Hello Pixel Ferrets, and all other (unfortunate?) readers who stumbled upon this topic!
Whenever I encounter a game I adore, I tend to analyze it until no tomorrow. Maybe a bad habit, but from time to time, it does seem to proof rather helpful to some. It won't be a surprise when I say that I completely love this game. As a passionate gamer hitting close to the 30s, this is bringing me back to the time when all pixels were magic. Love it! So I decided to put some feedback in here. Of course, this is just the opinion of one simpleton - and that one guy invites those who disagree to join him in a heated, but civilized, discussion!
Please keep in mind: I'm not a big fan of sugarcoating, nor will I overly compliment you. If I seem harsh, keep in mind that I just try to be constructive - and sometimes fail at it![Frown :( :(](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Keyboard controls: "Z/X"
When I first booted the game, I did so with my controller. Controller support is always a plus for me! And while it plays great on controller, I sometimes felt lost among all the effect - I'll get to that later. So I started the game through keyboard instead, hoping it would be better(with mouse and all - also more about this later!). The first thing that I noticed was the default Z and X keybindings. While it is stated in the menu what the keys are, it felt unnatural, even with the arrow key movements. Now, there are more games that use these controls - especially Japanese indie game designers seem to love it, and it is understandable. You have a lot more keys available. Especially with the 8 quick slots, this seems to be ideal. But outside the game, there is no need for this. Why have Z/X be the confirm/cancel buttons, while most games are still hung on the less convenient, but far more natural, Enter/Escape? Now, I might be wrong, since I haven't done any research on your target group on this matter, but I feel the Enter/Escape will feel far more logic than Z/X for most players of your game.
Keybindings
Following up our previous point, a solution could be keybindings. But there are more reasons why I prefer to see keybindings. On the controller, A is Defense, X is Attack. While I prefer to have my attack on either A or B. While I did get used to it eventually, this seems to be horrible for the pet capturing games. Every time I saw attack, I pressed the A button in reflex - Defense, and visa versa. Now, many of the other buttons are customizable through the ingame system, with the exception of attack and defence. And that is just the controller. What if I prefer a different keyboard layout? I really think custom keybinding is something that should be implemented in the game. - Well, there is a good chance it's coming ingame anyways. If so: awesome, can't wait!
Edit: Silly me, there is already a custom keybinding possible for keyboard. You have to access it from the menu instead of just ingame, but that is fine. Can't wait until I can rebind my controller keys!
Ingame Menu: "Down to select"
While I understand the reason behind this one, you already have a button for it, one that many players know. The Enter button. So why did you also implement "down" to access a menu? Now I can imagine this is not a problem for the keyboard. Unless you have fat fingers, or slip, you will accidentally press it, and enter the menu. But if you are playing on the controller with the stick instead of the Dpad - or even with some versions of the Dpads - there is a good chance you will accidentally enter a menu. Not the biggest issue in single player - just annoying - but could be potentially fatal in multiplayer, where opening the menu does not pause the game. I do not see what this adds to the game. It just feels like a gimmick that should not be there.
Not just the down to select, but sometimes you can also 'exit' a mini menu by pressing a certain direction. For example the collector ID tab(first tab), if you select one of the stats, you can cancel the menu by pressing right, and thus selecting the Pet menu.
Ingame Effects:
I got a cloud flying up high, have a slime running around, got a shadow doubling my attacks, and balls of lightning flying to enemies near me. What. It worked out great so far. Don't judge me. But it did bring me a few problems. Especially in busy area's with multiple monsters. You will have a lot of damage numbers and effects floating around, which makes seeing where you exactly are standing, or what direction you are facing, sometimes rather hard. I've been in several positions where I had to step out of combat, just to get a hold on my char again.
While we are on the subject of effects - I am missing a bunch of sound effects, but I am sure you are working on it, so I won't nitpick on that. Yet!
Edit: It seems something it wrong with my game, you can ignore this last part!
Red damage numbers:
This is also because I miss some of the sound effects, but it is often unclear who got what damage, especially when playing with a pet. Especially during bosses, my pet takes damage from the more devastating attacks, while I nimbly get away. I do see the red letters, so I instinctively look up to the healthbar to see if I took any damage. This should not be necessary. Speaking about the healthbar..
Healthbar and the HUD
The healthbar is clear and all, but in the Seasonnë area, when taking enough damage, if you stand at the wrong location, you won't be able to see how much HP you have left since the white letters blend in perfectly with the background.
