Steam-samfunn :: Lain

21.7 timer totalt (3.5 timer da anmeldelsen ble skrevet)

I am so bipolar with my review, sorry dev.

For a game made by one person I think it's a solid game with a unique charm to it, albeit really frustrating at times.

Pros:

Unique enemies
Lots of exploration but still streamlined enough so you don't get lost for hours trying to find your way around (just make sure to destroy the 5 red stakes to get rid of the fog wall :))
Combat flows nicely
Silly Lampheads
Yellow Scarf Lady
Bosses are mostly fun once you get the parry window down
Nice music
Surprisingly little bugs, only ran into two. First one was me getting flung into the void (once while staring at a wall, other time while parrying an enemy), second one was me being staggered and receiving damage after hitting an enemy during the endlag of her attack.
Pleasant to look at assuming you can run this game at proper graphics settings.
Active developer

Cons:

Poor optimization. Turning on shadows drops me from 105fps to 65fps (how?).
^Adding to this, places like the Garden before the Palace drop me down to 50-60 even with all settings on lowest.
Horrendous end game scaling (or rather lack thereof). You can reach new areas rather quickly and the difficulty will ramp up exponentially so you better level up that vitality unless you want to die to every combo a boss throws at you (even at max vitality I barely survive most combos, while few will result in death unless you parry)
^Adding onto that, you will be flooded with energy vessels (some may know them as souls or runes) after leaving the Green Roofs District.
Bosses have combos that will stunlock and kill you, even at max vitality.
^Same goes for certain enemies (for example the guy with a pot walking on all fours, he can combo you to death even at max vitality).
Bosses are really aggressive, so it can be hard to find a window to safely heal yourself without taking damage or getting stunlocked to death. This especially applies to Greater Est and her gap closing moves.
If you're gonna have people lose their energy when they rest or disable night mode, at least give a pop-up window asking if they wanna do that. Or just put level up as the first option. Losing your energy to such a simple and avoidable misinput is annoying.
^This has been fixed with the 2.2.10 update.
I do not consider cardio to be part of the boss fight. Specifically Esten Guardian, Third Guardian and Greater Est (1st encounter). Maybe I missed a shortcut somewhere (unlikely though as I glued myself to every wall imaginable) but those 3 definitely had me annoyed. They aren't that bad as you can just run past every enemy, but they are rather lengthy bossruns.
The amount of energy (souls, runes) you can recover from your previous death is just pitiful. From 10k I got 400 back.
^Can't tell if I was tripping back then or if the dev sneakily changed it, but it seems I am now getting the full amount of energy back.
Remove the firecaster tail enemy (I just hate her). If you get hit by her tail swipe you are guaranteed to get hit by her double tail slam. Also her fireball spam makes me wanna die.
The menu/inventory will close if an action you are doing finishes. Can be annoying when using multiple items (namely energy vessels) in a row.
^Tying into that, you cannot use multiple energy vessels at once. Would be a nice QOL change so I don't have to use 15 of them one after another.
Enemies can seemingly shoot through walls if the part that spawns their projectiles is inside it.
^Adding to that, in the arena where you have to kill 2 Firecaster Tail enemies to get rid of a fogwall, they can hit you with their slice attack through the ground on the side opposite of the Esten Guardian. Not sure why it's only that side.
Trying to activate fahcel (your ultimate attack so to speak) is just a pain in the ass. You have to input 3 buttons (ctrl, f, spacebar). Sounds easy but can be really annoying mid-fight as I essentially had to stand still to activate it properly.
Some enemies love spamming their ranged attacks (FIRECASTER TAIL ENEMY I HATE HER).
The constant fire ball spam in Esten Dungeon is annoying, both visually and auditorily.

Neutral:

Honestly, I'm not too sure about the map layout. I went from being surprised at how connected everything is to disliking the complexity as it felt difficult remembering which paths I had already checked, however in the end I still like it and usually exploration is rewarded with main weapons, additional weapons, cosmetics or consumables.
Rough map design, you will see a lot of geometry poking through walls, gaps in stairs that let you see into the void or stuff just not rendering properly etc. (wasn't really an issue for me though, at worst it just seems out of place or effortless).

Suggestions I guess

More weapons. There are currently only 3 main weapons and I wish there were more, as I actually like them.
More cosmetics. There are currently 9 hats and coats each, but only 3 of both make a matching set as far as I can see. Stranger's, Fatter's and Est's. We get the Cellist's coat but no hat, we get Esten Guardian's hat but no coat, we get Hunter's hat but no coat, you get the gist of it. Pretty please :(
More range on the Large Lance of Miriciel would be nice (so I can combo rapier into lance).
More bosses. Despite my seemingly neverending hatred for them I still wish I could have fought more of them.
On the topic of bosses, I feel like some of them might need an ai rework. Very specifically the Greater Est as you can easily just bait her into doing the same 3 hit attack over and over again for easy parries. In her 2nd phase you can very easily bait her large overhead wing slam for easy parries.
Being able to continue sprinting after using the staff without having to press shift again.
The fog when you enable shadows can be really irritating and blinding so removing it would be very much appreciated.

Despite all my ranting I still enjoyed the majority of my time with this game. Rough around the edges but still good, nothing that can't be fixed given some time. Positive review because if it was such a bad game I would have never finished it, much less 100% it.

Publisert 5. oktober 2023. Sist endret 10. oktober 2023.

Var denne anmeldelsen nyttig? Ja Nei Morsom

Utmerkelse

Ikke anbefalt

111.5 timer totalt (3.3 timer da anmeldelsen ble skrevet)

Unironically one of the worst games I've ever played (right before Elden Ring)

Edit: all achievements done, ezpz would never do again 1 Sep @ 12:33am 56.5 hours

Edit 2: input reading the game

Publisert 25. august 2023. Sist endret 13. september 2023.

Var denne anmeldelsen nyttig? Ja Nei Morsom

Utmerkelse

Anbefalt

49.4 timer totalt (35.7 timer da anmeldelsen ble skrevet)

Masterpiece

Publisert 8. juli 2023. Sist endret 9. juli 2023.

Var denne anmeldelsen nyttig? Ja Nei Morsom

Utmerkelse

Anbefalt

27.9 timer totalt

Masterpiece

Publisert 28. mars 2023. Sist endret 10. juli 2024.

Var denne anmeldelsen nyttig? Ja Nei Morsom

Utmerkelse

4 personer syntes denne anmeldelsen var nyttig

Anbefalt

2,386.6 timer totalt (0.5 timer da anmeldelsen ble skrevet)

Amazing

Edit: I've come to realize that this is the English dub. Following that discovery this review has been updated to a negative one.

Edit 2: Okay, maybe it's not that bad.

Publisert 20. august 2022. Sist endret 14. juli 2023.

Var denne anmeldelsen nyttig? Ja Nei Morsom

Utmerkelse

4 personer syntes denne anmeldelsen var nyttig