Pretty extensive review from a casual player

[Versthal07]

Just completed the main "story" at easy difficulty after 25+ hours, so I feel like I can finally share my opinions and feedback on the game. I just want to preface by saying that I love this game and I just wish to see it improve and keep going.


- The premise - 4/5
I must say that the premise is absolutely brilliant, at least for me: Booze and planes/dogfights rarely connect in-game but BB (Brew Barons) blends them quite well, with some caveats on the gameplay loop (namely, the "work" part of harvesting/brewing and selling against the combat part of exploring and fighting the pirates).

- Plane handling - 3/5
The planes handle somewhat well, with some minor gripes about some maneuvers. My main problem was how the "auto-pilot" wasn't exactly fluid in following the mouse but after a bit I got used to it. I also very appreciated the fact that the cargo moves around inside the plane, especially during sharp turns.

- Harvesting - 3/5
Harvesting was somehow the most relaxing and frustrating part for me, because some ingredients (apples, grapes, wispwheat and similar) were extremely easy and chill to recover, but underwater and "farm" ingredients were extremely infuriating: waaay too much effort for way too little ingredients, costing me a lot of fatigue and fuel for very little reward (yes, I do know about the harvesting wings and the highlight ornament, they didn't help too much) that I rarely used anyway or was way too desperate for more.

- Brewing - 3/5
Fairly simple but enjoyable, I just have a couple of complaints: the recipes book needs a "type" section on top of the ingredient section to help with finding something specific for a contract, and when I re-create a brew from the "my products" tab I cannot modify anything about the bottle; somewhat understandable since you're recreating the same thing with the same bottle, but fairly annoying for me. In the end, most of the brews that I made were pretty similar because of a glaring issues with the recipes available and the materials at hand: you're rarely incentivized to move more than 2 islands away from your base because of the long trip and the lack of need of top-tier ingredients.

- Exploring - 2/5
Unfortunately one of the most lackluster parts of the game, there's very little reason to explore and the rewards are mostly lore and new farming places. Finding recipes is also a bit annoying because they just randomly spawn around islands, with some guaranteed on unexplored islands; the wrecks are fine, I would just like a tip on what the various effects do (sharks, etc): I cannot tell how disappointed I was when I was raising a big chest and it completely broke because a jellyfish touched it, mere centimeters away from being collected. One extremely great and promising feature however is the travelling merchant blimp: slowing down to dock and being pulled inside was such a nostalgia trip from Crimson Skies that I almost got a lump in my throat; bravo for this!

- Plane customization - 3/5
While I will almost always agree on having pros and cons when outfitting something, see MechWarrior 5 for example, not having a "standard" option with no drawbacks really annoyed me as I was forced not-so subtly to try new pieces: why stay with the low altitude engine since a lot of end-game content requires you to go around 500 meters (where the engine usually dies out)? The components were all somewhat fine but I had very little incentive to have more than two planes: one for fighting and one for experimenting various pieces, to somewhat bad results. The part selection is fine for the most part and I really hope to see more pieces in the future but having clearer tooltips with actual stats would help quide a lot for new players to make a choice when deciding which new wings to try.

- Combat - 2/5
Finally, the most argued point of the entire community (as far as I've seen), and for good reason: while I can appreciate the stylistic choice of making a flying game with no real "guns" on the protagonists this point of reasoning becomes moot when the enemies use them, so much so that SPOILER FOR THE FINAL FIGHT we're forced to actually shoot a cannon at the pirates in the final fight because our normal weapons are useless . This means that we're at a clear disadvantage for no particular reason other than "gun / smog bad, hydro good"; the bossfights were all pretty doable, at least on easy, and the feeling of beating them as they got harder and harder with extra "failsafes" was very nice, and I personally only had to check for two types of boss to see how to defeat them. However, once I tried the molotov thrower I rarely swapped it if not for experimenting: the first real taste of something that could almost classify as a weapon really made me see how powerful they are: being able to shred to pieces the gunship boss with 4 well placed shots even while the covers where still active made me yearn for a proper 50 cal to be installed on my plane.