While this is minor, the HUD has a bigger issue. It is all over the place. Top left for the healthbar indication and skills, bottom left for the item pickups, top right for the equipment you can equip, and bottom right for the enemy EXP. In battle, I want to know my health, my enemy health and what I pick up. These are spread across the three corners of my 26 inch screen. In the old days, this was all perfectly doable since the screens were smaller, and there was often far less information to soak up. But nowadays, with the bigger screens, higher resolution and the loads of information we need to know to play the game, this is not the best solution anymore. I often find myself shifting from corner to corner trying to stay updated on all the important stuff. I don't even look at my enemy HP anymore, since I just can't keep track of that one on top of my own HP, location and loot. Well, just HP and Location, since I barely ever see what I am picking during battle anyways. Hm.
Fishing loot
Yeah that reminds me. During battle it's not a biggie, but while fishing... Whenever you gain an item, or in this case fish, it briefly appears in the bottom left corner. It's gone before you know it. Whenever I catch a fish, the first thing that catches my eye is my character holding up the fish like it's Simba from the Lion King. Awesome. But before I remember to look at the bottom left corner, the message what fish I caught is already or about to disappear.
Introduction to Crafting/Crafting itself
In my first play through, I started crafting rather late. I knew it was in the game, but I assumed I would get a tutorial on it, since it's always different in every game. Eventually I forgot about it, until I really needed some better gear, and couldn't get it from a shop. I was near the boss of the second temple by then. While it's completely self explanatory, so is attacking defending, and going through dialogue. Give us a small tutorial on crafting.
The crafting itself is. Well, not satisfactory. Even if you do make an awesome weapon(I made a lightsaber. How awesome!)you just get a message that briefly appears and says "Crafted!" That's all. No indication you were making something, or a sound, or even a picture of what you just made. While this is great when you plan to make a ton of stuff, I can not see the use of making many of the same weapon - except for selling perhaps? - and even if you would do so, most weapons require a lot of materials(a good thing imo), so you will often be in a position where you will be making several weapons.
Welp, fingers are complaining, it's time for me to shut the hell up!
I just wanted to say that I truly mean when I say that I adore this game. It is why I put so much effort in criticizing, especially all those small stupid things. If I had to make a list of the things what I like about this game, it would be a few times longer. So you know. I prefer to save my fingers for another day.
There is a lot more, I mean, I haven't even touched the Arcade mode, and boy do I have something to say about that! But maybe for another time.
Keep up the good work guys(and gal)!
Whenever I encounter a game I adore, I tend to analyze it until no tomorrow. Maybe a bad habit, but from time to time, it does seem to proof rather helpful to some. It won't be a surprise when I say that I completely love this game. As a passionate gamer hitting close to the 30s, this is bringing me back to the time when all pixels were magic. Love it! So I decided to put some feedback in here. Of course, this is just the opinion of one simpleton - and that one guy invites those who disagree to join him in a heated, but civilized, discussion!
Please keep in mind: I'm not a big fan of sugarcoating, nor will I overly compliment you. If I seem harsh, keep in mind that I just try to be constructive - and sometimes fail at it
Keyboard controls: "Z/X"
When I first booted the game, I did so with my controller. Controller support is always a plus for me! And while it plays great on controller, I sometimes felt lost among all the effect - I'll get to that later. So I started the game through keyboard instead, hoping it would be better(with mouse and all - also more about this later!). The first thing that I noticed was the default Z and X keybindings. While it is stated in the menu what the keys are, it felt unnatural, even with the arrow key movements. Now, there are more games that use these controls - especially Japanese indie game designers seem to love it, and it is understandable. You have a lot more keys available. Especially with the 8 quick slots, this seems to be ideal. But outside the game, there is no need for this. Why have Z/X be the confirm/cancel buttons, while most games are still hung on the less convenient, but far more natural, Enter/Escape? Now, I might be wrong, since I haven't done any research on your target group on this matter, but I feel the Enter/Escape will feel far more logic than Z/X for most players of your game.
Keybindings
Following up our previous point, a solution could be keybindings. But there are more reasons why I prefer to see keybindings. On the controller, A is Defense, X is Attack. While I prefer to have my attack on either A or B. While I did get used to it eventually, this seems to be horrible for the pet capturing games. Every time I saw attack, I pressed the A button in reflex - Defense, and visa versa. Now, many of the other buttons are customizable through the ingame system, with the exception of attack and defence. And that is just the controller. What if I prefer a different keyboard layout? I really think custom keybinding is something that should be implemented in the game. - Well, there is a good chance it's coming ingame anyways. If so: awesome, can't wait!
Edit: Silly me, there is already a custom keybinding possible for keyboard. You have to access it from the menu instead of just ingame, but that is fine. Can't wait until I can rebind my controller keys!
