I have tested the Beta

[Gunaraj]

I must say that everything felt great, my only complaint is the dodging, it felt very slow compared to the speed of the enemies.
If you press B and left or right the character will roll, ok. But if you just press B it will do a backward slide, but the enemies always dart towards you that by the time you finish doing the slide a hit from the enemy comes right at you.
And I have experience in these 2D soulslike games so I think I'm not a one-armed man for this kind of games. Maybe I just need practice but that was my first impression.
Also I noticed that there are more characters in the game to use that are locked, a detail that I didn't like, so is Erik the main and only character, or is he simple one more to choose? Personally creating characters or choosing one of several is not to my liking, but that's my taste.
In everything else the game is amazing, the atmosphere, Erik, the music, the voice work is great, the level of detail in combat, really the game is very promising for lovers of soulslike metroidvania. And if you wonder if the game is difficult, I really felt it was very well balanced, I really died more because of the dodging problem than because the game was difficult.
I'm really looking forward to this game, and this Beta met my expectations.

[Green7]

Tested too, and i had a great time.
I agree on the dodging, it feels a tad slow. I love the art style and the Castlevania vibes. It takes you in at the first few screens.
Sure, I felt like I was missing some stuff, like I found items to upgrade my weapons, but could not find a way to do so.
One thing I had problems with was this: my controller died in the middle of the game and I tried to connect with another one, and the game did not recognize the new controller, nor the old one after recharging. So I had to restart the game, and all the progress was gone.
But that's the only thing I found was not so nice, and just by some bad luck.
Moments i loved absolutely: When i found the Whip, or the finish animations, jet i did not manage to trigger them all.

[Traumaturgy]

I played it a little and truth told didnt like it. Controls feel slow and unresponsive. Dodging is very weird and slow for how fast enemy can attack. I wanted to dodge toward enemy- got hit. Dodge from enemy- his animations ended where my roll ended and i got hit.
Enemies have way too much health and deal too much damage, fighting them is more tedious and annoying than fun, so most of the time i ran just past them.
And healing items dont fill up at bonfire/lamp which is kinda stupid in that kind of game. You have to farm them but drop rate is low.
Also dont like animation of going to opposite side- you make some steps backwards, then turn around and then go normally. Its annoying me i dont know why.
Map is usual rectangle metroidvania ugly map, seriously I hate this design, create a normal map pls.
Ill play more tomorrow but for now its just another boring metroidvania without its own identity, just copying everything from other games (mostly Blasphemous, Castlevania and Bloodborne here). I feel more disappointed than hyped.

[Gunaraj]

Originally posted by Green7:

Tested too, and i had a great time.
I agree on the dodging, it feels a tad slow. I love the art style and the Castlevania vibes. It takes you in at the first few screens.
Sure, I felt like I was missing some stuff, like I found items to upgrade my weapons, but could not find a way to do so.
One thing I had problems with was this: my controller died in the middle of the game and I tried to connect with another one, and the game did not recognize the new controller, nor the old one after recharging. So I had to restart the game, and all the progress was gone.
But that's the only thing I found was not so nice, and just by some bad luck.
Moments i loved absolutely: When i found the Whip, or the finish animations, jet i did not manage to trigger them all.

The Beta has no save so if you exit the game everything is lost.
And the Beta is just the beginning, you will not find improvements.
But I hope that in the full game we will find them.

[Gunaraj]

Originally posted by Traumaturgy:

I played it a little and truth told didnt like it. Controls feel slow and unresponsive. Dodging is very weird and slow for how fast enemy can attack. I wanted to dodge toward enemy- got hit. Dodge from enemy- his animations ended where my roll ended and i got hit.
Enemies have way too much health and deal too much damage, fighting them is more tedious and annoying than fun, so most of the time i ran just past them.
And healing items dont fill up at bonfire/lamp which is kinda stupid in that kind of game. You have to farm them but drop rate is low.
Also dont like animation of going to opposite side- you make some steps backwards, then turn around and then go normally. Its annoying me i dont know why.
Map is usual rectangle metroidvania ugly map, seriously I hate this design, create a normal map pls.
Ill play more tomorrow but for now its just another boring metroidvania without its own identity, just copying everything from other games (mostly Blasphemous, Castlevania and Bloodborne here). I feel more disappointed than hyped.

About the healing items not being refilled at save points and the character animation when flipping, I completely agree, I didn't like that either.

