Gameplay Feedback thread

[Super Bullet Will]

Staring a thread for users to submit feedback for their experience with gameplay. This is NOT for bugs, glitches, crashes, etc. This is for topics like game balancing, UI readability, experience with control schemes, in-game terminology, etc.

[Super Bullet Will]

When fighting that gigantic ship boss, I feel like the timing of when chunks of the map will collapse into the water is not clearly communicated nor is which parts of the map will sink into the water either. At one point I was under the impression that I had a little more time to maneuver my units but did I find out that the collapse was next turn but also it was a lot more of the stage then I thought it be.


By the time I figured out what was going on, 2 of my units were guaranteed to fall into the water. Thankfully, drowned units’ bodies reappear elsewhere on the map and I still had a few revive points to get them back in the action but had all three units drowned, that would have been a party wipe meaning a total restart of the run.


Did anyone else find this experience unclear in what is going to happen and what the game expects the player to do?

[Chef Kirby]

Originally posted by Super Bullet Will:

When fighting that gigantic ship boss, I feel like the timing of when chunks of the map will collapse into the water is not clearly communicated nor is which parts of the map will sink into the water either.

yeah, that boss level in general is a bit too unforgiving. It really felt as though I was punished for not running head first into the large group enemies on the front ship side of the docks.

[lightstep]

Dont really like anything about it & I am the target demo. I love metal slug, i love tactical rpgs like Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Triangle Strategy.

The pixel art is inferior to even the phone games from a few years ago (Metal Slug Attack), let alone the classic Metal Slug entries. The gameplay is also somewhat unintuitive, why cant i shoot from the high ground for example? Also the first thing that happens is you are absolutely bombarded by tutorials that seem to never end.

3 years for this....first impression is very underwhelming. Lack of controller support in the demo is also a big L for me.

[Carlitonsp]

From the bits I've played, it never seems like a good idea to take an Action Power-up over a Passive Power-Up. The only one that seemed worth it was the one that gave you a new action with Fio. (Maybe it's more understandable in later stages since boosting some attacks by even 1 at the early levels can be too strong)

[CoolBertolli]

echoing that not being able to shoot enemies from high ground is a HUGE issue that really needs to be rectified. There's no point to being on high ground otherwise and actually can hinder you from being able to get Sync shots.

Also maybe it's just me but this felt more punishing than FF Tactics, Xcom, etc because cover rarely did much and the constant plopping down of an extra enemy EVERY turn piles up too much on some maps. If I had more weapons/skills maybe it would help but some of the starting missions just start you right in the open facing down 4 or 5 enemies who will be able to get free hits.

[Super Bullet Will]

I agree about not being able to fire down from high ground. It's not intuitive that we can't do that. Unfortunately this demo is coming out pretty close to launch so I have a feeling it may be too late for that to be changed without having to rebalance the game around the inclusion of firing downward from high ground...

[Flippantor]

I loved it and don't have an issue firing from high ground - that's what indirect fire weapons are for. I agree that the timing and communication on the last boss for platform destruction is a bit unfair but i still managed it on first try. I like the style, the main criticism i have in terms of ui is wording clarity - is 'unit' friendly unit or enemy unit? will this particular special ability end my turn? Is 'reset turn' going to reset the last turn if i have made no actions at the start of a new turn? If i use a 'special' that gives me an extra movement but haven't moved yet, does it still allow my normal movement first? or second? or overwrites it?

[Taiga]

Originally posted by Chef Kirby:

Originally posted by Super Bullet Will:

When fighting that gigantic ship boss, I feel like the timing of when chunks of the map will collapse into the water is not clearly communicated nor is which parts of the map will sink into the water either.

yeah, that boss level in general is a bit too unforgiving. It really felt as though I was punished for not running head first into the large group enemies on the front ship side of the docks.

If anything, I feel that boss was too easy, but it being the first boss is understandable.

What I did was basically keep all characters in the first big/second platform next to cover, the defense rating is high enough that enemies will not be able to damage you for 1-2 turns. So you just unload everything on the boss, you can take almost half of its HP by having a 3 sync attack and using the special weapons. You repeat that the next turn (drop a decoy so that enemies target it instead of you for that turn), attack the boss, 3 sync attack and special weapons again, then do the same on the next turn, boss is dead. There's like 6 platforms but the HP of the boss is so low you can kill it before the second platform is destroyed.

