Re: Malise and the Machine (New RPG!)
After this second demo I figured i would chime in with a few opinions. Honestly most of the UI and battle problems/annoyances were more or less fixed, and im sure the tetra system will improve upon it further. And while it is a bit hard to judge without ways to remove lust, couple things i found with the battle system:
1) Grapple progression feels too fast, gives little time to enjoy each stage especially with how fast paced the battles are (though the slowdown did help a tad with this). Kinda feels like enemies just go from zero to finished in no time flat, and dont really "enjoy themselves" with the heroines so to speak. Just kind of a bam, bam, bam, done in 20 seconds.
I feel like after the grapple phase, enemies should consume extra rounds in their level 1 and/or level 2 phases (y'know, for pleasure), dealing segmented lust damage (the total damage can be the same, but now its broken up a bit), have a moan or sex noises in there as well. Its a pretty simple addition i think that wouldnt really add extra work, but i think could add quite and give you more balance parameters to work with. For example:
- Can play with how fast the bar fills per extra round, and how many times it fills before switching to the next level (which can vary per enemy)
- Gives you more room to play with the lust/damage numbers, and can make enemies more unique in how they use those rounds (and consequently the players strategy in breaking out of holds). For example, vorepups could add to the players struggle bar each mini round they take in engorge lvl 1 and 2, to make it harder for a basic struggle out without abilities and to keep the player in place for the OHKO finisher (or maybe they spend a lot of extra rounds engorging to balance the fact that its a OHKO), while another enemy or H-Chain might start stacking on incremental status effects, or have a chance to disable a hold break skill each time. Or just simply do more overall lust damage. Doesnt have to be overly complicated or anything but can give enemies a lot of extra flair or change the way you deal with them if you dont break the grapple or let them stay on you for too long.
- Lets you play H-chain progression length and smoothes it out so enemies feel more like they are actually building up to that finisher. instead of a pose change every 5 seconds and finished in 20.
- More opportunities to play yummy noises and sound effects!
But yeah, that was my one thing that i really noticed as i played; H progression was too quick to the finisher and in big blocks. But rather than add extra phases with pose changes i felt something like this could smooth it out with no/little extra work on your end. Again, just my opinion on it. Would rather have this than you slowing down the enemy action bar further.
2) Keep struggle bar progress on-screen (but maybe fade it out when its not that characters turn). Lets you keep tabs on how much is left more easily, something that is super easy to lose track despite how short its off the screen for. I know it still shows on the tiny bars at the bottom, but the more you can keep us looking up and at the action the better i think.
3) I still feel like lust builds a bit too quick. Maybe add something like a sensitivity level, that way the first time it gets filled it takes quite a while and they are fairly resistant to it, but as they have H attacks done to them it increases their sensitivity or decreases their resistance or w/e, and so even if you empty the gauge it will refill easier and easier. Would add to a players long term lust management for that stage/area as well. Would have to decide what things add to your sensitivity (maybe even add a more rare item that can lower it for longer levels?), though i would imagine being subject to a finisher would always add one. (could even be an enemy types specialty, to add sensitivity quicker than normal).
4) Game is epic and i love it, keep it up!
