E3 Demo Feedback for the developer's team

Ok I played drought the demo and these are my findings:

Positive:

1- Using the environment to solve puzzles like cannons was good.
2- Breakable walls that either reveal a passage or a item was there.
3- The concept of magical shards was good and it's similar to the souls on Aria and Dawn of Sorrow and the Glyph in Order of Ecclesia. Returning features is not necessarily a bad thing after all.
4- The equipment suits Miriam well and I liked that some of them was visible on the character.
5- Some monsters at least have 2 or 3 death animations.
6- I like the menu interface and the icons are well drawn and detailed. It reminds me a bit of the old menu that Nihon Falcom used on some of their games like Ys I&II Complete for example and it's very appealing to me.
7- I like the Level Up font used.
8- The running on water sound was ok

Negative:

1- Miriam clip over things like walls, this may be the effect of using perspective projection. For the walls you may have to limit how close she can get to one and when she slides near a wall or a object like a box make her foot create a limit so her legs don't go thought objects.
2- Lack of Vsync and triple buffering options (Maybe these will hopefully be added to the final product.)
3- The splashing sound when you fall in water when jumping sounds weird.

Neutral:

1- Add more death animations to monsters based on the attack used. Morte's head chops the same way when it's killed with kicks and swords and gets destroyed the same regardless of the shard magic used. (See my thread about death animations)
2- Is there a reason why almost all monsters have the extra death animation of burning away?

So far I'm pleased with the results so I think that's it for now. If I find more stuff I will add them here.

You can, but the animation is very similar to the standard jump kick only tilting her foot at and angle. I was referring more to the animation itself from Symphony of the Night not necessarily the ability to perform it as I did find it myself while playing the demo.

From things people already commented on:
I like the stats as they are, they don't need to be simplified for me.
I like the sames of the different shard as they are, they don't need to be renamed unless the effective or familir shards are such a departure from expectations that they don't make any sense.

Pros:
Directional shard using the right stick and right trigger is one of the most pleasing things I have done in a 2D game in a long time and made a very strong impression. Miriam's poses and the spell animations are wonderful. Thank you.
Obtaining new shards animation is great, please keep it as it is.
Miriam's Scarf is wonderful and I hope that it gets the dress up system treatment. I don't personally care if scarves give stats or if they are purely for visual aesthetics so long as you can vary them over the course of the game. I most want a version of the twilight cloak from SoTN for a translucent glow as an option.
The dress up on the head piece and kung fu shoes were also nice touches. These is the kind of details that really makes me love a game and makes it more memorable for me so please keep at it.
Monster death animations are good. That they change depending on how you kill them is great! Please feel free to push some of the death animations over the top. Those are still very vivid from SoTN and I gladly welcome that back.

Cons:
After the first shard of a particular enemy is obtained, you continue to get procs for acquisition. This currently confuses me since it doesn't seem to level the abilities up or cause any notable event. So long as there is some kind of significance in the game, then it can stay exactly as it is.
I don't like Miriam's right shoulder costuming. She has integrated plate on cloth and i feel like that shoulder would be a plate shoulder with the cloth sleeve coming out of it. The cloth shoulder is puffy and in the damp environment that the demo is in, would most likely be plastered, uncomfortably, to Miriam's shoulder. Considering her other shoulder is bare, I would assume she would want something more heavy duty for the added utility of being able to shoulder tackle something.

Suggestions:
It's unclear what the second line in the equip screen for the weapon section is for. I assume there will be a shield or dual wield option at some point and that it will be utilized for that. If not, please delete it because that would drive me crazy, I would think I was missing something the entire game.
I would like there to be some specialized moves for weapons like the down attack while in the air with fist weapons that allows you to jump off enemies heads or the down to forward attacks that many notable weapons like the Alucard Sword had in SoTN.
Please have a well detailed bestiary that includes the amount of times you have slain an enemy. Please put a mandatory drop number on shards so that people will not run into the situation where they have been farming X for an entire day and they are as close to getting it as when they started. I don't personally care if that number is 1000+ if you deem that is the number, I just want to know that I'll be getting it eventually with certainty.
The enemies could be more difficult. This is obviously a small sampling, so it's unfair to judge the entirety of the game on a small part. I would be delighted if there was a hard mode that made enemies AI more unpleasant to deal with or if they were just mean to begin with.

