General Gaming No Rest For the Wicked | New ARPG Game From Moon Studios (Creator of Ori) - update: "The Crucible" end-game update coming 07/25

[Biggie]

3 hours ago, best3444 said:

@stepee Get your copy so we can discuss this game like two prepubescent girls. 

hey that's our thing!

[Best]

4 minutes ago, Biggie said:

hey that's our thing!

 

Lol I know. I like the saying so much I stole it. 

[Biggie]

1 hour ago, best3444 said:

 

Lol I know. I like the saying so much I stole it. 

                                 

[stepee]

Played through the prologue and up to the first whisper/save site and messed a bit around there. It’s definitely an absolutely gorgeous game already. I wish other devs put the same effort into hdr implantation that this team already has in the initial early access release.

 

The combat feels crunchy and satisfying. It’s interesting how there are tools and so you’ll do things like fishing/digging here. It’s definitely more Souls than Diablo which a lot of people are now finding out.

 

Seems to run well enough already on my desktop and I see dlss support is coming soon so it’ll be even better then. Deck needs work. It looks good especially with the hdr but it can’t hold that 30fps well enough to really play it there yet. It does seem close and they were pretty up front about its result there though. This team got Ori2 running at 720p/60fps on Switch so when they say they are going to try to hit a 40fps lock on deck, I think they probably will. I wonder if they will pre render the cutscenes on performance mode to achieve that.

 

I could see getting into this but I do already hope as it evolves that you can lower the difficulty. Maybe people who thought it would be Diablo will complain and get them to do that. Once you get past the prologue it gets real hard real quick.

[stepee]

Also not a big fan of no refillable flask type item along with the central “souls” mechanic being that your equipment weakens until you can’t even equip it if you keep dying. This is the kind of mechanic that actively punishes you more the more you are struggling. I don’t think that’s the best design choice so hopefully they change that up a bit too.

[Best]

Also, for some reason the visuals looked a bit blurry on deck. And yes, it's not a steady 30fps here. It really did remind me of a souls game combat wise and difficulty.

 

I was having a hard time finding out where to go next because the image just isn't good enough on the deck. Hard to explain. 

[stepee]

6 minutes ago, best3444 said:

Also, for some reason the visuals looked a bit blurry on deck. And yes, it's not a steady 30fps here. It really did remind me of a souls game combat wise and difficulty.

 

I was having a hard time finding out where to go next because the image just isn't good enough on the deck. Hard to explain. 

 

If you didn’t adjust anything it is dynamic res by default so it might be forcing it down super low. I turned it off and set internal to 70% which looks okay but the game seems to also have some memory leak or something where it bogs down the deck and you have to reset to get it back to normal. I don’t think it’s ready for it yet.

[Best]

1 minute ago, stepee said:

 

If you didn’t adjust anything it is dynamic res by default so it might be forcing it down super low. I turned it off and set internal to 70% which looks okay but the game seems to also have some memory leak or something where it bogs down the deck and you have to reset to get it back to normal. I don’t think it’s ready for it yet.

 

Well when I went to mess with graphics settings it just started stuttering and then my deck shut off. So how long is early access and how much can be fixed? 

 

I liked what I played but it definitely is difficult because I died a lot. 

[stepee]

2 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

Well when I went to mess with graphics settings it just started stuttering and then my deck shut off. So how long is early access and how much can be fixed? 

 

I liked what I played but it definitely is difficult because I died a lot. 

 

idk a year or two? Plenty can be fixed, it’s still super early. They are actually putting specific effort into getting it to run well on the deck so they’ll get it working well at some point I’m sure.

[Best]

Just now, stepee said:

 

idk a year or two? Plenty can be fixed, it’s still super early. They are actually putting specific effort into getting it to run well on the deck so they’ll get it working well at some point I’m sure.

 

Holy shit I didn't know that. Yea, I saw that they are really making sure handheld is good so that's great. I can see the magic of Moon Studios in this already. I'll just have to be patient. 

 

One more question. I bought this for $35. What happens when the game is officially released? Do we just pay the difference of the full retail price?

[stepee]

Just now, best3444 said:

 

Holy shit I didn't know that. Yea, I saw that they are really making sure handheld is good so that's great. I can see the magic of Moon Studios in this already. I'll just have to be patient. 

 

One more question. I bought this for $35. What happens when the game is officially released? Do we just pay the difference of the full retail price?

 

No you just get the full game when it releases no matter what they price it at.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Just now, best3444 said:

Do we just pay the difference of the full retail price?

 

Nope!  

[Best]

Very cool. 

[legend]

Played a little. Very pretty. I'm getting a ton of audio stutter almost non-stop which isn't great. Hopefully they fix that soon.

 

I'm unsure how I feel about the combat so far. The parry timing feels weird to me and at level one your stamina is so fucking low that it makes it kind of unfun with how quickly you just can't do shit.

 

I've also never liked punishment for death, so taking degradation costs doesn't feel great. I'm all for games where they're hard and you die a lot, but punishing the player for it has always struck me as just out-right bad game design. It's possible that as the game goes on this will be fairly innocuous with sufficient repair materials, but I think games shouldn't even bother with it -- just don't make it a design element. I much prefer games that are hard but *encourage* you to keep trying rather than punish you for failing. E.g., Rogue Legacy 2.

 

Also, I'm kind of lost?  I guess I have to find a lever somewhere but the entire map is filled so I'm clearly overlooking some needle in a haystack. I don't think having quest markers for everything is great, but finding a missing item somewhere on the map isn't great either.

