Star Knightess Aura

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The reason I always stop playing is game balance.

A topic by dragondeity created 50 days ago Views: 1,498 Replies: 11

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dragondeity50 days ago (1 edit) (+1)(-1)

I'm probably one of very few people trying to engage with the game outside of its porn elements. My experience is always the same, despite how much I like certain concepts, I usually delete it and try again dozens of updates later because of game balance. I can have strategies that will work semi-consistently within reasonable time frames, but the game relies so heavily on bosses not targeting the wrong characters, because 9 times out of 10 they have the capacity to one shot someone. It rarely matters how strong Aura gets for these encounters. Allies have the capacity to die long before Aura can kill something unless you're remarkably over-grinded, but time is not on our side. No amount of lore justification makes it 'fun' to disregard the other characters in combat. This is especially true of non-guild combat members like Edwin against the apparition that contributes zilch, or Albrecht on nightmare who only randomly survives basically goblins. (Because in practice, enemy numbers are actually far higher than 30% stronger. If I have 19 defense and take 2 damage from a goblin, on nightmare I would be taking 14. They're doing several times more damage. On tougher enemies that buff, debuff or attack ally weakness, you're once again relying on misses to not simply die to overwhelming exponential numbers that enemies feel designed around taking but not dealing.

A physical attacker renders Charlotte obsolete. You either have to JUST protect her, or guard with her ad nauseam to the point that fights are easier if she *didn't* exist - but you always want characters along with you on quests in order to gain that experience. Don't you think it's a little silly they exist just to guard and be meat shields?

Any kind of magic just turns John and Paul in to chumps. Even on a standard difficulty. They have around 50~ HP early on, but Demon's using dark on them will overkill them with 80+ damage magic attacks. The follow up tactical advantage will inevitably kill someone *through guard.* Think about what that means on nightmare.

It leads to a ton of scenarios where you're just relying on a flash bomb being enough to get you by, but it never will be because of magic and forced dark weaknesses, which then give bosses tactical advantage which leaves it down to chance whether our own critical turn will even connect.

*It isn't fun having to save scum every fight until RNG goes your way.* - About a year~ ago I was listened to in regards to speed, and I think it made the game a lot better, the game is a lot more consistent for it. For example, these days if you outspeed and one shot forest bandits, you don't need water skin to deal with bombs or an excessive amount of greater speed. You can just target the one presenting danger, adding more counterplay and consistency. It was a great change.

I left a similarly long comment on the original 46.1 page. https://aura-dev.itch.io/star-knightess-aura/devlog/794864/star-knightess-aura-v...

I understand I often get ignored. I get pretty lengthy, but I think I try to be fair despite being opinionated. I don't expect everything I say to always be listened to, but I would greatly appreciate some kind of response that indicates whether you will or won't take things under consideration - especially what I had to say in the linked page. (I can't seem to link my comment directly.) What are your opinions? How do you play the game to avoid the complaints I make? How quickly do you get through the game? What hidden items do you use I might be missing?

snarkles46 days ago

I can't say much because it's been a while since I played the game on a Pure run-my save file was lost so since then I just played on an easy difficulty and went corrupt. I wonder which difficulty you're playing with, just standard right? Personally I understand Aura making her companions look like meatshields in comparison- it's practically part of the story that they're weak as hell compared to her and pretty much hold her back. (But I see how you don't find it fun anyway.)

What helped me was planning my actions and upgrades ahead of time-and having a strong Slimie. But I think you're right in that the other companions probably just need to be more durable-maybe a lot more durable, but in return more AoE damage from bosses so you can't win due to bosses just attacking companions that block. If we can gift them books, maybe more books for them to increase HP, or gift components to upgrade their armour, etc.

dragondeity46 days ago (1 edit)

That's the issue for sure, their survivability. Even if they just perma guard with the current balance, they will still die. Most relevant bosses from fairly early on in the game start to magnify their damage quite a lot. They'll avaritia your party, creating a dark weakness, they'll use a magic attack that reduces their defense and magic defense, granting tactical advantage, and then next turn SOMEBODY is dead if you don't get a lucky miss through either a flash bomb or a far too expensive blessed bomb tactical advantage. The only way for anyone to not be a walking corpse is to simply be so overpowered you kill enemies before they can do too much.

