How's the combat?

[Reptiloid]

I don't know if it's even a combat heavy game, but my biggest concern from the trailer was how poor the bow combat looked. Stiff animations and lack of hit feedback make it feel really weightless and janky. Has the combat improved for the final release?

[The Captain]

The game is the best i played this year

[Tryyton]

"make it feel really weightless and janky" how do you feel what you didn't play?

combat is fun and you have different ways to do the encounters or what items/ammo you use. the bigger guys can be challenging if there are more around. you use your bow for travel and puzzles as well.

[Mesarthim]

From my perspective, combat is okay... You have a dodge button (like many recent game), the bow is used by either tapping (the arrow won't go far with low damage) or holding the attck key (the attack will go pretty far and will do max damage)

Once the attack is charged, the tip of your arrow will glow and you can press F for a special attack.

Or just forget the bow and press F for another special attack.

A few different arrows and potions... A few different choices of powers in the skill tree too... The game is divided in 4 acts mainly, one for each season thrhough which you will find different bonuses and kind of makes you think to a metroid progression.
(I wouldn't really say the game is an open world)

As you mentioned in the video, yes, the combat feels a bit stiff /Janky because of cooldowns and charge time... it's not too dramatic and you get used to it but don't expect doom.

It's not a crafting game either like Ark or Conan Exiles, you won't be building a house or anything but you need to constantly gather stuff to craft ammo on the flight.
Especially during boss fights, you will often lack of ammo so you quickly need to open menu and craft. It's a weird system but it works I guess.

Enemies can be annoying, they repop quite fast in an area and you will need to spend time killing them over and over again. (after completing the first area, I can tell you, I'm frustrated by some enemies and how they keep respawning)

It's not a bad game, it's a pretty good adventure game but I'm cautious about recommending it for a few reason, one of them being that it is a game you might be able to finish quickly.

[Tryyton]

the devs said somewhere that it is appr 16 hrs. i am 9 hrs in and not close to finishing it. but if you want the full experience, you need to play it twice anyway, because of the light and dark side aspects. both give you different bonuses.
if you don't rush and also want to find hidden chests and areas, you will not be able to finish it quickly. also, define "quickly" when lots of AAA games have much less than 10 hrs these days.

[Sp3ctA]

Edit: I am hooked, the game is really fun to play, the world is beautifull

Combats are nice IMO.
-You can dodge very fast in any direction
-You can craft differents arrows
-You can use Mana with your hands
-You can mixe mana with Arrows to make a super attack

There are 3 level of power for the bow
Fast arrow
Middle charged Arrow
Max Charged Arrow

I don't know more, I'm few hours in the game

[Tryyton]

yeah you also unlock arrow perks after you unlock 3 skills of similar type (hare, goat, etc.). you also unlock different magic attacks you can use with the bow, the first is like a 5 arrow split-shot when a group of enemies attacks.

i continue my playthrough in a few minutes, on twitch. if anyone is interested, i can show you all in detail.

[Mesarthim]

Originally posted by Tryyton:

the devs said somewhere that it is appr 16 hrs. i am 9 hrs in and not close to finishing it. but if you want the full experience, you need to play it twice anyway, because of the light and dark side aspects. both give you different bonuses.
if you don't rush and also want to find hidden chests and areas, you will not be able to finish it quickly. also, define "quickly" when lots of AAA games have much less than 10 hrs these days.

After finishing the first area in a single day, I don't think the game will be really long.

It's a metroidvania in the heart and you might spend 20hours on it, but it's still pretty short. Games nowadays are not under 10hours, they're more like hundreds of hours.

And if you talk about games like call of duty with a very short campaign, they still have a lot of hours you can put in multiplayer which is the main reason you buy those games anyway.

Even if you replay the game to be good / bad, it's not a game you will spend over 50 hours in. Sure you can always explore every nook and cranny to get the most out of it but replayability is very limited.

I'd say it's a pretty regular game length for a metroidvania though.
Some people will spend hundreds of hours with this game to replay it again and again, but it's not the case generally speaking.

It's certainly not GOTY 2022 but it's a nice little game, it's refreshing, it's fun... Generally speaking, people who buy those kind of games know what they're getting into.
If you enjoy metroidvania, do not hesitate.

[Mediocre Milton]

Originally posted by Tryyton:

also, define "quickly" when lots of AAA games have much less than 10 hrs these days.

There's a complete walk through on YouTube that's 4 hours, 23 minutes. It says it's only the main quests but that still seems pretty short. By today's standards though I guess this isn't out of line since I finished Stray in under 5 hours and it costs the same and from what I've seen High on Life can be finished in 5-10 hours and it's $60.

