Feedback: Vanadis Final Fight w/ Divine Words

[Winston]

I just cleared the game with Vanadis and wanted to offer some constructive feedback to the devs:

1.) The divine words fight feels completely out of place in the context of the rest of the game. It feels anti-climactic to not use the deck that the player built throughout the rest of the run in the final encounter.
2.) The game doesn't do a good job of explaining how to beat the divine words fight. As a result, I felt like I was bashing my head against a wall trying to infer what the rules of the "puzzle" were through 30+ attempts.

I loved the story mode with the exception of this divine words last encounter. I think when other players get to this point in the game, they will end up feeling frustrated as I did.

[bearlysane]

I didn't even know you could click on the shiny words until I read this, somehow that helped me figure it out. I'm not sure if there's absolutely zero explanation, or if I'm just too dumb to figure it our from context dialog.

[badger vortex]

hard disagree, the divine words was one of the coolest ways to do the final boss fight, i would actually find it way less interesting if we were just using the vanilla deck we'd been using up to that point

it is really not hard to figure out, they give you plenty of hints and reiterating that you have to pay attention to the words and what effects they have

[Tozobi]

Steering Mecha-Mortis was a lot more fun than the end bosses with the other characters where you would just end up stacking block, evasion or strength to beat the boss in an endurance run

[Lionheartwolf]

I think the mechanic is fine, but I agree that it should be explained the first time, or at the very least a single hint that just let's you know you can touch the sigils. If not for this thread, I would have just thought I was watching a cutscene. I know there is some minor dialog to suggest what you are suppose to do, but it's not enough to suggest the player should be taking actions other than just watching.

[thefollowingcharacters]

They need to have Mortis explain something like, "Touch the symbols with your mind." I sat there like a moron the first time thinking it was just a cutscene.

[GeminiEclipse]

I don't know how long I've been in this "cutscene" but thank you for actually giving a clue as to what to do.

This is some of the worst design decisions I think I've had my time wasted by in a long time. Please give the player some UI hint.

[Happyculture]

Holy cow - I tried tracing the shapes with my mouse, but when nothing happened I just assumed it was the longest cut scene in the universe. Once the intermission scenes started repeating I thought maybe this was supposed to teach the player the true horror of time looping and force you to quit out.

I agree that clicking on the words was not hinted at appropriately at all. Thank you for saving me from purgatory.

[Exitarnium]

Okay ngl I like the concept but the execution was somewhat rough, took me ages to learn that you can KEEP clicking on it all mid-fight as well to replenish your hand

[Galileus]

The thing that breaks it, IMO, is how "action" the sequence is. The words show up and dissapear very fast, so does the attacks/actions of the two bosses, fast enough to seem like a cutscene. Which is a super weird concept in a turn based game, and makes it real hard to figure out what you are supposed to do. Worse yet, for me that meant spamming a lot - both the grabbing (including the useles cards) and the playing. I won by spamming, and it made it feel well worse.

Now, if the game stopped moving FOR A FRIGGIN SECOND, it would tell you you are expected to do something. Make the words show up as quick, but stay londer and blink if pointed at with a mouse. Make them show up up to three, so you can pick one, ignore the bad ones and THINK what you are picking. During the combat, if you have cards, make the bosses sit tight for a bit bvetween turns to let the player see what cards he has and plan what he wants to do, make them resolve turns after you pick a card, and speed them up only if all cards are gone.

It's a cool concept, it looks amazing, it could use some tweaking though,

[Coruskor]

The fact that you can attempt it over and over while failing it makes it not horrible. That being said the first time I played it I seriously thought it was just another cut scene for like 10 loops. It's very odd that you suddenly interact with the "cut scene", After maybe 5 loops it needs to be hinted better cause that's definitely not what any one thinks to do. The characters don't loop the conversation either so it feels even more like a scene instead of the game still.

[GeminiEclipse]

Turn based story card game. Duck hunt puzzle action boss with no UI indication you're playing a new game. I don't even think the concept is good, let alone the execution.

[Toltex]

The divine word fight is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cancer and made the entire game sour in my mouth. Make it turn based.

[Laurykat]

I agree, the whole premise of a rogue deckbuilder is to engage in clever deckbuilding, and use your tools tactically to achieve victory, but suddenly, at the last moment, the game turns into a twitch reaction zoomer game where symbols start flashing left and right with no reaction time, no possibility for planning or thinking about your options.

I could live with it, if at least the pace was slower, or there were actual "turns" so the game, at the very least, keeps playing like the game I paid for, not a completely different type of game that hadn'tbeen expected or anticipated for the other 99.9% of the gameplay.

Big disappointment to me, and honestly, the only thing that is holding me from giving it a positive review. Up to that point, it was a pretty fantasatic game.

[Jeysie]

I'm watching Cohh play it right now (haven't gotten anywhere near there myself yet) and... yeah, I'm on the "yuck" side. I buy turn-based games in a large part because I'm not good at reaction things, and it having a memory component just makes it even worse.

I really don't like surprise gameplay pivots like this as a result.

Uh, don't suppose if devs really want to keep the overall format they could code in a turn-based version of the fight and let people choose how to play it, at least?

[thefollowingcharacters]

Originally posted by Jeysie:

I'm watching Cohh play it right now (haven't gotten anywhere near there myself yet) and... yeah, I'm on the "yuck" side. I buy turn-based games in a large part because I'm not good at reaction things, and it having a memory component just makes it even worse.

I really don't like surprise gameplay pivots like this as a result.

Uh, don't suppose if devs really want to keep the overall format they could code in a turn-based version of the fight and let people choose how to play it, at least?

She's the only character that has that fight, and once you complete it once its the easiest thing in the game to do after that. Its not nearly as bad as you think.