Here is some Feedback | Lords of the Fallen

hello and welcome to finally another game design discussion video today's game is going to be Lords of the for and I have in front of me a list of things that I like about this game and that I dislike about this game and I'm making this video because first of all I like to talk about video game design especially about the video games that I like to play myself and I like to it's just fun for me to think about things that I would change or how I would change them so I'm using this opportunity because this game is fairly fresh right now I'm using the opportunity to give the developers some feedback and hey maybe they might watch this video maybe not it's fun for me so that's that um I want to start with level design and later on I'm going to talk about different game systems and mechanics um yeah let's just start um I really like the level design without the enemies inside of them in this game I have to differentiate between level design with and without enemies because I have to later on on the negative points I have to talk about the enemy encounters but the level design without the enemies inside of them is just amazing it's basically a more complex Dark Souls 1 design which I really like and what I mean by that is uh in Dark Souls 1 you had this this world that is with levels inside of them that are very much connected to each other so right at the beginning in D SW you could visit different different areas and this feels similar even though right at the beginning it's a fairly linear experience but the more you play the more uh the world is opening up more and more to you and I think that's very good for beginners because well if you have right from the get-go um as many options as you have in Dark Souls 1 you might just actually accidentally choose the wrong ones and in this game there is first of all One path and then it opens up as you're getting more familiar with this game I really like this easing in approach then we also have a lot of shortcuts a a lot of looping back around and it doesn't feel linear at all even though it probably if I if I'm trying to create a map in my mind even though there is some sort of linearity somewhere it doesn't feel that way um now this game has the Umble world as a as a level design as well or as a concept as well where you basically can swap Between Worlds or you you change into the Umble world and all of a sudden you have more paths that you that you can take you have different Puffs you have more enemies also a few items it's basically a it's a puzzle world so to speak I would call it a puzzle World maybe with a risk and reward system because it's quite risky going into umra I'm going to talk about that later under the game system section but overall the umber concept is a pretty nice one um and then the world design I differentiate between level and World design where level level design means for me the physical level the player goes through and I'm measuring it by how fun is it to go through the level how are the items um that you find are they rewarding or is it just junk that you don't need um and also of course level design has to do with the enemies inside of them is it fun to fight these enemies or is it frustrating or something like this and then World design is how the world basically feels and looks it's like does this table in this room make sense or does this path that I'm walking right now on is it just for me as a player or does it surve a a ingame World's purpose and so far I've played through this game once and I'm currently on my second playthrough and I haven't found anything that feels out of place granted I haven't looked in detail at things like I did in elen ring because with elen ring I made a the design off Series where I'm basically just taking one area and I'm having a very detailed look at this area and I haven't done in this game yet but I might do that I'm probably going to do that at some point because I personally like this game and it's fun for me to go through this game itself um and also I really dig the setting that this world is taking place in this Grim dark setting and that's how I would describe it where it's a very religious setting but the religion is not like rainbows and flowers and stuff like this no it's very punishing it's this this Penance type thing and it's a setting that I really like and it's really fun to go through now let's talk about the negative aspects of basically the level or World design that I could find and the biggest one is probably the enemy encounter design where it's a lot of enemies a lot of enemies at once ranged melee Bruiser type enemies that are all attacking the player at the same time and this can be frustrating and it has been frustrating in this game at uh certain points I mean maybe one or two Encounters in like a level is fine but not constantly being bombarded by by hordes of enemies that just where it's more difficult because there are a lot of them rather than because their move sets are challenging and this is what I'm missing here I mean I feel like it's fine to have a lot of of enemies in one level or it's also fine that the player has to fight a lot of enemies at the same time but then this encounter shouldn't be frustrating so I thought to myself what can be done about that without just removing half of the enemies because that's one approach the developers took they took out a few enemies which is definitely a good decision and they've reduced the accuracy of ranged enemies up to this point which is also an amazing um kind of deal um but I think they could have done something what they could have done more with actual melee enemies as well because you still have to fight occasionally more than one enemy and it still feels frustrating luckily for me it's not as frustrating so that I'm not playing this game but it's it's sometimes grinding my gear still and then I'm I'm playing something else for for an hour or so maybe so what can be done um we already have enemies that are talking to each other in the game at least with boss fights um many boss fights where you have multiple enemies fighting you they're not piling up on you they're actually one is attacking you and the other one is staying back and they're doing still something they're still casting ranged spells or something at you but it's more predictable than just a bunch of mil enemies trying to hit you at the same time so there's a me method to these uh to these fights a rhythm basically and why not put something like this into