(DEMO FEEDBACK) Its good and runs well... BUT

[Coansp]

Aside from the crash-fest area right before the yeti boss, the game runs a smooth and stable 170 fps on my RTX 3080 at max settings 1440p native resolution. I'd say the gameplay is above average for a souls-like, It plays very much like Black Myth Wukong (with a similar UI and skill system too). The skills are flashy and cool, graphical fidelity is good, and the art style is interesting. I really liked how the lesser yetis slowly introduced moves that the boss variant uses, and the fact you can still gain skill points and money during bossfight attempts.

Some things I didn't like however, were how heavily this game favors parry/guard over traditional dodging. Stamina consumption is pretty high in contrast to the general attack speed, making it very easy to blow the whole bar in seconds making for quick bursts of damage followed by a long pause - repeat. Damage numbers could do with 1 or 2 less digits for clarity. Not including bosses, but the enemy AI is super easy to cheese - they will just slow walk and stare at you while you're fully charging a heavy attack into their face, rinse and repeat. I hope they have more than just 3 weapons in the full game, otherwise I feel the combat would get repetitive fast with the same movesets. The controls (at least on KB&M) are a bit irregular and take some getting used to. They need to add the ability to change targets while locked on, it sucks to fight groups of enemies without that feature. A way to regain health charges outside of resting would be nice, and skill charges should refill upon resting (at least to halfway). The tracking on some weapons needs to be improved; spear charged heavy whiffs on a shield enemy slowly strafing (the very attack meant to break guards) along with some situations with greatsword light attacks whiffing. I also have mixed feelings about the weapon progression system - rather than the traditional crafting/upgrades, the game seems to just shower you with tons of loot and gear at a higher level with a slight RNG element (this creates lots of unnecessary junk in the inventory). The part where you get trails for new weapons is rigged against you for the first attempt, since they force equip a different weapon without the skill points you had - instead, the skill points should have a separate preset for each weapon class, and automatically switch between when swapping gear (similar to POE2 weapon skill tree). There should be a more frequent autosave system outside of resting at the checkpoint - I found myself constantly repeating areas to collect all the items and drops, just for the game to crash as I stand 5 meters away from the checkpoint. Boss/area runbacks in certain areas can be daunting.

I hope at least some of these systems are tweaked/improved upon before the full release. Overall this demo is an 8/10, my expectations were exceeded and I hope it stays consistent in the full game. 2025 is gonna be a huge year for the ARPG genre

[RatherRowdyPooper]

Nice art style but just another Souls clone at the end of the day * yawn
The stamina bar management in this one is particularly obnoxious

[Coansp]

Originally posted by RatherRowdyPooper:

Nice art style but just another Souls clone at the end of the day * yawn
The stamina bar management in this one is particularly obnoxious

True, it does feel generic, but IMO It's one of the better ones out there. I'd probably only buy this on sale though, not enough depth to justify the full $80 price.

[Mike]

I thought the same things about the parry/guard until I decided to do a pure dodge based run through, similar to bloodborne and it was not only viable but it was really strong lol.

There are skills even in the greatsword tree that focus on dodging, stamina usage, and if you keep a low equipment load, as well as pump points into endurance you can dodge all over the place with little issue. I believe there was even a skill in the great sword tree that acted as a dodge, so if you properly timed it, it would perfect dodge and do a cool spinning attack for a lot of damage.

So given the game has skill trees with varying stats to focus on, skills that incorporate dodges, and stats that let you pump stamina, I believe making a pure dodging build will be 100% viable in this game and from the demo it is very satisfying chaining perfect dodges together.

Overall I do agree that the aRPG genre is booming this year and after this demo this game is near the top of my list for sure.

[Terron]

I actually used dodge almost exclusively and did very well. It is pretty tight on the timing but I like that. 100 percent agree on the redundant loot. This aint diablo. Get rid of the random crap imo. Disagree on health recharges outside save points. I like the stress of trying to make it to next save point with limited health refills and dont even like that you have those consumable health/xp items to assist. I have other issues with the game. I love the heavy reliance on stamina management but think you should not actually lose stamina when getting hit by an enemy (when not blocking I mean) It tight enough as it is. I also wish items were not white little orbs as I find it hard to see em in the snow lol.

