First Impressions 2.0

[Voltago]

After i saw this game on dasmehdis stream i bought it aswell, and after beeing close to done after 20h of hardmode gameplay, i will give you my review of my expierence:

Really great aspects of this game:

+) graphical Details (maps, unique NPCs, animation) is really stunning good, you try to make the best out of every pixel in the game. i bow my hat for that gamedesign ethic. The 4 season Temple for example is a true masterpiece for the eye.
+) Love the "no healing potion" aspect. Bossfights become more like a deathmatch mode which is cool, its also unique and cuts the potion spamming, or potion cooldowns which many other games have,
+) Arena and Refight bosses are nice extras, It might have been a pain killing a boss for the first time, but its nice to come back and smack those bosses again once you have progressed with your gear. which also makes the bossfarming for items a bit smoother. It also gives you a nice extra option to regular mob farming, if you can go back on to some boss farming inbetween.

Suggestions what i would have loved to see in this game:

x) Crafting: Since many people probably opt in to farm areas to get those cards it would be awesome to see more uses for those crafting materials. Would be cool if the crafted stuff, does not have one permanent outcome, but rather have rolls like a "good" and "bad" version of it. It would feel rewarding getting those materials again for having another shot on the crafted item. (to avoid having the same crafted item all over the inventory , a "reroll" option on the item would be nice)

x) Quests: While progressing in the story it would be nice to see some quests pop up which leads you back to older places. It would give some extra motivation to collect some cards u might have missed in the past areas. Let it be a simple "killing stuff quest" which rewards you with some sort of house trophy - basicly a small optional rewarding addition while hunting for cards.
it would be nice to see some places reused, since you put so much love in each of the maps and mobs, and too my surprise it was fun farming those rabbits/blobs for cards while beeing overleveld

Confusing Elements for me:

Static Touch skill: After reading the extra info on the skill and using it for multiple times, i still dont really get it, how you are supposed to use it properly - maybe its just me.
Crystal Shield: it doesnt tell you what the special effect is, which is cool , but even after trying it out, i didnt really get it - it felt like a failed surprise

Overall Fazit:

Keep doing what you have been doing.
I would play this game all the time as long as it have some sort of content to offer

 

[Teylor]

General impressions:

• Was the game as a whole an enjoyable experience?

• Yes. I haven't finished it yet, but the game is very enjoyable. It just makes fun to go out there and slay some enemies.

• If it was longer, would you continue playing?

• Definitely. I hear the storyline is about 6 hours, much more if you do the sidequests. I wouldn't mind to see this game evolving to a size like Secret of Mana and play it 50 or even more hours. I would even buy some DLC if you decide to make the game SO big (for example: the game will have a 25h storyline and a DLC adds another 10 hours. Would be worth 7-10€ I think).

What you liked the most: Was there some elements that stood out to you as really good?

• Clearly the Combat System, no doubt about that. When I used the 1h sword, I thought "it got a nice swing. It feels fast, but not unrealistic fast like in most other games that are similiar". And then I used the 2h sword and had the same thought again. The 2h sword feels slow, but not TO slow. Also the possibilities to mix the spells and melee skills are well thought out.
  
• Another thing I really like is the crafting system. It is totally optional but it feels very rewarding when you craft something and it immidiatly makes you stronger. But in order to get it, you have to grind a little bit. Not to much, but it motivates enough to stay in one area and kill stuff.

What you liked the least: Was there something which you felt weakened the experience?

• While i like the skill system and the theoretical possibilities, I still would like to see more stuff. When I look at the skills, it feels like that only some combinations really make sense in order to be able to be able to finish endgame stuff.

Confusing elements: Did you understand what to do and how? Could you navigate through the menus?

• I found the gold skill points confusing. When I spent my first gold point, I didn't even knew that I only get them every few levels (every 5? I'm still not sure).
  
• Also the skill descriptions should have more pictures, or a small animation that shows how the skill work, maybe even for silver and gold charge. I really had problems to choose a skill at the beginning, because I had much to choose from. Then i decided to use the shadow clone and this thing was absolutely useless (I had no status effect passives and when I deal 30 damage, my shadow clone did like 1-2 extra damage. Kinda useless compared to other skills at lvl 1).

Optional content: Did you do any side activities, like side quests, fishing or the arena? If so, were the activities varied and enjoyable?

• I do all sidequests. The sidequests are very short. So I can't say I really enjoyed them, but they are also not a nuisance. I just do them to get my reward and get back on track. Some deeper sidequests may be a good idea. Maybe even with a small sidestory.
  
• I fished in all areas I have acess too. At first I enjoyed it, but well, it gets boring quite fast, since it is really easy. I think it needs some more depth. If it would be more like Breath of Fire 3, it would be very enjoyable. In this game, you had to choose different baits in order to fish different fishs and some of the special fishes live far away from the land, so you have to throw the bait/cord far into the sea to get those fishes. It required lots more skills and you could get some really nice items through fishing in BoF3. Really hoped it would be more like this. But on the contrary, this game maybe wants to be more simplistic when it comes to such mechanics and maybe some people do enjoy the simplicity of it, so maybe it doesn't need a change after all, especially since it's completely optional.

 

[Puce Moose]

Hello everyone! I just picked this game up a few days ago and had some time to sink a few hours into it over the past few days. I thought I would post a few first impressions. I have not finished it yet (in fact, only a few hours in).

• General impressions: Was the game as a whole an enjoyable experience? If it was longer, would you continue playing?