 

We'll see how this one develops.

[Best]

Yea I couldn't parry for the life of me. I agree that stamina is too low at the start. 

[legend]

25 minutes ago, best3444 said:

Yea I couldn't parry for the life of me. I agree that stamina is too low at the start. 

 

I got it to land once or twice but then just abandoned using it because dodging (assuming you had stamina!) was just so much more reliable. I'm trying to decide why it feels off. The best I can come up with is the animation does a poor job illustrating when your actual parry frames are.

[Paperclyp]

This game looks really good. I’ll probably wait for the full release but love what I’m seeing. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

2 hours ago, best3444 said:

Yea I couldn't parry for the life of me. I agree that stamina is too low at the start. 

 

2 hours ago, legend said:

 

I got it to land once or twice but then just abandoned using it because dodging (assuming you had stamina!) was just so much more reliable. I'm trying to decide why it feels off. The best I can come up with is the animation does a poor job illustrating when your actual parry frames are.

 

While I was able to parry a few times, I never felt that it was a case of my execution of the mechanic properly as opposed to it being a case of sheer luck.  There probably needs to be some type of (very) brief visual and/or auditory cue that indicates when the parry opportunity window opens.

[Brian]

4 hours ago, stepee said:

Also not a big fan of no refillable flask type item along with the central “souls” mechanic being that your equipment weakens until you can’t even equip it if you keep dying. This is the kind of mechanic that actively punishes you more the more you are struggling. I don’t think that’s the best design choice so hopefully they change that up a bit too.

[Firewithin]

i can be ok with the no re-fillable health but the durability part is a huge turn off.  ill still give the game try this weekend but and i know its EA so maybe they will make changes in the future 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Durability appears to be the #1 issue that players are saying needs to be addressed.

[Firewithin]

apparently patch 1 is out already

 

 

Today’s hotfix aims to improve Balance, Durability, Stamina, Loot, Stability, and immediate Quality of Life:

 

Balance Changes:

• Reduced Durability Damage Taken

• Reduced Repair Costs

• Increased Drop Rate on Repair Powders

• Reduced Stamina Costs

• Reduced Fall Damage Curve

• Reduced cost of Horseshoe Crab and food that includes Horseshoe Crab

• Balance update for the Cerim Crucible boss

• Changed Corpse-Smeared Blade starting from Tier 2 to Tier 1

 

Loot Changes:

• Introduced more Weapons into Fillmore's Pre-Sacrament Loot Table

• Reduced Drop Rate of Fallen Embers

 

Stability:

• Fixed crash that could occur when quitting out to the main menu Bug Fixes:

• Improved inventory navigation

• Fixed jump at Potion Seller Cave so you can’t miss the jump when executed correctly

• Blocked off an out of bounds area of Nameless Pass

• Removed lingering dev tools

[stepee]

Sounds like some good stuff. I could definitely see this game being quite great if they steer it down the right path. It will be interesting to watch the battle between challenge and fun factor.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

[stepee]

There’s been a few patches and things are getting better. I’ve even beaten the first boss and made it to the major city hub! I think this game will be quite spectacular when it’s done.  

 

Performance seems better on deck and the new zoomed in view helps too. Getting closer there, but still had two really bad crashes where it crashed the entire unit so will be giving it more time before returning on there.

 

On my desktop actually seems like a pretty solid experience right now though it will be nice once that dlss gets in.

 

Overall things have gotten a little more fair and it’s easier to have a good time now.

[Best]

What is the consensus on this? Anybody play it recently. I went to play it on my deck and it needs to download patches I assume. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

On 7/5/2024 at 7:37 PM, Best said:

What is the consensus on this? Anybody play it recently. I went to play it on my deck and it needs to download patches I assume. 

 

I played it last on May 26 (just after the release of the second major Early Access patch) and overall put 61 hours into the Early Access content, largely because I'm absolutely terrible at the game

 

What relatively little content currently exists in Early Access (and believe me, there is VERY little content at this stage!) is pretty damned absorbing, even if the combat itself is a bit tough (but fair!), and I thought the performance was more than adequate on my aging gaming PC.  The absolutely captivating art direction really is the standout feature of this game and that in and of itself compelled me to explore as much of the game world was available to me at this point in its development.

 

This brings me to what I see is the main issue facing this game: the ability of Moon Studios (the developer) to actually finish it.  The game was originally being published by the Private Division arm of Take-Two Interactive.  However, Take-Two is in the process of "quietly" either selling off or closing Private Division which needless to say doesn't represent a positive development for the future of either Moon Studios or this game.  There is another Early Access update currently scheduled for July 25, but it's for the Crucible end-game content rather than more story/campaign content. 

 

Moon Studios has promised to share its updated Early Access Roadmap in the "near future", but the fact of the matter is that there's a lot of uncertainty surrounding this game's future currently.

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[XxEvil AshxX]

So wait... @Commissar SFLUFAN just said in a post at the beginning of the month that there is very little content so far, but they're patching in end-game content? I'm confused. Is the story complete, or isn't it? If so, how long is the story campaign before you're left looking for endgame stuff to do?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

6 minutes ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

So wait... @Commissar SFLUFAN just said in a post at the beginning of the month that there is very little content so far, but they're patching in end-game content? I'm confused. Is the story complete, or isn't it? If so, how long is the story campaign before you're left looking for endgame stuff to do?

 

That's correct - the Early Access release contains about 25% of the story campaign content, but does contain "The Crucible" end-game content which you could play now if you're willing to grind for hours upon hours in the overworld to even have a remote chance of making progress.