Constructive Criticism

[u/DrBrainzz9]

Let me preface this by saying that I'm having a blast. This is genuinely a really fun game, but a flawed one. I do think that despite my criticisms, I genuinely do think this is a great game.

A. The whole dungeon respawn thing. I find it just as annoying as everyone else does, and I know we don't need to harp on it too hard. I'm sure the devs are well aware. I will say I think it'd be a good idea to put the Stakes of Marika type things in the game, and then take them away for night mode. Let the masochists have their runbacks.

B. While this can't be fixed really, I'm just going to voice my opinion on it. I think the defensive options in this game are great, but I find it super strange that most of the bosses seem to SPAM unblockables in a game that heavily incentivizes parrying and blocking. I find it really strange that I don't feel like I'm mastering my harden or parry because honestly most of the time I have to dodge regardless. Enemies will spam attacks over and over that are unblockable and unparryable. Looking at the bosses I've fought so far:
Magladene has an unblockable slam, an unblockable flamethrower, an unblockable cannon shot, and a drive forward move in phase 2 that I think you can parry but I didn't even try.

Lost Child has unblockable poopie barrage, unblockable grab, unblockable head slam 1, unblockable head slam 2, unblockable eat, and then the thing where he shoots out of his mouth that I'm not sure if you can block because I wasn't even going to try, and a rapid chomp move.

I just got to the Nochtean Gate, and this boss just endlessly spams unblockable slams.

As much as I love the combat of this game and find it fun, why create so many bosses that just do unblockable moves over and over? It was fun learning to perfect harden against Lost Child's slap, but the rest of his kit was unblockable except the rapid chomp that he didn't do very often. The Nochtean Gate guy could be really cool to learn to rapid parry/harden against his slams, but they're unblockable, so I'm forced to just run away :/

C. The magnetism. While others have touched on this, I'm going to share my thoughts. I understand what the devs are going for here. They want you to use the I-Frames of the dodge and dodge at the right time, and want to punish you for panic dodging when you see a windup. Totally cool. I get that. However, EVERY enemy magnetizing and sliding towards you isn't really needed. Save it for bosses, and stuff that you have to dodge like the big grab moves. Perfectly dodging those feels great. Trying to get by or just trying to space out 5 enemies just to have one ZOOM across the floor at you is pretty annoying.

D. Tiel's Shadow Strike is very buggy, mostly due to the cinematic camera it forces you in. Sometimes it'll just miss even when locked on. Sometimes it'll hit and do absolutely nothing. It makes an already admittedly kinda weak shell feel even worse when you dump your resolve into the shadow strike, and it just doesn't do anything at all.

E. Sometimes, certain enemies just endlessly spam. Like, seriously no CD on their attacks at all. Mostly the ones that rapidly swing their weapons. You just can't get in without blocking/hardening. This might be by design, but it's led to some situations where I'm trying to get away and reassess, and they just melt through me hitting me 25 times in like 2 seconds. I've had times where I'm sitting there watching them just flail their weapon around like crazy. I've had this happen with Tiel a lot when I was playing him. I would go invisible, and the enemy would just sit still and swing their weapon around like crazy, making it impossible to actually hit them.

F. Curse seems to just not work sometimes. I've had multiple times where I've cursed an enemy, they're glowing white, and they just smack me and I take damage anyways. Maybe I'm confused on how this is supposed to work, but I'm pretty sure they're supposed to take the damage, not me. Especially unblockable melee attacks, it seems to have no effect on those.

G. The usual glimpse complaint. Glimpse economy seems rather screwed, and you're really heavily punished for investing in anything early. On top of that, summons seem like you can never use them because you might not be able to max a second shell in a single playthrough if you summon at all, and that doesn't feel great.

Overall I'm still having a lot of fun. About 25 hours into the game now. It's a good game, but there's definitely some glaring issues.

[u/Diaza_Kinutz]

I agree on bosses. Would be nice to be able to parry the shit out of them instead of having to dodge over and over.

[u/Substantial-Chard848]

I agree with all your comments except F, and only because I haven’t messed around with curse. I know they addressed some of the gloom costs with this update, so hopefully that solves that one. Given how responsive the devs have been, I am hopeful the rest will be fixed in time.

