Game Rating
At 1.0 release: 9/10
Currently: 9/10
Compliments and Complaints
Compliments
This game is instantly fun, and even at low levels, it feels good (with good kill pacing and game feedback). It plays like any other ARPG, and doesn't require a lot of specific game knowledge to be fun or successful. The ability to change difficulties and reset your character at any time are both a huge plus. The tracker in particular feels great.
The skill building is essentially a miniature puzzle game, that gives an insane amount of variety, as well as another avenue of things to continue to search for to build character power. I believe it is unique to the ARPG genre (though it is visually similar to Undecember's skill grid, and connecting pieces are slightly similar as well).
The game has a ton of features that I believe are unique among ARPGs, including:
The ability to transfer a character between online and offline modes, or switch between cities
A loot filter that automatically sells any items that don't meet the criteria
An always present Battle Log that can tell you tons of information including the DPS of all equipped skills
A death recap will a very high level of detail
The ability to powerlevel your own character in couch co-op (because the other character automatically follows after a brief period of inactivity)
Other quality of life features:
There is an option to skip the campaign.
The difficulty can be changed in the city at any time.
Criticisms
Suggestions
Make the yellow circle on maps that show a quest area adhere to the overlay transparency slider.
Add an indicator on the attribute trees to show that one node from each branch needs to be selected once unlocked. I think making the nodes flash until one is chosen would be the best clue (since it matches other game behaviors that show that something needs to be done).
When looking at a wall of hex fragments, it is difficult to tell what everything is at a glance. Since all hex fragments have a greyish border, can that border instead reflect the type of skill it is? For instance, all character skills could have a magenta border to match what the skills look like in the miniature honeycomb view and in the text right below the skill name in the tooltip. Similarly, all wyrmling skills could have a teal border that matches the miniature honeycomb view and the text right below the skill name in the tooltip. Modifier skill fragments could retain the same border. It would make looking at a wall of fragments in any location visually easier to understand, and would help quickly tell the barbarian cold skills from the wyrmling cold skills.
In the hex fragments window, it mentions being able to have up to 50 floating fragments, but it is unclear what that means (that you can simply drop them in the empty space around the grid). There currently are some red hexagons that appear around a selected hex fragment as you drag it around the area, but it doesn't even match the fact that you can literally place the fragments anywhere. I think that simply leaving a floating fragment for all new characters would be a great hint on how that area can be used.
The skills in the wyrmling skill bar of the hex fragments window is slightly smaller than the character skill bar. At the current size, it is difficult to tell the differences between all of the wyrmling skills equipped (particularly because they already all look so similar). I am not sure if it is important that we can see those skills, but increasing the scale would make it easier. I also wonder if there is a way to show which wyrmling skills work with each skill, like maybe showing the icons above each skill on the bar they are currently linked with. Then you would get a really quick visual way of checking your connections and what might be missing.
The name “adaptive” damage, isn't the easiest to inherently understand, and I wonder if it is better to simply have it say “matches highest elemental damage”.
When in local co-op mode, the item comparison has one item covering the other. Can they either be side by side or stacked vertically (if youwant to preserve the horizontal space)?
Bugs
In the description for the Tracker skill blinding retreat, it says: "the traps explodes" instead of either "the trap explodes", or "the traps explode".
Possible bug: When engaging enemies with the Tracker skill "Treacherous Rain", enemies seem to freeze or stutter for a second before coming to engage. While the skill indicates a slow, it appears like a stun is being applied (though I might just be missing something). I wasn't using shockwave, or any other modifier that I thought could cause the above interaction. It is occurring 100% of the time for me, regardless of mode (online or offline), type of mission (story or war table), map, or party count (solo or with others).
Likely fixed: In the current multiplayer, the quests occasionally lock up in either the story mode, or on the war table.
Tips
You can transfer characters between online and offline mode, and between cities at any time from the main menu by clicking on “Select Your Character”, clicking on the mode (Offline or Online), clicking on the character, clicking the “Transfer” button on the right side, and then in the new window, clicking on the mode (Offline or Online) you want to move them to, and the city.
City EXP:
Panarama views (flyover FMV sequences performed by the wyrmlings)
You can join with two characters from the same computer on either offline or online. Simply open up the game menu, and click on the second option "Add A Local Player", then select which character you want to add from the popup menu in the bottom right corner using the other controller (or keyboard if you are already on a controller).
If your partner in local co-op dies, you will not be able to move past the edge of the screen until you resurrect them.
If the other player doesn't move, they will automatically start following you after 10 seconds. When following, the other character stays about one step behind yours.
When in co-op, if one person triggers a scene change, it applies to both players.
You can tell which players "The Eternal's Gift" belongs to by the icon color on the left (which matches the character aura).
When playing in co-op, players can be resurrected after death by left clicking on them (or hitting the bottom controller button ["A" on Xbox, or "X" on Playstation]).
There is an option to skip the campaign.
The difficulty can be changed in the city at any time.
There is a chest where you can store items, with 3 personal tabs (shared among your characters), and 3 shared tabs (shared among your city).
Next to the chest, there is a hexagonal shaped box where you can store your hex fragments, with 3 personal tabs (shared among your characters), and 3 shared tabs (shared among your city).
When you unlock a branch with attribute points, you still have to choose which bonus from that tier you want.
There is a loot filter that can show or hide items (as with most filters), but there are also two sliders at the bottom that can convert hidden items into gold and potential for the Grand Benedictor.
In the loot filter, there are tabs at the top: one for items and one for hex fragments.
Walkthrough
Chapter 1 quests reside on the starting landmass, and are indicated by a green dragonhead on the right side of the quest name.
Chapter 2 quests reside on the islands to the northwest of the starting land, and are indicated by a blue dragonhead on the right side of the quest name.
There is a point near the end of chapter 1 where you can already start chapter 2 (without having finished chapter 1).
Map Icons
There are several map icons:
Wyrmling = panoramic view
Chest = loot chest
Chalice = City EXP
City
you can customize your city appearance, and give it upgrades
Skills
Each of the four classes has 17 unique skills, and sticks with two elements:
Knight - Fire
Barbarian - physical and ice
Tracker - physical and poison
Oracle - Electric
Additionally, there are four wyrmlings, each of which has 15 skills based on a different element:
Crimson (Fire)
Pale (Ice)
Viridian (poison)
Cobalt (Electric)
The embedded Google Sheet below lists all of the skills and modifiers in the game. It is listed this way so you can easily search all skills at once for a specific detail (keyword, cost, et cetera).