The game counter reports that I have played ten hours so far (And I'm still less than 30%, I believe?). I just felled Gundam, so if that percentage counter is correct I'm impressed with the length of the game for early release.

• What you liked the most: Was there some elements that stood out to you as really good?

The artistic design is great, and the music is some of the best in recent memory. As others have mentioned, it fits so perfectly to the theme of each area. I love the animations and the nods to classic 8/16 bit action RPGs. I have fondly thought of Crystalis several times while playing, which is quite a compliment.

I also enjoyed the wide variety of skills - stationary defenses have always been one of my favorite things in games, and I loved laying down seed-shooting plants with reckless abandon. I rarely used my sword in fighting Gundam, instead I played a farmer, running around planting level 7 plants all over the place and dodging. It was a great deal of fun! (And I finally won with 6HP left, which was a nice rush.)

• What you liked the least/confusing: Was there something which you felt weakened the experience

I've never liked same-screen respawns, and to see enemies pop into existence out of nowhere is kind of depressing. I wish we could have a setting to allow players to "clear" an area, and only repopulate if we leave the "screen" and return. Optional, of course, as it's a pet peeve of mine probably not shared by many.

Gold crystal upgrades confused me. Why are they necessary? How about making every rank above 5 cost 2 "normal" crystals?

Treasure maps confuse me a bit - it seems like we should finda neat item, but do we only find gold? It looks like we dig something up, but I could never find anything "new" in my list of inventory items. Are we rewarded for finding something for the Collector's HQ? If so, what did we actually find?

• Optional content: Did you do any side activities, like side quests, fishing or the arena? If so, were the activities varied and enjoyable?

YAY FISHING! I try to do every side quest I can find in most games, and your game is no exception. The chicken chasing one nearly led me to chicken choking (so to speak), as one of the little feathered devils refused to enter the hen-house, and I do admit to peppering the air with some colorful invective. Still, it didn't take *too* long, and I managed to send the beak'd bozo into the house just before hitting the rage wall.


Overall, I'm happy that I opted to give the game a shot. I've played it by streaming the game from my desktop to my laptop so I can play it with an xbox one controller on my couch in front of the TV (my cat approves, as she likes to sit on the pillow that is my controller rest), and it's performed well. I have only had two crashes in my ten hours of play, and considering I am streaming a game from a Windows 10 install to a Windows 7 install over an occasionally flaky network connection, I don't lay a picogram of guilt on the game itself.

Random thoughts:

* More stuff to read! I love it when we can interact with bookcases, tables, desks, etc., and gain insight into a game world and its characters. It's especially a treat when there's a small cookie hidden for the observant to find. "Hey, you examined this ordinary looking bookcase - here's a nice boost of XP for finding a discarded magical training manual!"

* I love the fast mana recharge! I play a magic-centric character in any game that will let me (unless there's a hacker option), so having powerful magic options that are actually usable for more than two seconds is great. If I can feasibly play the majority of Grindea without having to swing my sword I'll be a happy camper.

I really like all of the animations - birds fluttering, character idle packages, fish swimming, etc. I hope you get a chance to add even more - frogs hopping, snakes slithering, fireflies, etc.

Great job guys (and gals?), and I can't wait to see how the game develops!

 

[Harquinn]

So, I just bought-in to SoG yesterday after it was recommended to me by a friend, and since then I've torn through the available story mode to the end of the second temple, completed all available crafting, collected all the different drops from all the mobs, and acquired about 50% of the cards in the game. With that said, I'll give my impression of the game as I see it so far.

• General impressions: Was the game as a whole an enjoyable experience? If it was longer, would you continue playing?

~ In a word, "Yes!". The game so far has been a great deal of fun, drawing enjoyable elements from any number of vetted sources. The characters, and world are all excellent; colorful, quirky, and charming with a nice mix of fourth wall breaking gamer tropes and enjoyable banter. The story shows signs of having a depth that belies the bright aesthetic. Reading the data logs of Prof. Pine, and seeing the artifacts in action; it really does make you feel like you're unearthing a history full of secrets. Secrets I can't wait to continue unearthing as the development progresses.

• What you liked the most: Was there some elements that stood out to you as really good?

~ I liked many things about the game, but high on the list would have to be the overall aesthetic. The bright, colorful characters and world reminding me of some of the best parts of Legend of Zelda, Harvest Moon, Chrono Trigger, and Ragnarok Online all at the same time. The combat is fun and fast-paced and requires some skill to master, and I didn't mind slaying my way through hordes of baddies looking for drops to fill in the last pieces of my crafting recipes.

• What you liked the least: Was there something which you felt weakened the experience?

~ For the most part, I felt the drop rates of items was fair, but I had the most awful luck farming Bloomos for the hat crafted from their petals. I slaughtered hundreds just to complete my collection of crafted items. I got their card 70 or more creatures before I collected 20 petals. That particular drop rate may need tuning, though that's a minor annoyance, really. Still, a place (maybe a facet of the arena) where you could farm waves of specific enemies for their drops wouldn't be bad at all. If there's one thing that did bother me, it's that magic seems utterly outclassed by melee in terms of dps and ease of use. And, at this point, splitting between magic and melee seems to be a bit of a noob trap in the early levels, leaving you not as strong as you perhaps need to be in either field. Magic might need some buffs in some direction, perhaps.

• Confusing elements: Did you understand what to do and how? Could you navigate through the menus?