- Roster - 3/5
Pretty decent, they're all somewhat recognizable stereotypes / tropes that I enjoyed, nothing much to say there. The missions a la Fire Emblem however were quite something: going from simple "fly there and see what happens" to "spelunking in a maze" in both absurdity and difficulty: I had to restart quite a few times because of some specific quests (looking at you Nigel-Dijana and Franci-Klare) that I HAD to search up how to do them because they were extremely complicated, badly explained and/or unfair but other than that I enjoyed almost all of those that I managed to complete.

- Campaign (HEAVY SPOILERS) - 4/5
A decent idea that unfortunately goes a bit too fast for my liking: the progress of the story being tied to fame is mostly a ticking timer since once you jumpstart the business you have a set amount of time before the final fight begins and you're forced into a lenghty combat session; defending islands is also a two-edge blade since you might need those ingredients but you also get more fame that can speed up towards the final fight. All in all it was funny, lighthearted and anime-esque especially with the final cutscene after the credits.

- Suggestions -
- For plane handling I would say to just smooth out the controls;
- For harvesting I would increase the collection range and harvesting parts available;
- On the brewing side I would really appreciate some sort of upgrade to passively and reliably obtain ingredients in bulk, instead of relying on the Forager of the roster that is a bit too random and scarce;
- Exploring could be improved with more random encounters and some more interactions with the world, like random transmissions from other traders/workers (I often saw ships and planes just going around doing nothing) with various info, like pirate movements or similar;
- With the plane customization I would love more parts and more upgrades, maybe giving passive refuel/repair for docked planes;
- For the combat a simple cutscene would do wonders to highlight exactly what to do on certain bosses, as well as making the already destroyed parts not glowing anymore to avoid confusion in the heat of battle;
- Now we get to my humble opinion on guns: PLEASE add them! Simply put the blueprints on the trader blimp for a hefty price, making them harder to obtain in the early game, with the fuselage for guns and bombs with extreme reduction to cargo space, wings for rockets (not guided, smaller AoE), maybe some ornaments to increase ammo and a separate upgrade line to conventional weaponry to increase precision while for the heavy plane I would love a fuselage that adds 2 turrets (1 above and 1 below, 360 degrees) and allows to use "air torpedoes" instead of water bombs, basically a blend of missiles and torpedoes that are able to target both air and water targets, limited in number but able to penetrate covers and armor; make the ammo limited since you cannot reload them with water (biggest strong point of hydro equipment); harvesting is possible but extremely inefficient and a harvested plant is considered as if the pirates harvested it (greyed out with the smoke) to incentivize players to avoid shooting their limited ammo (that should cost, kinda like fuel) on resources; the upside is a battle-worthy plane that can go head-on against everything the pirates throw at it to enable that Crimson Skies / Ace Combat feeling that is sorely missing from this game;
- I know I might be alone on this, but a custom "blank" character without good nor bad traits to allow the players to interact with the various characters more instead of just observing as just a viewer;
- Finally, my suggestion for the campaign is to just not make the final boss fight get triggered by fame, to allow for more casual players to not feel the dread of a ticking clock above them.

In conclusion: thank you for this game, don't give up on it and keep improving it. I'll probably leave this game for a while, but I'll gladly return once a couple updates get rolled out, so good luck and keep on brewing!

[flakhappy]

I feel you man. I'm not a fan of the campaign linked to fame. I enjoy the chill out time to just fly and brew. The main problem is to earn money to "experiment," is you have to sell brews which raises your fame which makes me not want to deliver brews. I've declined every contract just so I can explore more and keep my bar stocked. I want to the campaign to progress when I want it to, not linked to the only viable way to earn money. More random encounters or maybe have a random dogfight once in a while.

Originally posted by Versthal07:

- With the plane customization I would love more parts and more upgrades, maybe giving passive refuel/repair for docked planes;

Maybe a way to summon an in flight refuel would be nice

Originally posted by Versthal07:

- Now we get to my humble opinion on guns: PLEASE add them!