[Mike]

Originally posted by Terron:

I actually used dodge almost exclusively and did very well. It is pretty tight on the timing but I like that. 100 percent agree on the redundant loot. This aint diablo. Get rid of the random crap imo. Disagree on health recharges outside save points. I like the stress of trying to make it to next save point with limited health refills and dont even like that you have those consumable health/xp items to assist. I have other issues with the game. I love the heavy reliance on stamina management but think you should not actually lose stamina when getting hit by an enemy (when not blocking I mean) It tight enough as it is. I also wish items were not white little orbs as I find it hard to see em in the snow lol.

I will never understand people hating on the way loot is, especially when there are very few games that combine 3rd perosn action combat with diablo-like loot/gear progression (its a unique combination).

This game and Team Ninja games are like the ONLY games in the genre that go for the diablo loot, so if you don't prefer it there are literally hundreds of other souls-likes without this feature.

If this was like an over done trend, I could see your point, but all we have is Team Ninja and now this game doing this lol.

[Terron]

Originally posted by Mike:

Originally posted by Terron:

I actually used dodge almost exclusively and did very well. It is pretty tight on the timing but I like that. 100 percent agree on the redundant loot. This aint diablo. Get rid of the random crap imo. Disagree on health recharges outside save points. I like the stress of trying to make it to next save point with limited health refills and dont even like that you have those consumable health/xp items to assist. I have other issues with the game. I love the heavy reliance on stamina management but think you should not actually lose stamina when getting hit by an enemy (when not blocking I mean) It tight enough as it is. I also wish items were not white little orbs as I find it hard to see em in the snow lol.

I will never understand people hating on the way loot is, especially when there are very few games that combine 3rd perosn action combat with diablo-like loot/gear progression (its a unique combination).

This game and Team Ninja games are like the ONLY games in the genre that go for the diablo loot, so if you don't prefer it there are literally hundreds of other souls-likes without this feature.

If this was like an over done trend, I could see your point, but all we have is Team Ninja and now this game doing this lol.

Oh thats very fair too. Im only saying what I prefer. If they want to go the diablo route then fair enough I just find it far less interesting as I it gets to the point your replacing your gear so often with tiny micro upgrades that no upgrade feels good. Each to their own though. You like what you like.

[Mike]

Originally posted by Terron:

Oh thats very fair too. Im only saying what I prefer. If they want to go the diablo route then fair enough I just find it far less interesting as I it gets to the point your replacing your gear so often with tiny micro upgrades that no upgrade feels good. Each to their own though. You like what you like.

Like you said I have no issue with your personal preference, but just like with your view there are tons of people who enjoyed Nioh and still play it to this day because of the loot and build possibilities.

I personally have no issue with a basic gear/loot of a traditional souls game, but I personally put soo much more time into games with RNG loot, that offers tons of stats and ways to build your character.

Honestly if Nioh 2 removed the loot the replayability would highly suffer as the entire structer was based around re-running and grinding missions fo better gear, new weapons, more skill points,...etc and it looks like this game will be the same as it is also mission based and each mission has level requirements for the player.

[CookiEmonstA]

If they put in difficulty settings I might buy it but I know I wouldn't enjoy it like it is now in the demo, played it on PS5

[Mike]

Originally posted by CookiEmonstA:

If they put in difficulty settings I might buy it but I know I wouldn't enjoy it like it is now in the demo, played it on PS5

There is difficulty settings in the demo. After you beat the first mission you get prompted with easy diff and normal diff.

I would highly recommend played past the first level as its pretty much a tutorial that does not even give you access to the skill trees and other weapons yet.

[Coansp]

Originally posted by Terron:

I actually used dodge almost exclusively and did very well. It is pretty tight on the timing but I like that. 100 percent agree on the redundant loot. This aint diablo. Get rid of the random crap imo. Disagree on health recharges outside save points. I like the stress of trying to make it to next save point with limited health refills and dont even like that you have those consumable health/xp items to assist. I have other issues with the game. I love the heavy reliance on stamina management but think you should not actually lose stamina when getting hit by an enemy (when not blocking I mean) It tight enough as it is. I also wish items were not white little orbs as I find it hard to see em in the snow lol.

True that about heals, but that effect is magnified by my playstyle of clearing out every single enemy in a given area with such little health resources. Maybe after slaying an elite/clearing a camp of mobs you regain 1 charge, or dealing enough damage fills up a charge meter, or even a rally mechanic. But I guess it was overlooked because of the main mechanic; blocking/parries negating all damage taken. Then that leads into the stamina debate, which I believe is stemmed off using sekiros system - while forgetting that sekiro doesnt have a stamina bar for attacks.