~ As far as confusing elements, there needs to be more detailed information given with regards to the skills. How much damage they do currently, and gain upon skill up. How much they cost being more readily apparent would be nice. Knowing how much damage your defense is actually mitigating. For the longest time, I thought the shield ability from the support tree was supposed to either absorb a few attacks, or provide a high percentage of damage mitigation for clutch moments. It wasn't particularly clear that it was just a basic defense booster. Having to dig through "more info" tabs is not really new player friendly. And most of the menus seem to just take far too many button presses to get anything done. Having to dive through tab after tab after subsection after pop-out menu was a little slow and unintuitive. That could probably be streamlined.

• Optional content: Did you do any side activities, like side quests, fishing or the arena? If so, were the activities varied and enjoyable?

~ I completely all the side quests, and I must say, I love them so far. They didn't feel like they were taking away or distracting from the main story, merely adding to the feel of the world. I truly hope to see many more of them.
~ Fishing was enjoyable, if a little simple. The inclusion of better tiers of rod and/or bait for going after specific/rarer fish would be a nice addition. Perhaps just showing what kind of fish you have on the line (either having it jump while being reeled in, or just having it pictured on the little mini-game bar) would increase the anticipation. Having a screen for fishing that shows blacked out portraits of missing fish would also be nice.
~ The arena was quite a bit of fun, and I look forward to it being expanded with more stages.
~ The pet capturing mechanic was good for the first two, but the jumpolantern and present were a bit insane! Far too fast moving and often registering two or more errors for a single wrong input. The pet feeding mechanic is counter intuitive, though. Considering how much you have to feed the pet to level it up, there doesn't seem to be any reason to not keep the very first one and just stuff it with all the extra crap in your inventory. Perhaps being able to feed it something and gain a short duration, high impact buff based on what pet you have out would be a better system so there's reason to take more than the slime or rabbi with you.

There's so much great potential in this game. I look forward to seeing how it goes forward, and can't wait to play more.

 

[res7less]

Wow, there sure are a lot of impressions here, I hope writing that late will still allow me to contribute

What made me buy the game:
I actually saw Secrets of Grindea being coop-played on twitchTV by Day9 - yes, Streamers might accidently advertise your game, which is great! It immediately captured my attention by its art style since it reminded me a lot of Secret of Mana (which I assume was one of the basic inspirations for Secrets of Grindea - the title alone says it all ). When I saw that it was available on Steam I immediately bought it (which doesn't happen often unless a game is recommended to me by a friend or I hear something about it somewhere). The thought of a 2D-multiplayer-Dark Souls-game just sounded very tempting, so I bought it without a second thought - and not only do I not regret it, I'm very happy that I did.

First impression:
The first impression was almost purely positive. The game was all I hoped it to be and much more, which is not easy to do considering I'm working as a game designer myself (actually studied it for 3 years, working in a small game company), thus critically considering every feature of any game I play and disliking titles like Final Fantasy 7, Assassin's Creed or Grand Theft Auto. So 12 thumbs up here, folks!

What I liked most:
Basically the love for details of the game's designers and their sense of features-required-to-enhance-the-gaming-experience based on the genre.

- The art style overall hit some soft nostalgic spot, reminding me of old SNES titles.
- It was great to have a window explaining every selected element, allowing to use puns on every occassion.
- The menu is very well structured and intuitive.
- The fact that it's very customisable - the problem of the controls of old SNES titles solved with the help of the quickslot system.
- The thorough explanation of skills and abilities, using pictures and highlighted text.
- The clear separation between magic types, one-handed and two-handed skills.
- The humor of the developers. There are a lot of good puns in the game and also some puns that are so bad that they are good again.
- The feeling of use of 1-handed weapons vs. 2-handed weapons vs. magic.
- The enemies: Their design, the continously increasing difficulty, their descriptions.
- The bosses: Their design, their abilities, the consideration of encounters being done in multiplayer.
- The cards!
- Fishing!
- Crafting!
- The sheer amount of awesome and loveable features.
- Comfortable way of playing with friends over Steam.
- The background music and sound effects

If I go on, I end up recounting every feature of the game, so I will just stop here since I think I made my point

What I disliked:
Sure, there are things that I disliked but as with anything it might be just a different taste. Also I really have to think to find something that I disliked, while the things that I liked immediately jumped into my memory.

- The fact that enemies start respawning quickly. While I know that the intention of it is to allow fast grinding, it also kind of destroys the feeling to "complete" something - in this case the current screen. Grinding usually involves traveling and killing and since the fact of traveling is removed it makes grinding more shallow. This could be solved by making them respawn until an uber-version of an enemy appears (even stronger than the elites currently already in the game) and as soon as it's defeated (dropping slightly better XP and loot) the respawning stops and the player may proceed to the next screen with a satisfactory feeling.

- The sense of direction of friends in your game. There definately should be a group interface added at some later point of the game (I would assume it is already planned) - especially if more support skills are being added later, like healing. Currently it's weird not to know where your co-players went and how much hp they have.

- Talking Naniva. I don't want to /shutup her completely She may talk or give me hints, just...not that frequent and only when it makes sense.

- Collecting range. After a while it becomes annoying, having to walk over every bit of coin or XP. While the slime card helps a bit, I feel like it takes too much time to collect 100% of the loot after a grinding spree. Maybe the range could be increased or even be set to the whole screen - at least for coins and XP, items should still be collectables.

