Quite good.
I beat the demo boss a couple times and have pretty much experienced all that there is for the demo except spending half an hour spinning the wheel for the fox girl.
Shows hella promise as a concept. Big fan of all the visual settings you can change since I'm running on hardware old enough to vote. Think the gameplay loop of "Hold block to find out what the enemy move is, Try dodging it now that I recognize the move name and know what it looks like, Finally try parrying it (and fail) now that i know the timing" Comes together really nicely. Do think progression could use some work though.
The charm of Inscription was knowing death wasn't a setback and instead a necessary drawback that's part of learning. The darksouls use-it-or-lose-it xp mechanic feels out of place. Losing dust on round end didnt really come into play since I ended up using all my dust to level up strength and vitality the second i got it and was just annoying when i didnt understand to just spend it all. Would be nice if meeting a difficult challenge made me feel "I made it far enough this time" rather than "cmon i wish i had more hp to win this". Felt less like a rouge-lite and more like an rpg I kept dying in.
I think a lot of the frustration with the difficulty others are having is partially a skill issue but also a UI and progression thing. If the darksouls xp system is here to stay, the character leveling system should probably be on the map menu so unfamiliar/unskilled players know they can level up in between fights and more importantly in between runs. Its very likely the players complaining are NOT leveling up at all during runs and are trying to salvage with scraps left after each loss.
PERSONALLY (im just some guy, I'm not arrogant enough to think i'm right about everything here) I think the darksouls xp and leveling system doesnt belong in a rouge-lite or atleast not in its current state. There should a progression system AFTER a run not just DURING a run, as of right now there is no benefit to a run ending other than being able to get back to easier fights. Every upgrade possible can be done during a run leading to the feeling that losses AREN'T expected and are your fault for being bad or the game developer's fault for making it too hard when in reality you just need to lose some more to level up.
My underqualified idea:
A traditional level up after each combat (maybe based on enemies defeated) which brings up the level up menu and lets you put points into a stat. At the end of a run you could maybe retain a percentage of the stats you gained based on how far you got, or maybe have your level converted into xp that you never lose and works the same way current leveling works, or maybe spend the dust you collected to retain stats in some other way.
Its possible the vision the creator has requires this system and we just dont understand it since the rest of the game is missing and the menus arent complete. I just personally dont like the strategy of spending all xp the moment you get it and pretend the darksouls system isnt there by only losing like 100 dust, the traditional rouge-lite system of "cashing in" a successful run feels missing. I still enjoyed the game WITH the system once I learned it so as I said it COULD just be a clarity and skill issue though.
Also the "I want to be powerful" or "I want to feel Weightless" event is bugged and you can keep clicking on where the option used to be instead of leaving for infinite of both rewards (like a 3s cooldown in between clicks). Also Also a visual indicator of what portion of a parry is invincible like the shield having a shine/glint would be SO good, Its hard to tell by how much i missed the parry without it.
Hey orangejuicekiller123!
To begin with, thanks so much for taking time to play and write this review
The "Blind Choice" event bug you mention, good catch, we're fixing it.
The parry invincibility idea is awesome, I think we will implement it and see if it helps people with parying
We love how you describe learning loop using Block, Dodge and Parry - awsome for figuring that out!
The frustration because of badly explained/showed levelling mechanic - I have to agree, we need to double down on visibility on the map.
In terms of traditional roguelike levelling, that was the initial idea. Since many people complained about the difficulty, we introduced it to be accessible any time. Yes, you would get a chunk of XP to lvl up after a run (more if you win, less if you lose). But leaving the access to levelling at any time and rewards being granular, is our approach to mix rpg and rogue-like vibes.
There are bigger rewards in full version for certain fights. Perhaps we should have a reward for completing runs as well
? Need to think and test, that's the reason we are releasing into EA, cause we want to experiment and see what works for players.
But I do get the idea that it is annoying to not know when and where to level up, we'll fix it.
Thanks again for going deep on this.