Ingame Menu: "Down to select"
While I understand the reason behind this one, you already have a button for it, one that many players know. The Enter button. So why did you also implement "down" to access a menu? Now I can imagine this is not a problem for the keyboard. Unless you have fat fingers, or slip, you will accidentally press it, and enter the menu. But if you are playing on the controller with the stick instead of the Dpad - or even with some versions of the Dpads - there is a good chance you will accidentally enter a menu. Not the biggest issue in single player - just annoying - but could be potentially fatal in multiplayer, where opening the menu does not pause the game. I do not see what this adds to the game. It just feels like a gimmick that should not be there.
Not just the down to select, but sometimes you can also 'exit' a mini menu by pressing a certain direction. For example the collector ID tab(first tab), if you select one of the stats, you can cancel the menu by pressing right, and thus selecting the Pet menu.
Ingame Effects:
I got a cloud flying up high, have a slime running around, got a shadow doubling my attacks, and balls of lightning flying to enemies near me. What. It worked out great so far. Don't judge me. But it did bring me a few problems. Especially in busy area's with multiple monsters. You will have a lot of damage numbers and effects floating around, which makes seeing where you exactly are standing, or what direction you are facing, sometimes rather hard. I've been in several positions where I had to step out of combat, just to get a hold on my char again.
While we are on the subject of effects - I am missing a bunch of sound effects, but I am sure you are working on it, so I won't nitpick on that. Yet!
Edit: It seems something it wrong with my game, you can ignore this last part!
Red damage numbers:
This is also because I miss some of the sound effects, but it is often unclear who got what damage, especially when playing with a pet. Especially during bosses, my pet takes damage from the more devastating attacks, while I nimbly get away. I do see the red letters, so I instinctively look up to the healthbar to see if I took any damage. This should not be necessary. Speaking about the healthbar..
Healthbar and the HUD
The healthbar is clear and all, but in the Seasonnë area, when taking enough damage, if you stand at the wrong location, you won't be able to see how much HP you have left since the white letters blend in perfectly with the background.
While this is minor, the HUD has a bigger issue. It is all over the place. Top left for the healthbar indication and skills, bottom left for the item pickups, top right for the equipment you can equip, and bottom right for the enemy EXP. In battle, I want to know my health, my enemy health and what I pick up. These are spread across the three corners of my 26 inch screen. In the old days, this was all perfectly doable since the screens were smaller, and there was often far less information to soak up. But nowadays, with the bigger screens, higher resolution and the loads of information we need to know to play the game, this is not the best solution anymore. I often find myself shifting from corner to corner trying to stay updated on all the important stuff. I don't even look at my enemy HP anymore, since I just can't keep track of that one on top of my own HP, location and loot. Well, just HP and Location, since I barely ever see what I am picking during battle anyways. Hm.
Fishing loot
Yeah that reminds me. During battle it's not a biggie, but while fishing... Whenever you gain an item, or in this case fish, it briefly appears in the bottom left corner. It's gone before you know it. Whenever I catch a fish, the first thing that catches my eye is my character holding up the fish like it's Simba from the Lion King. Awesome. But before I remember to look at the bottom left corner, the message what fish I caught is already or about to disappear.
Introduction to Crafting/Crafting itself
In my first play through, I started crafting rather late. I knew it was in the game, but I assumed I would get a tutorial on it, since it's always different in every game. Eventually I forgot about it, until I really needed some better gear, and couldn't get it from a shop. I was near the boss of the second temple by then. While it's completely self explanatory, so is attacking defending, and going through dialogue. Give us a small tutorial on crafting.
The crafting itself is. Well, not satisfactory. Even if you do make an awesome weapon(I made a lightsaber. How awesome!)you just get a message that briefly appears and says "Crafted!" That's all. No indication you were making something, or a sound, or even a picture of what you just made. While this is great when you plan to make a ton of stuff, I can not see the use of making many of the same weapon - except for selling perhaps? - and even if you would do so, most weapons require a lot of materials(a good thing imo), so you will often be in a position where you will be making several weapons.
Welp, fingers are complaining, it's time for me to shut the hell up!
I just wanted to say that I truly mean when I say that I adore this game. It is why I put so much effort in criticizing, especially all those small stupid things. If I had to make a list of the things what I like about this game, it would be a few times longer. So you know. I prefer to save my fingers for another day.
There is a lot more, I mean, I haven't even touched the Arcade mode, and boy do I have something to say about that! But maybe for another time.
Keep up the good work guys(and gal)!
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