The same goes for Slimey. Slimey was nerfed a lot over time. Increased MP cost, 'digestion', it takes a while before it begins to reach any kind of relevance outside of providing air bubble and storm once you reach nephlune.

blarghs46 days ago(-1)

> I'm probably one of very few people trying to engage with the game outside of its porn elements.

There's a decent amount of us I think, but probably a minority yeah.

> This is especially true of non-guild combat members like Edwin against the apparition that contributes zilch

He contributes 50 extra hp, which is actually quite a lot at that point in the game, especially if you guard with him to reduce damage taken.

>but the game relies so heavily on bosses not targeting the wrong characters, because 9 times out of 10 they have the capacity to one shot someone.

Charlotte is very squishy to physical attacks yeah. That's why protect exists. The game can be a bit rng at times, but if you need more than a few tries against a boss due to rng, it's usually because you're not strong/skilled enough and are trying to brute force it (which is a valid tactic if and only if you think it is fun).

> Albrecht on nightmare who only randomly survives basically goblins. (Because in practice, enemy numbers are actually far higher than 30% stronger. If I have 19 defense and take 2 damage from a goblin, on nightmare I would be taking 14.) -Fixed missing paren

Maybe don't play on nightmare if you don't want a nightmarishly hard time? Albrecht is a scrub and you are rescuing him from goblins, surprise surprise he would lose to them without you.

>A physical attacker renders Charlotte obsolete. You either have to JUST protect her, or guard with her ad nauseam to the point that fights are easier if she *didn't* exist - but you always want characters along with you on quests in order to gain that experience. Don't you think it's a little silly they exist just to guard and be meat shields?

Charlotte adds a lot of attack boost with heat up, she does pretty good damage with fire, and characters gain the same amount of xp regardless of your choices. I think she is the most useful companion on nightmare (Paul is worst).

> I understand I often get ignored. I get pretty lengthy, but I think I try to be fair despite being opinionated.

Making length explanations is good, but from this post alone you come across more as a whiner who demands to play on the highest difficulty and while not being ready to step up your game to meet the bar. You're probably not supposed to be able to beat nightmare pure without ng+ bonuses AT ALL, and even with bonuses you have to play a very optimized way, and the rng can't be too harsh on you.

dragondeity46 days ago (2 edits)

I don't play on nightmare, I used them as examples for how quickly things scale beyond what is 'advertised'. Your assumption is weird considering I detailed what it was on normal then said 'imagine' what the differences are like in nightmare. Let me give you a reverse example, I was very lazily playing story mode at one time, exploring the opposite side of the balance. Obviously it is quite trivial thanks to 10x gold and workshops not elapsing time. So I was fighting a boss, underprepared compared to a higher difficulty, just using regular attacks to ease through it. They were only doing 1 damage after all. So a boss on story mode dealing 1 damage, you wouldn't think is about to kill me right? It winds up, sure, something to think about if I was playing seriously on a higher difficulty, but it was flashing yellow so I just decided to test out if I'd kill it. I didn't. So this story mode encounter that was dealing 1 damage, with its enhance and wind up uses pierce, one shotting me on story mode. *The point isn't whatever you think it is.* I'm using *examples* for how egregious many enemies multiply their damage and disregard your defense.

Frankly you were quite rude and misunderstood the broader points throughout (often even echoing my point that many allies exist just to guard as a damage sponge while ironically trying to disagree with me.)

> Charlotte is very squishy to physical attacks yeah. That's why protect exists.

