cheap imitation and coupled with the lack of low energy offensive cards the pace just becomes unbearable. Even though it also could have used more polish, I may rather prefer the undead deck instead.

Oh and dying and loosing your money and having to fight everyone again isnt a fun loop.

see, the energy appears this way, but when you learn the battery sigil adds to your max energy allowance by just plying a card that has it, you realize energy is actually broken beyond belief.
you can never endingly cast ourboros in act 2 and 3. you cannot without fecundity in act 1

I mean I guess if you get enough cards with the energy sigil that's doable. But one broken combo definitely doesn't make the card game aspect more fun. Diversity of choice and options is what makes deck builders fun and they need to be balanced for different kinds of play.

[lieutenantkirtar]

I picked the robot deck in act 2 and played the entire act with only robot cards.

It felt like the act 2 and act 3 gameplay should have been swapped. Act 1 you get a random deck every game, act 2 would then be the cards you get are random but they persist when you die, and act 3 would now be you keep your cards after death, can freely edit your deck between battles, and you start collecting the entire set.

[deoxxys]

Though I guess it really actually makes sense why they didnt pool all the cards together. Now that I think about it because the robot and wizard decks only really work with their intended themes and juggling three or four different power/energy sources is kind of convoluted and doesnt work unless you can edit your deck. At least the undead deck could have fit in with the beast deck since it already draws on one of the two existing cost sources that were very well implemented in Act 1.

[deoxxys]

Okay so I wanted to come back and say I forced myself to play some more and the gameplay gets a lot better once you get a vessel power and then gems come into play.
But the gameplay is painful when the vessels have no power. After adjusting my momentum I have rearranged my expectations for pace not being as fast as the roguelite portion. Personally I think it would be better if you started with a vessel power, because the beginning is the most unbearable. Once I beat a boss having my blocker also retaliate on hit helped improve the pace.

I have a lot more faith in the robo/gem deck build then I originally did but I think it would massively improve if it was faster paced, maybe specifically its the overworld that slows it down.

[deoxxys]

Not going to post any spoilers but the story was pretty good and had me going.

Very meta breaking game.

[a bitch of culture]

personally i like the battles a lot, and the bosses are great, and p03 is funny. i think some fat could have been trimmed from the map though. and did we need a shop? did we need bounty hunters? extra details like that are impressive but do make the act feel like a bit of a drag at times.

[Sabredufoil]

*Serious Spoilers Ahead*

I really liked Act 3. Seemed to be the only place where you could grind for cards and mess if you wanted to build a super op deck that wasn't entirely luck based. I got over the early grind by doing the puzzles and getting the lonely wizard and Ourobot. The wizard ended up being my heavy hitter for most of the game.

The Bounty Hunters were a nuisance during the grind, however. Especially once I got my Ourobot to where it was doing like 50 points of damage which would immediately take me to three stars (I guess the bounty's are more based on how much overkill you did than how many battles you had taken part in).

I also didn't like the presentation of the maps and agree that there needed to be more color and interesting background. The industrial coat of paint was a little annoying to deal with after being presented with leshy's map.

I had the opposite reaction to all of the various mix and matching of game mechanics, though. I *really* enjoyed the challenge of building a deck that synergized across mox and energy . The bosses were great and ended up helping more than harming, surprisingly enough. E.g. using the camera to take pictures of favorable board states, building your own card, creating favorable boss conditions to match your deck, etc. .

But yeah, I enjoyed it. The narrative was just the cherry on the top of an already amazing card game.

[Stoned Wendigo]

Good vs Bad DM. I love PO3 so much but yeah Leshy did his thing a bit better. I enjoyed the tech world way more though.