I think that is the general consensus. The pirates can shoot us with actual firearms and we only get a glorifed water gun? Isn't that an oxymoron on the non violent thing? especially a game about booze which is a 21+ activity? If you don't want to show death, fine, make it that when you shoot down a plane they always bail out of the aircraft. Its not satisfying that after a dogfight all they do if fly away. feels like a total copout. Also, when you think about it, you are never getting rid of the pirates by destroying their ability to maintain air supremacy.

Originally posted by Versthal07:

In conclusion: thank you for this game, don't give up on it and keep improving it. I'll probably leave this game for a while, but I'll gladly return once a couple updates get rolled out, so good luck and keep on brewing!

I have the same sentiment. I love the game and the premise. However some things need work like the combat, weapons and fame. Ive already got almost 20 hours in it and enjoy it thoroughly, but I'm going to take a break for a bit so some of the things are tweaked. I don't want to complete the main story until those things are fixed.

One think I like is the Devs are actively listening to our critiques. I know they had a main vision for the game, but you can still keep a vision and make changes that takes a game from a good game to a great game.

I would understand that if the community had hundreds of ideas to change the game, but everyone has the identical sentiments and changes that are desperately needed.

When everyone is on the same page instead of all over the place, that's how you know you are on the right track to a game that is perfect.

I've been pretty vocal on my thoughts and its not to bash the devs, but to encourage them and let them know that we are behind you.

[22jk2]

I just completed the game and wanted to create the same kind of post :D So I'm gonna just piggyback your thread as a way of submitting feedback to the developers.

- First things first -
THANK YOU FOR THE GREAT GAME! In recent time no game captured me like Brew Barons. The porco rosso feel, the scenery, the gameplay loop - it all fits so well together. You did a fantastic job and the following points are my opinion on the missing 10% to turn this great game into a master piece!

- The Setting -
This game is incredibly unique and the setting is so well implemented, everything feels so immersive as a whole. Even the graphics fit so well, that no other art style could have worked. Well done developers!

- Brewing -
I only have minor issues with the brewing. For example that you can't pin a contract AFTER you started creating a brew. I also agree with what OP said about altering already brewed recipes.

- Plane handling -
For the most part it worked well. The auto-pilot uses way more rudder than I anticipated, but as OP said, you get used to it.
When using a controller it feels like the auto-pilot interferes with the controls even though I deactivated it in the settings. There were some instances where the plane counter-steered my controls.

- Plane customization -
The most important part is to upgrade your water bolt. It makes the game sooo much easier. You should point players into that direction. I bought lots of plane parts until I noticed how important the upgrades are.
I also think there should be some "neutral" build options.

- Combat -
I don't think the water gun situation is an issue at all. I like that the developers tried something unique.
The bosses are mainly puzzles to solve, but there are not enough hints to point the player into the right direction. When the bosses have improved vehicles later in the the game, it took me some tries to understand what I had to do for certain bosses. It doesn't help that the weakpoints glow green instead of someting more obvious like orange or yellow. OP is right that they should stop glowing after being broken.
Another issue are the fights where a smoke shroud encloses the battlefield with no way to disengage. If you're low on stamina or fuel, you basicly lost the fight even though you maybe had no intent of fighting at all. Especially in the final battle, the smoke shroud is way too small to manouver correctly.
Especially on boss fights the stamina / fatique should be stay at the same value until the fight is over. You're are already managing plane health, water meter and fuel. Losing a fight because your stamina is too low seems unnecessary.
I also feel like there are way to many islands under pirate control. I had days where 5 or 6 islands where controlled by pirates, which took a lot of work to get rid of them only for them to return the next day.
All in all i think that small changes here could have a large positive impact.

