I am currently working on my first game in Godot. The reason I came up with the idea for it was really wishing for a specific kind of game, that I have never seen before. My two favorite game series always have been Pokemon and the Souls games. It may sound strange but I kind of fell in love with the idea to build a game which combines these worlds:
the turn-based statistic-driven combat from Pokemon
the very difficult fights, but being able to learn and understand them
As I am in the progression of developing it, I notice how hard it is to combine these two very different games. But now I have a very early stage of the combat system, ready to test.
As you now understand what the principle of the game should be, I will not give any more information I hope that there are some people who are curious, try it and give me honest feedback. It would mean the world to me!
You seem to be off to a good start. Itâs not my kind of game, so I donât see myself playing it beyond this initial impression, but it has promise for people who like to play that kind of game.
I think you have a good sandbox to test with, and the combat is already quite functional. I do have some thoughts about the basic mechanics, and how they relate to the Souls-like skill element.
Letting the player go first, without an indication of what the enemy will do, takes away the tactical side of the playerâs decision. If you let the enemy show their intent first (as in most games), the player can make an educated decision, based on skill rather than chance. As I understand it, thatâs how Souls works - skill is essential to win, and there is little to no randomness.
The same goes for chance% effects like parrying - it may not be a bad mechanic for the game, but you should be aware that every bit of randomness takes a little away from the value of the playerâs skill. The more unpredictability there is in a game, a bad player will do comparatively better and a good player will do comparatively worse. It sounds like what you want is complete transparency, where if you die, itâs your fault, and not a bad series of rolls.
Thanks a lot! Maybe you wonât believe it, but that you can see a vision for the game for people who might like this style, already means a lot to me!
I was thinking about enabling the player to really anticipate the enemyâs next move, instead of guessing. First, I thought I can solve it via enemy design and animation, but unfortunately, design of characters and animations is the part of game dev where I really have no skillâŚ
I am trying to reach that goal now, by giving the classes some kind of character through the behavior. I am far from achieving that yet, but that is my vision.
For this weird mix of genres that I am thinking of, this is really where it gets hard. I have to decide, which treats of which genre I will use for which situation. Your message really nailed two of the hardest topics.
Btw if you have any idea or inspiration for me, hit me up!
Have you decided on what the game progression is going to be like? Ie are levels just a sequence of arenas, is there something in between them, how does the player become stronger, that sort of thing.
Just had a go. It was confusing how the enemy would not alert the player that theyâre charging up their heavy attack. I saw the enemy take a parry stance and then instantly heavy me next turn.
I played the Steadfast enemy, but he spammed heals every round and out-healed my damage. He then parried a heavy attack, which Iâd never seen happen before. I thought heavy attacks always broke through. Another annoying factor was when I would charge a heavy but have to rest before I could swing, losing the charge. Enemy then broke through my block. I thought the block was guaranteed to block?
All in all, this didnât feel skill-based like a Soulslike is meant to be. It felt luck-based.
Thank you for playing and leaving your feedback, that means a lot!
Your first topic sounds like a bug, that I have not heard of yet I will dive in and take care of it!
Your further comment is very interesting. I will try to explain why! You sound very frustrated with how the game went for you. And I understand where this is coming from, because thatâs what I imagined to be very realistic when playing the combat system for the first time.
This is the first quite ânegativeâ feedback that I got for it (and believe me I am thankful for it!) and my first thoughts indeed were about arguing why you are wrong:
âNo the steadfast has limited heals, that canât be trueâ
âNo, itâs not luck-based there is a strategy against every enemy, you just didnât put in effort to learn it!â
âYes, thatâs what stamina management is all about!â
and so on and so onâŚ
But I quickly realized: It doesnât matter. Because itâs not important that I know the logic, itâs important how it feels for you while playing it. And therefore I am very glad about your comment, your honesty and the time you took to write a comment.
Believe me, I will put in a lot of thoughts to your comment and I will put in a lot of work, so the game doesnât feel like this for other players as well.
I donât usually play turn-based stuff, but hereâs what i thought of the demo:
The Main text requires looking away from the action. I would prefer if the description of stuff happening live was centered, maybe playing like subtitles in a movie.
The shield guy exposes an abuse opportunity for the blocking mechanic. For whatever turn the guy blocks, nothing happens. I suggest you make a small percentage of the damage bleed through or add a round of cooldown, so that neither players nor bots get to cheese the system by blocking 24/7.
I like the tradeoff between hitting single-turn light attacks and taking a hit 1st turn to bypass parry attempts 2nd turn⌠strong attacks do break parry, right?
Youâve got some good art direction going. characters look like they fit with the scenery. I suggest you add some simple shadowing and use some outlining effects to make the sprites pop up a bit more from the background, just as a matter of visual ergonomics.
The turn order is a little confusing. I thought I always went first, so when enemy was low (20), I used a light attack. He crit me first for more damage than I thought was possible (crits are sometimes 50, this time 60) and killed me.
I will dive in and take care of it!