I guess I’m just going to give my thoughts on the way the content is laid out, and address a few bugs I’ve run into.
Sorry if these suggestions seem out of line, or impossible at this stage of development. I mean no disrespect.
-Progression-
Although the linear storyline works, I think it takes away from map exploration and transforms the world into a bit of a “theme park” instead of an “open world.”
I will compare this game to Rangarok Online…
In Ragnarok, your character can start in one of four or five cities, and the world branches out in every direction from them. Dungeons are placed almost at random throughout the world, a pyramid there, an ant den there, the sewers there… And any of them can be tackled whenever you want, so long as you can handle the mobs.
Tree of Savior seems to lay out each dungeon and field in succession, and gives no opportunity of choice – where do you want to level, the desert or the plains? Do you want to find the ruined castle, or delve underground in search of rare monsters? That choice, I think, is very valuable in a game like this. From Klaipeda you only have two exits (three if you count the tutorial area). One thing I do like is the fact that there is a secret dungeon at the bottom of the crystal mines. This is great, that there are reasons to backtrack to previous areas of the game. I hope that dungeons will connect locations on the map in interesting ways, even though the warp system is so prevalent.
-Character-
I’m in love with the class system, it’s brilliant even without complex branching paths. I do hope there will be a bit more customization, but it doesn’t really need it, other than maybe dyes.
There are bugs with many class skills. Ice Blast in particular doesn’t seem to register frozen enemies very well.
The only thing I would change about the way the characters move and act is to equalize the attack speed. Jumping to attack as Wizard is frustrating and looks silly. It also sort of trivializes enemies, since you are always jumping over their attacks. Either remove this, or make an incentive to attacking while on the ground. Maybe grounded attacks do more damage? Maybe grounded attacks have an AoE sort of like Swordsmen?
-Equipment-
I’m sure there will be more rare items in the future!
-Gameplay Flow-
I love the idea of farming with random people, using all your SP, and then sitting around a campfire to regen while talking! The social aspects of the game are doing great, and I think they will translate very well into the release build.
I think the sort of slow EXP progression is perfect. The grind is actually an important part of the game, so that it doesn’t just become a simple questline.
I also like the complexity of the quests, like the purifier quest in the mines, but I think some field quests could be more involved – the voodoo totem quest in Gele Plateau just kind of happens without much thought.
Edit: The grind is all right in a release build, but in this situation, it’s a little frustrating. We only have until Monday! I hope to reach Psychokino within the week, but the going’s a bit slow.
Stamina has no use for any class that isn’t Swordsman. I would like more traversal options available to other characters! Maybe a short range teleport for wizards… Or just give everyone Sprint. I know Stamina goes down slowly when you run, but it never runs out. Only Swordsman runs out of Stamina due to Sprint, and it’s extremely useful.
-Bosses-
They have so much health… It’s a pain to solo. Maybe scale boss health with the amount of people, with 5 people in a party being the norm. If you go into a boss with only one party member, the health should be a little lower.
Although, when you trigger a boss, not every party member joins you. This may be a bug.
I love the idea of “Danmaku”-style bosses, with many projectiles and lasers to dodge, but the random traps are odd and out of place. While I do think they complicate the fights a good amount, they should be better balanced… It must be easy to program them spawning randomly around the player, so maybe it’s too much to ask to specialize the trap placement for each boss. Like, maybe a small maze of Ice Walls could spawn around your character, and you have to navigate it or be frozen?
Edit: I forgot to mention, I hope that previous bosses return in perhaps a lategame arena setting. Maybe teams of players can compete in a boss rush, fighting multiple bosses in a row, to get the best time? With the class system we have, different combinations of classes in a team will have an interesting effect on the clear times. Just a thought!
-Translation-
Definitely unfinished!! I’ve seen a lot of typos and context problems that I would like to be able to correct using the in-game text editor, but I can’t get it to work. It’s too bad, but with this selection process you can’t stop people from vandalizing or putting in junk reports…
-Dungeons/Fields-
Like I said, I think dungeons and fields should be expanded on. More exits from towns, more fields with the same experience level, and quests you can take on no matter what level you are. Say, you want to go to a new town instead of the Miner’s Village. Leave past the Bokor Master’s house, and take a swampy path to a small city with a few quest givers, just for extra content. People who like grinding can enjoy the new fields, and people who like questing can enjoy the new quests, and it solves the pacing issues with EXP that some people are experiencing.
Around level 30 is when a really bad drought of quests comes in… We need a lot more variety in locations and quests, or more rewarding grinding locations to keep people’s attention.
-Communication-
Although I understand the current chat system is totally bugged, I like what you have going on.
The Party chat looks well laid out, but I would like better indication of WHO is in your party, and WHERE they are. Including channel, map, and the indicator on the minimap is very inaccurate, possibly bugged.
While the Private Messaging system is completely broken right now, I noticed that each person’s messaging window is separate. I love this, as most MMOs just have a message feed and it’s up to the user to sort out which messages are from whom. Good work!
To summarize… I think the base gameplay mechanics are amazing, although implementation still has some bugs to get rid of.
The only thing that is an issue is the map variety and choice. A singular questline with little deviation isn’t nearly as interesting as Rangarok’s original presentation.
What is here, however, is beautiful and compelling in its own way.