Those are the things that I could come up with. I'll make a post in the suggestion thread when I feel like I'm ready to get decent suggestion feedback.

Confusing elements:
Uh, actually there is nothing I can think of. Everything is very intuitive in my opinion.

Optional content:
Oh, yes, I love optional stuff and tried to get as much of it as I could. I liked every bit so far and would even like to see more sidequests and more fish in the lakes. Also I would like to see harder difficulty modes for completed bosses, that not only influence their damage and hp, but also add more abilities to the boss, maybe add death zones and make the encounters generally harder but also grant rewards and achievments.

Phew, okay, that took longer than I thought I hope I covered a part of my thoughts on this game and managed to give some decent feedback to help the developement process. I really wish you guys the best of success since I see much potential. Keep up the great work and never give up!

Greetz,
res7less

 

[SnowPie]

Hi. I am still new to the game so I apologize for that. The first impression I had of the game was briliant. First I played the demo version to see what the game was all about. After finishing the demo I immediately bought a copy and started to play.

I enjoy playing Secrets of Grindea and hope the game will get more fans!! It definitely deserves that It reminds me of the old school RPG's which where rich through story and environment BUT without the annoying battle systems. The free roaming and hack and slash is very enjoyable!! So far I have not come across something negative to say. Maby because I am not paying enough attention due to the interesting story or because I just do not care enough due to the game being great.

I do hope that the game will provide infinative hours of fun in story mode. I would be kinda sad if the story mode could be finished in a mere 14 hours because it is such a joy to play. It's been a long time since I have been this enthousiastic about a game, so congratz to the developers!

Maybe extra content (missions, story development etc.) could be added via DLC in the future? I would pay for it!! Just don't stop with further developing this game I would gladly buy DLC packs so I can continue playing in this fun and interesting world of Grindea!

 

[Argol228]

• General impressions: I have never been more disappointed by a game with such potential. It needs a lot of polish and reworked elements such as.
  
  -Flamethrower in it's current form is worthless. You are near rooted and defenseless as you charge the spell and the damage numbers on it didn't look to rewarding. it should be an instant cast that you hold to continue the effect. perhaps even locking your facing so you can backpedal with it. making it a good emergency melee spell for a full caster.
  
  -Meteor and fireball. These two spells do not co-exist well because they offer the same thing. It would be much better for something like flame arrow. a quick cast spammable ranged option. Fireball in place of meteor as a charge. AOE blast. as it is now. they are both ranged fireballs with fireball being the better option because it is more reliable/spammable
  
  -Chain lightning. the damage output is pitiful especially when you compare it against ice spikes which can hit multiple enemies and slows them.
  
  -Speaking of ice spikes. it is also much better then earth spike for the same reason as above and does comparable damage.
  
  -Why is fire the only line that doesn't have a summon?
  
  A good way to fix you spell system would be to have 2 spells per spell skill. a quick cast and a charged. so you have flame arrow, charge it and then you get the AOE fire ball. Ice spike could be melee based. you jab ice out in front of you. charge it and create a big AOE ring around the character where spikes stab up through the ground and slow enemies. charge up chain lightning and it creates a thunder storm that repeatedly strikes enemies for a few seconds.
  
  Arcane shield, haste and other buffs could benefit from being toggles that reserve EP to maintain.
  
  The Giga slime is frustrating at best. it is hard to melee against yet all the small slimes make ranged ineffective as you waste more EP on hitting the small ones. A redesign would benefit this encounter.
  His jumps needs to be slower but more damaging. perhaps even having him jump high into the air and target the player more accurately with this jump. After a few jumps. he should return to the center. start spinning around in his spike wheel form while raining slimes and slime puddles on the players. once the slimes have been dealt with. it tries to ram the player a few times. getting dizzy for another opening before returning to the jumping phase.
  Though I assume interesting phase/pattern based boss battles isn't what you intend, which is a shame.
  
  Another idea that could be fun would be skill/spell combining. learn 2 skills/spells. go to an NPC, pay money to get a new skill based on the two. example. fireball and piercing charge = flaming assault. The character is surrounded by flames and charges through enemies just like piercing charge. it would do magic damage
  Lightning reflexes = Chain lightning + the dodge move I forget the name of. You dodge back and call lightning on the spot you previously stood
  
  
• What you liked the most: the customization is fun, allowing me to make the battle mage/magic knight type character I enjoy so much
• 
  
• What you liked the least: the character design, I get it, it takes a long time to create costumes due to the animations, but the character has such a generic and boring design. I was sold on customization. yet all we get are hats and masks. I don't want to hide my characters hair as that is their only defining feature.. male or female there is no difference save the hair, which brings us back to why would I want to ide the hair. the player character looks like a potato with a wig sitting on a roughly painted burlap sack.

 

[Own]

-Flamethrower in it's current form is worthless. You are near rooted and defenseless as you charge the spell and the damage numbers on it didn't look to rewarding. it should be an instant cast that you hold to continue the effect. perhaps even locking your facing so you can backpedal with it. making it a good emergency melee spell for a full caster.

Speedrunners and Arcade runners would disagree with you. Flamethrower is one of the most powerful skills in the game at the moment. Especially at Silver Charge, where you fly around spewing flames everywhere. Gold Charge it becomes an unending rain of fiery death.

Arcade:

Story:

Flamethrower does have a high skill barrier to it, I'll admit. If you get hit once you're knocked out of the spell. But that's what makes it fun for high end play.

