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The whole game is grinding. You're expected to die and start new runs, completing the same biomse and fighting the same enemies over and over. The soul shop is irrelevant until ng+ minimum.
By your definition this entire game is an 'asinine gameplay lengthening scheme'. The game is literally 'fight these same dozen enemies in the same 5 biomes with the same 6 classes over and over until you can't be ♥♥♥♥♥♥ any more'.
>I'm sure someone likes this, but given the choice to skip it I bet the "fans" would be quick to line up
Most people playing the game like this and knew what they were buying before doing so, and don't want whatever streamlined design you think would be better.
@Gnodab and @Yoongling, that you for your replies. I thought that might be the case, I appreciate the confirmation that this is supposed to be a NG+ activity. It is a little weird that you can reach it so early though. LIke, maybe the scars shouldn't be unlocked until NG+?
Not necessarily. It took me like 20 hours or so to beat the game the first time, and that gave me plenty of time to explore Scars, most of which were well beyond my skill at that point. For most people the game is way too hard, but others just blaze through it, and that's what NG+ is for. Originally, the devs expected most players to stop before NG+5, but here we are capped at NG+30. In fact, they've recently made changes to make equipment and runes drop at a steady pace throughout NG+ levels so players don't just get everything all at once and be resource starved.
Guys, when someone comes with what they think is a fair criticism (whether it really is or not) try to understand where they're coming from and if you think they're wrong, try to explain to them why.
Anyway, @Hyomoto, your main problem is really simple:
You're focusing too much on the unlocking/upgrading of the gear/runes.
Don't get me wrong, both are important and can make a difference, but the one thing you need to focus on in the early game is: playing and upgrading your manor. You'll get more out of your manor and faster, than focusing on gear so much.
Don't go chasing after this gear piece or that one rune, take what you receive, upgrade what you can and focus on beating the game first. Bosses are a great and consistent source of both ore and aether, Commanders and Fairy rooms too. You'll get more of these the more you play and the higher NG you reach, so just play.
You're not expected to unlock and upgrade everything ASAP, it's an ongoing thing.
Especially NG,+3 onwards
Couldn't agree more tbh. I just recently started my 3rd new fresh profile and I can definitely say time and practice go a long way. Once you get past the growing pains and get a good feel of what does and doesn't syngerize well together, the game really starts to open up. Especially given the current NG+ cap (GL to anyone in the 20s, btw. It's definitely a challenge, even to experienced players.)
How many points of vitality would it take to survive one extra hit from a boss? It depends on the class of course, but compare this to armor that reduces damage by a static 1 per to a max of 35%. Yes, the manor is *easier* to upgrade because it only costs gold and that's a very common resource, but reducing damage taken by 7 is just much more beneficial than boosting vitality by 1.
Which brings me back around to my response there. It's fair to ask: if this is not the intended path for pre-NG+ gameplay, perhaps it just shouldn't be available? I'm not a big min-maxer despite what my words above may suggest, but if I'm feeling the squeeze my impulse is not to grind out miniscule upgrades, it's to look for what the most significant and beneficial boost will be.
However, I will stand by my other comment: blueprints are really just asinine. I get it, it's there to drag out the game but that's the problem: the game is already long and resource farming isn't the fun part. So just put the equipment in the chest and cut out the middle man. I get that won't happen but I will defend that it would be more enjoyable. It's not really fun to find blueprints as it's like, "Ah, cool. Don't have the resources for that." In some cases it's annoying, "Well, I wanted gold but instead I got a blueprint I won't be able to use for some time."
Speaking of which, there is something else that would help with that. Why are the bonuses *also* hidden? Maybe I'm just not a total roguelite fanboy, but not knowing what the set bonus is going to be also makes it hard to want to invest in a set that might not even cater to whatever I think my playstyle is.
Ultimately, upgrades aren't the point of the game. They're part of the game, and they're an option to help you get stronger if you need it, but if you form a mindset around stat grinding to victory, you'll miss the real point of the game, which is to master the many mechanics in place.
