Post by rtricher in FEEDBACK & SUGGESTIONS Megathread

Viewing post in FEEDBACK & SUGGESTIONS Megathread

Hi Shru,

A colleague at work asked that i try the demo. So i did.

About me: I'm a middle aged, infrequent gamer... my favorite game is still Diablo 2 been playing for 20+ years. I've never played a bullet-hell game before. I played the game on my laptop running windows 10 with an intel core i5 processor.. not sure about the RAM but it didn't matter ... hang on i'll check .. k 8GB... pretty sure i downloaded the 64 bit game... it ran really well but my machine was getting pretty hot near the end of any session I think my total time was 2:30 or so (two sessions, after the first hour i had to stop... i was trying to beat sarcophagus it was not going well) i played on Easy. I found the bosses to have quite a bit of HP considering i was on easy as noted above the first boss killed me as soon as i opened the tap... but more on that later..

I found the start of the game really long.. took me 30 minutes to get to the level selection screen. Took me a while to figure out it was a puzzle game like skylanders. by the time i got to the gardener he was not providing me with any information that i needed at all... i knew he'd give me seeds although i suppose if i'd have paid attention i would have known some of the answers to the Oro questions. (found Oro to be the easiest bost BTW) probably because by that time i was more used to the controls. Which i struggled with quite a bit: played mouse and keyboard. I almost never used the focus walk as i was then unable to navigate properly on the WASD controls ended up walking into death too many times. I never used the hourglass feature (i'm sure this is a dexterity thing for me, my kids would probably have a much easier time or plug in their PS4 remotes)

I have no idea what the skull was for in combat and i generally was just aiming in the middle and avoiding stuff until bosses finally died. Didn't find the shift attack ever did enough to bother with it... though i did use shift throughout the sarcophagus battle (my hand is still cramped) it took getting used to the speed difference but it helped get through the gaps.. the spinning blades there were the most frustrating part getting the boss so close and dying was disheartening.

Very wordy chatter from NPCs and if you are going for very rude you nailed it! Pretty sure that after talking to any NPC i tried to shoot them all. I skipped through a lot of what they said. though i was happy to see that ringing the bell ticked Ronove off so i did that for a while... probably 5 mintues (mainly to see if he'd let me in). Almost lost it when the ticket didn't work but then saw the "by-pass".

I found the language was on the poor side in the sense of words missing, misused or just i'm not sure how to say it was "bad english" if that's the intended flavour then right on... it felt like bad chinese translations such as: "stay off the sleeping grass" instead of "stay off the grass". Again if that is the intended feel good on you.

I actually enjoyed the puzzle aspect of the "gardens" shooting the buttons and such was an interesting twist. Did take me a bit of time to realize i could jump on the stalls... Not sure if i actually equipped the clothing properly as my character didn't change at all.. Not sure i could tell the difference between the hourglass and iron kettle...

The bosses i found to be the most frustrating i found that i died way too easily and that they had way too much HP for an easy level setting.. I have no intention of replaying normal or hard to see how "easy" i had it.. mostly due to not my style and difficulty with controls. That being said i found the first boss to be the most fun and challenging enough the art is nice and the background not too busy. (sarcophagus and Oro have busier backgrounds) I suppose the lack of anything other than the bosses to shoot at doesn't give a decent gauge as to how hard you are actually hitting.

I liked the no elevator access to the 13th floor. I did not visit every floor, probably should have.

I tried to pick up everything bu never found a use for many things... like my 7 blank tickets.. that's ok though.

Oh, not a big fan of all the animals as characters... but that's just me... doesn't change much to the gameplay. Did find Oro a little annoying at times. Especially in the Library.

Anyway mechanically the game seems very sound, i didn't experience any glitches or bugs, it downloaded very quickly and installed just as fast i was up and running very quickly. As noted above as well, the mouse would be great to use in menus navigating was a bit tedious at times.

shru5 years ago (1 edit)

Hi, thanks for playing!

When you say that the start of the game took you a long time, was there a part in particular that didn't click right away for you? It sounds like you might've been stuck in the little pit where Sprighou (the Gardener) resides and didn't realize you could get out of there by planting the seeds? Let me know if I'm correct, because if I know exactly what didn't click for you, that'll help me greatly while trying to figure out a way to make it more clear.

If the game took you about 2.5 hours in total, then I'd say that's about the playtime I was going for. The bosses are definitely supposed have have a sort of "die -> get better -> try again -> repeat until you win" cycle, even on easy. The idea for easy to give a bit of a struggle, but still set the bar lower enough that even players who aren't super into the genre can proceed before they get frustrated. It sounds like it probably missed the mark for you though. Can you give me an idea of how many deaths it took you for each boss before you were able to beat them?

