E3 Demo Feedback for the developer's team

I finished several runs of the E3 demo, so here's my feedback before I forget.
 This is not written in any particular order, so I apologize if this seems disorganized.  I'm trying to get it out of my head and into the forum before I can't remember it.

First, I love this demo overall! The music is catchy. The graphics and art look good. The UI is pretty clean. The gameplay is fairly solid. I'm looking forward to the beta and full release now more than ever. Great job! Bravo!

That said, I do have some observations besides pure praise.


Jump Disallows Attack (on Controller)
It seems that if you hold the jump button, you cannot attack (the attack button does nothing). This is not true for shard abilities. You can hold the jump button and activate shard abilities just fine. This behavior is more forgiving with kicks than with the sword. Trying to hit those purple flame lanterns was required pretty precise timing with the sword (it was slightly easier to kick them).  I'm not sure if this is intended, but since you can jump and use shards just fine, it seems like an input/control bug.

After writing the above paragraph, I went back and re-tested.  This problem occurs when using my controller, a Logitech Dual Action (an HID/DirectInput controller, not XInput).  This same problem does not occur when using the default keyboard and mouse controls (space for jump and mouse left-click for attack).  So perhaps this is simply an issue with using a non-XInput controller?  I will try to re-test this later using an Xbox 360 controller or an XInput emulator.

Edit: Everything seems to work fine on an Xbox 360 controller.

Attack Direction (or "Range of Motion on Weapons")
In the demo, we only have a few attack directions/stances:  standing neutral (Attack), crouching (Down + Attack), crouching forward (Down+Forward + Attack), jumping neutral (Jump, then Attack), jumping forward (Jump, then Down+Forward + Attack - this one's a bit difficult to pull off because of Jump and Attack seemingly conflicting).  If I want to increase my attack's height, I have to use jump.  I'd love to be able to attack upwards while standing (or possibly crouching).  Or perhaps certain weapon types will have different range-of-motion characteristics? Of course, I'm all for keeping the weapon range of motion somewhat limited if other shards/abilities will compensate for it.

Load Times
There seem to be noticeable pauses when some game assets are loaded or processed for the first time, though this does not seem to occur every time.  Some examples of this are shard ability animations, environment items/regions/walls breaking, weapon animations, or the transition into the boss room.  The system I played on had specs above the listed system requirements, so I hope that's not the issue.

Minor Typo
There is a minor typo in the text displayed after acquiring the Head Flail shard.  It reads, "Uses the head of a the headless knight as a flail."  The bold emphasis is mine to show the typo.  The sentence should only use one article, either "a" or "the", here.  Here's a screenshot:

imgur.com/BCPJBoI
i.imgur.com/BCPJBoI.jpg


Out of Reach Map Regions
There are two regions on the map that I could not seem to reach.  One is the upper right portion (about 3x1 blocks) of the first "outside" room.  The other is the upper right portion (about 2x1 blocks) of the last room inside the galleon that has a Dullahammer (lower right part of the map).  For us map completionists, is there a way to reach these in this demo?

A More Detailed Map
Somewhat related to the previous item, I'd like to see a more detailed in-game map.  Perhaps markers for chests, special items, or bosses?  Maybe a display indicating if you've found all items, secrets, or treasures?  Or perhaps make those options for the user to pick their map detail level?

Shader Options
There was a lot of discussion about the shaders for the background and the character.  Is it possible to provide an option, either in-game or out-of-game, to select which shader to use in the game?

Keybinding and Custom Controls
Other have said this, but I will echo it:  being able to set custom keybinds/controls in the final game is a must.

Broader Controller Support
I know for this demo, it was noted in the Kickstarter's Update #40 that, "The demo only works with XInput-compatible controllers."  In the retail version of the game, it would be nice to have in-game support for more controller options.

Audio Output Options
It would be nice to have in-game options to set sound levels for things like Background Music, Voice, Sound Effects, and Ambient Sounds along with Master Volume.  For an example of a game that I think does this well, see Final Fantasy XIV's audio options.  An amazing added bonus would be having the ability to select the sound device to use for audio output.


Phew!  I think I had more, but I can't recall it at the moment.  If any of these needs to be moved or restated in the E3 Demo Bug/Glitch Reports thread, let me know, and I'll repost the bugs there.  Sorry for the absurd length of this post...