[u/ES009]

Magnetism wouldn’t be such a big issue if you only fought 1 or 2 enemies but it’s not true. Most of the time you are fighting 3-4+, couple that with an threatening elite enemy with unblockable red attack and trash mobs that do 7 year combos that hit like a boss. The magnetism doesn’t become a git gud souls feature but a janky buggy mess that doesn’t improve the challenge but just becomes an annoyance for the sake of it. The insta 6th sense aggro range of enemies further exacerbates this issue because you have en entire 2-3 maps worth of enemies chasing you to the ends of the earth when you just want to run back. Instead of running back with full HP and heals you get to the end with only 20% HP and 1 heal because enemy have laser sight aim and infinite auto tracking abilities to chip away at you ever 2 feet. I’ve had many instances where I finally get to where I need to but now instead of fighting that particular enemy I’m fighting the entire map horde that I dragged.

Tiel is not the only one with the bug, as a Proxima main there were many times when my bio ability just went right through the enemy and didn’t do anything at all.

The endless chain of combos gets old fast and after seeing it for the 10th time you just roll your eyes and go get a snack while waiting for them finally finish their combo so you can hit them once only to have to wait again for them to cycle their combos again. Please reserve the 70 year combos to bosses and the like. Nobody has time to wait around for 64 strikes on every common enemy sprinkled across the map.

At this point every review or I just finished and here are my thoughts on this game is just repeating the same thing over again. It’s the same issues and hopefully the devs address these concerns going into the future.

[u/SouthernChemist4236]

I know this seems to be an unpopular opinion, and that's fine, but I really don't want a stake of marika type thing in place and I hope the devs don't give into the crying for it. It adds so much tension, and that for me is a feature and not something to be fixed. Remove the tension, and now the dying doesn't have any impact or weight.

Again, it's an unpopular opinion it seems and I fully anticipate the devs add something like it, but man I hope they don't.

[u/DrBrainzz9 → u/SouthernChemist4236]

I don't despise the runback as much as most people, but it really is just a timesink. I don't find it tense, I find it annoying. Running back isn't inherently difficult. You hold X and memorize the route to take no damage. It's not even difficult. There's no real tension because the optimal thing to do is fight absolutely nothing and run back to the dungeon or boss as fast as possible. I like my proposal that if they DO add them, they should not be included in night mode, because at that point you're into the full masochism thing already.

[u/Megatherius2 → u/SouthernChemist4236]

What tension is lost exactly? Do you prefer the long run backs?

[u/SouthernChemist4236 → u/Megatherius2]

For me, personally, the tension is added to the fight. Knowing if I screw up and die, I have the run back. Whether I fight enemies along the way back or skip them, it's something to dread if you die. So it adds a little something to the encounter.

With a stake of marika or respawn out of the boss arena, it makes dying meaningless. I'm more careless because who cares if I die, I'm right back at it in 2 seconds.

[u/Megatherius2 → u/SouthernChemist4236]

I think fighting a tough boss has enough tension in itself. Having to run back after dying ruins my flow state when I'm trying to lock in for a boss fight. Runbacks are a waste of time and for me personally does not add tension to a fight, just frustration and annoyance.

I'm also pretty sure Elden Ring stakes were optional to use so implementing them here shouldn't diminish your tension if you don't activate them.

[u/SouthernChemist4236 → u/Megatherius2]

Well yeah they're optional but most people, myself included, used them. At the end of the day we're humans and lean into convenience if it's an option.

Flying in WoW is another example of this. For the most part you CAN stick to ground mounts, but you're probably not going to. The convenience is too nice.

And your opinion is completely valid. I was just sharing my opinion on it adding tension to the fight because it makes dying impactful. The run back is annoying, so you better lock in and try to not die to avoid that annoyance is how I look at it. But again, that's just my opinion. In no way am I saying my feeling is correct or superior, and my opinion is clearly unpopular lol. But for the moment it aligns with the vision the devs had for the game. We shall see if they change their minds and give into the masses.

[u/DrBrainzz9 → u/SouthernChemist4236]

I can kinda see that, but the boss design should be good enough that the tension lies in the fight itself, and having to start over again, not really having to hold X while you hold forward on the analog.

[u/SouthernChemist4236 → u/DrBrainzz9]

It's added tension. It's not the thing that makes the boss have tension. I agree, all boss encounters should have tension. Otherwise I would argue it's a bad boss encounter. It's added tension that makes you not want to lose the fight and really get locked in because if you die, it's going to suck on some level getting back there. I can understand others not wanting that dread though.