[DrNo1ツ]

Originally posted by Traumaturgy:

I played it a little and truth told didnt like it. Controls feel slow and unresponsive. Dodging is very weird and slow for how fast enemy can attack. I wanted to dodge toward enemy- got hit. Dodge from enemy- his animations ended where my roll ended and i got hit.
Enemies have way too much health and deal too much damage, fighting them is more tedious and annoying than fun, so most of the time i ran just past them.
And healing items dont fill up at bonfire/lamp which is kinda stupid in that kind of game. You have to farm them but drop rate is low.
Also dont like animation of going to opposite side- you make some steps backwards, then turn around and then go normally. Its annoying me i dont know why.
Map is usual rectangle metroidvania ugly map, seriously I hate this design, create a normal map pls.
Ill play more tomorrow but for now its just another boring metroidvania without its own identity, just copying everything from other games (mostly Blasphemous, Castlevania and Bloodborne here). I feel more disappointed than hyped.

I tested too and i'm not sure if the controls are slow and unresponsive or the character moviments are not fluid and smooth enough, but i got used to it.
The dodge has the same issue, but still i got kinda used to it.
Overall, i think they should improve the character movimentation and controls response, but still a good game.
The health flasks, it refills on death but not when you rest at those statues, and i don't think it should refill, you kinda drop them from mobs and find around the maps, if you die on a boss fight just make your way back skiping the fights in the way, i don't think the spawn points will be too far from boss rooms.
And that opposite side animation is kinda weird and cool at same time, gameplay wise i didn't like it, but it's a cool move lol.
I loved the weapons atacks and skills, thanks for making the whip great again ^^
Secret rooms? i love it
The BIG donwside of this beta test is where it ends... seriously ? You show us the cake but we can't take a bite? that was EVIL ;)

[Yaibatsu]

Originally posted by Traumaturgy:

I played it a little and truth told didnt like it. Controls feel slow and unresponsive. Dodging is very weird and slow for how fast enemy can attack. I wanted to dodge toward enemy- got hit. Dodge from enemy- his animations ended where my roll ended and i got hit.
Enemies have way too much health and deal too much damage, fighting them is more tedious and annoying than fun, so most of the time i ran just past them.
And healing items dont fill up at bonfire/lamp which is kinda stupid in that kind of game. You have to farm them but drop rate is low.
Also dont like animation of going to opposite side- you make some steps backwards, then turn around and then go normally. Its annoying me i dont know why.
Map is usual rectangle metroidvania ugly map, seriously I hate this design, create a normal map pls.
Ill play more tomorrow but for now its just another boring metroidvania without its own identity, just copying everything from other games (mostly Blasphemous, Castlevania and Bloodborne here). I feel more disappointed than hyped.

Yeah idk, the combat just feels slow and unresponsive. The dodge is rough and enemies feel so much smoother than the player that it feels like you're intentionally handicapped for fake difficulty. Not a fan of the healing not recharging on checkpoints either.
I don't know. Feel the game could need some polishing in core areas.

[danblev]

I actually like the dodging, it reminded me more of Soulslike. I had to properly observe the enemy animation and get a feel for the timing, and I couldn't rush it either. It made every dodge feel rewarding.

[Dollie]

Originally posted by DrNo1ツ:

The health flasks, it refills on death but not when you rest at those statues, and i don't think it should refill, you kinda drop them from mobs and find around the maps, if you die on a boss fight just make your way back skiping the fights in the way, i don't think the spawn points will be too far from boss rooms.

Does the healing potions refill upon death? I played again and no, only Health is replenished but not the healing potions. Heck, not even Focus is replenished so that's a bummer. It'll probably work better if enemies are more likely to drop healing potions upon death, or maybe once we reach a hub (if there's one, or a merchant) and make health potion purchase easier.

Originally posted by danblev:

I actually like the dodging, it reminded me more of Soulslike. I had to properly observe the enemy animation and get a feel for the timing, and I couldn't rush it either. It made every dodge feel rewarding.

I actually like the dodging too. When I first started, I kept getting hit by that deranged woman. Then I learned her pattern and dodge when she hits so I get behind the enemy. It's the same with most enemies, except the jumping ones. The jumping enemies annoy me (not that I'm complaining cause that adds variety!) but that's fine. The flying enemies though... Boy... Their hit boxes are weird!

I do agree the dodging needs a bit of reworking. During the first mini boss, I'd expected to be able to roll past the boss with the dodge and get behind but kept getting bashed by the hand-shield. It frustrated me - until I learned to just jump over the boss. LOL... So I think it's more of a learning process and reading enemy patterns.


Speaking of which, I just learned your weapon has a second attack. No, it's not the one with the bumper + X/square. I mean, the long press for a heavy attack. Yup. Usually the bumper is normal attack and trigger is heavy attack. But that is reserved for X/square button. I really do hope the devs add button remapping.