 

[BiteZaDusto]

• General impressions:

This game is great. Already recommended to my friends for coop and would probably play it for completionist and NG+ if it's gonna be availible.

• What you liked the most:

I find some of the abilities very interesting. Namely the "summon plant", because you can use it as an AOE clear with its bronze charge, or change it into a turret that guns down enemies that are just a pain to fight in melee.

The writing is hilarious and the artstyle is cute too. Can't really complain about that.

Also I find the respawn mechanic quite great. It's much easier to grind out a zone when you have the feeling that the whole forest is out there to kill you. I would not mind if the spawning would get just ludicurous at some point, something like a survival mode if the critters feel that you have outstayed your welcome in that area. More murder equals more loot after all!

• What you liked the least:

Those damn snow biomes. The snow is too bright and my eyes are too sensitive! Brightness setting would help a bit. But some dirt here and there and some uneven snow and maybe some more ice, would be a real savior. Too much white...

Keyboard controls feel somewhat sluggish, namely turning or blocking. I have noticed that there is a bit of a delay if you try to change into another direction after, say, charging for example. So I either lose some precious frames, waiting for my character to turn, or just lose the temper and spam the charge button only to slam repeatedly into a wall. Or worse, have those frames cause me not to turn fast enough to block those homing projectiles. Bloody wisps.

Bloody wisps and their homing projectiles. Shooting diagonally all day huh? I'm a hero, not a superman! Ehm ehm, back to the topic.

• Confusing elements:

Player hitboxes. Where it is? How large it is? Even if I knew, my shadow clones would make it rather hard to see. A small glowy circle around it (maybe a toggle) would be enough.

Speaking of hitboxes, doesn't the wisp projectile connect to the player just a tiny bit sooner sometimes? Maybe it's just me though.

Horizontally charging enemies are also rather... wonky. Bees just can't hit anything if you move the tiniest bit into any direction. Could they be a little bit homing maybe? And the ultimate rival. Just a tiniest step during his charge messes everything. He runs into you, missing the attack but shoving you aside and then stabbing you into back 'cause you turn really slowly after blocking. What's the point in blocking him if he shoves you aside most of the time. Maybe it's thematic. Maybe shoving you aside is his real passion. But his fencing is lackluster. And he calls himself "ultimate". Ghosts are fine though.

• Optional content:

I would appreciate more sidequests, but I wouldn't mind doing the least amount of fishing required for completion. Arena is nice since it involves murder, as long as it doesn't involve gratuitous amounts of bees and wisps. And that fencer guy; I hope he gets an assigment involving a lot of bees and wisps and people who shove him aside impolitely. Preferably in a snowy biome.

Ah and one more thing. The gold becomes very useless very fast. More ways of spending it would be great. Maybe a tavern that gives you an achievment for eating 100000 gold worth of food within a minute, +5 def maybe? since you are basically a slime at that point.


Anyway, thank you for the game. It's already been money well spent, and it's nice to see another great indie dev entering the business. This world needs more great games.

 

[ChaosTherapy]

Hi! Amazing game! For a long time, I've been searching for something like this - a highly skill based, difficult, multiplayer action RPG in the style of classic SNES era games. Whenever I think about making a game myself, I think about making something just like Grindea... so I was ecstatic when I tried the demo. There are many others who have tried to capture the SNES ARPG aesthetic, but I don't think any have come as close as this.

I'll preface this too by saying that I've just gotten to Winter on my seventh character (all in hard mode), so my perspective is of one who loves to try out different character builds and fight bosses as soon as possible rather than grinding. One of them was with friends, one of them was the first, more "complete" playthrough, and the other five were different character build styles that basically rushed through the game. (if anyone cares, I can elaborate on and compare the experiences based on which builds I tried)

General Impressions:
It was absolutely an enjoyable experience! The art style is crisp and pleasing, the action is always fair and demanding, and the music is well composed and appropriate. I will continue on all seven of my characters as soon as there is more content. (maybe I'm a bit obsessed)

What you liked the most:
Among many, many strong aspects, I think the most standout is the enemy and boss design. Every enemy has its own gimmick and strategy involved in fighting it, and this combined with the incorporation of a perfect block mechanic makes for some of the best feeling fights I've done in a while. Particular standouts are the design of the Temple of Seasons mobs, Phaseman and GunD4M, Winter, and the interactions between the crystal enemies in the Flying Fortress. The difficulty level on hard mode feels perfect (as an avid Souls player and gaming masochist... wouldn't say I am particularly talented at games, but I need there to be a struggle!)

What you liked the least:
Overall, there's no large design concept I didn't like, so I'm gonna have to get a bit more specific if that's ok (but I don't feel like these warrant their own thread...?)
1) Frostling Boots are too good - every one of my playthroughs, I stop to farm frostlings because I know that they are the best way by far to deal with the Season Hydra and other Seasons mobs - leave it on winter and then you don't have to deal with Autumn silliness. My issue with this is that I feel the boots invalidate the season changing mechanics. Maybe provide stronger incentive to change seasons? (mages can't use their spell asap? if you let winter hydra use ice too much, it creates ice spikes?)
2) Killing the last Season Hydra is not very exciting - I would personally rather see a shared life bar between all three.
3) The name. "Grindea" is really hard to sell to people. (what's that? is it all about grinding? is it about grinding my friends?) For me, the things I love about this game are so far from the idea of an rpg as a "grind", that I always have to preface my sell with "the title's not great, but trust me it's amazing". I insist on pronouncing it "GRIHN-dee-ah" ahahaha.