[Tryyton]

Originally posted by Mesarthim:

After finishing the first area in a single day, I don't think the game will be really long.

It's a metroidvania in the heart and you might spend 20hours on it, but it's still pretty short. Games nowadays are not under 10hours, they're more like hundreds of hours.

And if you talk about games like call of duty with a very short campaign, they still have a lot of hours you can put in multiplayer which is the main reason you buy those games anyway.

Even if you replay the game to be good / bad, it's not a game you will spend over 50 hours in. Sure you can always explore every nook and cranny to get the most out of it but replayability is very limited.

I'd say it's a pretty regular game length for a metroidvania though.
Some people will spend hundreds of hours with this game to replay it again and again, but it's not the case generally speaking.

It's certainly not GOTY 2022 but it's a nice little game, it's refreshing, it's fun... Generally speaking, people who buy those kind of games know what they're getting into.
If you enjoy metroidvania, do not hesitate.

"After finishing the first area in a single day" - uhm... a day is 24 hrs...
nobody expects this game to be 50 hrs really.
i am in the last chapter (i guess) and atm i travel across the map to see what else i can find, and you find a lot of stuff incl. sidequests if you don't just follow the main quest.
rpg or roguelikes can have 100s of hrs of content, but i was not talking about those games. i just finished "as dusk falls", high replayability, but finished in much less than 10 hrs. it is an adventure game, so i don't mind. shadow warrior 3 was pretty short, at least if you didn't look for the upgrades and didn't play on hardest difficulty. i played it with (mostly) katana only and it took me a bit over 10 hrs, but can be done in 6 easily as well, for over 40€. but they added harder difficulty and ng+ at least.
so seeing an indie game with a story we didn't have over and over already, at this price tag is fine for me. sure you can finish this game without unlocking the map or doing sidequests...but why? it's not like "go kill 10 wolf and bring me their meat".

Originally posted by Mediocre Milton:

There's a complete walk through on YouTube that's 4 hours, 23 minutes. It says it's only the main quests but that still seems pretty short. By today's standards though I guess this isn't out of line since I finished Stray in under 5 hours and it costs the same and from what I've seen High on Life can be finished in 5-10 hours and it's $60.

definitely not on your first regular play when you still figure out stuff. but why just do the main quest? there is so much more in the game. but you won't know without exploring.
i am also playing high on life and i am around 11 hrs and i don't think i am already done. same here, if you don't do side stuff, like finding those chests, not listening to all that npc have to say, etc.
if you pay 60 for a game and then rush through, there is nobody to blame besides the player. seriously! HoL has so much stuff in it, like a full movie they licensed for the game, tons of funny ads, etc. i personally want to see and get all out of games i enjoy. i will never understand people who rush through a game and then complain. HoL even tells you to not just run around, but also look around you sometimes.

[Mesarthim]

yeah but then again, you're talking about yourself... if anybody else talks about how long the game is, you will probably hear that it's pretty short.

I say it's a regular metroidvania (in the 20 hours)

Others might finish it much faster.

If anybody ask about the game length, you should be honest about it and say it's about 15 to 20 hours approximately but for you it's much longer because you explore every nook and cranny and you play it a few times. So it really depends who you're talking to but you shouldn't expect to meet the latter.

[decizion]

If you only give bow combat in your game or at least 90% of it then at least make it looks good lol.
This looks janky, unsatisfying and poorly done, to be honest almost like an asset flip Unreal Engine combat style.

[Tryyton]

"it looks like..." - yeah ok...

nah, the fighting is pretty decent actually.

[decizion]

Yea the bow doesn't feel impactful, combat is just boring and dull sadly had to refund this.
Btw that Tryyton guy got a steam key for free so his opinion is biased and it's clear he's just shilling for the game at this point.

[Tryyton]

Originally posted by decizion:

Yea the bow doesn't feel impactful, combat is just boring and dull sadly had to refund this.
Btw that Tryyton guy got a steam key for free so his opinion is biased and it's clear he's just shilling for the game at this point.

even if i get a game for free, if it is bad, i won't hold back. you think i am that cheap to get, with a key? my opinion can't be bought. so keep that nonsense to yourself. if i don't enjoy a game, i would not still be playing it. almost 20 hrs in, and still finding new stuff.

[Deuteronomy]

Originally posted by decizion:

Btw that Tryyton guy got a steam key for free so his opinion is biased and it's clear he's just shilling for the game at this point.

Says the guy who played the game for a few seconds, now telling other people that the combat is bad because of the missing impact feedback of the two water elementals he throw his arrows in? And yeah, because of the bow animation he deemed beneath him.

Before you waste your time with stalking another guy with a different opinion than yours, just to prove that only yours is legit: I got no free key for the game. I paid for it and would totally do it again.