There's potential here, but the game design is just a mess of concepts that essentially amount to "let's be different for the sake of being different" without regard for how the design impedes fun or potential fun.
Observations:
-- Like walking/running and aiming? Not in this game. Hold a button to stand still and aim and hope you're not shaky with your analog stick, because weak spots receive more damage.
-- If you use your gun for too long, it overheats and your range and amount of damage output decrease. The tradeoff is that whatever melee weapon you have deals extra damage during this time. This will last for a limited time before the weapon cools down and you're back to firing your gun for damage again. What about enemies that excel at ranged attacks or proximity attacks? What about enemies that are strong against one type of attack and not the other? Answer: if they exist, too bad, suck it up and waste time using the other weapon form.
-- On one hand, I want to praise the exploration that the game allows for, since there's a lot of winding paths that loop back on each other but plenty of nooks and crannies to go for. On the other, the map doesn't even list legitimate passages in a number of places and gating is based on abilities you find in random places that aren't necessarily obvious.
-- Although I don't care much about signposting, this game is terrible about it outside of when you first accept the main quest of the game and are given five general directions to go in. You are advised to take on a certain one first, but you can theoretically reach each of the other ones if you just wander around aimlessly and find all the necessary gated abilities for a given area.
-- I don't mind that the Souls system is present (they even define your level as "SL #" after the Souls system) and I don't mind the modules that essentially feel like the charm system from Hollow Knight. If something works, why not borrow it and find a way to logically incorporate it into your game. We don't ask car manufacturers to find alternatives for wheels or side-view mirrors, so I don't see the problem in devs working with something that's a functional system.
-- The missile subweapon is just so much more appealing than any other one I found, especially once you're used to miserably standing still while aiming. It's also considered a gated ability needed for progression, so it feels like it's mandatory to have it at the ready anyway.
-- The real sadness for this game is in the main quest to retrieve some stuff and bring it back to a base. For what I can only assume are story-based reasons, you cannot fast travel from the location where you acquire one of the vital parts. You have to trudge back a good 20-30 minutes to the base because...because. You also can't opt to go hunt down another part because the game explicitly tells you as much -- if you beat a boss and grab a part, you're stuck with the part and the long walk back and you just have to shrug your shoulders and suck up doing a pointlessly long walk for...reasons.
The lattermost point I listed above REALLY took me out of the game. I don't want to spend an extra 2-3 hours of walking back to base just to satisfy some random dev need. It doesn't bring me joy, it doesn't keep me invested -- I'd just rather be doing anything else. It's great that you added in some new monsters on the way back; still not interested.
I found two bosses before giving up and the second one seemed like it could be fun to try and figure out, but after getting through the first boss on the first try, my interest in knowing I'm stuck with four more walks back is zero, I'm done. At least the MC has an appealing personality I can get behind.
Observations:
-- Like walking/running and aiming? Not in this game. Hold a button to stand still and aim and hope you're not shaky with your analog stick, because weak spots receive more damage.
-- If you use your gun for too long, it overheats and your range and amount of damage output decrease. The tradeoff is that whatever melee weapon you have deals extra damage during this time. This will last for a limited time before the weapon cools down and you're back to firing your gun for damage again. What about enemies that excel at ranged attacks or proximity attacks? What about enemies that are strong against one type of attack and not the other? Answer: if they exist, too bad, suck it up and waste time using the other weapon form.
-- On one hand, I want to praise the exploration that the game allows for, since there's a lot of winding paths that loop back on each other but plenty of nooks and crannies to go for. On the other, the map doesn't even list legitimate passages in a number of places and gating is based on abilities you find in random places that aren't necessarily obvious.
-- Although I don't care much about signposting, this game is terrible about it outside of when you first accept the main quest of the game and are given five general directions to go in. You are advised to take on a certain one first, but you can theoretically reach each of the other ones if you just wander around aimlessly and find all the necessary gated abilities for a given area.
-- I don't mind that the Souls system is present (they even define your level as "SL #" after the Souls system) and I don't mind the modules that essentially feel like the charm system from Hollow Knight. If something works, why not borrow it and find a way to logically incorporate it into your game. We don't ask car manufacturers to find alternatives for wheels or side-view mirrors, so I don't see the problem in devs working with something that's a functional system.
-- The missile subweapon is just so much more appealing than any other one I found, especially once you're used to miserably standing still while aiming. It's also considered a gated ability needed for progression, so it feels like it's mandatory to have it at the ready anyway.
-- The real sadness for this game is in the main quest to retrieve some stuff and bring it back to a base. For what I can only assume are story-based reasons, you cannot fast travel from the location where you acquire one of the vital parts. You have to trudge back a good 20-30 minutes to the base because...because. You also can't opt to go hunt down another part because the game explicitly tells you as much -- if you beat a boss and grab a part, you're stuck with the part and the long walk back and you just have to shrug your shoulders and suck up doing a pointlessly long walk for...reasons.
The lattermost point I listed above REALLY took me out of the game. I don't want to spend an extra 2-3 hours of walking back to base just to satisfy some random dev need. It doesn't bring me joy, it doesn't keep me invested -- I'd just rather be doing anything else. It's great that you added in some new monsters on the way back; still not interested.
I found two bosses before giving up and the second one seemed like it could be fun to try and figure out, but after getting through the first boss on the first try, my interest in knowing I'm stuck with four more walks back is zero, I'm done. At least the MC has an appealing personality I can get behind.