Confusing elements:
The only things that I didn't find immediately intuitive were the pet luring items - I didn't realize that I could use the carrot, ribbon, or flower on anything until my second playthrough. Once I had a pet, however, everything was pretty straightforward.

Optional content: On my first character, I did most of the sidequests and arena, and found them generally pretty good, even though I'm generally not a sidequests or completionist kind of person.

Keep up the great work! Can't wait for more content (especially new support skills!)

 

[Zudz]

• General impressions: This game is goram beautiful. Like... Legend of Mana grade fantastic. It handles well, reminiscent of A Link to the Past, but more analog. Drop in co-op was great (bought the four pack, handed out spare copies to people so I would have co-op buddies). We walked one screen down and killed slimes until we were level 6. With the two/three of us killing it was just a fury of spawns and damage in every direction. Good start. I had no idea what the little red balls were at first. They were very mysterious... until I realized that they were healing me. Had to laugh at myself a bit for that.

Important enough to warrant it's own mention: As soon as the rival started being a douche we all started referring to him as "Gary Motherf&*king Oak." We hate him so much. SO MUCH! I'm the only one who's played far enough to punch him in his goram face. It's the best. Thanks for that.

• What you liked the most: I like killing adorable monsters and taking their stuff? Co-op was probably honestly the stand out feature. But everything seems polished to a mirror shine. We super dig it.

• What you liked the least: Uh... Oh! Crafting! I'm a crafting junkie, and the crafting in this game is just... there. Perfunctory. Like checking a thing off a list: "Yup. You can craft things." I honestly think just having a crafting station would make it feel better. Maybe something that you can put in your house when that's in the game.

Oh, and the pumpkin hat. First off, I can't wear it with my witch hat. Sadface. Second, it's got +20 Atk on it. Until I farmed up the purple petals for the garland I never took the pumpkin off. 20 Atk was just too good to give up (if you roll 100% offense, which I do). The petals eventually replaced it, but now I'll never take them off. I guess the cosmetic slots make this less of an issue, but those items drop in the first area you visit. It was kind of a bummer to never find anything better.

• Confusing elements: Yeah, no issue. I didn't know I could teleport from the menus until the game said I could. I thought I would get a prompt when I stood on the teleport plates. Once I understood them it was great. And it says something right after the flying dungeon, so it wasn't like I'd had a mighty need to teleport before that.

• Optional content: I did the Arena once, then decided to come back when I had better gear. I fished at every fishing spot until I got the achievement, but I haven't fished at all since then. It's neat, but there's no reason for me to keep doing it.

I didn't farm cards at all until I got to the Seasons Temple. And I didn't finish farming cards until I had finished the temple and the game told me I was out of game. That's only kind of related to my first sitting, but it seems like it might be a useful detail.

Oh, and I've done all the treasure hunts. I did them because they were there, but they're not good. Not because they're too hard, or dumb or whatever. It's the rewards. Money is basically a non-reward. I had so much of it that I fed my jumpkin (Maurice) over 3000 potions all at once. I did get a couple items, which were nice. Even if I'm not going to use them I like getting them as unique cosmetic pieces. I'd really like to see the treasure hunts lead up to something. Like you get a list of them and each one has either an item or a key item. Then, once you've collected all the key items you... something? Get a cool thing? Or open up a teleportal to some kind of bonus/super hard area. Or get a statue in the boss hall for a special boss. Point is, more money and drips of EXP aren't really motivating at that point in the game.

I think that covers all the things. Hope there's something useful in there for you.

 

[ExUprising]

• General impressions: Okay, so I'm about 25 hours in now, and I completely love this game. One thing I really like actually is getting a bunch of friends together in Evergrind or Startington and playing hide and seek It's kinda hard to find people but it's really fun! I would definitely play the whole story once it's out, and on multiple characters too .
• What you liked the most: I really liked the combat. It was fun and pretty flawless in my opinion. There could definitely be some more abilities, but I like it right now . I'd also like eventually some more types of magic, not just the elements right now.
• What you liked the least: I really like arcade and I even like grinding, but the amount of essences you need just to be able to use the other perks is crazy. I have like 5-10 hours of arcade in and I haven't even gotten the second one yet, but I'm not that good at arcade either so that's probably why.
• Confusing elements: Yeah I learned it all really quick, but a lot of friends that I met had trouble finding out how to make portals or craft, but to be honest it seems pretty self explanatory.
• Optional content: The side activities are fun! I really liked the picture booth in the town festival

 

[Tanben]

General impressions: Was the game as a whole an enjoyable experience? If it was longer, would you continue playing?

I was beyond impressed. I initially only intended to piss away a few hours and ended up completely hooked. I wasn't even sad when I reached the end of the current available content, instead I recruited most all of my friends for an additional run through.

• What you liked the most: Was there some elements that stood out to you as really good?

The style and abilities (though I do feel they have much room to expand).

• What you liked the least: Was there something which you felt weakened the experience?

Not being able to apply stats. Somewhat limit to abilities. No bow abilities.

• Confusing elements: Did you understand what to do and how? Could you navigate through the menus?

Only thing that lost me completely (initially) was the gold skills. Soon as it clicked it was very clear, but any warning would have been appreciated.

• Optional content: Did you do any side activities, like side quests, fishing or the arena? If so, were the activities varied and enjoyable?

