Feedback ea - my journey

Conditions:
• Playing it via Geforce Now on TV, the impression is therefore comparable to the console version.
• Control via controller.
• no native speaker, therefore translated via tools
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Graphics:
• Overall, the graphics are very good in appearance.
• Shortcomings primarily lie in the indifferent representation of ground effects.
• Some areas are fundamentally too dark, which significantly affects the visibility of enemies, effects, etc.
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UI:
• The basic concept is coherent and appealing in essential points.
• Generally, the text is too small; a scalable font size would be beneficial.
• Icons for gems are difficult to differentiate; the difference between spirit gem and normal gems is hard to recognize.
• Red text is unreadable due to poor contrast.
• The color scheme for text and background is poorly chosen from a readability perspective.
• Translation into German is inadequate, with duplicate naming of skills and very convoluted descriptions of properties.
• In maps, the description of modifiers is not visible (blue font on moving background).
• The symbols for buffs and debuffs on enemies are too small; they should be larger and ideally scalable.
• Information could be more detailed. The info page about characters could use more elaboration.
Mechanics, Gameplay:
• The game explains far too little; nothing about the entire range of options within the game itself. Mechanics (breach, expedition, etc.) must be learned through trial and error regarding how they work exactly.
• Trials are unsuitable as a requirement for Ascendancy in my opinion. Acceptable for obtaining certain items. This mechanic isn’t fun for me because it takes too long; the penalties are unbalanced, and combinations of various penalties can make runs unsuccessful. What am I supposed to learn from this or how should I improve when non-influential factors are crucial? This mechanic does not respect my time. I’m more or less forced to do trials because of the need of ascendencies.
• Ground effects and death effects are a bad mechanic. Balance is lacking; burning areas are significantly deadlier than shock or ice effects. The rate of life loss is far too high. If individual elite monsters or magical monsters have this effect, okay; however, having it across an entire map feels frankly uninspired. Blood pools from ground effects aren’t recognizable on some maps.
• The campaign is very good and overall well done.
• Maps are generally much too large and overly convoluted.
• Transitioning from campaign to endgame is catastrophic; no explanation provided and mechanics concerning maps contradict what has been conveyed so far. The penalties for dying are excessively punishing—XP loss, map loss, and modifier loss combined feel way too harsh. What design goal does this achieve? As a player, I'm exclusively frustrated by this which leads me to play less frequently or even quit entirely now. I can’t learn anything from my defeats through death. Usually I don’t know why I died—enemies trigger off-screen effects (meteor strikes, hits etc.) that I cannot see (due to environment or being off-screen). Plus modifiers from mobs make especially ranged attacks so deadly that they guarantee death.
• Potential rewards are too few; drop rates are too low with mostly useless items dropping instead.
• Drops from maps feel pointless in their current form. It feels like a mobile game with an energy system right now. Occasionally dropping low-level cards while rarely getting ones at my currently used card level feels frustrating. The Atlas tree focuses on cards but doesn’t match up properly with ratios there either.
• Currency drops also feel insufficient since they’re tied to crafting—crafting becomes moderately feasible at best due to this limitation.
• Crafting isn’t really crafting—it’s pure gambling in its current form which makes no sense at all and relies solely on luck.
• Magic find isn’t good design; it merely masks poor balancing regarding drops.
• There are too many affixes that feel pointless—light radius reductions or X variants of life steal or attribute reduction should be reduced or eliminated altogether.
• Accuracy mechanics aren’t good design either—they're inconsistent as magic doesn’t have them either.
Dodge Roll: The dodge roll serves as a pseudomechanic around which one shouldn’t design a game—it often kills me more than it helps me survive. Large enemies block paths while small enemies (and even some larger ones) move so quickly that rolling just gets you surrounded again almost immediately—it’s lethal! Increased speed seems like the only viable option here as dodging works well against specific bosses but not otherwise.
Speed Issues: Regarding speed—the movement speed of your character relative to enemies doesn’t fit at all—especially when combined with dodge rolls it feels extremely unsatisfactory. +x% movement speed becomes mandatory otherwise boots become essentially worthless.
One-Shot Mechanics: One-shot mechanics represent poor design unless there’s a clear phase during boss fights where it's evident that an attack will wipe out everything—which should be telegraphed clearly beforehand allowing players fair chances at evasion measures (this can work well as seen in Monster Hunter World against Fatalis).
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Endgame Suggestions:
- Eliminate resource maps entirely—allow selection of tile levels instead
- Tiles can be modified using resources (different orbs)
- Towers always feature a boss
- Upon defeat on a tile players may choose which modifier will be removed
- Six attempts per tile
- If all six attempts run out then that tile cannot be completed permanently losing all modifiers (including tower ones); tower modifiers may be restored via table reset (gold or new item). Tile can then again be modified until completion occurs
- If failing on tiles character switching could occur
- This system allows targeting zones with desired mechanics effectively
- XP Loss upon Death; XP loss upon death feels acceptable but should cap at 10%; anything higher feels excessive especially given levels 95 through 100 don’t yield sufficient rewards compared to potential level 95 status
- Elites should always show up on minimaps enabling targeted navigation through maps
- Map sizes need significant reduction alongside redesigns aiming towards reducing dead ends & obstacles
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Crafting Suggestions:
- Improve essence usage focused towards developing specific items effectively
- Essences categorized into three tiers where stacking five/ten produces next higher tier essence—lowest generates an affix from designated pool while highest yields three affixes drawn from similar pool determined by type (magic/ranged/life etc.)
- Gambling elements could adjust modifier heights randomly generating affixes/sensibly incorporating corruption
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Classes:
- Tested all classes except Warrior
- Classes feel unique—which is great!
- Ranger/Sorc/Witch/Monk come across positively
- Merc falls short compared directly against others—in crossbow builds reloading gameplay alongside timed grenade activation proves immersive yet slower compared against other classes making gameplay cumbersome overall
- Build diversity still needs improvement due lack balance between defensive mechanics vs build-defining uniques
- Energy shield remains sole effective defensive measure
- Dodging works semi-reliably—I never know if my evasion value suffices thus randomness persists whether hit occurs leading unfortunate outcomes once struck down!
- Armor simply does not function adequately!
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Talent Trees:
- Convey apparent size yet lacks substance—a lot appears grand without delivering impact
- No nodes exist providing life/mana boosts whatsoever
- Few areas prove useful whilst Ranger/Merc/Monk share nearly identical nodes
- Witch/Sorc similarly utilize almost same nodes though creature differentiation exists—it remains limited
- Activation impacts remain rarely perceivable directly after node engagement!
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Skills:
- Drop rates for levels 19+ gems seem nonexistent
- Medium jeweler orb drop rates remain inadequate
- Perfect jeweler orb drop rates appear absent entirely!
- Explanations provided excellent quality however videos present top-notch content despite textual descriptions often becoming overly complicated
- Management over skills using controllers proves sluggish overall!
- Overleveling offers little benefit when gem drops fail yielding DPS increases!