I'm positive after playing the demo, but want to see how it develops towards release. I'm a big souls' fan, so I don't mind the difficulty or the brutal nature, but there just feels like layers of mechanics that are getting in the way of really enjoying the game. Now of course, not knowing the full upgrade paths of the shells and other items / weapons / stuff you get along the way, this is all subject to "based on what I've played so far" and that's it. It could all change.
As someone that primarily plays dex-based builds in these kinds of games, I find the lack of weapon choice somewhat irksome. That may just be for the demo, but having all these slow, heavy hits isn't really my cup of tea in terms of combat. Give me a spear or daggers or something a bit more hit-and-run and I'd be happy.
The tap, tap/hold for rolling takes some getting used to, but it's not that bad. The parry and then riposte tied to meter is excessive, though. I guess as others have said, they really wanted the emphasis on hardening... but that seems like it's specific more to the first shell, especially with some of the upgrades you can get for it.
The second shell is a lot more fun (for me) than the first, with more emphasis on dodging and much more actionable defense; the shell idea is pretty darn cool in itself, although I can already see that I'm going to ignore heavy / slow shells completely if given the chance.
I can see that they could push you towards actively switching shells in certain boss battles or monster encounters - hard to imagine you take the time to make that a feature of your game (inventory items to do just that) and then just completely ignore it. I don't know if I'm a fan of it or not, honestly. Sounds like an interesting idea that may get abandoned as the game develops; if the shells used different weapons however, that would be more interesting in the decision-making.
And as others have said, having (essentially) blighttown as your 2nd area in a demo is not that great. Poison in this game sucks, especially as you don't have an estus equivalent - at least I've not found one if you do. Having the mobs poison on every hit is just petty, and I wouldn't mind it so much if the poison built-up over multiple hits, but it's one hit and then... well if you can't survive 40 HP of poison, you're dead no matter what. I found myself running back towards spawn in these situations just so it would be easier to collect my corpse. Also, there's no telegraphing of poison - no green effect on swipes, for example, to let you know you're going to be poisoned.
Things I didn't care for -
As someone that primarily plays dex-based builds in these kinds of games, I find the lack of weapon choice somewhat irksome. That may just be for the demo, but having all these slow, heavy hits isn't really my cup of tea in terms of combat. Give me a spear or daggers or something a bit more hit-and-run and I'd be happy.
The tap, tap/hold for rolling takes some getting used to, but it's not that bad. The parry and then riposte tied to meter is excessive, though. I guess as others have said, they really wanted the emphasis on hardening... but that seems like it's specific more to the first shell, especially with some of the upgrades you can get for it.
The second shell is a lot more fun (for me) than the first, with more emphasis on dodging and much more actionable defense; the shell idea is pretty darn cool in itself, although I can already see that I'm going to ignore heavy / slow shells completely if given the chance.
I can see that they could push you towards actively switching shells in certain boss battles or monster encounters - hard to imagine you take the time to make that a feature of your game (inventory items to do just that) and then just completely ignore it. I don't know if I'm a fan of it or not, honestly. Sounds like an interesting idea that may get abandoned as the game develops; if the shells used different weapons however, that would be more interesting in the decision-making.
And as others have said, having (essentially) blighttown as your 2nd area in a demo is not that great. Poison in this game sucks, especially as you don't have an estus equivalent - at least I've not found one if you do. Having the mobs poison on every hit is just petty, and I wouldn't mind it so much if the poison built-up over multiple hits, but it's one hit and then... well if you can't survive 40 HP of poison, you're dead no matter what. I found myself running back towards spawn in these situations just so it would be easier to collect my corpse. Also, there's no telegraphing of poison - no green effect on swipes, for example, to let you know you're going to be poisoned.
Things I didn't care for -
- Hit boxes on the large axe guys' poleaxe activates on the lower pole part of the weapon during attack windup, which comes forwards with no force, and does just as much damage as the blade does. boo.
- The slow-mo on getting knocked out of your shell is cool the first time, then irritating. What's worse is that since you're knocked down, the stop-time does not do much if the monster was in an attack wind-up - they just hit you anyway before you can even dodge it. That just prolongs my death sequence and adds a layer of frustration. Either give me a moment so I can react, or just kill me.
- Not enough information on parry state - I knew when it was empowered, but normal parry didn't seem to have a point. I'm not a fan of games that set you up for failure in terms of being able to use an ability that doesn't do anything productive unless it's in a certain state; you may as well just not let me use the button until it works.
- Self-resetting bear traps - wow that's some low-tech high-tech right there.
- Poison being front and center with no way to cure it in the 2nd area. If the 2nd shell had started with the poison absorb ability you can (eventually) unlock, then that would have been more interesting; telegraphing that certain shells have inherent advantages against certain creatures or areas is cool, because then I can self-select difficulty by how I want to play. As it is right now, not so much.
- The loading screens diminish any unique identity from the game because they're so, so, so much like Dark Souls.
- Lack of any backstab or critical hit beyond the empowered riposte thing. And the empowered riposte being something I can't do more than once every few combats.
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