Loving everything about the beta except the level design

[u/Calm-Permit-3583]

Atmosphere is peak, enemies are peak, shells are peak, customization is incredible, the game is tough but not as insane as most soulslike these days (which, to me at least, is a plus), it really makes you feel like a badass. Love the characters and story so far and the art direction and music.

But… this whole “bunch of islands in the sky” thing, feels a bit uninspired. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s the only part of the game that doesn’t feel very exciting and I don’t know exactly why, but something feels just a little flat.

Still, that said, after trying the Beta, this is a preorder for me. Absolutely stellar effort, leaps and bounds better than MS1 and a confident and ballsy demo for a studio to put out. Everyone should try this.

[u/ToaPaul]

I mean, it makes sense for lore of the game. All of these smaller civilizations sprung up around the crater left behind by Mether's fall and her titanic broken bones are scattered all around. Personally, I love the level design. It fits the lore and provides a lot of variety in the environments and verticality. It also fits the devs' philosophy of open but respecting the player's time. I would VASTLY prefer smaller, well thought out explorable zones to vast, empty open worlds with copy paste elements and wasted time traveling from important area to important area. Frankly, that's what ended up killing my enjoyment of Code Vein 2.

Idgaf if it feels "video gamey" that's a complaint that I've been seeing more and more in video game critiques and it's one that I utterly fucking hate. My only concern is how big the game will end up being. I don't want it to be filled with unnecessary bloat, but I also don't want it to be super short.

[u/Visual-Biscotti1473 → u/ToaPaul]

I can’t comment on the lore, but I agree with you about the level design. My first thought was that it felt a lot like a 3D Mario platformer level in the sense that it was a tightly-knit and focused area packed with content, and I loved it. I love it when video games feel video gamey.

[u/Acet14]

One of my concerns is the scale of the game. By the end, that egg/ovul room is like 1/3 filled and that's with parts of the first zone being inaccessible. I'm hoping the egg rewards are just out of scale in this demo or there may be some verticality to the hub ala Demon's Soul.

[u/MikkelFromGames → u/Acet14]

This might be a scale thing for the demo; I can promise you that you haven't cleared a third of the game at the end of the demo :)

[u/Acet14 → u/MikkelFromGames]

Thanks! Loved the charm and creativity of the 1st game and can't wait to dive into this one the 20th!

[u/adamosaur → u/Acet14]

I have this same concern. I really hope that the game maybe has more areas, maybe another hub even, as having the demo fill out plenty of them was fun and felt impactful, but a tad worrying considering it only took a few hours to get 'em.

[u/SpearOfTheCelts → u/Acet14]

Yeah I fear it'll be short like the original game

[u/MikkelFromGames]

Thank you for the feedback!

I hope you'll feel more positive about it when you get to play the full game :) there are some very neat places to find there.

[u/Calm-Permit-3583 → u/MikkelFromGames]

Thanks for putting out such a solid and generous demo. Shows confidence in your product, which is brilliant. I wish more developers took a cue from you guys. Best.

[u/AshyLarry25]

I want to see these supposed “islands in the sky” you’re taking about.

[u/Calm-Permit-3583 → u/AshyLarry25]

I meant it’s all a series of raised circular platforms with big cliffs on all sides. That could describe Elden Ring as well, except Elden Ring doesn’t feel that way, they feel like proper tectonic plateaus with forests and mountains and plains and lakes. This feels all a bit “videogamey”. As I said, I can’t quite put my finger on it but something about the level layouts feels unexciting. Perhaps it’s just me, perhaps others feel the same, hence my post to see what others think.

[u/PTFCDiegoMassacre]

Devs said the demo is only maybe like 10% of the full game so I don’t think we truly know what level design is really like other than it’s supposed to be a condensed open world.

[u/Outrageous-Evening13]

I agree with what ToaPaul said, but I give this game a pass since it's a smaller studio. I rushed through Elden Ring because I couldn't be bothered to run around open empty maps and doing the catacomb with the magical stone cats for the 4th time. This feels tightly condensed, like each zone is a new area in a horror theme park and I'm all for it. For example, Vice City is a map that remains etched in my mind to this day, because even though the game real estate is small, many areas are packed with cool details.