My Thoughts on the Game (First Impressions)

[Lexyvil1]

I browsed the list of all the games on Steam, listed from best to worse based on ratings. I had the co-op and RPG tags enabled and it was to my surprise that I found what I was looking for at the top:

This game.

The fact the game has over 90%-95% positive feedback, has SNES-styled graphics and neat looking combat mechanics (with tons of variety) made me intrigued to actually buy it, but what truly sold me was the fact that it looked very polished and it had 4-player co-op.

The previews reminded me of the good times I had playing Zelda: A Link to the Past and the co-op feature made me remember how much fun I had playing Secret of Mana and any other action RPG of the kind that can involve other players.

The funnest aspect for me was how fighting is not the only fun thing you can do with your friends, but you can solve puzzles together, such as pushing blocks around to get a door open, which is another reminiscent of Zelda.

I'm only a few hours into the game, just a little after the flying temple, and so far I can tell it was worth it. I'm having a blast; a lot of effort was put into it and it shows. I love everything about it, and thus it makes it hard to pinpoint things that could be improved--there are a few that I'll point out soon.

Secrets of Grindea is not a perfect game, which is understandable for how it's in early access, but it's pretty close to perfect, perhaps with a few more tweaks. I've noticed that the few negative reviews are only complaints about the game being in that state, but for how well polished everything is, it makes sense why it takes time. As Shigeru Miyamoto once said: "A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever." Dwarf Fortress, a PC game made by two brothers, is an extremely addicting game that's supposedly not finished and has been in development for well over a decade while still having tons of content that makes it seem like a full game, so I don't see why the "Early Access" title this game has still turns a few people away.

There are a few improvements and suggestions that I think could clear the way to perfection, but they're mostly either my gripes, thoughts, or opinions that I happened to have while playing:

• Needs a better difficulty setting.

It would be funner to have a difficulty mode that is harder than "Normal" but not as annoying as "Hard", where the latter has enemies spawning way too fast and hit perhaps too hard. It'll be perfect for those who are looking for the right kind of challenge.

• Needs a less linear path

In the few hours that I've played, the game seemed too linear: I could only go in one direction after the game somewhat opens up in Evergrind,which was to proceed south. Maybe it was because I was still very early in the game or I mainly focused on the main story rather than side quests. This is not much of a bother, but rather a thought or a wish of venturing to a few other places.

• Needs local-co-op

This was minor issue, as I bought the game thinking I could play with a friend locally. It turned out that it could only support online-co-op. We both ended up getting the game in the end. This was only another "I wish" moment, after finding that out.

These are my only suggestions. I haven't found any other flaw yet in what's almost a perfect single player and multiplayer game. I might edit this post after getting further in the story, in case there has been aspects I've overstated or missed.

Seeing that the Devlog is still active and that progress is still ongoing makes me proud to have bought it. This game, along with Crosscode (another game on Steam similar to this one that pays homage to classic styles) really brings nostalgia!

 

[The G-Meister]

Lack of local-co-op

You should've come here first! By launching the game from the .exe file in the game's directory, you can launch multiple windows, and typing /lockinput in the chat on each client after pressing start on the desired controller allows you to control both windows at once (at least if I've read other threads correctly).

As for the linear path, variation mainly comes in the form of sidequests and little extras like fishing, exploring, grinding and house building. But really, the main intention is for the game to be linear I believe. It's not something I find too bothering personally, as I find boredom quite quickly in a lot of open world games.

I'm at least glad you enjoyed the game though

 

[Lexyvil1]

You should've come here first! By launching the game from the .exe file in the game's directory, you can launch multiple windows, and typing /lockinput in the chat on each client after pressing start on the desired controller allows you to control both windows at once (at least if I've read other threads correctly).

As for the linear path, variation mainly comes in the form of sidequests and little extras like fishing, exploring, grinding and house building. But really, the main intention is for the game to be linear I believe. It's not something I find too bothering personally, as I find boredom quite quickly in a lot of open world games.

I'm at least glad you enjoyed the game though

If only I had known that xD
The fact there's even an option to make that work is pretty neat!

 

[Tree]

The scaling on difficulty does feel really odd imo. Bosses were either impossible or super easy, and I think it's something that's been brought up every now and again.

 

[The G-Meister]

Which bosses were the ones you found easier/more difficult? There's generally some I struggle with more than others, and the general playerbase has some difficulty with a few of them too, so you're not alone.

 

[L4UR]

Which bosses were the ones you found easier/more difficult? There's generally some I struggle with more than others, and the general playerbase has some difficulty with a few of them too, so you're not alone.

The Guardian mini boss on hard in flying fortress is a one hell of a pain in the ass because of 3 things - guarding crystals, annoying wisps and the bots that just want to go on a suicide mission just to let that wisp or guardian alive for a few more seconds. for me that was a big problem on hard, where on normal it felt like he summoned 2 mobs and died. There is also gundam and winter - the gundam is hard just due to the ending part because all the way through he is ok (i have a biased h8 towards gundam just because of arcade so dont try to argue with me about it ;P) and winter - he is not harder he is just more .... bulky that makes the small chip damage much more lethal - however i think with healing potions it makes it much more possible to even out the bulkyness to the chip dmging however on normal mode ... total domination. i think the perfect difficulty balance is the cursed priestess on normal mode she isnt 2 easy especially when you dont know her patterns and i remember first time going through Tai Ming i was waiting for that " YOU ACTIVATED MY EXODIA TRAP CARD" moment aka i was thinking she would pull off some op move that would kill me in 2 seconds, and on hard yes she is more bulky but it feels like she has a 3rd boss stage not just 2 like in normal, i would even say that stage 1 on hard is stage 2 on normal. so yeah that is about it