Amy has a shard?!  Welp, guess it's time to go back and farm!

What really? I finished the demo with every shard in 29 minutes. Amy was the last one I got, but I only really bothered to try in that last 5 or so minutes. Does the drop rate increase depending on how you kill it? I was using the Seama's water ability since it was low cost and killed it in one hit.

Hi all! Newbie here.
I got my demo this morning and I couldn't be happier

The scenery looks superb, the textures and depth are amazing and Miriam is lovely.
I pretty much concur with many suggestions posted here (back-dash needs some improvement, 3D model in the menu should reflect the changes in the outfit, water attack might need some special fx) so it's not really necessary I repeat them.
Personally what I liked the least was the boss, it does feel a bit too colorful and the desigh a a bit... cheesy? The enormous boobs didn't do it for me xD Maybe this is the feminist in me being annoying but it kind of broke the feel. I don't have anything against boobs or nudity, Castlevania games always had some nudity either as background elements or enemies, but never used it as fanservice. It would be fun (and would make actual sense) if those gigantic boobs would deflate as she throws the water beam, otherwise I don't know, they feel unnecesary and cheesy. I always appreciated the serene beauty (if many times grotesque and disturbing) of the vania games and the occasional absurd elements (the chair room in CoD, the rubber duck or waiter skeleton in AoS, etc etc etc)
It's not like the boss ruins the fun for me nor it's the biggest flaw, but, since the game is at a stage where it can still be improved and everybody pointed the major bugs already, there, I say it xD

Can't wait for the real thing!

sorry i'm currently downloading the demo right now but something bothers me....you can only play with a controller? PC demo and no keyboard??

There is a thread in General Discussions that has the keybindings for the Demo. The controller was just the recommended controller, in fact, I think it is the only controller that works with the demo.

Ok, my feedback is based on gameplay experience, disregarding visuals and out-of-the-game glitches:



First, the physics when falling from a jump feels a bit too heavy, but I'm sure this might've been tweaked in an internal build. The ascension when you jump, and the landing animation (specially from high heights) is beautiful! It really feels like SOTN. The jump height controlled by how much you press the jump button is really charming. So, my final word is that the jump feels a little too heavy when falling and it could use some tweak. Differently from Mighty no.9, where Beck is a robot and this specific behavior is expected, Miriam is a human and the way we're used to these games it feels a tiny little bit out of place to land so heavily. Maybe it has to do with animation, maybe it has to do with physics, but I'd further analyze this aspect.

Second, the background is confusing at times. It took me a while to understand certain platforms. It would be worth reevaluating how physical platforms interact with the background, so we can further distinguish them, but it is ok to trick players in a later phase, specially when you want to deceive secret places (it's a really cool strategy). So, to be brief: rework a little bit the platforms/background so we can distinguish them, but it's ok to trick us when you want to achieve something special.

Third, the moves are very nice thus far. It's by far the most similar aspect from SOTN in my opinion. I didn't feel the kick being to out of place so I'm going to hold my opinion on that, but the sword slash is just awesome! It mimics perfectly the sword weight, as in the way how often you can use it and the animation length, and it's very pretty that it looks so similar to SOTN. I smiled when I attacked with the sword for the first time. The spells are cool aswell. Nicely done!  

Fourth, the monsters are somewhat too "light weight". Maybe I just forgot how 2D works, or how SOTN embodies weight, but the monsters felt like they are made of paper. Not sure why I had this impression, maybe their animation? How they interact with background? I really think something is off with them but honestly I can't point what it is. Hopefully someone will help better in that regard. I noticed this mostly with Seama. They jump too weirdly, and when they climb on the galleon the animation make them look weird aswell. The blue wisp is one of the best mobs I came across, shortly followed by the spinning lion monster. They brought back sweet memories.

Fifth, I see a lot of potential with the shard system, and I love how you're sticking with such similar status concept as you did for SOTN. The shard system is borrowing a very compelling mechanic from Aria of Sorrow/Dawn of Sorrow, so a lot of things can be done, specially when they behave differently as you did. The creativity for this system is endless. Maybe with the way you did it might be a bit too much to have hidden spells besides the active shard spells, but that requires evaluating how they will scale in power and how they'll behave with the scenery and situation. All in all, it's good to see it back.