[Luxar]

I find it hard to know whether my character is available to attack or not besides the obvious click and test

Also i think the availability to move should also be displayed on the sprites, not just on the portraits at the top. I feel like there should be a clearer way to know on the field whether a unit still has actions left to do or not. Maybe something as simple as graying out the sprites or having some icons on top of them.

[Chuwaca]

For me I want a speed x1.5 or x2 to player's actions, because tactics take too much time in each animation move

[Rafael Bard]

The bottom line about this game is that it's a Final Fantasy Tactics that wants you to play it as if it were Gears Tactics.

The game wants you to keep moving and defeating enemies, making synchronized moves, and save the ammo of the special weapons. You can't do everything at the same time with such low damage output (from the main weapons specially) and large number of enemies.

Another part of this problem is that to rush as the game asks, is that the characters have little HP and few cover options scattered around. Most of the covers are precarious, dissolving with a few hits. Not to mention we cant heal units

To solve this, they either increase the damage of the base weapons, or increase the HP, or decrease the amount of enemies.

[Rithrin]

Originally posted by Rafael Bard:

The bottom line about this game is that it's a Final Fantasy Tactics that wants you to play it as if it were Gears Tactics.

The game wants you to keep moving and defeating enemies, making synchronized moves, and save the ammo of the special weapons. You can't do everything at the same time with such low damage output (from the main weapons specially) and large number of enemies.

Another part of this problem is that to rush as the game asks, is that the characters have little HP and few cover options scattered around. Most of the covers are precarious, dissolving with a few hits. Not to mention we cant heal units

To solve this, they either increase the damage of the base weapons, or increase the HP, or decrease the amount of enemies.

It seems pretty manageable right now. Playing on the second difficulty level puts it at a pretty good spot in terms of putting enough pressure on the player that you've got to get syncs going every round, and secondary objectives can't always be completed (kind of like Into the Breach).

Right now I think players just need to get used to the system, and then the devs probably need to watch players for a few months to see if the balance is where they want it to be.

[❤Blight Boy❤]

kind of a weird mixture of Into the Breach and Chroma Squad, turns out something uncomfortable to play with

[Serpiko82]

At first impression it feels off to me.

There is Sync, a cool idea on paper, and the game obviously wants you to rely on it heavily.

There is cover but no flanking system, because somehow cover works in every direction. Weird, but ok.

But then characters can only attack enemies in a straight line, like towers in chess.

You basically never get the chance to make all of the above working at once.

Lines of fire being actually lanes of fire prevent you from successfully trigger effective Syncs while keeping your characters in cover. You either keep them in cover, or place them where they can deal the most damage, at the cost of staying exposed.

And enemies keep spawning, so you obviously need to keep playing aggressively and deal the most damage every turn, lest getting outnumbered soon.

Also, this apparently makes Eri the most valuable character by far (at least early in the game), since she's the only one who can damage multiple enemies at once, regardless of elevation, and outside of a straight line with splash damage.

TLDR rigid attack pattern restrictions make it impossible to effectively exploit sync, unless giving up on cover entirely.

[KamE_AleX]

I'm so sorry but I think the design is way, way off. Directional shooting can't be a thing on such open scenarios; period. Escort missions can't have the NPC you have to protect running on a stright line getting attacked no matter what you do. It's very unlikely that you set yourself in a good position AND can shoot an enemy, so normally the only strategy is getting in front of that enemy, shooting him and hoping for the best on enemies' turn.

C'mon, guys. There are tons of great tactics games out there. Directional shooting works on small scenarios with most weapons being melee. It's pointless to look for cover 9 out of 10 times. It seems like you tried to solve it with awkward mechanics like dodge, which feels like a bad patch.

I want this game to be really good, but no susprise why it's been delayed. It really, really needs some serious rework at basic areas. Look at Pathway, which isn't perfect, but it's a good example of how shooting must work if you have just a few covers in a very open scenario. Limit the "shooting directions" to specific skills if you want. Maybe to the sniper rifle. Allow to use covers properly. It's really bad to be unable to aim at an enemy that is sitting out of cover if you are not in line with him.

You can do it, but you really need to redo a lot.