The skull icon just shows the direction of the boss in relation to your character. The idea is that you can visually focus on just your section of the screen and focus on dodging... But it's probably something that's more useful when playing with a gamepad, so maybe I'll consider removing it for mouse and keyboard players.

A lot of NPCs are definitely supposed to come across a little rude. I was hoping it would come across as more playfully cheeking than annoying.

Your comment about the English being bad is highly interesting to me. You're the first person I've heard say this, although I definitely am taking it seriously as a concern. I've probably spent a disproportionate amount of time learning the intricacies of ESL english. So it does not surprising if while making a writing this came across. Was there an NPC in particular who you felt was particularly bad for this, so that I can give them some more scrutiny? Or better yet, even a line of dialogue?

Changing clothing doesn't reflect on your character right now, but you would have noticed your HP change from 1/1 to 3/3.

A handful of items are just gag items which clutter up your inventory for now... :) maybe they'll find a use eventually.

Noted on mouse navigation in menus. That's on the todo list, it's just hard to find the time for.

Thanks again for sticking through the whole thing and for taking the time to write such detailed feedback!

rtricher5 years ago(+1)

Hi Shru,

By the time i go to sprighou i was good, i think it was the jumping between raised platforms, getting used to the controls, talking to the NPCs and the initial profile that doesn't seem to have a bearing on the game though i suppose it will for the full game. Might have taken me some ime to walk all the way to the left away from ronove and start moving through the platforms... I realized i had to plant seeds before i saw the gardiner i knew i'd have to do that as soon as i saw the fresh earth spots.

I also died like 5 times just getting back from the boots !!! found it a lot easier to get in than out...

I think the main NPC where i noticed the English was probably Xarria.. though i may have been only a line or two i'd have to read through the scripts again, Ronove too and he was the cheekiest especially walking into the game and getting started. Though they have the most speaking lines. Otherwise i think the rest were good though i must say i did a lot of "speed reading"..

I did try to go back through the normal mode and stopped after dying twice against the first flower.. I was just trying to gauge the difference between easy and normal.. Is it possible the monster is faster in normal and his seedlings too... it was noticeably more difficult though i wasn't giving it my all. But there was a difference.

As i had said earlier this was my first bullet-hell and it's not really my style, so not very proficient..

Deaths on Easy: Boss 1: 10 to 15; Sarcophagus like 17 to 25; Oro i think less than 8.

rtricher5 years ago

OK so i went back to look at the text...

I think it's mostly in the descriptions/instructions. But you might want to have someone look through the script.

Oh and in the game calibration you could ask about gender and then get rid of the "sir or madam" I found that weird.

This time through i did hit a bit of lag on Mandrake in the final stage.

Also i suppose this is just the style of game, but i find it a little too bad that you are kind of forced into a corner to avoid dodge missiles and sort of miss out on the really nice patterns that are being drawn.. They were very nice and caused me to die a few times,, just admiring them. Oro was definitely easier once you get into the final stage Although i did get all the questions right so there were no red X's ... i think that did make is a bit trickier the first time through. Might want to randomize where the correct answer spawns.

Anyway hope it helps.

rtricher5 years ago

Oh yeah... i'm surprised that Oro seems to say toodles when he leaves, considering he's the BBEG. I guess it just seems so out of place with the rest of the conversations being terse.

Especially considering your use of alliterations in the interaction pop-up. I realized what you were doing when i found it strange that you would "Gossip with the Gatekeeper" when really that doesn't make sense..

shru5 years ago

Thanks for clarifying on the start of the game and who you thought had awkward dialogue. Ronove referring to you as "sir or madam" is supposed to be intentionally weird and is supposed to be emblematic of his total disinterest in accommodating or helping you.

~10 deaths on the Mandrake boss and Orobas is about what I was aiming for difficulty-wise. 20+ is maybe a big too high for Sarcoph Augustus, but then again you said you weren't using the Hourglass, so that would have made things more difficult than it needed to be. So I'm not sure whether I should touch him.

The higher difficulties mostly affect the density and speed of projectiles, and well as the resting time between volleys/patterns of bullets. The seedling minions move at the same speed on both Easy and Intended, but there are more of them on Intended, so that would create the effect making their pursuit feel more threatening.

In terms of being "forced into a corner" during boss battles, I agree with you. That's been something I've been trying to design bosses to avoid. I think the Mandrake's design makes it so that it's pretty optimal to just stay back in the corner and move yourself just enough to dodge bullets. However, Sarcoph Augustus and Orobas were both designed to make it so the player should have to utilize most of the arena to be successful.

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