So I Guess I'm The Only One?

[Something]

So I guess I'm the only one who's not utterly in love with this game? Maybe because I don't play a lot of platformer type games but the platforming seems to suck massive ass. Level-ups seem to cost too much for how little return you get back per stat point investment. If there was a tutorial for fast travel then I missed it but I see people talking about it but I don't know how to do it and there's nothing in the game telling me anymore after accidentally skipping through some tutorial early on. The players hitboxes are way too big sometimes, like the jump frames don't match up to what the player sees. I spent a good 3 hours dying over and over in that giant toothy cootchie of a zone because my hitbox clipped a tooth trap when my model showed I cleared it completely.

[Bankai9212]

I wouldn’t say people don’t have issues as no game is perfect. Leveling is mainly for weapons and scalability most of the better skills are traits from enemies. As for fast travel you’ll need to use the nervepass mention at the world spear you need to find them in certain zones.

[neojb1989]

The fast travel is just those nervepass things that you'll find throughout the world. You can't use them until you find two at least. You really are meant to walk through an area and not backtrack until you kinda start discovering those.

eventually at the very end of the game you get the ability to travel through the surrogates so that you can go grab anything you missed for the achievements, but that's literally at like the final area before the final boss

The levels didn't feel that important to me in terms of survivability. I went through the whole game with 5 points in health and focus, and the rest in the 3 weapon stats just so I could try all the weapons (I ended up at 15, 20, 15 and that let's me use like 90% of the weapons)

If you are dying that much in that toothy area, it's probably likely you aren't supposed to be there. This is a metroidvania so eventually you will get some other mobility powers that'll help you cross certain areas.

[Bankai9212]

Given the linear progression, he’s in the festering lair based on the description so he’s on the main path.

[neojb1989]

No sorry, what I meant to say is that even in the festering lair there are paths that you need the dash for and stuff like that. I remember one specific tooth trap that I really though i could get through but eventually gave up on till I had a different mobility upgrade.

[Bankai9212]

Ah, yeah now I follow.

[Swamp Fox]

I enjoy the atmosphere of the game, but not the difficulty so much. I dunno where to go and the lack of healing items and stuff necessarily limits any expedition that's not perfectly played. I bought the game knowing it's supposed to be hard, but I'm too old to focus on parrying every enemy perfectly, gets tiring.

Level ups cost a lot and don't really seem to make you stronger.

[AARXN.]

Originally posted by Mistah Body Massage Machine:

I enjoy the atmosphere of the game, but not the difficulty so much. I dunno where to go and the lack of healing items and stuff necessarily limits any expedition that's not perfectly played. I bought the game knowing it's supposed to be hard, but I'm too old to focus on parrying every enemy perfectly, gets tiring.

Level ups cost a lot and don't really seem to make you stronger.

Honestly i'm very surprised at how large the parry window is. It's definitely way more forgiving than the souls-like games. If you wanted to dodge an enemy attack but instead hit the parry, odds are, you're bound to get it 85% of the time. That's my experience of it at least.

[Swamp Fox]

Originally posted by AARXN.:

Originally posted by Mistah Body Massage Machine:

I enjoy the atmosphere of the game, but not the difficulty so much. I dunno where to go and the lack of healing items and stuff necessarily limits any expedition that's not perfectly played. I bought the game knowing it's supposed to be hard, but I'm too old to focus on parrying every enemy perfectly, gets tiring.

Level ups cost a lot and don't really seem to make you stronger.

Honestly i'm very surprised at how large the parry window is. It's definitely way more forgiving than the souls-like games. If you wanted to dodge an enemy attack but instead hit the parry, odds are, you're bound to get it 85% of the time. That's my experience of it at least.

It's not hard, it's just tiresome. An effect that game developers don't pay enough attention to is the player proving they can do something.

I've proven I can parry this guy and that guy- the game lacking the progression for me to be significantly less afraid of them as I move on means I have to concentrate on parries that I know, and the game knows, I can do. Instead of feeling strong, the design makes me feel weak. Common problem with a lot of games these days.

