Unity - The Buried Pillars [v0.8] [T.F.A.N.C.S]

So I played the game again with v0.8

Mostly, the game plays fairly well, movements and abilities work for the most part. Could be a bug, but sometimes you can't control the character properly when they get back up after getting knocked down.

Love the art and the environments, the UI is pretty simple and nice, will be better when the inventory/map system gets done properly.

The current tutorial basically isn't complete, I can see what the aim is for the area and hope it gets fleshed out more. It currently doesn't teach you about the basics of the game very well.

The way the camera moves is annoying, I wish the camera stayed fixed around the character with a modest zoom out, instead of these weird movements based on the terrain. The zoom out for boss fights is good and so are the hold up/down to look.

My absolute biggest issue with this game is it's overall unfair and punishing way the combat works. Even on 'casual mode'

I'm fine with characters getting knocked back/knocked down - but don't make it so I can keep getting hit constantly when this happens and don't make it so the player can get essentially 'stun locked'

Having this long animation of falling down and standing back up again, where you can still be hit and also can't block/parry, but then can also get knocked around again is not fun and frustratingly unfair.

You also have small stagger when being hit or not parrying properly which opens you up for more of the same.

This, plus the long charge time for the heal ability make several of the boss fights an absolute nightmare to complete.

I completed all current content in the game but the final boss was a miserable fight, mostly the second phase made it impossible to complete because I just got spammed with laser attacks with no chance to actually react. I assume it's bugged.

I hope at least in the casual mode, we can get more immunity or less frustrating long knockdown/stand up animations. Or at the very least have an immunity from further knockdown/knock back for a short period after getting hit by one.

I also hope there's plans of a gallery or an easy way to revisit animations. I know it's still early days but I hate when games make it a pain to view content again especially when its animations like completing a boss fight. Don't want to have to fight the boss again to watch an animation again.

I will alter my review as we get more versions or a full release, I hope some of these points get addressed because the game can still have it's 'hard' mode but make the casual mode actually more casual friendly.

[v0.6]
Basically, the game itself is fairly tight and feels good to play. But it's unfairly difficult. Focus on the unfair part.
Specifically the bosses. The notorious rat boss took me 30+ tries and only about 20% of the time it was my fault I died, the rest were undodgable rng attacks
There's a stun mechanic straight out of jump-king that exists to make the game worse, You will *always* get chained meaning you always die in 2, maybe 3 attacks when you should survive 5 which the game seems balanced around
In the new boss I died a dozen times to stunlocking, decided I wasn't having fun anymore, and dropped the game. That's pretty damming so I feel justified in giving it a 2.5 score. It is mechanically solid and has good art and audio design but none of those matter if you intentionally make it infuriating. I just wasn't having fun man.
Cautious 3 score in the hopes they add a difficulty select, or remove the anti-fun mechanic in the full release

i did say what nakara will be the only game i'll review but man i cant stop the urge for this one

i just really like the dev, his cute artstyle and games. specifically difficulty of this game, this is what i needed from porn game industry. YES punish me all the way for missing those damn blocks.
also i don't have any delays or problems with block, it was always clean for me, dunno what people down here talkin' about. but i agree what this game needs difficulty sliders, otherwise it wont get the love it deserves

I'd like to start by saying that I expect good things of this game, judging off the dev's previous work, potentially a 5 star.

As of build 0.6 the game's done incredible artwork, I'd wager to say the scenes in this game are already better than the last, and the backgrounds are nice to look at. Though, I am a simple man who see booba and have neuron activation so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Now when it comes to the second most important thing for a game of this genre (porn obviously), gameplay, the most concering thing is how overly punishing it is. Now as someone who's played games like DMC III it's nothing too crazy, but the fact that I had an easier time beating the first boss of DMC III than ANY other boss in this game speaks volumes. Now I don't think the difficulty is something that needs to be removed, what needs to be added however is difficulty sliders, this could be a normal mode for instance.

And as for what I'd like to see out of this game, other than the difficulty sliders of course, is the ability to do SOMETHING to the knocked enemies, I mean you could kinda do that in the last game and this is kinda like the last game but platformer? If that makes sense? Nothing hurts my fried dopamine receptors more than seeing busty ladies laid out on the floor and having to walk by them.

TL;DR: Add difficulty sliders, game's got potential, really nice art, and let me do something to the knocked enemies.

Sigh... a platformer game where enemies are fast and you die in 4 hits... even as a fan of platformer games, I just can't have fun here at all.

Oh and, if you don't believe me, well, to play normally first you must re-map the controls. There's 2 buttons for casting magic spells but, they don't actually do anything right now.

0.5 Build
For a game that relies heavily on parrying as its entire gameplay loop, I personally find its parry system completely inconsistent. First of all the window to parry is deceptively small because the actual parry animation has you hold your sword out like you've got a good full second of parry window, but that's not the case. It's pretty much instant and enemy attacks are also just as instantly fast. That said there are times when the parry will interrupt my attack and come out the moment I press it and need it. Other times it'll queue up the parry and make my attack finish first, and by then the enemy attack has already gone out and hits me, and then my parry comes out anyway immediately afterwards because it was still queued up. Beyond that the parry is both required and borderline useless, it is literally there to break up the fighting and that's it. You don't get a stun for parrying the enemy, your only reward is that you negated damage on yourself and now have to be ready to do it again, and again, and again. It isn't particularly difficult since most enemies are set up in a way that you can fight them within a vacuum but it's just drawn out and boring after a while, especially when you don't get anything for fighting. You get what you see and what you see is what you plan around fighting and your reward is just special meter stuff.

I get that it's super early on into development but if you're gonna put such a heavy emphasis on the parry mechanic you gotta give the players something, man. It should stun enemies for a moment, give you a damage boost on your next hit, anything to reward actually doing it right. As it is the parry is just there as a skill issue check and nothing more. You either learn to parry or you will not play this game, and honestly i fucking hate that for a porn game of all things.

It's still super early but it's hard to say if it'll get better or worse. With the porn being tied to game over I personally lean towards worse. Nothing is quite as annoying as having to redo a section because you wanted to see what the new enemy does and sacrifice your progress along the way over and over again.

seems fun honestly looks good so far i hope you'l do a controll layout soon so i don't have to schrub my keyboard to find the controlls but yeah looks good. also i like the boob goblins they are cute and sexy