Which I covered, didn't I? "You either have to JUST protect her" I was also referring to times where she isn't accompanied by John, where she doesn't have that protection outside of Aura or a slime, which just turns other characters in to protect-bots. Obviously heat up is good, I'm not an idiot. But again, if you don't ignore the broader point, her existence then makes John just a protect-bot. Notably you completely omitted a response to John and Paul's magic vulnerability you CAN'T effectively defend against, ESPECIALLY post-avaritia.

> The game can be a bit rng at times, but if you need more than a few tries against a boss due to rng, it's usually because you're not strong/skilled enough and are trying to brute force it (which is a valid tactic if and only if you think it is fun)

You are mistaken if you think that this isn't the case for me, but if you think it's good balance to still be susceptible to RNG even when you ARE strong enough, then we just disagree. No amount of real consistency can be achieved.

> He contributes 50 extra hp, which is actually quite a lot at that point in the game.

You know, except it's not because avaritia > dark attack > tactical crit generally one shots ANY ally through their guard, especially if they reach enhancement.

> step up your game to meet the bar.

Sure I'll just dodge the moves like I'm playing Elden Ring. Oh wait it's a turn based RPG where even the standard difficulties are quite grindy. There's no such thing as 'stepping up your game'. There's grinding for more stats (something that uses precious time) and relying on luck. Your tactical advantage dodges are luck. Flash bombs avoiding damage are luck. It's luck and grind all the way down, which contradict many of the timed events and rewards in the game.

> you come across more as a whiner

And yet I must be agreed with on some level because this post had likes, which are rare here, and the linked comment to the weekly release had at least 3 last I checked. Even one of the other threads posted today mentioned they play on story because of poor difficulty.

Getting personal with me over a game like this is some weird shit.

blarghs45 days ago(+1)

>You are mistaken if you think that this isn't the case for me, but if you think it's good balance to still be susceptible to RNG even when you ARE strong enough, then we just disagree. No amount of real consistency can be achieved.

Most RPGs are like this though. If the rng gives you a bad roll 10 times in a row, you often just lose and have to try again, no matter how prepared you are. If the RNG hating you was surviveable, it would make all the statistically normal outcomes easy.

>They were only doing 1 damage after all. So a boss on story mode dealing 1 damage, you wouldn't think is about to kill me right? It winds up, sure, something to think about if I was playing seriously on a higher difficulty, but it was flashing yellow so I just decided to test out if I'd kill it. I didn't. So this story mode encounter that was dealing 1 damage, with its enhance and wind up uses pierce, one shotting me on story mode. *The point isn't whatever you think it is.* I'm using *examples* for how egregious many enemies multiply their damage and disregard your defense.
It is true that damage threshold systems (as opposed to reduction) have this behavior. It's much less of an issue lategame, and I think it's also not a great argument. The stat boost on nightmare was not chosen randomly, it has been balanced with the systems that are in the game in mind. That 30% stat boost will almost always mean more than 30% more damage taken it at worst an issue in explaining how much harder nightmare is.

>Notably you completely omitted a response to John and Paul's magic vulnerability you CAN'T effectively defend against, ESPECIALLY post-avaritia.

Most enemies that use spells do so on a predictable turn, so you can guard against it.

>But again, if you don't ignore the broader point, her existence then makes John just a protect-bot.

Or you could protect with aura, or slime, or defend with charlotte and let the chips fall where they may. And once you get protect II, no one needs to spend 100% of the time protecting anyway.

>You know, except it's not because avaritia > dark attack > tactical crit generally one shots ANY ally through their guard, especially if they reach enhancement.

Great, he still absorbed a massive crit that could have killed Aura.

>Sure I'll just dodge the moves like I'm playing Elden Ring. Oh wait it's a turn based RPG where even the standard difficulties are quite grindy. There's no such thing as 'stepping up your game'. There's grinding for more stats (something that uses precious time) and relying on luck. Your tactical advantage dodges are luck. Flash bombs avoiding damage are luck. It's luck and grind all the way down, which contradict many of the timed events and rewards in the game.

