Okay I had a chance to play this for a bit now. I'd say it's worth the money, especially considering the rather weak market of RPGs on the app store. It's definitely a lot of fun; the core of the game is awesome. The atmosphere is really good, between the tone of the graphics and music. The blocky pixelated-ness of it doesn't matter, because you get lost in this fun little world . But now I must offer some constructive criticism. I don't know whether the devs are still working on this that heavily, or whether they're on to another project, but here it goes: 1) UI design needs an overhaul in my opinion. I realize this is tough given you're using a one-SDK-5-platforms setup, but I think to take this to another level, it needs it from both a UI standpoint, and a UX standpoint. Here are some examples: - app starts with a giant modal popup that talks about 9thdawn.com... why can't this just be a label or something on the main menu? - main menu is cool, but feels quite empty. I realize this is probably because I'm on an iPad and this game has to work on some weird tiny Android phone, but still! Also, the buttons feel like they're butted up too high. - health bar is very tiny, and amidst 3 other bars in the top right, not easy to see in the heat of battle. - Why can't I see my level on or below my EXP bar? A common issue I'm finding is I have to tap and tap and tap just to see common information. - Hotbars are a great idea, along with binding; would be cool if you could swipe the hotbar out however many grid-spaces you wanted, to have permanently on the screen. That way I don't have to open the entire thing... though I guess the bottom bar is intended for more common items/actions. - Why is my inventory separated from equipment? You have to discover that equipment lets you choose from an inventory window itself. Also, why is it so hard to compare gear? (Tap on item, tap on 'i', memorize Attack, go back and back, tap on other item, tap on 'i', compare... see what I mean?). Would be nice if long-press on an item revealed a small tooltip with info. - Why aren't quests a more integral part of the HUD/UI? I ended up binding my quest-book to the bottom bar (after I learned that I could even do that). In fact, it would be nice if a few things were binded for you at the start; I was actually going into inventory to eat apples/potions for the first 30 mins of this game lol. - When you level, you have to remember to go to Attributes and spend the points. There's no reminder like Diablo 2 had (with the red [+] on screen). - Overall I think there's too many modal popups, where you could use small tooltip panels. 2) Controls: I'm a hugely anti virtual-joystick person, but they weren't bad in this game. I guess I would lean towards tap-to-move overall, though both systems have their flaws. Well, in this game we're already having to tap on chests and item-drops, so it's not a huge stretch (other than coding some path-finding for the hero!). - The bigger issue I had here is actually with attacking. I have only played as the Knight so far, but I found myself constantly missing (on the right virtual-joystick) because my finger had moved. Turning on floating joysticks was a massive improvement though! I hope people find that out, because it was very nice being able to basically swipe-attack using the floating mode. 3) Fog of war is kind of strange. I'd say the game would look and feel better without it (and probably run better not having to calculate line of sight). I think the light radius is awesome, but watching a black grid of squares flicker around is not that sexy looking. 4) Information... is there some way to understand the minutia of the stat and skill systems? Like what does level 12 in Spears mean exactly? Just that I can use level 12 Spears? Or does my damage go up? There's no tooltip or anything for these. Same goes for attack and whatnot. 5) Is there a reason that silver, which I gather is the defacto currency, is not a part of the UI? (Like gold in Diablo 2 and onward). Diablo 1 had it as an item, but they clearly 'fixed' that haha. Also, then you could at least make it auto-pickup That's all I got for now. Keep up the great work, I love games like this. There's a good heart and soul here, and that's the most important thing
I started using the mage and haven't stopped but am thinking of getting another game going with the archer. I really like the projectile mechanic.
I think fog of war would have been better if only areas you had never been in were shown as black when there's no line of sight. For areas that you have already surveyed, the game should at least show you the architecture and layout from the hero's "memory", and only movement of enemies should be hidden.
First game I picked up on launch week in a while. Fun expansive game even though I'm only 20 minutes in. Fun stuff with loot. Main complaint is I wish there is a gamma control to make the game brighter...don't want to turn up brightness just for one game. But that's just being nitpicky.
A number of notable frustrations for me early in the game, nothing I can't look past considering the games charms. Overall, enjoyable.
At first i thought 'yeah its a bit dark' but it seems to have night/day a bit like the old Ultima games I'm glad its the way it is, if you've already seen an area it wouldnt be the same if it was bright all over. Going back to the same area doesnt mean its the same, there'll still be other monsters etc. If movement of the enemies were hidden it would be a bit bizarre and frustrating if one just appeard. Think overall its a great game, dev seems very approachable as well, game of the week for sure in my view
Just picked this up- looking pretty good, but I don't know what kind of options I should equip. I am using an iPad, so should I use 'tablet mode'? What other options do you suggest I toggle?
I've found a bug, i guess. Once u delete a character u aren't able to make a new one with the same name as the old one. I had to manually delete the character folder inside the documents folder. Also, i suggesting to re-write the descriptions of some stats. The description for strenght says "increase damage for meele weapons" or something like that, so i invested several points in that stat to rise my dagger dmg...well, but dex is the main stat for rising dagger dmg >.< In the end i had to start a new game cuz of that. Plus, there is no info about dex also rises movement speed.
Oh, I just re-read my post. I did not mention that obviously the revealed areas would be seen as if in shadow/shaded when they are out of LoS. That was implied.
I don't even know how to delete a character lol. You DO know that Nevi tells you a bunch of stuff, right? And that in the 'attributes' tab, it DOES say dexterity increases movement speed
Oops, my bad, u are right. It does indeed say it adds to movement speed >.< Nevi? Who the f* is Nevi? U can delete characters by access the options in the main screen and tap on the right where it says "delete characters"
Ah thanks. In the very first town- there is a weird red symbol on the ground (a spawn point), and next to it is a floating light (a fairy thing). That's Nevi. It will tell you all about the classes and the stats etc. just a little déjà vu from the legend of zelda ..."hey, look, listen" "shut up Navi!" P.S. prepare yourself for an information workout- the fairy has a lot of dialogue.
Yeah.. Playing at home at nighttime it's fine. But when the environment is bright (ie: middle of the afternoon, in the mall waiting for the wife, etc...), I'd have to crank up the brightness setting..which leads to faster battery drain. I'm one of this people I usually leave the brightness setting at 10-20% to save on battery..especially if I go out. Otherwise..big are there a ton of stuff to discover. I love dual stick shooters so stated out as a archer. In some ways, I like how the aiming system works here (I turned off the inverted setting)..kinda feels like a modified aiming system of Mushihimesama Bug panic. Can't wait till the weekend to have more time to dive into this for extended session. Sometimes I'm so tired after work..makes it hard to play RPGs and complete quests when I'm half asleep and missing the dialogue when I receive quests. ;-)
I like the continued fog of war that creeps back over anything not in your line of sight. The minimap in the overworld shows geography well and the line of sight feels atmospheric to me. Yes, sell gear for other classes. As a warrior there's nothing you can do with puny mage gear; even if you could equipt the stuff it'd likely be defensively inferior and would boost stats not favorable to your brawny character development.
I'm still following this game. I read several pages back from the dev that there was some zooming as an option or something. Can someone (especially with an iPhone/iPodTouch 4th gen, or heck even iphone5) take and post a screenshot to show the detail when it's zoomed in? Heck two shots of the same scene zoomed and not-zoomed would be even better. I'm close to getting off the fence.