- Suggestions -
- Larger smoke shroud in the final battle
- More hints on how to fight bosses (color, now more glowing when broken, direct hints)
- More player guidance in general
- Improve the controller support
- Stamina / fatique should halt during boss fights
- Smoother difficulty progression / less pirates on the map
- Make first person view a thing please, the immersion would be over the top :D

[flakhappy]

Originally posted by 22jk2:

The porco rosso feel

I was leaning more towards Tailspin vibes. If only the Pirates were flying triplanes and the Sea Duck was an unlockable aircraft lol

[TheSquirrelofHuscurl]

I'll also drop a little feedback here, too.

Combat, I think, is fine with water guns. They aren't actually that weak if you can reliably hit targets... the problem is that they sound weak, and also have heavy drop-off. Combined with some wonky controls making it even harder to hit targets and the combat ends up feeling weak. I went back and played Crimson Skies and there are guns in that game that are much weaker than the guns in this one, but because they A. sounded better and B. could hit targets from much farther away, they felt powerful and fun to use.

But... when it comes to smog stuff, I feel it's a bit hypocritical to allow players the use of pirate engines but not pirate guns. I don't know of a good way to balance a pirate gun upgrade (maybe trade HP for shooting), but imo all the game really needs is an overhaul of how the guns sound, look, & feel to use. Using the Lumberwing Wings upgrade for the heavy plane made the plane actually feel like it was more powerful just because the shots weren't flopping like a wet noodle, even though they didn't actually affect damage at all.

In general, whether guns are added or not, having enemy planes actually get shot down would be leagues better for making the combat feel more satisfying. I can understand bosses not dying (it would be a lot of work simulating life boats, escape pods, or a dozen crew members bailing out) but the average balloon or plane would feel a lot better to destroy if the plane went careening to the ground and the crew bailed out. I'll also harken back to Crimson Skies again and say it did the job very well - nobody ever actually dies in the game, visibly or implied - all the aces you shoot down bail out and go to the hospital, and you hear radio messages about people evacuating blimps, buildings, and planes.

Something I want to mention is that fights with a smoke cloud are actually completely fake. If you gather a bunch of water and boost out at full speed, you will get enough distance that when the game tries to force you back in, your controls unlock while you're still outside of the smog cloud. This lets you keep boosting away with no problem. It seems like an oversight, but to be honest, I'd rather the smog cloud be reserved for major gameplay events or story beats rather than every single random boss fight. Maybe keep it for the final boss fight, pirate harvesting events and/or trait missions.

I think fatigue management and fuel managment is honestly fine in boss fights. If you start a fight you can't win, then it's on you for doing so. It's less on you when you get trapped in a fighting ring of no will or desire of your own and lose because you were unprepared... your only mistake being slightly too close to an island you were actively trying to avoid.

Another way to avoid smog clouds as well is to use the Boost Targets upgrade. It's extremely expensive, and it doesn't mention this, but it increases speed when you lock onto an island... by roughly 3x. Going 300 knots? Make that 1000 knots now. It makes such a significant difference that I question whether or not it should be easier to acquire, a plane-specific upgrade, or straight up default. It was worth every gold coin.

[lifetapstudios]

Oh wow, thanks everyone for taking the time to write all this. We do read all of this but unfortunately there's a bit too much to respond to individually here.

[Versthal07]

Originally posted by lifetapstudios:

Oh wow, thanks everyone for taking the time to write all this. We do read all of this but unfortunately there's a bit too much to respond to individually here.

Hey man, don't worry! Just remember that we're all here to support you guys in improving this game, cheers!

[flakhappy]

Originally posted by lifetapstudios:

Oh wow, thanks everyone for taking the time to write all this. We do read all of this but unfortunately there's a bit too much to respond to individually here.

We all want this game to be successful. Thank you for listening to us. there are some devs *cough* stormworks *cough* (sorry something in my throat there) That when the community says something their response is to ban and censor people who critique them.

You guys are a breath of fresh air and I think I can say that everyone (except that guy who got butthurt about AI voices, F him) appreciates your efforts and quick response to our concerns.

P.S. Could it be possible to add a Sea duck model to the game????