I tried the demo for about 90 minutes. I’m somewhat familiar with deckbuilders though by no means am I any good at them. I made it up to the “5th floor of the dungeon” quest, lost, tried again, got to the same point and I think thats where I’m quitting for tonight.
The atmosphere and vibe is fantastic. I love the aesthetic you have going here. Voice actors/actresses are fun and talented, the art and design and design is just a good time through and through. The story is fun though I’ll admit in games like this I’m really not expecting any story - this makes for a strange dynamic but honestly everything is executed very well.
The combat is where I’m struggling. It's not bad by any means - there's just a learning curve that at times I feel is a bit inimical to newcomers? Building a dungeon won’t let me undo any choices I make. If I play “Cheap move” before I even enter the room, is that something that will activate or did I waste it? Bash sometimes activates, sometimes it seems to ignore my suggestion which oftentimes is okay because combat is over so quickly so maybe I shouldn’t have bashed that enemy. Should I be switching weapons a lot or remaining in shield mode where it's helping me out a bunch with the AOE attacks? Some of these ranged attackers just eat through my health while my character focuses on the melee and despite multiple attempts I’m still at a loss as to what would work to circumvent my health from dropping horrendously here - not that it matters I used up all my action points on the previous room so here is where my homunculus ends its journey.
All of this I feel like you could say “well with enough time you’ll figure it out” and that's very true but it feels less of an “aha!’ moment and more of a “well that run is over and I’m not sure what I’ve done wrong”. I’m not sure how to “get good” and at this point I think my only option would be to hop on discord and learn from your crew which ….I probably will do so pending I find some free time this week.
Hopefully none of this comes across too negative - you obviously put a lot of time and love and energy into this game and I had a really great time with it - I think there might just be a lot of mechanics in play and at the end of my last run I wish I knew more about why I was failing.
Thanks for the kickass demo. Keep up the great work!
Small Defects or oddities :
- Upon speaking with the barmaid it then shows a visual of the bar. There is a “Back” button which has an icon of the escape key however hitting escape brings up the menu options - it does not take me back to the main area as expected, I have to click “back” in order to return to the main atrium.
- When I mouse over a card to try to read the text it seems to “bounce” up and down. This is specifically challenging if I put my mouse to the bottom of the card which causes it to bounce incredibly fast. If I mouse off the card and back on it seems to resolve the issue but not always.
- After speaking with someone in the mansion, the music cuts out completely once im done hearing them out. It does not return until I click into the “build dungeon” section. It's possible this is a result of my alt tabbing to type this up.
- Visit the dungeon with new cocktail effect is too long of a text and overflows into “Reach 5th floor of the dungeon” text