I've seen negative feedback from people on social media about the boss of the demo because it's a weird tentacle monster with pregnant-esque jiggle breasts and a mouth stomach. I just don't think some people realize how weird Japanese games that deal with demons can get and I think that kind of boss is part of the experience. This is definitely a part of the game I thought I was funding on kickstarter and so my expectations are being met. Please continue making this game as it is, it is exactly what I want to play. Thank you again.

Finally found time to check out the demo.  Everything I hoped it would be.  Everyone has pretty well covered my pros/cons list, but I didn't see any mention of the attack animations.  I love the animation and feel of the kick (especially the way she recoils her leg for a follow up attack) but while I was wailing on the boss at the end I thought it would be nice to see a couple of alternate animations.  Set them up to attack in the same timing and strike the same hit box, but mix in a spinning back kick or (my personal favorite) a question mark kick just so it doesn't seem so bland/repetitive.  The same could be done for other weapons (or not, it could be something exclusive to melee attacks) but I feel like it would really gives the player a sense of badassery when platforming while fighting to see variations in their attacks.

The demo looks and feels great. My only real concern is that the level design and enemy placement feels bland and repetitive. Admittedly, for me, that's kind a big deal. It didn't stop me from enjoying the demo, but there's a lot of empty hallways and "shelves" holding an enemy or two on it that you slash once and never think about again. It reminds me of Portrait Of Ruin, and I don't think that's a good thing.

I feel like the level design could do with positioning enemies in places that make them interesting/challenging to fight, kind of like how the classic Castlevanias did it. Off the top of my head, I think a lot about how skeletons were placed in Level 3 of Castlevania 1. The first one's places above you in a spot where it's hard for him to be effective (he has to constantly jump around between platforms, preventing him from attacking much), then as the stage goes on, he's placed in spots that further play into his strengths, such as below you, and in the case of Level 5, on a higher floor, allowing him to rain bones on you as you struggle to get up the stairs.

Like, changing the environment can greatly help with how effective, interesting, and varied the enemies can become, and this is without considering how you can combine two enemies in such a way that they synergize with each other as well, creating unique scenarios.

That's... really my only complaint. To my understanding, this ship area is supposed to be early in the game, so I shouldn't expect anything too crazy. But I think it would benefit wonderfully from more deliberate enemy positioning, and perhaps changing the layout here and there to accommodate that.

My only concern in the demo was that the first room(s) in the Galleon "Minerva" hurt my eyes badly as it was my first time playing. Maybe there was too many little details that I wasn't used to in the first sight. I think the backgrounds stabilized and were easier to explore after some time. I know this is just a little detail but I think throwing you in a scene full of little details at first sight isn't the best way to start. Maybe there should be some darker section first where you get used to the game's pace.. Like some inner room or something.

My overall feeling is that this game will be pure AWESOME.

Overall, I liked it a lot. The character models look really nice, and Miriam controls really well. I like the music and the sounds are nice as well.
The only suggestions that I have are:

1. I feel that her attacks should be a bit faster. They feel slow compared to your previous work.

2. her slide should go a little further.

3. Her turning doesn't seem quite as responsive as it should be. For example, pressing backward and then attack to slash behind you often results in you slashing in the wrong direction (forward) as her turn didn't register yet.

That's it. It's coming along really nicely, and I enjoyed my time with the demo. Keep up the excellent work!

I play with Keyboard and I can't find the "analog movement".

If for keyboard users, there are no "analog movement", then I propose this as an "analog movement": Clicking the mousewheel and moving the mouse as an analog stick.

Played to completion this time and more thoughts:

When Miriam gets hit the animation should be improved so she gets hit and does a recovery back roll, right now it looks kinda janky.
When Miriam dies it should have more of an effect instead of covering the screen; like she should shatter into glass.
Collecting roses should leave petals effect, and some kind of sparkle when collecting coin.
Dust/water effects on walking/landing, walking in water sound effect needs work sounds rough.
Miriam's hair/skirt should move somewhat with physics.
Miriam should maintain stance with weapon or the weapon should disappear with magical effect.
Turning left and right in place does not look good and is slugglish feeling.

Possibly have most weapons have a slow attack and a fast attack (a version that hits faster at lower damage or a single hit that does more damage) ; like with her kicks she should be able to mash the attack button and do a barrage of kicks like Chun Li especially after jumping or like Valmanway but less over powered as you'll be locked into place.


Please put a forward dash by holding forward on the d-pad+dash button. Allow from backdash state to cancel into forward dash and allow it to be cancelled into anything besides another forward dash.