By all means, please, please do. Just for the sake of me not thinking I'm crazy. It can't just be me that feels that rather than the snappy, intuitive, mobile-friendly feel of the tap controls, the joystick feels unresponsive and clunky. I sincerely and selfishly wish there was a timeline where 11 bit didn't soft launch this, but instead let everyone weigh in at the same time before all the complaints about a lack of joystick (from all of us who didn't try it) started piling in. Also, why do I keep switching accounts between posts in this thread!?
Really liking it so far, and definitely glad they added the joystick option. Tap to move is definitely fine and not game breaking by any means, but the button controls just feel a lot better IMO. Only issue so far is that I can’t get cloud saves working, it just says “can’t connect to iCloud” whenever I launch the game, anyone else seeing this issue?
Please though, get further into the game when the combat gets more demanding and revisit these thoughts. Maybe you’ll still think the same, but I think there’s a chance you could change your mind.
Oh yeah, those were very, very early impressions. I just worry that the joystick's not gonna hold up later. We'll see.
@Talbs I just give them a go and found it harder and more awkward to use, the only bonus felt like being able to hold my shield up and move at the same time which I guess I can do with touch if I use two hands? I haven’t tried. I can see why people would like the virtual controls but I feel like it just clutters the UI and makes things more tedious for the sake of familiarity. I just played again and feel the same but I’m not that far in so we shall see. But hey the options there for us all so everyone should be happy! I’m surprised how easily I’m making gold although I fill my bag so quickly and don’t spend that long in the dungeons I’ve already had the green slime show up and I got out just in time.
Wow for $12 I hope the rest of this game is a lot better than the tutorial. I get that everyone has to make kewl pixel games these days but if your tutorial is unintelligible than maybe put some text on the screen to tell people what to do. Every illustration looks identical to the last - what are you supposed to do on the 4th screen with the purple guy with the shield looking icon? Jesus this is annoying
I found it pretty easy to follow, not sure what was on the 4th screen. I remember a green guy with a shield during the tutorial that you had to roll past and then just exit the door on the other side.
Well IMO, and we’re all going to have our opinion, I’ve now played a fair bit with both and in my opinion, the virtual controls re-instate the layer of combat tactics that the I felt the game had when I played on Switch. For the 3 or so hours I played with the auto attack tap to move controls, combat just felt like a simulation. And I either couldn’t or found it very difficult to kite, run around, pick off certain enemies, duck behind objects, and hit from behind, because the tap to move and auto meant that your guy was just constantly running at the enemy. I can also do other stuff better like hang back and wait for enemies to get away from ledges/holes so when I kill them they don’t drop all there loot down there. OR, I can easily stand distant and make an enemy trigger their attack but miss, and then run around the back and hit them from behind. Doing any of this with tap controls is possible, but IMO takes way more frantic tapping on the screen to get yourself in position and then tap again to target the enemy. There’s just stuff like this that is hidden away if you just use the tap controls. The joystick restores that full control. And now the game feels closer to the switch version. i also have a weird sneaking suspicion that they’ve gimped the enemies when in tap to move controls, or that that control regime makes the game easier, but for me, not more enjoyable. I get the impression that a lot of the enemies weren’t designed for you to just sit in front of them like the tap + auto will have you do. I find that Tap + auto attack + then hold the shield button when needing to block, seems to defeat most enemies easier. The golem bosses seem to get gimped if you stay up close and just auto attack and hold block just when needed. Trying these same bosses with the new joystick controls I find the fights are tougher if you move around because they’ll fire off their other ranged attack pattern. While it’s essentially tougher, it feels restored back to what the game was designed for, and you need to learn all of the enemies attack patterns so you can move around, kite, feint, etc as designed. It’s weird, but I’ve now been finding that yeh, there’s just so much more tactical movement available when using the joystick and buttons, like I just explained, though admittedly it’s difficult to execute, but feels much closer to the experience on switch. With the tap to move controls, I feel like you’re either in autopilot for the combat, or awkwardly moving your hand around the screen trying to get away. I play on an Xs Max and I’m just not a fan of having to tap absolutely everywhere on the screen in order to move around. The virtual buttons now allow my hands to stay in one position just like all games of this kind. Let alone, I can’t see how anyone on an ipad would enjoy moving their hand around the screen for tap to move. anyway, as you say, each to their own.
I picked up the game based off of pocket tactics 9/10 rating. I have to say I’m really enjoying it so far, it’s giving me a wayward souls kind of vibe and I’m having loads of fun trying out all the different weapons so far
@Havelcek I’m using touch but I may try virtual again. @Talbs I can understand that reasoning, it hasn’t felt like I need to be that precise yet and I get the bit about keeping running towards the enemy but with the block and swipe dodge it hasn’t been a problem. Although if I changed weapon to my broadsword and no longer have a shield I could see it being a problem and I’m extremely close to getting my bow now too but keep missing the one thing I still need! So can’t test with that yet. Although I seen an article say the game is suppose to be played on hard? You’d generally think normal is what it’s built to be played on do you have any idea? As for gimped enemies I don’t think they are as I’ve face golem bosses that don’t use the ranged attack and faced them using them and both were with touch, I think maybe they just differ a bit and not all the mini bosses have the same abilities. But I could definitely see those fights being tougher on touch if you didn’t use a shield. Although I kinda wish if you used virtual that you could enable swipe to dodge still but it doesn’t seem to let you.
Actually there is a swipe to dodge option with virtual. Check the settings. There’s a dodge roll button. However, I’ve found that the swipe is too sensitive as it is enabled for the whole screen and so picks up just slight movements of the left thumbstick as a roll. Try it out.
For me the game is unplayable with an xbox controller. Many commands just dont work. But also without the controller the game is somehow totally buggy. For example when i open my backpack in town i cannot close it again. Im stuck in it forever. I passed the tutorial but now im stuck in the city and cant go on. Im on newest gen of ipad air, so thats not the problem.
@Talbs I did see that there but I tried to turn it on and it didn’t seem to come on when I had the joystick on but maybe I was just tired and being stupid. But from what you said if it’s that sensitive by the joystick I’ll avoid it with that setup anyway. Any preference on weapons for you yet? The spin attack is pretty good on the big sword but that shield is so handy, although I seen bow should always be your second weapon and I can agree with that. Do you have any idea about the ideal difficulty? Are you playing hard?
Yea the interface for the shopkeeping portion of the game is horrible. With dozens of games like this out in the market I don't understand why you have to try to create some new paradigm that frankly doesn't work. I am definitely wishing I didn't spend the money on this one. The gameplay loop is interesting but I just can't see myself fighting with this interface for very long.
