Another day, another Dirk...
I wasn't as impressed by part 2 as much as I was with part 1. Taking into account it's a work in progress but I'm gonna go over my impressions.
GAMEPLAY
Part 2 has a much bigger focus on platforming, combat, and action, something which wasn't that big of a focus in the last version. This is good, since the parts of the game which were easily overlooked last time were put front and center this time which helps get a better sense of them. Helps you to get feedback on those things but it has its own problems which I'll explain later.
Not a fan of how the combat works. Goblins are extremely aggressive which means that there is very little actual player skill or stat-dependency involved. The only way to fight is to spam the attack, which works even if you only have 1 in strength. Doing anything else allows the goblins to strike back, costing you precious health points.
I'm assuming strength makes your hits deal more damage while agility makes you swing faster, but I don't think the basic enemy should be that annoying to deal with. The easiest, most common enemy type should really be less dangerous otherwise the game turns into kiting and looking for exploits. Having the goblins be that mobile and fast teaches you to avoid combat more than anything.
Having an enemy that behaves in this way would still be a good encounter for the game, just not for the "easiest" most common enemy type which is also the only enemy type which you can use to teach yourself how combat works. It's an unnecessary difficulty spike, and a very frustrating progress block when every single goblin you meet somehow manages to hit you at least once before you can stunlock him.
Would have liked if there was some way to restore health instead of having to die and restart to restore it every time. You don't have to make it common or even a consumable. Just some sort of "fountain of life" that you can find every few screens would be nice so you can restore yourself there after you've progressed through a bunch of enemies.
There wasn't all that much dialogue compared to last time, which is a shame since the dialogue has a lot of personality and is fun to go through.
Content density on this one was pretty sparse. Much bigger levels with much less to do in them, and more walking between points of interest. Very few interactions.
The stat boost items were a nice addition, but when combined with the skill point consumables they become extremely OP. Either the consumables' effects should run out after a while or there should be some other way to prevent the player from becoming a maxed out God.
ROLEPLAYING
I don't think the game should require the player to max out all his skills to beat a specific part of it. It takes away from the most interesting quality the game has. The game plays more like a metroidvania than it does an RPG and if that's your intention then you can ignore this.
Since the second adventure has such a strong focus on platforming and combat it feels like a completely different game which neglects everything that makes Dirk special. There were no item puzzles, no dialogue puzzles, and barely any use for intelligence, charm, or stealth. This version felt like it either required you to already have gained extra skill points from the first adventure or to use the free potions, which I assumed were supposed to have been a sort of easy mode cheat, but so far I have not found a way to beat it without using the potions. The end of part 2 is locked behind a requirement to have at least 4 or 5 in agility, and as far as I could tell there is no way to finish it with any other skill.
The one single use for intelligence that I came across (the cook book) was probably my favourite part of the whole demo since it was the one thing that had an element of RPG gameplay in it. I think it would be interesting if going forward intelligence was used multiple times to discover new recipes and get specific items that way.
I don't think there is any way to beat the second adventure with 0 skills. I really liked that part about the previous version. I don't think it needs to be done again but it would still show good RPG design if it was still possible to beat the whole thing with just 1 skill point in a single skill (it would just be harder - like an extra challenge for players who want that).
The game needs more stat-locked interactions, items, areas, and etc (and not just locked behind agility). That's the best thing it's got going about it in my opinion. It's a good hook for RPG enjoyers if it's implemented right.
BUGS AND ISSUES
Everything worked fine on the first try when trying the second passage on the updated version. Didn't even need to use the new setting.
After using the attack a few times the character controller occasionally freezes. Can't jump and can't move. Hitting attack again usually breaks out of this lock.
Fighting goblins pushes them out of bounds all the time. Also that specific area with the three crates requires you to have both 2 in agility and in strength to get out of, which is baffling.
Getting into dialogue or opening the inventory while blinking after respawning freezes the transparency animation until you close the UI.
After getting Agility 4 it's ridiculous easy and even unavoidable to jump through the level geometry.
Got the blue screen twice -- once when going into windowed and trying to shrink the screen size when it was already at the minimum size, and once while spamming the attack button really hard when the stamina was at its lowest. First one was easy to replicate. Not sure about the second.
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The game is amazing and I hope you have some good ideas on where you're taking it.