Ok, by now, you know the drill: i need to organize my thoughts and to do that i like to write them down. So here it goes.
First of all, I don't usually use the term "mid" in this way, but somehow that is a recurring thought for me now. A lot of "not bad at all, but...".
The writing: Monsinne is almost unrecognizable. The descriptions are nice, the style fits and he leaves his usual cliches at home this time. But... the characters are about as deep so far as the impact crater after a rain drop and the setting is basically every "MC moves into new town and starts managing brothel/inn/tavern/spa" you have seen before. There are also about a dozen minor typos, which should be fixed in the future.
The art is not bad at all, but the new artist's "rougher" style absolutely clashes with Nomo's "smooth" one. If someone knows more about art, please help me out with the proper terms. The character designs fit the settings very well, my favorite is Willow so far... but the background art is basically a placeholder with muted colors and low contrast.
The game play is simple. Visit locations, get to know the town and the people and occasionally acquire some optional items that can be used later on. Again, basic, but bug free and functional, so after KoD being burned by trying to add new mechanics in each patch, this was the right choice imho.
The Main Character. Amelia was not among my favorites in KoD, but i try to be objective. She was good for teasing funny reactions out of Sabia and keeping her off balance when she tried to blend in with the crowd. But now she is the protagonist, and what's more she turns out to be a succubus, so her being her causes almost every background character we meet to blush, giggle and stutter like a highschool girl. A notable exception is Not-Katarina who was established in KoD already.
I get why they did it, but this removes a lot of color from the interactions. Amelia will flirt with everyone, that is who she is, but the reactions to this could have given the new NPCs a lot of personality in the first few lines, but now almost everyone sounds the same. By trying to make the MC more interesting they accidentally made her dialogues more bland.
When it launched KoD had Nomo's full screen art, Sierra's writing, a unique setting and a bitchy but likeable protagonist who was dropped into a place which contradicted everything she knew before, creating a natural environment for exploration and growth.
KoD-A does not have that, and in my opinion, this is the main thing the devs have to decide and decide soon: what is the selling point of this game?
First of all, I don't usually use the term "mid" in this way, but somehow that is a recurring thought for me now. A lot of "not bad at all, but...".
The writing: Monsinne is almost unrecognizable. The descriptions are nice, the style fits and he leaves his usual cliches at home this time. But... the characters are about as deep so far as the impact crater after a rain drop and the setting is basically every "MC moves into new town and starts managing brothel/inn/tavern/spa" you have seen before. There are also about a dozen minor typos, which should be fixed in the future.
The art is not bad at all, but the new artist's "rougher" style absolutely clashes with Nomo's "smooth" one. If someone knows more about art, please help me out with the proper terms. The character designs fit the settings very well, my favorite is Willow so far... but the background art is basically a placeholder with muted colors and low contrast.
The game play is simple. Visit locations, get to know the town and the people and occasionally acquire some optional items that can be used later on. Again, basic, but bug free and functional, so after KoD being burned by trying to add new mechanics in each patch, this was the right choice imho.
The Main Character. Amelia was not among my favorites in KoD, but i try to be objective. She was good for teasing funny reactions out of Sabia and keeping her off balance when she tried to blend in with the crowd. But now she is the protagonist, and what's more she turns out to be a succubus, so her being her causes almost every background character we meet to blush, giggle and stutter like a highschool girl. A notable exception is Not-Katarina who was established in KoD already.
I get why they did it, but this removes a lot of color from the interactions. Amelia will flirt with everyone, that is who she is, but the reactions to this could have given the new NPCs a lot of personality in the first few lines, but now almost everyone sounds the same. By trying to make the MC more interesting they accidentally made her dialogues more bland.
When it launched KoD had Nomo's full screen art, Sierra's writing, a unique setting and a bitchy but likeable protagonist who was dropped into a place which contradicted everything she knew before, creating a natural environment for exploration and growth.
KoD-A does not have that, and in my opinion, this is the main thing the devs have to decide and decide soon: what is the selling point of this game?
