Demo feedback

[KellyR]

Figured I'd make a thread for people to post demo feedback in.

For me, the game seems solid, but my one complaint so far would be that, compared to other Bullet Heaven style games, this one feels like you don't really get to max out and become powerful within a run, unless you delay doing the objectives to inflate your level. It took me til level 50 or so to get all my skills to or above level 12, where they evolve for the second time, and that takes forever, but in a normal run you're unlikely to even see level 25 and get that fourth skill.

[Lord English]

Feedback:

Graphics - The art style is cool. It makes the game look good without getting in the way or distracting the player. HUD is simple and unobtrusive, weapon effects convey their element, and the enemies are nicely detailed without being overboard.
Music - no comment. I listen to podcasts when gaming unless it has a story.
Gameplay - Pretty damned fun. Kept my attention for just shy of two hours, playing all four characters. Not too sure how I feel about the tasks, but I didn't mind them.
Balance - the moonerang (or whatever it is called) needs an increase in base power and the option to increase its width. As is, it is next to useless. It takes 5+ minutes to get two levels when starting, compared to the less than 1 minute for the others. The flying daggers...I want them to behave like they do in VS, but I can appreciate the different game-style it enforces. Also, the 'increase movement speed' power seems to do nothing at all.

Overall, I really liked the demo. I can't wait to play more.

[Rei]

The game is super, you can even leave Friendly Fire, but please remove the damage from your own abilities.

[Santa's Little Trash Panda]

Great base of a game, but personally it'd be much better without the friendly fire, feels like it ruins the co-op aspect, but still excited to see where it goes from here.

[Lord Umber]

played the demo with a friend, we actually both liked the friendly fire aspect, and thought it was really funny when we would see each other and immediately scatter in different directions.

also, we both agree, please get better music, the same chords on repeat drove us insane.

[KellyR]

Originally posted by Rei:

The game is super, you can even leave Friendly Fire, but please remove the damage from your own abilities.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree here. Necro Whirl is by far the worst spell. It damages you, it's hard to avoid without taking movement speed upgrades, and it's not even really strong enough to justify its very significant downsides. Even the Moonerang is better, and that thing is terrible.

[Zach Fett]

Originally posted by Santa's Little Trash Panda:

Great base of a game, but personally it'd be much better without the friendly fire, feels like it ruins the co-op aspect, but still excited to see where it goes from here.

Without friendly fire it'd be pretty broken, you'd be able to just stand on each other with Solar Pulse and annihilate everything.

My only bit of feedback: Audio could use some fixing, I noticed it'd occasionally cut out when too many sounds are happening at once, and the lightning arc sounds are kinda awful, like a weird buzzing/crackling that sounds broken almost.

Otherwise I'm loving it, day one buy for my friend and I!

[jokeserver]

I thought the magic arrows were the worst spell because to use them right you have to face your target, but every other spell works great when you kite the enemies and circle them while staying out of reach. Some of the objectives were harder to do when starting them, but got easier as I leveled up (solo) because it became faster to clear out enemies, faster to move (= longer to stand on the portal, etc).

I'm hoping to see more depth before I start recommending it and looking to play more.

[BoltBlasterGlenn]

@All: Thank you all for your feedback; it's invaluable in helping us improve the game!

@KellyR & @Lord English: Thanks for your input! Balancing the game is an ongoing challenge, and we're constantly fine-tuning it to ensure a satisfying but not overly easy experience. Your feedback is essential in getting us there!

@Rei, @Santa's Little Trash Panda, & @KellyR: Friendly fire will stay, but it should always be avoidable and never feel unfair. Players should be able to avoid it, and being in the wrong spot at the wrong time should be the deciding factor.

@Zach Fett: We acknowledge that sound improvements are needed. Thanks for bringing this to our attention; we're working on it!

@jokeserver: Thanks for your thoughts. We're hopeful that we can win you over!

[KellyR]

Originally posted by jokeserver:

I thought the magic arrows were the worst spell because to use them right you have to face your target, but every other spell works great when you kite the enemies and circle them while staying out of reach. Some of the objectives were harder to do when starting them, but got easier as I leveled up (solo) because it became faster to clear out enemies, faster to move (= longer to stand on the portal, etc).

I'm hoping to see more depth before I start recommending it and looking to play more.

Eh, I'd say the phantom daggers are better than Necro Whirl still. At least you can control where they're firing, and they do quite high damage. Necro Whirl fires completely randomly (Sometimes straight in front of you and not at enemies at all even) and with any sort of upgrades to its spell size, it becomes difficult or even impossible to get out of that area before it starts damaging you. On top of that, its damage *sucks*. It's barely higher than Solar Pulse, but Solar Pulse ticks damage faster AND is easier to use, and has more utility since it's always killing threats near you. Phantom Daggers may require you to point towards the enemy, but it has the highest base damage of all the spells (300, and at close range you can hit a target with all 3, for 900 damage) and doesn't hurt you OR fire in completely random, uncontrollable directions.

Admittedly if Necro Whirl did more damage it would be an even bigger hazard to you, but at least you'd have some sort of payoff in its risk/reward calculation. As-is, it's all risk, no reward really.

Even if it were changed to no longer hurt the caster, I'd still rate it pretty low for utility at its current level of damage when combined with its random and unreliable targeting. Since it does hurt the caster, it's simply pure fail. If I were ranking the spells, it'd look something like this:

S - Solar Pulse
A - The magic orb spell, Phantom Knives
B - The sword
D - Moonerang
Z - Necro Whirl

Like Moonerang is D rather than C, because even with its infinite penetration, it's not terribly useful due to low damage and low rate of fire, but Necro Whirl isn't even worthy of an F.