the basic AI um so that and this is just an example if you're fighting multiple enemies at once why not let just one melee enemy attack the player at a time the other one are and I'm calling this now idling they are idling but not just standing around no they're doing still something uh the easiest one are dogs for me because what can dogs do they can bark at the character they can surround the player character basically they can do everything like jumping around or stuff uh they're idling without idling basically they're not hurting the player but they're still applying pressure to which is fine pressure is fine I just don't want to get hit by multiple en enemies at the same time because that feels cheap and I think this idling mechanic where only one Mele enemy can hit the character at a time as an idea they should be trying out they should be trying out how it feels if they can actually pull it off would be amazing or at least tune it down so that it's not as impressive as it is right now then the second thing that I found difficult and I had to correct myself there because I had a wrong image in my mind with the point I'm talking about visual readability of this game but I've been proven Wrong by my most recent um play session so to speak where I I still think the visual readability of this game is quite low because in in many areas it's just so goddamn dark that I can't see what the enem is doing or I can't even see what I'm doing I don't know if this has to do with the calibration of my monitor or if it's just how the game is but sometimes the contrast between between light and dark the contrast is so high that it's very difficult to see what is happening in the dark and sure this can be a powerful tool um basically making the player uncertain about about things that are going on it's basically robbing the player of information that they might need and this can be a powerful tool but I feel like it's not really necessary in a game like this maybe in a horror genre would be better but this is no horror game even though it lands even though it has a lot of horror aspects the only fact or because of the fact that you can actually hurt the enemies is more enough for me that I wouldn't put this into a horror horror JRE because it doesn't feel horrific I'm not feeling anxious about this game right I'm not feeling the same way how I would feel playing a a horror game where uh my only means to defend myself is running away or hiding um so these are the level SL World design aspect that I like and dislike now let's go over to the game systems and mechanics and let me quickly drink something because my throat is getting a bit a bit dry here so uh mechanics that I really like one of them is the withered Health mechanic it creates a very interesting Dynamic where when I'm blocking I'm getting withed health I'm not getting hit but it's like I can't play extremely passive because when I'm constantly blocking when all my health becomes with health then the the slightest points of damage can kill me so I need to be a bit more proactive I need to be a bit more aggressive and it's an elegant solution to that problem where the player just Turtles up I mean technically they could remove um 100% physical block Shields and stuff like this and they did but then what that uh what that one what then the player takes damage when they block and then that doesn't feel good so it's a compromise basically you're blocking the attack you're getting with health you're technically down a few health points but you can regain them which is just a good mechanic overall I think then we have the mechanic where there is no Parry in this game per se but if you perfectly block attacks enough you're increasing the Stagger meter and when the Stagger meter is full or in this case empty the Stagger bar of the enem is empty then you can perform a critical attack and the good thing at least the good thing about this is it's not just a per Fest Where You Are literally critting after critting after critting because you're pairing every single attack um so that is gone the the Parry matter that we for example have in Dark Souls 1 it's very easy to Parry a lot of enemies there for example it's also very rewarding but feels also kind of cheap um and in this game it's like perfect block perfect block perfect block perfect block crit very nice feels feels rewarding putting off something like this of course there are other ways to stagger the enemy um by performing attacks over and over again preferably charged heavy attacks or kicks and stuff like this it also creates a very very fun mechanic or very fun dynamic in the combat system if the combat actually works if you're not getting surrounded by a bunch of enemies that is then I really like what they've done to Casting and ranged combat in this game because finally we have a good mapping of buttons um when you're playing any other from software game where there is Magic like the Dark Souls demon souls uh what is the alen ring of course then you know how casting works you you choose your your spell of you choose your spell on the one uh d-pad button if you're playing with controller you cycle through them and you then you're using just R1 or L1 depends on which hand your catalyst is and you cast that one chosen spell and while it works it's not the best thing if you want to combo certain certain spells into each other um in this game you have one button that you hold down to pull out your your casting tool and then your um your other buttons like your light attack heavy attack and all the XYZ whatever buttons there are on your controller become all of the sudden the Spells granted you can only have a limited amount of spells with you like five I think is the maximum in this game but that's more than enough I think sure it would be nice to have like 9 10 spells with me but most of them I'm not even using and also this creates now a how do I call it a a fun little mini game where where you have to choose which spells to pick if you really if you really don't know what what spells to pick then I guess you have to think a little bit harder about that but yeah casting is very well done in this game I must say then we have very low attack commitment what do I mean by that is when you're attacking your character performs an animation and when this animation is done you can do something else again for example rolling walking queuing another attack stuff like this and low commitment means that this animation is fairly quickly fairly quick and you're you can quickly