I believe that in the best design of a game like this, once the player has shown that a challenge can be surmounted, tools should be provided such that it can be surpassed. Hence the greater rate of level ups in Souls and the greater rewards they bring. Of course this game also lacks one main thing the souls games have: an extra dimension. You can "outskill" enemies a lot more in Souls games than you can here. Stamina seems a bit artificially limited as a group of 2 enemies in the second area can keep you on zero stamina and force you to make only attacks of opportunity.

It gets tiring playing through that over and over while trying to explore and find the next area. The developer has to ask themselves what happens when the player has proven they are up to the challenge. Drill it into them forever, or make them significantly stronger?

[Yarden]

I mean we are standing at around 80% Steam reviews so you're definitely not alone lol.
There is definite room for improvement, especially in fast-travel, and I try to read everything I can to decide what next we should prioritize work on. We've been releasing a patch or two every week since launch making such changes, and we aim to upload tomorrow/the end of today a patch adding another Nervepass and making the one in Lair much more accessible.

Hitboxes is a very tricky thing in a fully 3D game compared to 2D. We definitely punched a bit too high above our weight as a our first game, but we go over each and every reported and screenshotted/recorded video of bad hitbox instances to fix them for the patch following the report.

[Swamp Fox]

Originally posted by Yarden:

I mean we are standing at around 80% Steam reviews so you're definitely not alone lol.
There is definite room for improvement, especially in fast-travel, and I try to read everything I can to decide what next we should prioritize work on. We've been releasing a patch or two every week since launch making such changes, and we aim to upload tomorrow/the end of today a patch adding another Nervepass and making the one in Lair much more accessible.

Hitboxes is a very tricky thing in a fully 3D game compared to 2D. We definitely punched a bit too high above our weight as a our first game, but we go over each and every reported and screenshotted/recorded video of bad hitbox instances to fix them for the patch following the report.

Yarden, I bought the game again but I didn't notice the pitch being lower on the Beacon. Are you sure the change was committed? For now I have just been playing with the volume down. Oh well.

It may not be part of your original design ethos but I think you should have the player character get a little bit better from level ups. +2% health +1% stamina or something like that.

[Yarden]

Originally posted by Mistah Body Massage Machine:

Originally posted by Yarden:

I mean we are standing at around 80% Steam reviews so you're definitely not alone lol.
There is definite room for improvement, especially in fast-travel, and I try to read everything I can to decide what next we should prioritize work on. We've been releasing a patch or two every week since launch making such changes, and we aim to upload tomorrow/the end of today a patch adding another Nervepass and making the one in Lair much more accessible.

Hitboxes is a very tricky thing in a fully 3D game compared to 2D. We definitely punched a bit too high above our weight as a our first game, but we go over each and every reported and screenshotted/recorded video of bad hitbox instances to fix them for the patch following the report.

Yarden, I bought the game again but I didn't notice the pitch being lower on the Beacon. Are you sure the change was committed? For now I have just been playing with the volume down. Oh well.

It may not be part of your original design ethos but I think you should have the player character get a little bit better from level ups. +2% health +1% stamina or something like that.

I've brought the original pitch of the in-active Beacon (which is 1.0) down to a pitch of 0.6, so about 40% pitched down. But the active one has a much smaller volume with a pitch closer to the original (0.8 I think). Maybe down pitching is not enough? Make sure on the next in-active one you find before triggering it if it's good.

The current numbers for leveling are higher than +2%/1%, especially the first 20 or so levels (You start at around 70 and get 5 per level), and the Leaper/Rockhead traits empower that boost even more.

[Swamp Fox]

Originally posted by Yarden:

Originally posted by Mistah Body Massage Machine:

Yarden, I bought the game again but I didn't notice the pitch being lower on the Beacon. Are you sure the change was committed? For now I have just been playing with the volume down. Oh well.

It may not be part of your original design ethos but I think you should have the player character get a little bit better from level ups. +2% health +1% stamina or something like that.

