So, I played the game. Great potential. Decent execution. AI art was less distracting then I thought it would be. Pretty good writing and world-building. Lots of... eh... idk, not exactly critiques, but more akin to "I totally know better even if I have 0 games under my belt and am actually kinda envious of your skills" if it makes any amount of sense.
Basically, everything bellow is meant to be as friendly discussion, not an attack or mean spirited anyway (just saying it here, since I do tend to sound much harsher then I actually am, while commenting on games - I spent... idk, 6 or 7 hours in the game - I'm at about day 100 - so I did enjoy the game overall).
Earliestbird - you have done a great job so far.
But man, do I have several major gripes. They are all with the different systems the game has in place and basically none is about the story or writing (the only think I think was messed up there was that in the Intro I think I never saw Raven, yet when I met her on the road to recruit her the writing assumed I've seen her). The writing is ok, a bit long-winded at times, maybe a bit too simple at others, but it's good quality, overall. The story is so early, that I can't really comment on it.
So, systems. I basically don't like any of them
It's not that they are bad, but that they are weirdly or (imo) badly implemented. Let's start with some base things:
The RPG parts.
I like the stats, both the primary and the secondary ones, it's a very fresh outlook on character building. That said, the implementation is lackluster. From the choices at the start (where you are basically building your character semi-blindly) to the events involving them, Stats seemed... underwhelming. For one, you are very quickly gonna overshadow your starting stats. This is in a very interesting clash with the constant recalls of MCs earlier life and how it shapes him. Like, at day 100 I'm at 40-50 in secondary stats and I could have been much higher if I grinded them. Makes the initial increases almost meaningless. The stats need way more random and semi-random encounters that give different outcomes depending on them. I haven't delved deep enough, but I have the feeling most of the outcomes are the same, regardless of how you approach them (excluding the few resource extraction events). Now this may seem as "game needs more content" gripe, but it's more of "game needs some variety in the approach events are designed. Yes, I love the idea that all builds should be viable. But at the same time - there are few builds at all (most stat gaining is RNG based), and while it's nice to be able to play your character - it's weird you get the same results.
Maybe you need to meet random entities - vagrants, bandits, traders, damsels in distress, monsters that have multiple ways of turning out. As a simple example - maybe you arrive in a situation similar to Raven's recruitment event - a bunch of Unmade chasing a random chick. Instead of rushing to save her, maybe you can charge wildly (Wild + Magnetic > 60), try hide to ambush them while they pass close to you (Visionary + Mindful > 45) or wait for them to catch her and then stab them in the back (Stoic + Impish > 30). You succeed on your approach - you get a much easier fight, you fail - you get a hard fight. But your approach gives also a different reward and reaction from the victim - a wild charge is hard to pull off, but she is grateful and unhurt regardless of your performance (good reward - idk, a small gem and 10 Hemp), the ambush is much easier but scares the shit out of her and she is much more on guard (lesser reward - just 10 Hemp) and if you let them catch with her - she is now injured (success) or out-right dead (fail) - no reward for you barring the essence of the Unmade.
Talking about the stats, let's talk about Combat a bit.
Combat is weird. It feels very RNG based (considering how little your HP grows, enemy damage is very swingy with RNG making the same battle anything from unwinnable to piece of cake). Magic is basically a trap - yes, shield is nice, but since most enemies get one big attack and 1-2 minor ones, martial blocking is way better overall. Especially considering how friggin slow HP recovery is. IMO, magic needs way more options. More special abilities, maybe gained from specific quests, or something.
Again I'll give an example of how I would do it. I'd add a resource - Knowledge (meaning arcane knowledge). You can buy books about magic in the town, find them in random encounters and ruins, etc. You build a "Library (maybe a Study upgrade or better yet - replacement)" in your base and just like with the smelter, you can use it to "burn" artefacts about magic to gain Knowledge and unlock/improve abilities. Boost the damage reduction from magical attacks, increase the stacking maximum, let your shield reflect damage and increase the amount, unlock magical cleave, gain shield regeneration in combat, turn your physical attacks in to leeching ones (restoring HP), gain magic resistance (and add enemies that attack you with magic), gain more essence from enemies... basically a ton of passive and active abilities that would A) make magic more powerful and varied, B) make magical warriors more of a thing and C) boost the CHAR stat (since anything you do with it requires the other two, it's much less important atm).
Melee is ok, atm, but the lack of any options to actually gain passive damage reduction bugs me. I can't become more tankier. I can't get a shield. Armor makes me better at killing people, instead of survival. Eh? It works (I killed everything but the dragon or whatever the creature around the essence pool was) but it feels... boring - slap a cleave or two, then just target the highest DMG attack incoming. This is mostly resolved by making the enemies more varied. Yes, you should always attack the highest damage part, but if one part deals 3x times damage to shields, maybe it's better to block it at the start of combat. +1 PHYS is cool, but an item giving me +1 Armor is also cool. And so on.
I felt, like a lot of thought went in to not making the MC OP. This is resolved much easily by having difficulty levels in the game, then bothering about the MC in a single-player game being OP. And a lot more variety in how enemies work - more variety in stat, more attack options (maybe block 1/2 damage and deal 2x damage yourself, maybe block two parts, but deal 1/2 damage yourself, etc.)
Still, with all my criticisms, at least those parts had something going for them. The management part on the other hand was just plain boring and grindy.
The Base.
Ok, this is my biggest gripe with the game. Nothing inside the base seemed meaningful. Build that, build this... the only two buildings that I cared about were the healing tent and the pyre, maybe the study. After those I was just waiting on resources. Essence was never a problem (currently sitting at 333 at day 100). I didn't really need to do anything. Never felt pressed for time, never felt the need to devote any attention to the system. I mean, yeah, there are a few resource sinks on the map, but... again, I can just wait. Exploring the place where I am is tied to Raven, instead of being it's own thing and Raven's story being tied to it (not to mention exploring/clearing space in the base would give me something to DO while slowly waiting for my HP to recover at the early stages of the game). In many ways it feels like it's just meant to be a playground for the player to fuck around (probably literally) at much, much, much later stages of the game.
Also, Training tools should be how resource gathering works by default, adding such a building just makes it a linear progression, it might as well be a pre-requisite for all the others. Yeah, you can skip it, but you are gimping yourself by a lot.
Exploration
I don't have gripes here. Just one - it feels like being able to only go one way. Like i'm in a valley and have to explore it and there is no way to get out of it. I suppose this will change in the future, but I'd personally spread the exploration nodes more radially and not conically as they are now.
In the end... it's a decent start. Ain't what I would do, but if I want what I would do, then I should go and make my own game, right?
Good job, dev, keep up the good work.
Also I'm seconding the "advanced start" request above - the early game is a grind that's gonna be interesting once. Maybe just have a start point at where Raven joins us and we just pick what we gain from the choices before that (a "skip prologue" type thing).
