This Game Seriously Needs to Fix Its Puzzle Mechanics

[你的爛隊友]

I really have to say, the regional challenges and puzzles in this game are unbelievably bad—it's hard to even describe how frustrating they are. Worst of all, they permanently lock power-up items behind these sections instead of letting players choose whether they want to engage with the puzzles.

I understand this is actually quite similar to Castlevania, where discovering hidden items can be exciting. But honestly, I'm older now, busy with work and life, and I just want to enjoy the game casually once in a while. I really wish there were better hints to complete each area’s challenges, instead of just throwing a question mark at you to say something is incomplete—then leaving you to figure out how to assemble all these weird contraptions with barely any clues. The hints are just awful.

At some points, I honestly felt like uninstalling the game!! Even when I finally got the rewards, I didn't feel happy—just exhausted from all the time spent wandering around looking for solutions.

From my personal experience, if they're planning to make a third installment, they really need to reconsider the balance of puzzle elements. At the very least, they shouldn't make essential power-up items only obtainable through exploration. Just look at Ubisoft’s TheAssassin's Creed Shadows—that's a great example of how it should be done.

UBI really loves making players repeat a lot of meaningless tasks just to artificially extend gameplay time. This doesn't actually benefit the game itself—in fact, it leads to player fatigue

[prjcole]

I have same complaints about the puzzles. Its so bad I've stopped playing after only a few hours into Ancients. I've 1,346 very enjoyable hours on main game and Leviathan

[Pappy]

Originally posted by 你的爛隊友:

At the very least, they shouldn't make essential power-up items only obtainable through exploration.

Mainframe components are hardly essential. You can remove all of them and it's barely noticeable. Besides you run across half of them purely by accident. Combine that with the fact that their value has diminishing returns and honestly there's no need to do any exploring, the ones you find purely by chance is all you really need. The rest are just incentive for those who have the desire to 100% the game.

[Notoshy]

More than 95% of all Puzzles are optional.
I can maybe tell you 2 or 3 that i personally would describe as "hard" .... but thats mainly because i overthinked them xD
Beside that... game difficulty affect Puzzles too (not sure if all, but they are affected).

[serker31]

Originally posted by 你的爛隊友:

I really have to say, the regional challenges and puzzles in this game are unbelievably bad—it's hard to even describe how frustrating they are. Worst of all, they permanently lock power-up items behind these sections instead of letting players choose whether they want to engage with the puzzles.

Puzzles are part why this game is interesting to me. If you don't want the challenge but want the rewards - google it, there is a bunch of videowalkthroughts out there, noone will judge you.

The hints are just awful.

Nope, they are not. There is always some sort of visual cue to where something of interest is, you never get something hidden in totally unremarcable location. Hell, they even threw common containers around so you are almost bound to get puzzle elements marked on your screen if you loot them.

[Yes Indeed!]

the puzzles are good

[WormGar]

You can skip them because most of the better tier loot items come from rifts and dogfights anyway.

They're only tedious if you don't enjoy flying around.

They're only hard if you don't explore.

And if you're stuck and impatient like I've been once or twice out of their myriad of puzzles, I promise from experience that looking up a guide won't kill you.

[Ozium]

agree they're bit too puzzle happy, but as said majority are optional

[rkarlberg]

Yes! I agree totally - horrible puzzles in this game. I have it set to Very Easy, but nothing is easy at all! Wish I had not wasted money on this crap!

[Lienhart]

I'm mixed on this.

Originally posted by rkarlberg:

Yes! I agree totally - horrible puzzles in this game. I have it set to Very Easy, but nothing is easy at all! Wish I had not wasted money on this crap!

200 hours and has the disrespect to say "i wasted my money."

Originally posted by WormGar:

They're only tedious if you don't enjoy flying around.

They're only hard if you don't explore.

OP is probably going for 100% completion. I have twice...and gave up because it's just too much, even with YouTube guides.

It's exhausting and likely depends on both your day job and natural tendencies. For example: as a dev that is constantly trying to figure out what the ♥♥♥♥ is wrong because xyz/abc all day, I am not down with puzzles by the end of the day.

But I do appreciate how much content is in the game! So a perspective/mindset shift is needed for those who are competitions like myself.