What exactly is it that you find grindy? Enemies never respawn, and there's very few forced encounters, you can ignore/stealth a lot of them. There's a fixed and fairly small amount of skills and materials (especially gold). The only grind potential I can think of is workshop job and bartending. Those are indeed bad uses of time, as you mention. They're also not necessary, "no workshop or bartending" would barely qualify as a challenge run imo. Tactical advantage + flash bomb will mean that you dodge a large majority of hits. If a single hit kills you on normal, probably you have a bad strategy (like letting a buffed enemy hit you) or you are understatted for the fight. And unless you specifically enjoy a challenge, you should remove collar for the especially tricky fights.

As for skill expression, you are obviously correct that this is not a real time game, so quick reflexes will not help you. But there is a lot of optimization to do in using items, smithing the right materials, learning complementary skills, learning enemy attack patterns and reacting to them appropriately as well as planning your days for quick progression. Probably more things as well that I just can't think of right now.

>Even one of the other threads posted today mentioned they play on story because of poor difficulty.

I strongly disagree that the difficulty is poor. You and many others may not find it enjoyable, which is why story and casual exist. But personally this game has a really enjoyable difficulty.

dragondeity40 days ago

Lol was fucking around in story mode and Beelzebub after demonfeasting is one shotting on story mode through radiance on story mode. on. story. mode. barring my tenacity

Literally star knightess or lose even before whatever timer this lot has.

Sorry, the games balance is a complete joke, especially post festival. I've always liked the game up through the festival, but everything after it just kinda sucks. The stat requirements, having like 20 quests active, constant progress limitations where something is only usable once a day (magic barriers to null curse traps for eg), things that waste 3-4 days to learn. The stat requirements not just for combat, but for exploration, like these 70+ agility gaps. Absurd mana drains like these 100 mp curse absorptions we need to do to save people in winterfall.

Literally don't know what you expect.

The balance of this game is beyond a meme at this point.

Even on story mode, apparently the game has completely abandoned any pretense that pure is a legitimate option.

I don't care if anyone wants to say I'm whining. I'm remarkably fair every time I talk about the game, and regardless of any post effort, the people that 'should' read the critiques never even dignify me with a response, or advice. Even just a "we're happy with the game balance" would tell me everything I need to know.

Everything in the game has become beyond a chore.

There's a reason nobody does your wiki for you. And the reason nobody on your team has done it is probably because none of you have any clue either.

Just completely nuke pure from the game and stop pretending like it's at all balanced.

blarghs40 days ago(+1)

How much corrupted meat did you have in your inventory? Beelzebub does crazy damage if you have more than a handful.
You also don't need to absorb those 100mp curses. Better to not do it in fact, it's kind of a trap.

"Even on story mode, apparently the game has completely abandoned any pretense that pure is a legitimate option."
And yet lots of people manage pure on not just normal but higher difficulties.

"There's a reason nobody does your wiki for you. And the reason nobody on your team has done it is probably because none of you have any clue either."

The developer definitely has a clue, and has beaten every boss in the game without popping the collar on pure. More strategy tips on the wiki would be nice though, I agree on that.

dragondeity40 days ago (1 edit)

Probably every single corrupted meat there was in the region excluding whatever might exist past the excessive 5 bomb+ rock I never bothered with. I just checked. I had 29.

I didn't know how to get rid of the corrupted meat. It wasn't intuitive at all. Why would I attempt to use it on Aura or Slime? It'd curse Aura and kill slime - but apparently you have to click a character to use it on to find the option.

Even if I did know, that's 15 days of discarding meats assuming 1 per day discarded, and 1 killing the slime, barring emerald tea abuse just to throw it away. That's really, really dumb. Of course I want to kill everything in the region, human/oids drop money.