do something else then we have G like for example um what's it called Monster Hunter where the commitment is very high you are curing an attack and if your positioning is wrong or I don't know the monster does something you're basically screwed right so I really appreciate the slow commitment it's not I mean having a high commitment can be fun but it also can be frustrating and for me personally having a high commitment is is more frustrating than fun so I'm actually happy about the low commitment and doesn't feel like I've heard reviews or com I've seen comments where they say like the commitment is too low you can immediately roll after an attack but it to be honest it doesn't feel much different to uh to Elden ring or Dark Souls 3 the commitment in that these game the commitment there was also fairly low so or maybe it's just me I haven't played Dark Souls 3 in a while so maybe I'm completely wrong with that anyways we also have no durability system in this game and I really appreciate this because honestly I haven't found single Souls like game where durability is a fun mechanic Panic to deal with not even lies of PE where they tried to I don't know what they've tried you have your grinding tool to sharpen your weapon again and then you can also apply Buffs am I missing something about this game I I I don't feel the durability in that game is fun as well or is all of the sudden all of the sudden fun like it's just less tedious than in other Souls games so I don't really get it um what I would much prefer if you want a game with durability with something similar to this why not make it a sharpness gauge where the player is suffering no uh no downsides when the weapon is dull or when the durability SL shortness meters depleted rather than give them Buffs when the bar is full wouldn't that be a much cooler mechanic to deal with like okay when I actually sharpen my weapon it becomes stronger rather than if I'm not repairing my weapon my weapon becomes useless it's like this positive reinforcement thing that I think would work much better like we have something similar in in Monster Hunter But there again if your weapon becomes too dull it's not at its base it's actually pretty weak so it's also a downside in that game it's it has downsides and it has upsides but I would totally get rid of the downsides in my opinion at least try it out and then see how it feels then what I also like that we have no crafting in the game um in end ring they introduced crafting there and it feels like it doesn't feel good in that game to be honest I I don't really like the crafting system more so the crafting material system I I think crafting system is fine there but I don't like the crafting materials I don't like picking them up it feels like you're seeing some rare item because it's glowing purple and then you pick it up and it's just a what what were they call a teror leaf or something like that this is just infuriating um so I'm really glad that there is no crafting in this game because I'm tired of picking something up and then it's just just a crafting material that doesn't feel good of course you can work around that by an ed ring they had a glowe by just removing that glow and putting the [ __ ] plant on the ground like in other areas they they have have the planned model but they still use the purple glow at some points in their game which is just confusing to me so I'm fed up with crafting to be honest um then there is the Rune mechanic in this game where you can slot in up to three runes into your weapon when it's fully upgraded when it's nearly fully upgraded I haven't it doesn't really matter and if this system would work and it would be amazing because it doesn't feel necessary to slot in runes into your weapon you're still powerful enough I feel like at least on your first play through I haven't played new game plus one yet and I'm not going to play new game plus one because I don't like the mechanic they have introduced there but that's for the future I'm not really affected by that um but I really like that you're not um that it's not mandatory to have fun in this game to slau in Ruins um and the runes in this game are actually not as strong as runes in for example elen ring elen ring why am I saying elen ring I was talking about bloodborne for example um and bloodborne they had the the blood stones or whatever they were called and you had to farm them in very difficult jealous Dungeons and they would Grant you a massive boost to your DPS granted they're not necessary uh necessary for your first playr so they're not necessary at all but they give a in my opinion they gave a too big of a boost to ignore them it feels like I'm I'm really weakening Myself by not using blood stones and in this game it doesn't feel as impact which can be bad but it's also good um but also is it just me or are some runes just not working especially the runes that increase your scaling or am I constantly slotting in the wrong runes because I want to increase my Inferno scaling and the game says my attack rating is still the same so I don't know what's going on there but if the Rune system is working then it's a good system if it's not not working then why it's in the game but it should be a good system in theory so um oh no I I'm missing another good thing here um The Dread mechanic while you are in the umbrell realm or the umbrell realm itself as well because it's like a two-edged sword and I really appreciate this it's more dangerous in the umber realm because you're down 18 one life and when you're in the Overworld you have basically when you when you die in the Overworld you are respawning at the same spot in the umber World similar to sakiro where you have two lives or sometimes even three SEC but we are talking about lots of the Fall here and in the umber world you have more enemies respawning enemies or constantly spawning enemies but also you're getting more Vigor and you have the potential of acquiring items that were not visible in the in the normal world in the world of the living and then we have the dread mechanic where when you linger too long in the umbr umbrell realm um tongue breaker or whatever you want to call that there um then the dread meter Rises and you're getting more and more Vigor because the multiplier is rising as well but also the enemies become stronger more stronger enemies spawn and more enemies will spawn and ultimately a boss will spawn and you can no longer heal so you really need to be careful while in the umbrell realm and you're not prepared for