Small things worth mentioning (it includes critic/feedback to visuals):

• Level-up animation! I saw that before (*hint hint*), and yeah I loved it! (love the concept, needs visual tweaking tho haha)
• A breakable part of the galleon on the uppermost part; just wooooooo!
• When parts of Miriam enter a wall... it shows it shadowed? Felt weird, but it must linger from an internal physics testing.
• I like that the UI is somewhat standard, but secretly I wish that you might want to switch the UX art style for something more painterly like Guild Wars 2.
• I loved the back dash! (wooooooo!)

That's it for now. Hope some of this is useful. Thanks for the demo! I really enjoyed it.

I'd like to say one little thing concerning animations. It's not a bug, so I'll post it here. Miriam doesn't seem to have an animation for standing while not running, so she does the full running turn even when turning in place, and it looks weird. I'm confident this will be addressed. Also, if you keep holding down when falling from a great height, Miriam seems to play the crouching impact animation, then starts standing up, and then immediately goes back down to the crouching position again. Not a game breaking bug or anything, but again, it looks weird.

I'm gonna post something mostly aesthetic, but still:
1. Hitting an enemy with the Dullahammer Shard should carry more oomph. Right it feels as heavy as hitting with the sword.
2. Similarily with dealing the final hit to a boss - there should be some additional thwack when eliminating a monster of that magnitude.

I like the scarf.

First off before I begin, I must say you and your team are doing an absolute fantastic job with this game so far. I got hit with a huge amount of nostalgia just playing this demo last night. It truly felt like what SoTN would of been if released today and more.

Apologies if I say anything that is already in the works to be implemented

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What I loved:

+ The game feels very smooth and felt like I was in full control of the character at all times.

+ Bringing back the ability to learn abilities from monsters like Aria of Sorrow is a welcome return. It is what definitely made Aria/Dawn of Sorrow stand out compared to your previous titles. Also opens a wide variety of play styles and preferences for people. Very good decision to bring this back.

+ The back dash feels amazing. Again with full control, there was no lag to the back dash, making it a very strong mechanic for dodging and getting right back in. I felt very confident taking on bigger enemies knowing it was there.

+ Transition from the artwork to the game itself is very spot on. I was worried at first with the decision to go 2.5D, but similar to the most recent Guilty Gear, you are taking that 2.5D and using the right shaders and color schemes to keep the art style in check. Very good job to your design team.

+ For what little the demo gave, the soundtrack was very good and captures the same feeling we got with your previous Igavania games. Soundtrack has always been spot on in each of your games and glad to see that has not changed at all.

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Now to what I think would be good improvements:

- We really need a mini-map preferably at the top right of the screen. This was something you were able to come across in your previous titles with the DS having two screens, which naturally worked itself out. However, we are back to a one screen game again, and I believe adding a mini-map to the top right of the UI feels necessary at this point. It starts breaking pace when you constantly have to check your map for only smaller details within your area. This was something that was a flaw in SoTN also.

- I noticed when you jump into the next room via vertically, when you jump up into it, it got annoying that you jump up into the next panel and your character does not have much time to gain some air to get to the next platform. It was only a minor annoyance, but a small boost to keep the flow going would be nice.

- This is only a nitpick, but the animation for when you level up is a little longer than ones you have done in the past. Cutting the animation by maybe 1/4 at least so you can keep the flow going. That is assuming we hit levels pretty quick throughout the campaign.

- Miriam does feel a tad heavy. I certainly don't want to see her too floaty, but she does drop to the ground very fast like gravity is against her sometimes. Its no deal breaker or anything, but I think it would be better if she did feel a tad lighter and more agile similar to Shanoa from Order of Ecclesia. Her style of fighting and moving around seems like someone who is more agile, so perhaps this may be a better way to go. Of course don't go too far on it, it feels right for the most part, just maybe a tad hair less heavy.

- I see small graphical hiccups whenever I get up against a wall. Its a demo and to be expected, I just wanted to point it out just in case.

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That is all I have for now. I am definitely going to play the demo again a few more times and if I catch anything I will post it. Again, incredible job team and now I hate even more that I gotta wait till 2017 to play this game.