I didn't use reactions because spells one shot enemies that wouldn't auto murder you anyways, as would auto attacks really you just took 1 ping damage.
Shield spam was just the most efficient use of your mp as buff spell pre heat, where now well....
If you want people using reactions, you'd pretty much need to completely overhaul the enemy hp and player mp economies at least.
I will say, due to the turn based style of the game mixed with the highly limited durability of the MC, there are just some playstyles which are blatantly not as efficient as others.
I only started messing around with spell reactions when I was maxed level in everything and realistically would never run out of mana due to all the options I had of refilling it.
If I were to rank the character's spells and attacks they'd be in this order-
S Rank: Seraphina
A Rank: Emi
B Rank: Hazel and Ophelia.
C Rank: MC's spell.
D Rank: Mirabelle
F Rank: Basic attack
Comet is by far the strongest and easiest to snowball with, because the attack scaling from heat is genuinely insane, making whoever gets the first attack have advantage, which is always the player.
Emi's attack is the new and improved Ice Wall for all intents and purposes, instead of absorbing damage with temporary HP though, you just never get hit in the first place...which is absolutely as ridiculous as it sounds, if enhanced with Pain in the same turn, it easily goes from A rank to S rank due an infinite evade glitch that happens.
Hazel and Ophelia are in awkward positions in terms of the current meta, they're clearly intended to be spells meant to essentially enhance the normal basic attack as their primary effects which are DoT and extra damage respectively, are effectively just the same things but with different coats of paint, because the most effective strategy is unironically to never advance past turn 1 in a fight, and never get hit. As such, with the current tactics that are encouraged, they're essentially just weaker versions of Comet, that cost the same amount or more to cast.
The MC is relegated to...a very strange niche, in that you'd only ever use Pain in a fight you already know that you're going to win, and you have no problem tossing MP away for the style points, the bonus damage is nice and it has the best reactions in the game, but it's the only spell in the game that deals no damage, which...both fits and doesn't, if anything it feels like it should work in a completely different way than any other spell, like being a non-lethal or instant stunning option that would allow for an entirely unique gameplay style, the description just doesn't seem to match the mechanics with this to me, but it's serviceable for what it does...if you have twice as much MP than you'll ever need.
Mirabelle was, honestly slaughtered from being nerfed, defense went from being the most important stat to the least important stat in a single update, and she's been completely replaced by Emi as the team tank, because Emi can now do everything she could do, but now better, and more, and defense simply...doesn't scale well at all? I care less about my defense than my crit chance...and I never even realize it when I crit something because the fight is over in one hit anyway. The temp HP was actually the most balanced meta I could think of since you could survive high heats for a while, but you weren't immortal-
And honestly this is all just a symptom of the core issue-
Basic attack is suicide on high heat with no ice wall shields and no evasions-
In effect the balance is thrown off because your first line of offense, is the last thing you resort to, because time only moves when you basic attack-
And time stop is a broken power both in anime and in hentai.
Basic attack isn't worth the risk unless you're literally desperate for MP with no upgrades, or if there's not a mana refill event in sight. Using basic attack is the ONLY WAY you can get hit in this game, which makes is the most punishing thing to use in the entire game-
Meaning people, as shown by everyone talking about magic-
Just don't use it.
Like I said before, if this is intended gameplay, a lot of it fits with the narrative and themes, we're not a normal hero, so we don't play like one, that may not be for everyone-
I see this game as a resource manager and Visual Novel with a turn based RPG coat of paint for flavor. The exact opposite to the dev's last game which was 90% classic turn-based RPG with 10% being resource management.
I do think that a lot of problems would be fixed by having spells advance a turn, but also cause just as many problems, as then there'd potentially be even less incentive for trying to create spell reactions.
Dev literally posted right as I'm typing this and I gotta say: I do like the idea of potentially increasing the scaling of health/defense, but only if it makes sense. Personally, while the current gameplay is far from traditional, I think it fits in a certain way, since, for all intents and purposes-
This isn't an RPG, it's a strategy game that looks like an RPG. Where you're essentially a commander who is directing the teammates you have.
If I were to suggest a middle ground-
Maybe make it so that turn does advance with spells, but lean more towards unique effects rather than various forms of burst damage, tweak the reaction effects so that each fight is a battle of attrition, and the more statuses you can inflict on your opponents, the more you can skew the battle in your favor.
I personally like the idea of each type having unique utilities and statuses-
But I'm gonna cut this here and post my suggestions in another post because this is already getting too long.
