I finally bought this and I’m surprised how much I’m enjoying it. The final balance pass after the beta did wonders. They made it just easy enough that I feel compelled to keep playing. There’s also plenty of exploration and unlocking new areas to keep me interested. I’m playing this in parallel with Stranger of Paradise and they’re both engaging in their own way.
It still feels like a small regression from the first game, or a sequel that feels a couple years too late. But overall I’m content. I’ll need more time to decide if I’m willing to recommend it to others.
Players will always replenish a minimum number of flasks and ammunition even if they don’t have the materials to craft them. The amounts are the pre-upgraded values.
You can increase the number of flasks by finding upgrade items just like a typical Souls game. I think the default is 4 or 5. That’s not enough to grind through a tough boss fight, but you can always come back later.
Finished it! I ended up pretty hooked on this despite buying Stranger of Paradise at the same time. It felt like comfort food I guess. Unfortunately, NG+ was automatic and I didn’t make a backup of my save. Now I’m kind of turned off by the whole thing.
I bounced off it a little as it was maybe too soon after Elden Ring. I killed the two mages in the first area, but then it seemed the game wanted me to keep chasing and killing them, as the upgrade materials for the armour that bacame available to craft needed mage-minion materials like gel sacs. I may have misunderstood it, but that and some minor clunkiness (UI, hub area requiring lots of walking etc) made me put it on the back burner for a few months. Hopefully it’ll be a good Christmas game.
That’s fair, the beginning is a little confusing and not really compelling. FWIW, you can farm mages for consumables but I rarely felt the need to. Usually killing them once is enough to craft a couple good items, and there are always more mages later.
After you kill them once, they show up at random in the world. It leads to some amusing monster in-fighting.