that good now let's talk about the things of the game mechanics and and and game systems that I don't really like or find irritating and the biggest one I think is flinching my character is constantly flinching when I'm being attacked even by fairly weak attacks even though I'm wearing a I I like to wear heavy armor even though I'm wearing that heavy armor it doesn't matter I'm I'm constantly flinching and then you have enemies like like spoiler Andreas when you ultimately fight him as a boss he should be a player character model or he has a player character model it's not a big monster he's just a dude that uses a short sword as well I think I think it's a short sword yeah and when you attack him he doesn't Flinch but when he attacks you you constantly Flinch I couldn't get off a single combo without getting flinched so this was probably the most infuriating encounter I had in this game and there are of course some other enemies that are just not flinching as much as I would like them to but that's probably just personal preference in in these cases but oh boy Andreas and also partially the the iron wave far are just horrendous in that regard um then we have enemy damage or or and or your own defense SL HP I don't know what it is but enemies it feels like enemies are dealing too much damage to the player especially if the player is wearing light or medium armor I've tried or in a fairly late game area here Ramy Castle whatever it's called I played with heavy armor and a short sword and a shield no problem but then I found a the the big the grand sword or whatever and I wanted to try that out so I upgraded the sword and I had to drop a few armor pieces or swap them out for lighter armor because I don't want to be in the heavy roll area and all of the sudden I get like two or three shoted by the same enemies that previously like needed like six hits or so and and that felt so bad all of the sudden because I couldn't keep up the sword was just I wasn't used to the sword so it's partially my problem as well but all my fault but holy [ __ ] the difference is Extreme I must say um maybe it's just me but something that I have written down as a negative fear then let's talk about the Vigor acquisition in this game because it feels fairly low like I don't feel like I should farm for Vigor just to upgrade a weapon like I I mean Farm like farm for a fairly long time of course I need to farm at some point but not as much as it's required in this game granted upgrading your character or leveling up your character is a bit cheaper than in in the other Souls games at least it feels like it to me I mean at the beginning it's maybe a bit more than in the soul Styles but later on the uh Viger requirement for higher levels isn't as um as pressing as think isn't as big uh best example is Dark Souls 1 right now where I'm like 60 or so and I need almost 23,000 souls or something or maybe I'm 70 I don't know um and then in this game I still need like 5 six 7,000 so there's a big difference in there in that regard and these numbers are probably totally off but that's how I felt but still the still I'm I'm starving for Vigor especially because upgrade materials are so expensive and the last thing that I quite don't like is how you upgrade your weapon now we are back or now we are at the crafting or upgrade materials not crafting materials what am I talking but it's very strange how many you require because you have a very simple system you can upgrade your weapons to plus 10 like I'm talking about the regular ones right now um and you have four different upgrade materials the small Shard medium Shard large Shard and a enormous Shard let's call it um for level one and two of your weapon you need the small ones for level um 3 to five you need medium ones and then for for 6 to 9 you need the big ones and then of course the final level is the enormous one well that's fine what I find strange is that you need uh just so little small shards in comparison to the big one if I remember correctly it's like for level one it's one small Shard for level two it's two small shards so three in total then for level uh for level three three it's one medium Shard for level four it's two medium shards and for level five it's four medium shards so seven and total three and seven and then for level six you need two big ones for level seven four big ones level eight six big ones and level 9 eight big ones that's 20 in total like what I need 20 large shards and there are fairly rare and they're fairly exp expensive compared to how small amounts of vigor you get from farming granted I'm not farming Vigor with the time three multiplyer or something but like what the you need 20 you need like 20 shards for four level for the last four levels but then only three for level one and two why not just half the the number you need or make it like elen ring where you need um from Level from plus one to plus three small shards uh then that's not like ring ring has too many shards I'm talking about Dark Souls I think why not make it like Dark Souls 3 for example or every other game that far where you need when you go in in like from 1 to three you need the small ones from four to six the medium ones from from 7 to9 the the large ones and then the final one is your super rare super expensive Shard whatever I don't really get why you need this super expensive plus 10 Shard that is extremely rare and you can't buy but I never got that system to begin with and in Dark Souls and stuff why is the titanite slab so goddamn rare don't get it still don't get it in this game but this is my list of things that I like and don't like about this game feel free to write down some comments with your own things that you like or dislike please keep in mind be respectful why are you screaming at the developers it's not like you invested heavily into this game and if you did like whoops my I guess maybe don't do it next time with the next game uh I don't know there there's no need for uh for for offending the developers or not offending what's the world for insulting their developers they're also just people maybe with their own vision and theyve somehow didn't manage to get it across right or it doesn't matter don't be disrespectful uh voice your criticism in a neutral tone be fair be nice and uh that's it for me uh have a good one and goodbye

Channel: BlackYoshi

Views: 555

Keywords: Lords of the Fallen, Design, Feedback, Soulslike

Id: v7L3K9J1iIk

Length: 35min 54sec (2154 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 30 2023