The Anti-Fun Update?

[Royal]

I've played the new update for about two hours now, and am I going crazy or did they practically remove every fun element from the game?

You're now forced to go slower with all these anti-speed running rooms they decided to add. You now start with 1 heart, and when nobody is playing the game in a month or so the remaining players will practically be screwed. Practically every buff except long and quick whip is now utterly worthless, I got wings in my last play-through and it's laughable how useless it is now that you can only use it four times a room.

Am I just being biased here, or did they really nerf the hell out of their game for no reason? I see they made it so guardians can spawn in your face again. Amazing.

EDIT: I'm uninstalling this game after I ran into this room https://i.gyazo.com/62377f2865d2a62ea99407a3e32c1e38.jpg what a joke of a game, actual anti-speedrunning now

[A Bonafide Skeleton]

No you're not alone, there are some really bizarre changes in this update.
I don't agree that all but the quick whip and long whip buffs are worthless but giving every buff a limit on uses does feel unnecessarily punitive, it makes sense for the invincibility buff but not for things like double jump or wings.

I like the system of collecting essence for more HP but in a game with such a tiny playerbase you are eventually going to run into problems further down the line, and in unexplored temples you're just kinda screwed since there's no essence to pick up and you're stuck with one heart for the entire run.

[JHarlequin]

While many blessings were incredibly strong and maybe needed to not be quite as strong, the limited use is a pretty big cut to their usefulness. It barely makes a difference in the first area because the rooms are so short, but I can easily imagine people draining their power faster than half way into any caverns level. And I doubt people that use blessings will even be getting to inferno much anymore.

It seems like it will just be people piling up bodies for some player later to scramble over their essence until eventually one person makes it to the end to free the phantoms. While the phantoms are interesting, they shouldn't be the reason that we manage to finish a run.

Still it is a mixed thing because some people aren't using blessings and they will definitely make it through without blessings at some point, though the hp change is going to change their whip choices.

It isn't absolute that every change removes fun, but now it isn't so much about finishing the temple quickly but managing to survive the ridiculous traps and guardians and drag yourself to the relic podium.

[Superguru]

Yes they nerfed most fun aspects that blessings provided into uselessness. They are more an emergency rescue now and thats it. I dont like the game that much anymore in the current state. Just playing a round or 2 and then putting it to the side again.
The main problem with this game is in my opinion that the main feedback they use comes from their Discord. In there are a lot of hardcore players with hundreds of hours that want the game to be a challenge as they mastered most techniques and know rooms when entering them.
People that just play the game are spending way less time on Discord while the hardcore players are of course online for much longer timeframes. As such they can be much more vocal and influental with their opinions.
When this trend continues the game will turn into a hardcore experience at some point.

[HighFlyer15]

Some Early Access games add to the game, they don't change it entirely.
The fun parts was how the game was about speed, the Devouring Rage was a clear indicator of this. But with this update you can see they clearly wanted a more temple puzzle, slow down and clear the room, type of game but that was not what they sold us.

So the Early Access excuse can't really be used here. I purchased a fun runner game, it was sold as a fun runner game, then the updates slowed to a crawl and they came back with a game I'm not really that interested in, unless they add proper coop, so we can finally have some temple fun with our friends.
Until they add that, this new kind of game isn't what I was looking for when I made the purchase.

[Arxos]

This is absolutely the anti-fun update. The health change was questionable, but I'll also be fair and say that as a veteran player it doesn't affect me that much. The fun of this game for me was going fast, and now instead of being able to go fast I have to hold myself back from using the tools that the game gives me, because I may need that power in a later room.

The silly thing is that this kind of challenge isn't even an addition to the game. You could always play base whip / shrineless. All rooms are beatable without blessings. And I've done and completed those types of runs several times, they are certainly their own kind of fun as well. But I don't want to play those challenges every time, yet this update essentially forces everyone to play this mode, always, forever.
Why? Why would you do this? Why reduce the replayability of your own game by restricting players wherever they go? Particularly when this never used to be a thing.

[Royal]

I firmly stand that this is unironically one of the worst updates I've ever seen added to a game, not as bad as SOS going free-to-play and battle royale, but this update is 100% a game killer lol rip

[Nuke]

hover slide,crouch jump,wings and double jump blessings now useless
starting health at 1 which will heavily punish new players
lucky to even get more than 2 phantoms, if you get none or all of them claimed a relic, it's a restart for those who have it harder
dark rooms sometimes complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with dart statues sniping you
the unique whip blessing of dart statues no longer targeting you is gone just for a new generic blessing of one extra heart and power bar

so much for having beta testers LMAO

[Four Cats & a Randy Savage]

New update stinks imo. Power points for blessings is stupid, takes the fun out of blessings like wings and double jump. Disabling traps that others hit makes the game less challenging. Picking up essence to get hearts is awful. The only good addition in the update was the dark room. The rest of has ruined the game for me.

Wish I could roll back the game to the last update but with the buying blessings bug fixed.

[Mr Deanster]

Well i feel the first person to enter a dungeon should get three hearts, coz its super unfair for them to do it with one heart but whatever.