I've brought the original pitch of the in-active Beacon (which is 1.0) down to a pitch of 0.6, so about 40% pitched down. But the active one has a much smaller volume with a pitch closer to the original (0.8 I think). Maybe down pitching is not enough? Make sure on the next in-active one you find before triggering it if it's good.

The current numbers for leveling are higher than +2%/1%, especially the first 20 or so levels (You start at around 70 and get 5 per level), and the Leaper/Rockhead traits empower that boost even more.

Interesting, didn't know that. It feels like the character is very weak..Maybe I need a new weapon.

CAT scan hopefully being performed soon to look for abnormalities in my neck and head, fun times! :)

[Frankie]

I did like it a lot but it feels a little like an early acess title at times even though it is not sold as one. I don't mean that in a bad way, but we all experienced the glitches/bugs here and there I guess. Platforming doesn't suck at all in my opinon, but i might be a tad too challenging for many people I think. There were times when I thought the devs wanted to ♥♥♥♥ me up just cause they can ;)
Leveling costs are fine in my opinion, you may have to explore more to get a lot of extra mass. Personally I would have gone for a fasttravel system that lets you warp between all the
Savestones you found. The 3 hours on one spot was probably your mistake cause you weren't supposed to make that jump just yet.

[Lesmir]

Originally posted by Frankie:

I did like it a lot but it feels a little like an early acess title at times even though it is not sold as one. I don't mean that in a bad way, but we all experienced the glitches/bugs here and there I guess. Platforming doesn't suck at all in my opinon, but i might be a tad too challenging for many people I think. There were times when I thought the devs wanted to ♥♥♥♥ me up just cause they can ;)
Leveling costs are fine in my opinion, you may have to explore more to get a lot of extra mass. Personally I would have gone for a fasttravel system that lets you warp between all the
Savestones you found. The 3 hours on one spot was probably your mistake cause you weren't supposed to make that jump just yet.

it was not set as a early access because the game content was complete and bug on release is far more commun that you could think but we also have to understand its their first game and its an indie group so off course it wont be super polished on release but the dev are super present and working hard to fix everything and add quality of life in the game

and there is a way to travel from savestones but its way later in the game ( to let you explore everything and do 100% achievement )

[AARXN.]

Originally posted by Mistah Body Massage Machine:

Originally posted by AARXN.:

Honestly i'm very surprised at how large the parry window is. It's definitely way more forgiving than the souls-like games. If you wanted to dodge an enemy attack but instead hit the parry, odds are, you're bound to get it 85% of the time. That's my experience of it at least.

It's not hard, it's just tiresome. An effect that game developers don't pay enough attention to is the player proving they can do something.

I've proven I can parry this guy and that guy- the game lacking the progression for me to be significantly less afraid of them as I move on means I have to concentrate on parries that I know, and the game knows, I can do. Instead of feeling strong, the design makes me feel weak. Common problem with a lot of games these days.

I believe that in the best design of a game like this, once the player has shown that a challenge can be surmounted, tools should be provided such that it can be surpassed. Hence the greater rate of level ups in Souls and the greater rewards they bring. Of course this game also lacks one main thing the souls games have: an extra dimension. You can "outskill" enemies a lot more in Souls games than you can here. Stamina seems a bit artificially limited as a group of 2 enemies in the second area can keep you on zero stamina and force you to make only attacks of opportunity.

It gets tiring playing through that over and over while trying to explore and find the next area. The developer has to ask themselves what happens when the player has proven they are up to the challenge. Drill it into them forever, or make them significantly stronger?

I'm not quite sure i understand where you're coming from. If you've proven you CAN parry this guy or that, why would it require you to concentrate on those enemies even more? If you've learned their secrets then shouldn't it become easier, thus making you feel stronger?

Personally when i fight a new enemy i'm scared because enemies in this game hit HARD as i'm sure you know, but once i learn their movesets i'm like "bish get outta my way", i bait them into a parry-able attack and boom, free breath meter if i'm not already topped up.

I don't get how a challenge can still be "challenging" if you already know how to get past it.