Critical Feedback for The Devil Within: Satgat – A Few Improvements Could Make It Shine

[Jackson]

Hey fellow players and developers,

I’ve been playing The Devil Within: Satgat and, for the most part, I’ve really enjoyed it. The atmosphere, mechanics, and world design are great, but there are a few issues that I feel need addressing in order to make the game truly stand out. I’ll be listing them in ascending order of importance, with the hopes that the developers can take these points into consideration for future updates.

Exalted One Boss Battle

This fight is impossible in its current state on hard difficulty. The phase where the Exalted One summons wind that pushes the player to the edge of the screen is a huge problem—it literally forces you into a situation where you can’t react to the attacks and get hit by Exalted Ones attacks. I looked online at other videos and the intended mechanic pushes the player slightly, not keeping them in the corners. Additionally, the health pool of this boss feels excessive, making the fight unnecessarily frustrating. The barrage of unblockable meteors, icy explosions, and wind attacks, combined with the boss’s own abilities, makes it feel like you're constantly fighting the mechanics rather than engaging in a proper battle. I’d suggest reducing the boss's health and tweaking the number and frequency of its attacks. This would not only make the fight more fun but also more accessible for players who want to complete the game.

Corrupted Demon Hunter (and Worm Sovereign)

This is another boss fight that has some serious design issues. The instant teleportation attack from both the Corrupted Demon Hunter and later the Worm Sovereign doesn't feel fair at all. It doesn’t align with the pacing of the other attacks in the game—there’s a noticeable delay between most of the enemy’s moves, but this one comes out of nowhere and is nearly impossible to avoid. This makes the battle feel like a roll of the dice, with the only deciding factor being whether or not that instant teleportation move hits. It’s frustrating, especially since healing resources are limited, and you often feel like the fight hinges more on luck than skill. A reduction in the speed or frequency of this attack would help balance things out.

Minor Bug in the Ruined Forest

I encountered a minor bug in the Ruined Forest that affects a platform with a yellow destructible crystal. After destroying the crystal, the platform doesn’t drop as expected, and even after relaunching the game, the crystal reappears on the platform. I’ve attached a screenshot for clarity, hoping this can be addressed in an upcoming patch.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3401636605

Corruptor’s Memory Shard - Repetitive Boss Fights

The idea behind the Corruptor’s Memory Shard is really interesting—it lets players refight four bosses for a reward. However, the execution falls flat when you realize that you have to fight the same bosses nine times in a row. This feels tedious, and it significantly detracts from the excitement of earning rewards. I would recommend either reducing the number of times you need to fight each boss (perhaps three additional fights per boss) or adding more variety by including different bosses to fight instead of redoing the same ones over and over. While the rewards themselves are good, this design choice feels like a missed opportunity to keep players engaged and invested in the progression.

Enemy Fall Damage

I think a missed opportunity as a game mechanic is that enemies should suffer damage when they fall off platforms. In their current implementation, they feel floaty and fall slow to the ground and the player has to attack them to death or ignore them. I believe if enemies took damage when falling from ledges, it would give the player more combat options and add some more diversity to the enemy encounters, without detracting from the game's difficulty. I think this is a fun gameplay mechanic idea, that is hopefully easy to implement.

Game Length and Level Design

Lastly, this may be a bit more subjective, but the game feels a little too long at times. The levels can be a bit too large and there are too few different enemy types, which can lead to player fatigue with how much health the enemies have and how many times you fight the same few. Lower enemy health pools or less amount of enemies and more action-packed, streamlined levels could keep the pacing tight and the experience fresh throughout. I understand that making a longer game is challenging, but trimming some of the excess could make the gameplay more satisfying overall.

I don’t know if all of these points are something that can be easily fixed, but I truly believe that addressing them could elevate The Devil Within: Satgat into an amazing experience for a wider audience. Despite these issues, the game has a lot of potential, and I look forward to seeing what updates or improvements may come in the future!

Thanks for reading, and I hope this feedback is helpful!

[Pantoni]

Originally posted by Jackson:

Corruptor’s Memory Shard - Repetitive Boss Fights

The idea behind the Corruptor’s Memory Shard is really interesting—it lets players refight four bosses for a reward. However, the execution falls flat when you realize that you have to fight the same bosses nine times in a row. This feels tedious, and it significantly detracts from the excitement of earning rewards. I would recommend either reducing the number of times you need to fight each boss (perhaps three additional fights per boss) or adding more variety by including different bosses to fight instead of redoing the same ones over and over. While the rewards themselves are good, this design choice feels like a missed opportunity to keep players engaged and invested in the progression.

I couldn't agree more on this. Not only it becomes tedious by the 6th time, but also you can't do them all unless you play the hard mode, which is absurd. You shouldn't be forced to play the hard level to unlock those 3 fights.

I haven't finished the game yet (I'm on the worst boss so far, that demon slamming his fists all over the place), but after doing the first memory shard for the 6th time, I didn't wanted to do the others.

There should be just 3, for the 3 golden keys in each level. And not difficulty-locked.

About the lenght... I'm fine with it. But as you've said, this is more subjective.

Cheers!

[Jackson]

Thanks for getting back to me! I think the game has a lot of potential, but it feels just shy of greatness due to some lack of polish. There are a few design issues that really drained the fun for me in certain parts, which ended up affecting my overall experience. That said, I'm glad you're enjoying it overall, it would be awesome if the developers delivered a patch to address the feedback.