Let me preface this by the fact that I love game, the story and character.
I did play that game for a tad too long ; but I have to admit the dungeon delving part devolved quickly from a nice novelty to not being engaging at all ; so that post will focus on what I think can be improved an not what I do enjoy - I'm hopping it does not come as harsh.
Hence, let me add a new wagon on the dungeon feedback train! With some idea to how the game could, in my humble opinion, be improved. Some of these are pretty big change, and I'm not sure they align with the target game feel.
Skill usage: I second the "just ice wall" meta. The synergy are, on paper, pretty fun and interesting, but they have some big problem:
- there is absolutely no situation to use them. As an answer, having "bosses" like enemy that you don't actually one shot and need some skill to get beaten would give an use to the system (like, having boss with a tons of HP, or that get stronger the more the fight drag on, or simply need to be killed in a limited number of turn, or mob that have a way higher attack so player are best poking these with skills only)
- Since both HP and mana are on a pretty small scale, using "the" skill that convert to the most HP saved is kinda the thing the game encourage you to do (instead of using some (cooler, but less efficient) synergy)
Giving player both target that encourage the use of skills ; and having more resources to use the skills¹ would IMO make synergy work
The dungeon delving part: At first glance, it really make me think of a clicker: click, do damage, quit & raise stats, repeat. I do not think that part is that engaging for now:
- the rhythm is kinda off: kill a mob, pick a map, click a mob... Compared to other game when you "just click and it pop again", I don't think it feels great.² Having multiple combat in a row without map choice would, IMO, feel a bit better.
- I'm not sure what I think of the amount of HP/damage. It's an interesting idea to have a limited HP/turn in the dungeon, and it give a very different feel to the game (a bit more like a puzzle game on how you approch combat. Or it would feel that way if not for the next point)
- Becoming overpowered. Which make the node choice not that interesting, reduce greatly the utility of skills, and may become a chore when you can one shot things for more than one hour straight without any sign of danger.
- The length of the run, it is directly tied to the overpowered part, but I think dungeon run would work best if they can be played in short time frame ; after which the player is forced to get out, get stronger, talk with the gals, and can get in again for another gaming session (by short, I mostly mean I don't think player should be able to continue for hours ; and than the dungeon dwelving experience should be choice that matter after choice that matter, until the player run of their limited ressources)
- The lack of motivation to delve into the dungeon, both in doing long runs³ and going into the dungeon at all⁴
- Not knowing how much damage a monster will do with their attack: an UI element indicating that would help with decision making
- lack of apparent monster variety: by apparent I mean the overpowered part made all of them looks the same, even the one with effects. (If I missed that variety because of the overpoweredness, i'm sorryyyyy!)
The manor and upgrade UI:
- the maid skill upgrade is... not exactly conveninent. Having to check all maid to see which one would get the bigger gain for a given ressources quickly become a bit tedious. It's even worse when later maids start to use different ressources for the same upgrade as other.
- As long as it fit, UI space wise, keeping the shape of the skill tree but showing the effects & "level up" button for every maid at once would limit the number of unneeded clicks. (to reword this, the idea is to remove the tabs on maid skill tree, and instead list all maid on the right part / enhancement menu).
That would make comparing between upgrade a breeze, and save a lot of time.
- the manor skill tree somewhat suffer the same problem: it's not that readable and is not easy to compare what to buy. Having a way to check, for each ressources, all upgrade you could buy would make the UI way less cumbersome.
- I do really like the daily small talk and slowly discovering more about the maids (more please!), but having to navigate the manor to see each maid one by one every day also do become tedious (and it's kinda click intensive). That's especially true when their talk option is exausted: since it give some bonus, talking to the maids for their affection could help progress, but it's a bit of a chore. Having a nice button in your room to do a generic daily chat on all NPC at once would be super great!
1: idea on how to give the player more skill usage :
- on top of the "global" mana pool, add "free use" point for each skill
- these "free use" point may be regained by event, or recharge every X floor (for event, or every X floor)
- each character can store up to a given number of "free skill use"
The idea is to add a layer of resource management between using the skills now, or keeping them for tougher challenge that will come a bit after
2: idea on how to improve the dungeon "map":
- instead of choosing your next node, player could choose "path", made of multiple nodes.
- one goal here is to introduce some decision in which path to pick : "should I go safe with these easy fight, or that path with more chest and an optional super strong mob that may destroy me?"
- it would work way better with more node variety ; or at least various encounter difficulty
3: idea on how to improve the motivation of prolonging your run
- first: player need to be at risk when they stay for longer. Having the difficulty get higher the longer the dungeon's run is (something akin of "you're doing a mess so more/stronger mob try to bonk you") would help there (and may also provide challenge for overpowered players)
- second: a carrot: I'm totally seconding other player than the longer your dungeon run is, the more reward you should have (either by stronger mob giving stronger loot, or a multiplier at the end)
- third: the stick: reducing the reward if the player quit the dungeon while running out of HP
- and to tie all together: only allow the player to quit the dungeon at given times (potentially at the end of a path mentioned in 2, if that idea is picked)
Goal here is to add some risk/reward elements: between banquing the gathered resources or risking to these to an even bigger gain.
4: request: please add a "required dungeon mode"!
- What I mean by that is, when the player start their game, they choose to play either in the current mode, or in "dungeon needed" more.
- dungeon needed mode would tie the unlocking of events with dungeon progression, pacing the game not on the number of time they quit the dungeon, but the floor reached.
- (if player can unlock one hangout of their choice at given breakpoints, which allow them to pick the scene/character they want first, it'll be even better! Having a linear unlock order would already be great)
And I could continue to ramble for hours, but I'll stop myself (for now). I'm curious on anyone's opinion of these.
And most importantly, keep on the good work dev, can't wait to see the next part of the story!