> And yet lots of people manage pure on not just normal but higher difficulties.

And I don't understand how barring ng+ cycles, lots of save scumming to progress past fights early, or somehow stretching out your playthrough for like 300 days and beating generals at full power, or just using star knightess. It's not like anyone has ever told me how. Just "nuh uh people totally do it."

> The developer definitely has a clue, and has beaten every boss in the game without popping the collar on pure. More strategy tips on the wiki would be nice though, I agree on that.

On playthroughs of what kind of length with what kind of stats? I've made many a thread asking them for information directly and never receive answers. Even a basic question they should know off-hand like "what are the different timing-based rewards in the game?" Never gets answered. I even list ones I know, like 20 day festival = 2 vitality potions, merchant gold and technically a bonus holy water. 80 day Belphegor. 100 day demon generals. Is there more? I don't know, I never even get a "yeah that's all."

A developer doing something isn't even the best argument. Resources in the game are not infinite. Our time is not infinite. The developer is armed with knowledge a normal player isn't. The required strategies alone is a big one, but they know what kind of stat focus they need to have right from the beginning of the game to be strong enough for something 50 days later. They know what materials need to be fed to slime, or used on Aura.

I'm at a point now where it feels like every playthrough I've ever done raising physical attack was a mistake, and I should have just pumped magic as high as possibly so light just nukes things in to oblivion.

blarghs39 days ago(+1)

>Probably every single corrupted meat there was in the region excluding whatever might exist past the excessive 5 bomb+ rock I never bothered with. I just checked. I had 29.

Yeah, the boss has a skill that deals ATK*meat damage. So with 29 meat, it's like being hit by freight train.

>That's really, really dumb. Of course I want to kill everything in the region, human/oids drop money.

Somewhere, a demon general is laughing at human folly. The cursed meat is supposed to be the trap mechanic of that area, better to try and kill as few as possible until you kill the boss.

>It's not like anyone has ever told me how. Just "nuh uh people totally do it."

There's no one easy trick to it. In my experience you have to use your limited resources wisely, while still using a lot of consumables, skip a lot of trash mobs and have tactics tailored for every boss (which will frequently mean having seen their turn orders previously and "blind"countering some stuff). Hard to tell someone how to do that without writing a 50 page strategy guide, which is very time consuming.

Using star knightess is also not cheating, and if you restrict yourself to never using it that's an additional optional challenge.

>Is there more? I don't know, I never even get a "yeah that's all."

Pretty sure that's all, but the only one that's actually important is day 100 for demon generals.

>I'm at a point now where it feels like every playthrough I've ever done raising physical attack was a mistake, and I should have just pumped magic as high as possibly so light just nukes things in to oblivion.

My feeling is that the current consensus is that ATK is slightly better than MATK (but MATK used to be much better), but ATK is also more complex compared to stone mind + radiance + light = mucho damage.

dragondeity38 days ago

> better to try and kill as few as possible until you kill the boss

Which would free them all and remove the enemies from the area, right? That's what happens in Draknor in my experience. Why would I assume differently?

> Using star knightess is also not cheating, and if you restrict yourself to never using it that's an additional optional challenge.

Feels like a crutch I should never feel so forced to use all the time just because I didn't upgrade and learn the perfect skills for 1 encounter 50 days in a row - but regardless, even if it's not 'cheating' it IS rather 'costly' with its corruption.

That said, your corruption limit also raises quite significantly through the game. If someone was using it quite often, it would be very very easy to just Star Knightess up and then throw it at like 15 or 20 late game bosses. But if we did that, things that IMO have poor balance would never face enough criticism to actually be altered.

blarghs37 days ago

Well, winterfall itself is not a domain, so that is a hint for why the enemies will not disappear. But you do have a point that it is a bit strange. In draknor, almost everything dies (the animals in the caves don't, but all humans and demons do). In winterfall, only the demonic enemies disappear.