For example, I beat the game in around 20 hours or so, but I didn't actually start using Spin Kicks in combat until about 70 hours. I didn't start weaving in spells in any sort of refined fashion until 150 hours. This game has a great deal of depth to it, and it takes a long time to appreciate how much you can do with just the base character.
Equipment sets for the most part just give you big stat bonuses. Big multipliers to a particular stat, or a big increase to healing on kill. That is 90% of the sets in the game. And that's most of what the Manor does too. All they do is empower your basic skill set, which you will slowly develop over dozens, if not hundreds of hours.
I didn't say it was more efficient cost wise and it's not about a % increase/gold thing. I simply said you will get more stats and faster from the manor than from gear in early game. There are more readily available upgrades and as you said, they only cost gold. Unless you're really good at the game and never die (in which case you don't really need all of that).
Gear require to find the blueprints, then they require ore on top of gold to buy/upgrade, it requires eq. weight to wear, it requires surrendering resolve (at first at least). It's a bigger investment early on than manor upgrades and requires making choices. That is not to say you should ignore it, just don't spend all your time worrying about finding all the blueprints, buying every piece and upgrading everything ASAP.
Regarding Vitality, 1 point in it is at a minimum 6 more hp (for fragile Ronin) up to 10 more for the tankier classes, so early on, before you start stacking more armor and those sweet folded runes, those first 10 points in vitality in the manor will do wonders for survivability (and there's 20 more following).
But again, it's not an either/or situation. You should stack manor stats and stats from gear, just don't get in a grinding mindset trying to get all the gear unlocked/bought/upgraded ASAP.
The gear is available for you to unlock/buy/upgrade early but that does not mean you should focus on it early. It's like packing food for a trip, you don't eat the food at the start, you wait until you're hungry.
Imho, the intended path is: just try to beat the game and if you can't, use what's available to you to become stronger. That can be gold put into the manor, or gold put into unlocking/upgrading gear.
Those minuscule upgrades in the manor might not be much by themselves too, but they add up quick (and easy) and you might get to unlock a new class which can help a ton more. Not exaggerating, a different class, without even taking the useful masteries it'll bring into account, can completely unlock a part of the game that was giving you headaches.
Imho, it's all about choices. If you could find all the gear easily or if you could unlock/upgrade them easily, it'd be a no-brainer. Instead, you have to deal with the randomness of the drops, juggle with the resources and make decisions.
It works maybe for an early access game that is trying to pad out its content while players wait for a proper resolution but it's not more fun than just finding equipment and fighting the final boss. We're already doing the scars. We're already searching randomized rooms. We're already doing skill challenges. We're already having to die and return to equip our newfound stuff. So, here's the thing. You disagree, yeah?
How does resource farming increase decision making? I'll agree that choosing what to unlock is at least a decision to be made, but you only have to make that decision because you find more blueprints than you do resources to unlock them. I would also argue the important choice is in what to wear, not what to unlock. It's not like you can equip everything, and you already have to grind manor upgrades to wear the best stuff so ... are you sure this is an interesting decision to make?
If you want the game padded out then yeah, it makes sense. It keeps the player with a todo list. However, in a game that already has plenty of more interesting todo lists, it's hard to see how this particular todo list is vital to the experience.
However, I appreciate that equipment is not as important as in RL1. Ive stuck with mostly just leather armor for lots of resolve bonuses. Most armor set bonuses felt pretty weak compared to the extra resolve you can use to make strong relic combos.
But I have a problem with that "resource farming" you're talking about. I have never felt I had to stop and farm resources. I just played and bought what I could/seemed useful along the way. Like I said, you're focusing too much on trying to get everything ASAP.
You can finish the entire game with zero upgrades or equipment bought if you have the skills. If you don't, then use what you earned to make up for it. This isn't a game where you actively hunt for the resources to build stuff like in an RTS, you just make do with what you have.
This is what I was talking about. Early on, gear isn't that important, and later on, when it is, you're most likely in NG+ and the resources will follow.
I mean, you don't even have access to some of the sets until you're in NG+ anyway. Don't feel like you need to grind for resources yet.