Lurker here. Never wrote anything but had to write my thoughts for this game. This seemed like a very cool game just from the screenshot alone. I was really looking forward to how combat would work considering its made in rpgm. Which was very unfortunate when I found out how jank it all is.
In a fight, your melee attack is very unreliable due to it having oddly small hitboxes that doesn't match the animations at all. Besides, all you need to do is run and spam projectiles because they have a more consistent hitbox. Once your hp goes to half, you can spend time just healing yourself and running away. A good way to just beat everyone is to use the electric move and then fire ball and wait it out since they will be inflicted by 2 DOT status (3 once you get the stronger fireball).
Enemies don't tend to approach much as they will stay in their corner and just spam their strongest moves which usually goes full screen, can't be reacted to, still hits you even if you jump over them slightly wrong, and still inflict status when you block it. They can also just spend meter on shooting 3 projectiles in a row so that even if you do jump over them, you can only dodge 2 and end up getting hit by the third one if they time it right.
Rushing in and attacking (As Vana) is incredibly awful since enemies either do not flinch at all or recovers way too fast where they can just block your next moves. You don't get that luxury though because you can get flinched when hit and it will cancel your attack. Being able to move while attacking is actually more helpful for the enemy. A really annoying one is the hob goblin which have a really fast melee attack with good range that beats yours so they can just run in and start attacking, forcing your to block until they're done. Enemies can also use skills instantly out of block as well which is very annoying. The non-existent start up on these skills makes it even worse.
Defense in this game is non-existent as all you can do is hold block and time your jumps. Characters don't get pushed back from blocking attacks or have any other option to get out. Not even any defensive meter options. All of these combined makes the core action part of this game very stale. I understand that it's an rpgm game but wow.
As the other characters you can just use your strongest move, buff yourself and then rush in. Their damage buff is strong enough to deal massive damage on block and also have good enough HP regen for you to ignore any damage done to you for that duration. Their attack hitboxes are smaller than the animations implies as well but the positives just outweighs this. Yes, playing Mira this way is more optimal than being a mage and spamming projectiles.
I do like the idea of stronger enemies approaching you and forcing battles. Makes your travel around the map more dangerous and you have to plan your route carefully. I managed to outrun them every time once I realize how they work so I don't really mind that. It is weird though that the stronger enemies dont give away as much money and bp compared to others. I might be wrong but I believe Camiella gives as much money and bp as Barod who is considered stronger. But Alex is the one who gives more money compared to others, yet his difficulty is yellow. In my opinion though, the strongest opponent has to be Caldan. Her normal attacks are fast, huge and fills more than half the screen. She's as strong as Barod.
Also, I hope quests from the guild will become re-doable every day instead of being a one-off. Making money in this game is already strict, and it also doesn't help that the game's economy and its items are in a weird place where some items that seem good are cheap and some are just way too expensive for what they offer (The immunity equips are extremely pricey compared to how little money you earn in this game.)
Some positives now though. I really like how the game approaches the characters. Since you can choose to run this game pure virgin, while having the choice to have the others get dirty if you need a different kind of action. The mechanic behind this is nice as well, being tied to DP and makes sense as to why they would go to that length. It really makes the experience a lot more proper (and possibly hotter depending on the person) with that feeling of slow corruption. CGs and animations look pretty nice as well. Though, I have noticed some weird image jitters on some of them. Story has me hooked as well. Its nice and simple and has some set up to it that I hope pays off in the full version. I noticed you can actually win in the night match in night 4 which is pretty nice. At first I thought it was a force-lost match but I was wrong.
Aside from a few bugs and other annoying quirks the game has, this is all I can think of as of right now. I doubt I'll write anything else but I at least hope some of this stuff can help the dev make the game experience better. I'm oddly passionate about this (not sure why) if you didn't notice from how much I wrote up. (sorry) and thanks for reading? I guess?