Posted March 10, 2017
I made a second and began a third playthrough with this patch still on classic mode, with different parties, which is undeniably tougher but so much fun, despite some gameplay choices maybe a bit hazardous.
First of all, i find the opposition between physical and magical armour contradictory, it forces you to split your party on your opponents because you don't want to lower both physical an magical armour on one ennemy at the same time; so your physical damage dealers will have a priority target different from your casters (maybe it is a deliberate choice)
Since casters have long CD on their spells, and now can't affect their target with their particular spells caracteristics (like stun from Aerotheurge) if there is magical armour, they are definitly tended to embrace the role of assist and see their importance in a party lowered in favor of more physical damage dealers who are more efficient (but not necessarily more fun).
Fact is it is frustrating not to see for exemple a target in a middle of flame burning thanks to her magical armour. The burn should affect her as damage over time, reducing her magical armour AND leaving her taking additional dmg if she try to move out of the burning zone. For now spells feals really weak. I found myself making less spells combinations, like just letting oil on the battlefield to slow ennemies without making it ignite.
CD on spells out of combat are way too long!! We need shorter ones!!
Necromancer skill : where is the necro? Should be renamed Bloodmancer ;)
Source spells and source point : i feel like a double penalties, first i need to dedicate slots to skills i can't use freely, and second i need to get my hand on a particular ressource to play them. Needless to say i don't have the opportunity to use them. The risk/reward (cutting slots for them) seems to be unfavourable. I like the idea, but in pratice it's inconvenient, and i know the Alpha just represents 1/3 of the game, but still it's worth being pointed.
Since we have so few action points, skills which allow you to gain additional ones are essentials, like Haste (oh boy!), Flesh Sacrifice (unbeatable racial talent) and Adrenaline. They are just game breaker. Furthermore it gives spells wich can relocate/move character a decisive role in battle.
We really need group formations, now the group is always tight and aoe hurts a lot at the beginning of fights.
Races : Elf ahead for obvious reasons, but i wanted to say that i love how corpse eater generates narration, besides giving a nice way to obtain free new skills. Elf, what else?
Flesh Sacrifice is a lot of fun, nice helping burst, but problem is the others are too weak. For exemple does Encourage scales in the long term game? Because +1 stat is welcomed but in the late game maybe will be insignificant. It's a nice buff, but it's just a buff, not really exciting. I would love to see it being single targetable, offering something which disrupt the natural course of the game, like "target gets +4 wits, remove incapaciting status" in order to play before your opponants, imagine a : "get up, you can do it!". To me the game lacks disruptions, spells that change the rhythm.
Any news on the undead? Come on guys!
Narration : already immersive, i hope at some point we can recrut magisters... For exemple i thought the Magister Yarrow and Mirgo quest was something huge which will lead to more on the lore... Imagine Yarrow and his father joining us?! The narration created so much empathy with these characters (at least on me!), with the disturbed magister and the monstrous father, great potential to reveal large areas of the lore.
Gratiana is one of my favorite... hope we'll see her again!
The artistic direction is overall exceptionnal, with an honourable mention to stylised armour elves, loving roman inspired dwarf armour, and the insane female dwarf haircuts!!!
To conclude (and ty for reading, you made it) the alpha is promising and really inspiring!
First of all, i find the opposition between physical and magical armour contradictory, it forces you to split your party on your opponents because you don't want to lower both physical an magical armour on one ennemy at the same time; so your physical damage dealers will have a priority target different from your casters (maybe it is a deliberate choice)
Since casters have long CD on their spells, and now can't affect their target with their particular spells caracteristics (like stun from Aerotheurge) if there is magical armour, they are definitly tended to embrace the role of assist and see their importance in a party lowered in favor of more physical damage dealers who are more efficient (but not necessarily more fun).
Fact is it is frustrating not to see for exemple a target in a middle of flame burning thanks to her magical armour. The burn should affect her as damage over time, reducing her magical armour AND leaving her taking additional dmg if she try to move out of the burning zone. For now spells feals really weak. I found myself making less spells combinations, like just letting oil on the battlefield to slow ennemies without making it ignite.
CD on spells out of combat are way too long!! We need shorter ones!!
Necromancer skill : where is the necro? Should be renamed Bloodmancer ;)
Source spells and source point : i feel like a double penalties, first i need to dedicate slots to skills i can't use freely, and second i need to get my hand on a particular ressource to play them. Needless to say i don't have the opportunity to use them. The risk/reward (cutting slots for them) seems to be unfavourable. I like the idea, but in pratice it's inconvenient, and i know the Alpha just represents 1/3 of the game, but still it's worth being pointed.
Since we have so few action points, skills which allow you to gain additional ones are essentials, like Haste (oh boy!), Flesh Sacrifice (unbeatable racial talent) and Adrenaline. They are just game breaker. Furthermore it gives spells wich can relocate/move character a decisive role in battle.
We really need group formations, now the group is always tight and aoe hurts a lot at the beginning of fights.
Races : Elf ahead for obvious reasons, but i wanted to say that i love how corpse eater generates narration, besides giving a nice way to obtain free new skills. Elf, what else?
Flesh Sacrifice is a lot of fun, nice helping burst, but problem is the others are too weak. For exemple does Encourage scales in the long term game? Because +1 stat is welcomed but in the late game maybe will be insignificant. It's a nice buff, but it's just a buff, not really exciting. I would love to see it being single targetable, offering something which disrupt the natural course of the game, like "target gets +4 wits, remove incapaciting status" in order to play before your opponants, imagine a : "get up, you can do it!". To me the game lacks disruptions, spells that change the rhythm.
Any news on the undead? Come on guys!
Narration : already immersive, i hope at some point we can recrut magisters... For exemple i thought the Magister Yarrow and Mirgo quest was something huge which will lead to more on the lore... Imagine Yarrow and his father joining us?! The narration created so much empathy with these characters (at least on me!), with the disturbed magister and the monstrous father, great potential to reveal large areas of the lore.
Gratiana is one of my favorite... hope we'll see her again!
The artistic direction is overall exceptionnal, with an honourable mention to stylised armour elves, loving roman inspired dwarf armour, and the insane female dwarf haircuts!!!
To conclude (and ty for reading, you made it) the alpha is promising and really inspiring!