[Draco18s]

Originally posted by Charls Barkly:

Well i feel the first person to enter a dungeon should get three hearts, coz its super unfair for them to do it with one heart but whatever.

I was about to say the same.
I only bought the game today and I am...enjoying it. I gave myself two hours to "demo" it and at the end I decided that I wasn't going to refund.

I can certainly hear the complaints that several things got nerfed and the hit point change seems rough. Maybe go back to everyone has the same number of hearts, but essence heals? The first person in will still have a harder time, but you could give them +1 max hearts at the start and then +1 heal after each stage maybe.

That said, I'm not feeling cheated or anything. Like I said, I'm enjoying it, even if "it used to be better."

[Mr Deanster]

Originally posted by Draco18s:

Originally posted by Charls Barkly:

Well i feel the first person to enter a dungeon should get three hearts, coz its super unfair for them to do it with one heart but whatever.

I was about to say the same.
I only bought the game today and I am...enjoying it. I gave myself two hours to "demo" it and at the end I decided that I wasn't going to refund.

I can certainly hear the complaints that several things got nerfed and the hit point change seems rough. Maybe go back to everyone has the same number of hearts, but essence heals? The first person in will still have a harder time, but you could give them +1 max hearts at the start and then +1 heal after each stage maybe.

That said, I'm not feeling cheated or anything. Like I said, I'm enjoying it, even if "it used to be better."

Its a weird curve because the more people that die the further you can actually get in the game, but the first in you sorta need to by heart containers which is a waste of money.

Even if you gained 1 heart for completion would be better for the first in to give them a chance. You don't get much for ultimately finishing it as the first one in either, but I have not played much (after patch), so who knows?

EDIT: you get two hearts at start if you are the first in.

[Shut Up, Sergeant]

I don't want to ♥♥♥♥ on the devs but yeah almost every single change they made for this update was for the worse, Invisible platform rooms and the like messing up the pace + neutering nearly every whip via the 1 health thing after I grinded for every skin + neutering nearly every blessing has kinda killed my interest in this game.

Dear devs if/when you read this, please roll this ♥♥♥♥ back, the timed switch rooms are cool and I feel I'd like the new blessings if they weren't tied to the power system. Power could be interesting as an alternate game mode or a new whip or smthn idk, or just ♥♥♥♥♥♥ remove the invisible platforms *and dark rooms please ok thx

[Nocturnal Pie]

I've enjoyed some of the changes.

The disabling of traps to collect essence is one I'm happy with, but they didn't really need to make it disable EVERY trap, just the permanent floor spikes would have been fine. Also not having to wait until the phantom died to collect the essence was nice as well.

The invisible floors and timed sections I enjoyed. Some of them really force you to be more careful yet put pressure on you to move faster than you usually would.

The dark rooms I don't really care for. They aren't all that difficult, for some reason there's almost never any hidden treasure despite this being the perfect place for it and usually you can just run through it like a normal room, occasionally stopping to pick up a light.

The power system's a bit rough. I'll constantly trigger wings or double jump by mistake and then boop, I've lost a segment of power. I feel like wings and double jump would work better if when you used their power cost it would regenerate over time so long as you didn't use it again within that time, similar to how Dishonored did its mana regeneration.

The other abilities are fine, I don't mind Whip Again, Banish Whip or Invulnerability taking energy as those are things I won't do accidentally.

They also fixed the whips this update, so I could actually use them without taking the blessed version every time, which was annoying when I wanted to use the void whip without making the run laughably easy.

The new heart system is BRUTAL. Most of the temples I'm in have maybe 4-6 phantoms in them. I feel like if I don't take whips like the Knight Whip I'll just be short-changed on health for the entire run. This is especially an issue when of those 4-6 phantoms there's 2 or 3 that have actually made it to the end and taken a relic, so I end up with less heart containers than I thought I'd get.

Overall I think the update's alright but they'll need to go back over some of this stuff and tweak it for sure.

[XtraThicc]

NEW POWER UPDATE.....

ABSOLUTE DISLIKES-

POWER BAR TRASH ( ROLLBACK OR LOSE THE PLAYER BASE )
LIMITED USE BLESSINGS PURE (EA GAMES) MENTALITY
u mean to say i can only double jump like 4-5 times in a level or use wings 4-5 times
if i am dodging traps or guardians and accidentally double press space bar wastes my blessing
some really long or tall rooms cant even get to the chest because of this b****h*t limited use blessing mechanic

i mean its a casual game meant to be played after a long day at work

Some levels have puzzle locks to cross the room , i mean its fun but when devouring rage is chasing your a** kind of hard and annoying to solve puzzle while running around in circles

banishing blessing is meh ...


LIKES-

new level designs
invisible levels
timer levels
timer puzzle levels
huge trap levels
full darkness level ( gave me goosebumps ) light crystals nice touch


EITHER ADD A CASUAL GAME MODE WITHOUT THE POWER BAR MECHANIC FOR CASUAL GAMER
OR
ROLL BACK EA GAMES UPDATE
OR
WE FIND NEW GAME

[boxanata]

Pretty soon they're going to lose all of their dwindling playerbase if they keep up with these updates, which is sad, as the game was uniquely fun.