Side quests are side quests. Personally I am not a fan of the additional skills/talents, but I do like unique weapons/armors as rewards. I do believe cards should be a group drop also....

You don't have to answer every point above, and you can write about other things if you want! Those are just some things we're particularly interested to hear about. Post away!

Note: If you ran into bugs or have specific suggestions, create a new thread with these! First Impression posts are more about how you felt. In other words, if you didn't like the fishing because it was too easy, you can write here that the fishing felt too easy, but if you have suggestions on how to improve fishing and want a dialogue with us, create a new thread for that! The reason for this is because in a separate thread it will be easier for us to discuss your feedback.

-The only bug I consistently ran into was summons vanishing and then not being able to re-summon them (specifically my little cloud).

 

[Davirtuoso]

• General impressions: I have thoroughly enjoyed my time playing SoG and have finished all current (frontline) story content (0.602a). Story is great, the world is engaging, the gameplay is nice and responsive, the skills are fun and i'm really liking everything so far

• What you liked the most: I'm a big fan of pet classes in other games, and having summoning spells I can stack was a big win for me. A combination of the plant, the frosty friend and cloudstrike made for very fun gaming experience for me. I always play full-mage where possible in games, and i enjoyed having an army of strong pets to do my bidding lol. Additionally the Hydra fight from the temple of seasons was epic. I died about 60+ times doing that fight trying different strategies and inching closer to a win. The first time I managed to kill one of the hydra heads I actually cheered and knocked over a glass lol.

• What you liked the least: Personally the lack of defencive/support spells for me, though I can see these will be implemented at later date. The ability to heal myself, pets and others, maybe put down barriers or walls that enemies have to break or go around, etc. Those kind of things are what suit my typical role in games best and I couldn't do much of that.

• Confusing elements: Menus were no problem after the first few mins, though I did get a little stuck in the temple of seasons. I figured it out in the end, but navigation proved a little tricky for a short time. Nothing game-breaking, but it did hold me up for a little bit.

• Optional content: I'd like to preface this with that in every other game i've played, i HATE fishing. I absolutely despise it so much that where i would get every other class to max level, Fishing wouldn't even get out of the level 1 starting gate. However, i found myself doing the odd spot of fishing here and there, and even found myself thinking 'just one more...'. This is not my usual attitude to in-game fishing, so I must have found the simplicity and lack of resource management for it appealing.

I also did some fights in the arena and managed to get the S rank for the green giga slime fight. I found that fairly addictive and enjoyed dabbling in the area every now and again. It obviously needs more content, but at this stage where everything is more about the concept than the finished product, i think it is done well.

 

[xCarnifex]

• General impressions: Give me more please. :3 Can't wait for the next patch! <3
• What you liked the most: My first run in coop with my friend when we fought the Hydra, god it's been a tough fight... Apart from that each Boss fight were so much fun to try and try again and finaly winning.
• What you liked the least: GunDam in Arcade Mode broke my fun.. and my run.
• Confusing elements: The menus were easy to navigate through and I understood quickly how to do everything excepting on the treasure map, I didn't get how to count my step. lol
• Optional content: I did everything on the Story Mode, it was.. not enough... And now I'm trying to advance in Arcade Mode, right now my Highscore is 440k pts, it's pretty fun but I would like to know what to expect from the next reward when I reach a new total score peak.
• PS: I hate Rabbies, they are the most annoying f****r in the whole universe with their Frenzy Bite Dash Of The Death From Space...

Big thank for this beautiful game.

 

[Selenetic]

• General impressions: Honestly not a big fan of all the meta and ironic components of the setting (I mean i knew what i was getting into considering the name of the game so its not a deal breaker obviously), but I do really enjoy the feel of the game. I haven't been pushing my way through the story, mainly playing in little sessions here or there exploring forward rather than racing.
• What you liked the most: The gameplay itself feels really nice, it smooth and responsive. The enemy design and patterns and timing all feel like I can get a handle on, and try to really interact with. I almost feel like the regular attack needs a little more of a timing component, it has the backhand, but I kinda want a little more of a feeling of solidity there, because of how smooth interacting with enemy patterns can feel.
• What you liked the least: Trying to get items for recipes feels just masochistic, and not in an enjoyable sense. I can't help but wonder if I'm missing something because rabbit fur should not be so hard to get. I can understand crystals being rarer, but its just feels frustrating. I feel like conceptually the arcade mode can work, but I'm a fan more of Rogue Legacy for this sort of experience than Binding of Isaac, I like to feel like I'm making progress and not just failing forever, and there are elements of that already with the essence. But I insist on playing with one-handed weapons and favoring the jump-back and charge ability, and I am terrible, so it took me a long time before I even got any essence.
• Confusing elements: I spent awhile standing on teleport plates trying to figure out if I could activate them to no avail, eventually I looked at the map in the menu. I don't know where recipes come from its just this tab in the menu that I was felt like, if its there i'll play around with it, but it feels disconnected, and I kind of want a feeling of it coming from the story a little more. I haven't figured out any way to interact with the little green sprouts in places, I assume that is something from later in the game, but with no real sense of context I spent a bunch of time trying to interact with them. I don't feel like there's a good job of sort of hinting, its either a texty dialogue box giving instructions or nothing. I'd love for just like a hint, of hey these objects on the landscape will be something you can deal with if you stick around for a couple hours.
• Optional content: I've been lazily exploring so I've interacted with a lot of the stuff that I've come across. As far as minigames go, chasing the chickens feels the most organic in a lot of ways because it utilizes the game's mechanics, the DDR monster taming feels odd doesn't really work for me. I don't really know why I'm fishing, and waiting on the bob just feels a little pointlessly tedious. I know its fishing so a bit of boredom is verisimilitude, but I don't see the point of the just slightly annoying slowdown when you cast.

