M+KB Controls, and other thoughts.

[Longpig]

I really enjoyed blasting through the demo tonight, was good fun. Here are some thoughts.

One of the biggest annoyances was how the m+kb controls were done, as they made some of the mistakes fromsoft always does and then you've gotta wait for things like E.M.U. to exist to fix some of them.
- Give an option to have separate dash/dodge keybinds.
- Option to not target swap on mouse movement and have a keybind for it instead.
- Don't hardcode things (couldn't remove what 'c' was on for something else).
- Minor, but you need an image for thumbmouse buttons, it looks unassigned in the options and makes some of the tutorial popups look odd.

Other major annoyance was... why the hell do you have to go back to the hotel to level up... you want me to go through 2 loading screens each time I want to gain a level? ... it makes 0 sense from a gameplay point of view, but also you can level up at the first stargazer anyway, so just keep that going for the rest of the game as it's clearly possible in world.

Felt a little odd to just do lil' bunny hops when dodging when locked on even though I wasn't at a heavy equip load or anything... I think it requires me to just get used to it and get good, but something felt off about trying to dodge bosses.

I found myself out of stamina quite often, which was my own fault for not investing in that stat... but having equip load and stam be derived from 2 separate stats kinda makes it feel like things might get too spread out later on... probably another instance of me needing to get good, but still.

The sharpening mechanic seems dull (pardon the pun) and kinda pointless other than being a bit of an annoyance in a boss fight.

I kinda miss having jump attacks and don't like having to be running to jump.

I'd like to see some explanation of stats when hovering the mouse over them.

While I liked it I'd also want some more explanation of the whole lying thing... what the lady was saying made it almost feel like I had to lie, but as I went through I realised it was a choice... I also noticed after listening to the entire record you get from giving the lady her "baby" there was another instance of the springs reacting... it's cool and interesting but I'd like to know if I'm steering my guy down the path I want.

Big props for having the game run smoothly, I appreciated DLSS being there too... it's crazy nowadays that that's something you need to worry about but it ran perfectly fine on my computer.

I wasn't that into the MC aesthetically nor his clothing options... until I got the donkey mask, if there's more cool things like that then I'm down.

Weapon assembly was a cool idea. Not sure how I feel about the handles being both the moveset and what gives it the scaling, if anything I'd almost like to have 3 parts to the weapon (moveset, handle - scaling, hitty bit). I did see you can change the handle stats too, but as we found 0 of those items in the demo I'm guessing they're rare-ish.

Getting your currency back outside of the boss room, rather than once you go in and the fight has begun was a nice touch compared to fromsoft games as then it's hard to forget/miss.

Anyhoo, I really appreciate there being a demo, that's something I'd like to see games doing more again, though given it's a solid showing you might want to keep it there always not as a time-limited thing. I had the game on my wishlist before as it looked interesting and it certainly deserves its place there after playing it a bit.

[Superczar]

Using left shift to parry was odd, I kept wanting to Sekiro it with right click. Would rather use shift+LMB for charged attack. Not a huge fan of using T/G to swap between heals and (basically) resharpening. Would rather have healing being the ole 'R' and just have resharpening on 'G' (selected item on 'G' can be changed via some other key/mousewheel?).

[Longpig]

I rebound block to RMB. I tend to use "E" for heavy attack in these kinds of games.

One improvement from say Elden Ring is you can assign hotkeys to the 4 pouch slots... so I put the healing thing in one of them and bound it to a key... means you can't see how many you've got left unless you hold interact but gives it a dedicated keybind... that way I didn't have to swap between sharpening (which as I said is a unless mechanic and I'd rather just be gotten rid of) and healing.

[LonelyHoney]

-- Give an option to have separate dash/dodge keybinds.
Fromsoft did the same thing... I think it is because the controller is out of buttons for that. I made a script to make this happen (starting from Sekiro); it can even cancel to dodge when running and resume running when you still holding the dash button after that.

-- Option to not target swap on mouse movement and have a keybind for it instead.
I dislike both of those; I usually press to unlock it first and lock to the new target myself.

--Don't hardcode things (couldn't remove what 'c' was on for something else).
Agree, this is bloody stupid; "C" is a common key for keyboard gamers... But again, a script or any remapping software can bypass that.

Regarding the "go back to level up" thing, I guess the game is designed as event-based. This means you need to go back to the base and talk to the NPCs in order to trigger those events. Also, you need the father in the base to mod your heart, so...

[LonelyHoney]

My problem with the KB/M

Control (Keyboard / Mouse)

The left mouse button is not used for advancing to the next dialogue (unless you move your mouse cursor to the "next" icon first for some reason...), only the spacebar is.

The right mouse button does not function as a cancel or close button in some situations, and only the "esc" key works for that purpose.

It's only possible to toggle the slow walk, not hold the button to maintain the slow walk.
(fixed myself)

It's also not possible to cancel the slow walk from running. (but running can cancel slow walk) . To cancel the slow walk from running, the player must release the running key first and then press the slow walk button.