[Stormy Kami]

Awesome art style, and audio, gameplay feels a bit clunky if not deliberate. Definitely something I'll play, but I don't know if it's 60$ good with how stacked march and february are.

[Respect]

Originally posted by Coansp:

Originally posted by RatherRowdyPooper:

Nice art style but just another Souls clone at the end of the day * yawn
The stamina bar management in this one is particularly obnoxious

True, it does feel generic, but IMO It's one of the better ones out there. I'd probably only buy this on sale though, not enough depth to justify the full $80 price.

Do you live in a place where the standard version is 80? cause here its only 59.99 with the deluxe being 69.99. So 79.99 sounds crazy

[Coansp]

Originally posted by Respect:

Do you live in a place where the standard version is 80? cause here its only 59.99 with the deluxe being 69.99. So 79.99 sounds crazy

Yeah, that's Canadian pricing for you. That's not even the worst, I'm starting to see these newer 2025 titles like monster hunter wilds go for $90+ with the base standard version, and $130+ for the deluxe/greater editions.

[Ronin Krieg]

Originally posted by Coansp:

Some things I didn't like however, were how heavily this game favors parry/guard over traditional dodging.

You can easily focus on perfect dodging and there are skill trees to spec. The spear in particular has a whole stance tree built around brink dodging.

Originally posted by Coansp:

I hope they have more than just 3 weapons in the full game, otherwise I feel the combat would get repetitive fast with the same movesets.

It's confirmed only 3, but maybe they will bring out DLC weapons later. The variety of the combat will come with how you spec into skills with some parts of the trees revealed so far giving you exclusive paths to use (respec is easy though if you want to change up).

Originally posted by Coansp:

The controls (at least on KB&M) are a bit irregular and take some getting used to. They need to add the ability to change targets while locked on, it sucks to fight groups of enemies without that feature.

These kinds of games are really made for controllers not KB+M so I'd highly suggest you change it up. They offer two controller schemes...one for Monster Hunter style attacking with face buttons and the other for a Soulslike scheme using the triggers and bumpers to attack and block.

You can switch targets while locked on easily, at least with the controller, so I'm not sure what you mean here.

Originally posted by Coansp:

A way to regain health charges outside of resting would be nice, and skill charges should refill upon resting (at least to halfway).

The tracking on some weapons needs to be improved; spear charged heavy whiffs on a shield enemy slowly strafing (the very attack meant to break guards) along with some situations with greatsword light attacks whiffing.

There should be a more frequent autosave system outside of resting at the checkpoint. I found myself constantly repeating areas to collect all the items and drops, just for the game to crash as I stand 5 meters away from the checkpoint. Boss/area runbacks in certain areas can be daunting.

That's not how Souls-ish games work (this game is a hybrid of Souls/Character action but leaning more heavily towards character action just with a Stamina bar, Bonfires, and Souls (Blade Nexus and Lacrima respectively).

You only get your health flasks (nether energy) replenished at the checkpoints.

Same with tracking. You can circle strafe as well. You have to understand that these games prioritize precision and don't let you track (sometimes enemies track but that's considered cheese design). They are designed to be "hard but fair".

I played the demo for 20 hours with no crashes and the loops I found were very tight with relatively short runbacks compared to the FromSoft games.

You seem to have familiarity with Soulstype games but then also are asking for things to be changed that are staples of the genre...

Originally posted by Coansp:

I also have mixed feelings about the weapon progression system - rather than the traditional crafting/upgrades, the game seems to just shower you with tons of loot and gear at a higher level with a slight RNG element (this creates lots of unnecessary junk in the inventory).

The part where you get trails for new weapons is rigged against you for the first attempt, since they force equip a different weapon without the skill points you had - instead, the skill points should have a separate preset for each weapon class, and automatically switch between when swapping gear (similar to POE2 weapon skill tree).

I agree that the junk loot is excessive but in the full game you'll be able to sell it off. You can also always just drop unwanted loot.

I also agree it would be much more handy to have presets rather than having to manually respec every time you want to change up weapons or skill playstyles. Hopefully the devs will catch wind of this idea.

[Respect]

Originally posted by Coansp:

Originally posted by Respect:

Do you live in a place where the standard version is 80? cause here its only 59.99 with the deluxe being 69.99. So 79.99 sounds crazy

Yeah, that's Canadian pricing for you. That's not even the worst, I'm starting to see these newer 2025 titles like monster hunter wilds go for $90+ with the base standard version, and $130+ for the deluxe/greater editions.

Yeah that's definitely ass. I feel for yall then. Damn