Nightmare Design

[FrEaKy_MeLoNs]

Hey, might have seen me leave a review on mobile relating to this enemy but the play store does not allow enough words to detail just what my gripes with this enemy type are.
At this point I would like to believe I have played enough of the game to formulate a hopefully somewhat useful critique of the game. I enjoy the grind, I like the variety of enemies, and I like the locations. While I hate traversing traps on mobile due to the finicky controls, I'll accept that's likely just a skill issue.

What I cannot look past and get over, however, is just how much of a total fun vacuum the enemy type the nightmare is. While if you only found this enemy in a zone or two I might be able to just pretend it ain't there, the fact that it spawns in almost every location makes it impossible to ignore. Thus, every death caused by this enemy feels absolutely unfair and frustrating. It moves exceptionally fast, attacks extremely quick, and when you pair this with the fact that enemies will "shove" between attacks, the nightmare has created the utter God awful mechanic of shoving you at the literal speed of light. (Granted I have only really played the range classes, so maybe the melee guys are a little heavier.) When the nightmare also decides to instantly charge attack (it doesnt seem to have a visual wind up period) you down a corridor you typically have to just hope that you manage to DPS it down first and that it is not shoving you into traps. If the Nightmare is a decently higher level than you there is practically nothing you can do except lose the run which just feels terrible. Sometimes it will just teleport in straight from Brazil to send me to the shadow realm. With any other enemy type no matter their level it feels like there can be counter play involved, but the Nightmare feels like it follows its own sets of rules. Maybe it is just overtuned and has too many abilities mixed with strong stats, maybe it's just a product of the collision/shoving system, or maybe, just maybe, I need to get gud.

That being said. I understand my opinion on this enemy is likely biased from the perspective of someone who only plays the ranged classes. I understand that the difficulty of this game is what adds a layer of charm to it, however the design of the Nightmare blows straight past being difficult and right into tedious/unfair and unfun territory. I cannot count the amount the times my runs have ended due to this enemy and rather than feel I made I mistake or F'd up I just feel like the game decided it was time for me to die. Just wanted to offer my little super subjective opinion on one l tiny aspect within this game.

TLDR
Overall enjoy the game. The Nightmare enemy spoils that enjoyment by feeling extremely unfair whenever it decides to rear it ugly ass head. (Does it actually have a head?) It ends up feeling like, well, a Nightmare. ( And I guess maybe that's the intent *shrug*)

If the dev reads this, thanks for spending the time to read the nonsense I wrote. I appreciate it.

[Ortan]

Thank you for your interest in the game and for such detailed feedback!
I completely agree with your critique. The Nightmare definitely needs some reworking. I won’t have time to address this in the upcoming update, but I’ll try to tackle it right after that.

As you correctly pointed out, part of the problem lies in the fact that it performs all of its attacks instantly, with almost no wind-up or preparation. The Nightmare is one of those monsters whose animations I haven’t yet had a chance to update. I’ve been working on this process for some time, and a significant number of monsters have already been updated — for example, I recently refreshed the animations for the Witch. However, even she still instantly summons the Nightmare, after which it attacks. That’s also an issue, and I intend to fix it in the near future.

Regarding the mechanics of the Nightmare overall, I will likely start by limiting the distance of its teleportation and "charge attack". How much this will help is hard to say at this point, and I’ll test this once I update its animations.

So, thank you once again! I will do my best to make this enemy less frustrating and more predictable.

P.S. Fun fact: the Nightmare was originally part of the Halloween event during the first year of Pocket Rogues. That’s why its mechanics differ so much from other enemies. But at that time, there was too little content in the game (as there still is now, let’s be honest), so I decided not to disable it after the event ended — the same goes for the Witch and the Pumpkinhead. But who knows? Perhaps someday in the future, they will return to being just part of a seasonal event, as was originally intended.

[FrEaKy_MeLoNs]

I really appreciate the reply! The fact you even communicated on this issue within the discussion forums says a lot to me. It's really neat to know about the animations and that the nightmare is an enemy from an event. I feel like I have missed all the events, I've actually owned the game for awhile (couple years I think) on mobile but haven't really picked it up till recently.

The changes you are currently thinking on implementing sounds pretty good to me! I feel like the fact they can literally show up from nowhere or charge from the other side of the continent is what really just break the camels back in terms of frustration. I've noticed its not too big of issue on melee, unless they highly out level you. But that statement could be true for other enemeis as well I suppose.

Admittedly, I created the original discussion from a place of frustration and agitation so I hope I didn't come across as rude or anything. I do genuinely enjoy the game when I play it for the most part, and would actually argue it has some good meat on it's bones in terms of content for the price. Maybe that just because I enjoy grinding, but I kinda feel like that's actually pretty integral to the identity of this game in my opinion.

Anyways, just wanted to let you know you are doing good work! At least in my eyes haha. I enjoy playing the game, and it certainly helped me pass the time on my trip during long flights and such. Maybe it's just the little dopamine hit I get form seeing skills evolve through leveling up, maybe it's my little minor addiction I have to rouge-like games, or maybe, just maybe, it's just a mixture of both and the fact that it's a pretty damn good game at the end of th day! I'm gonna have to go with the last one :').

Keep up the good work sir, you have my respect and appreciation!

[Ortan]

Thank you so much for your kind words and thoughtful feedback! I’ll keep working on improving the game and will always listen to the community — it really means a lot to me!