Thoughts so far

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Been really enjoying this so far, combat feels very smooth even in EA and i think it will be great to see how things progress with more weapons, enemies and biomes. Thought I would give a rundown of my thoughts thus far

Weapons

Fishknife: pretty good for a basic/starting weapon. Nothing too flashy, short moveset to be able to trigger alterattacks. Its alteralter attack feels pretty satisfying to use.

Ravenblade: love the alterattack. The moveset i find a bit frustrating to use, I always seem to stop just short of the 5 attacks needed to trigger an alterattack. I have tended to use this less as a result, so i think this is more just personal preference. The held button feature with the leap attack is very satisfying though, especially with leaffade+assassinate+echo

Heavy Blade: satisfying to use, but sometimes end up weapon swapping too early during the delay after the second strike. getting used to this now, and especially boosts to attack speed, feels good. Alterattack also fantastic with the stun, great for AOE if you can line it up.

Katars: synergises well with some of the gifts like backstab and good for crit builds. like the mobility given by the held attack. Alterattack is pretty satisfying and the bleed proc is nice to have.

Sirocco: hated this when i first used it, way too slow to fire off and just did not feel satisfying to use. I have changed my tune on this one though, predominently in coop where you can afford to set yourself up in the backline and fire off attacks without interruption. Nice burn procs. Alterattack I don't use too much, but seems okay. crit build with alter into ninja stars for me is *chef's kiss*

Ninja stars: Feel really satisfying as a primary or for using alt attack. Obviously great for crit builds and in coop play.

Beatbolt: Reminds me of the bow in hades which i quite enjoyed using, but the timing is more forgiving in Windblown. Find it really useful for quickly getting chained alterattacks.

Shield: Only just realised there is a parry mechanic which I have not been using *facepalm* but quickly trying this out is quite satisfying. Timing seems pretty good for it as well. I find it is more useful in coop play, but i think this is more representative of how I change my playstyle from solo to coop.

Goo Brush: oh boy do I hate this. Was initally quite excited to unlock it cause it was a bit different, but it feels like garbage to use at the moment. I think this has been brought up in other disussions, but it seems that all other melee weapons except for the goo brush have either invincibility frames for their alterattack and animation cancelling for normal attacks/finisher. So the brush just feels supremely clunky and unsatisfying to use at the moment. After giving it a few tries, i now avoid it as much as i can.

Telepike: Is growing on me. the gap close is nice to have though i think it throws you a bit too far back after hitting. I imagine the aim is to reset you to max range where the weapon will crit, but I often waste a bomb trinket after throwing the pike because the mob ends up being out of range. This may just be me though.

Anchor Boom: This has become my favourite weapon so far just because of how versatile it is. Normal hits crit and briefly stun, held attack applies AOE and burn and if you have any gifts applying burn/curse/bleed on hit every tick of the burn will also apply these effects and then the alterattack has invincibility frames and just absolutely slaps (if you can target it right). Good in solo or coop play.

Charged Blade: melee version of beatbolt with higher increased damage % for alterattack. Tricky to use initially, but getting better and definitely has its place. Though I feel this works for specific builds or in coop where you are less vulnerable. I do love the alterattack which I only recently discovered just shoves enemies off the platforms. The animation for this isn't super smooth at the moment, but it is satisfying just seeing rats drop into the void.

Eyeblade: hits feel satisfying, getting the mark is nice and can synergise well with the gifts that improve marks. Alterattack have no complaints

Boomerang: Zeus shield from hades. Its fine. Alterattack seems to shred, but i think this is just not my playstyle.



General/Builds

Again I think this has been already said, but there is a significant dilution of with the gifts the more you unlock. I imagine there would be some system being developed, but it would be great to be able to lean into a build more when starting out (i haven't unlocked the weapon rack yet so maybe this is already there?). And then something to support this during the run that would see what gifts you are taking and offer gifts that are more in line with your build. My main experience with roguelites is hades, so even something similar to the gods offering boons, but instead having the animals being tied to certain gifts. Like the axolotl to goo or bat to crits or something. Then you can get offered gifts from the "axolotl pool" or the "bat pool" and once you've got gifts from 3 (its always 3 haha) pools then it locks the other pools out.

That may not be the best solution, but I think something that would allow the player to direct the build a little bit more during a run would be great.

The other thing would be having coop available right from the start. I know pietro is unlocked pretty early in the piece anyway, but it was a bit of a bummer getting this with a bunch of mates and then having to do runs for an hour before being able to play together. I can understand wanting to give people some experience and play time before opening up to multiplayer, but I think it would be better just to have the initial run and then you chat to someone in the ark and it unlocks.



Anyway, thats enough of a text wall. If you've read through this, thank you for taking the time. Would be great to hear your opinions as well on things I missed with the weapons or anything else. Hope you guys are all having as much fun with this as I am.