At the end of the day though, the game does feel fun overall.

 

[real.gamer]

• General impressions: Was the game as a whole an enjoyable experience? If it was longer, would you continue playing?

Yes, it was very much so enjoyable. I played it to the point where I forgot to do school during the day (R.I.P night). If it was longer, my friend and I were undoubtedly going to continue. To find out we couldn't turn in the artifact to the father yet... argh!

• What you liked the most: Was there some elements that stood out to you as really good?

I personally found the Arena to be the most enjoyable to me. I know it's not exactly the main focus of the game but I really enjoyed playing it (and shared my equal amount of rage) to aim for S-Rank on each challenge. Besides for that, I enjoyed the Santa Fae storyline.

• What you liked the least: Was there something which you felt weakened the experience?

The thing I probably liked the least was finding the mini Santas. My reasoning on this was probably due to the fact of finding "that last one". Without using any guide, it's quite frustrating to look for all of the Santas and realizing there was another one right where you just looked after a good 20 minutes of exploration.

• Confusing elements: Did you understand what to do and how? Could you navigate through the menus?

There was nothing confusing to me during the game-play.

• Optional content: Did you do any side activities, like side quests, fishing or the arena? If so, were the activities varied and enjoyable?

I did [emphasis] EVERY single side activity I could. To start, I've spent a good hour or two just fishing at the different areas and getting myself a nice collection of boots along with the various area-exclusive rewards such as the mask. As for the Arena, I currently hold an S rank on both challenges! I find every side activity to be enjoyable.

 

[Thaurane]

honestly i only played the demo. so i hope it's good enough

General Impressions : my main complaint is that the 1h sword swing seems sluggish. a minor speed increase i think would do it well. is it possible to change the keybinds? it didnt seem immediatly obvious to me if it is there. other than that everything else seems pretty good.

What I Liked The Most: other than a few nit picks i'm going to get to in a second. just about everything really. the fishing was a nice changeup compared to all the other games out there that have it. i say keep it the way it is i really did like it.

What I Liked The Least: 1. well as i stated before the 1h sword swing. maybe a minor swing speed buff. 2. did i miss how to heal other than the healing orb drops? i didnt mind it because it was a challenge. but the slime boss left me wishing i had a way to heal myself a bit.

Confusing elements: so far the possible missed rebind keys (if it doesnt exist. maybe a possible suggestion for the future?) and other ways to heal myself early ingame.

Optional content: didnt really play the arcade to be honest. but from what i've read from other reviews. everyone seems to like it.

Ending impression: i know it's still early access and i've yet to actually buy the game. i noticed there's only about 13 "zones" (for the lack of a better term atm). i hope more are added in the future. this also leads me to my 2nd ending impression. from what other users have stated here it's difficult to get passed 20 (if it's out dated now feel free to ignore that part) without grinding the same area. i'm hoping new zones removes this requirement.

after browsing the forums here. i LOVE that teddy is so active with the community. i hope he continues to strive towards that level of exellence. not too many indies do that anymore. i'm wanting to buy SoG. but another early access game has recently left a bitter taste in my mouth for early access. however the 97% positive reviews (and the ones that are negative arent really that bad) on steam is making me lean towards getting SoG against my judgement. i probably will get this if it goes on sale on the 18th when the christmas sale starts.

 

[The G-Meister]

As I said to someone else, it's currently my highest played game on Steam, with over 350 hours now, and I only play story mode, without much Arcade at all! It's well worth the buy in my opinion.

I'm not sure what state the demo is in, but in the full game you have talents, one of which increases your attack speed, and some items do the same. If you really want a fast-hitting build, you just need to dig a little deeper

Healing through Orbs is the only way to heal currently, and may be the only way. This forces you to learn how to fight the boss, rather than sprinting in with your OP build and wiping the floor with everything (which is hopefully not what the devs have in mind O-o).

There is a way to rebind all keys in the options menu on the start screen, in the full version at least.

On the 13 zones point, we have a new one set to come out in the Frontline Beta sometime soon. The issue here is that there are only three people working on the whole game - and anyone else who contributes here. The fact that they have to do all the art, programming and also keep an eye on what's going on on the forums makes development slow. we're unlikely to get a full release soon

Only experts have managed to get anywhere above level 21 or something, as the higher your level is, the less experience a low level enemy gives you. With the enemies in the upcoming area, they will give more experience, so it will be easier to level up!

I hope this helped

While I'm in this post, I found a couple features a while back that I'm really glad you included:

- There's never more than the amount of health orbs you need to heal up, meaning you can't farm them. Really nice touch.
- Your Mother's skin colour changes dependant on the skin colour of your character. I think even some Triple A companies would've forgotten about something like that!

 

[Thaurane]

yup it did help! i thought the healing orb part was the case. but during the demo on the slime boss it seemed like that the small slimes just simply werent dropping them. which is why it left me feeling that way. wasnt sure if that was intentional or not at the time.

but the game overall really does give a feeling of nostalgia. there's only a few hours to go until midnight here. so i'm going to see if it goes on sale. either way i probably will still get SoG.