Ok, so I played through a fair bit of content until I decided to delete everything to keep my experience fresh on release.
A couple of observations:
Looks like I mixed up the utility value of Mage vs Alchemist. I valued Mage highly, but I think she only provided good utility in the form of multiple Wizard Eye casts. (minimap spell)
Jump is actually Alchemist Spell. The other good utility spell is Torch, which I found on a Valkyr, don't know if Alchemist has it.
My party for this run was:
- MC Fighter, your generic Strength, Speed, Constitution badboy. MC fighter has Counterattack as its special ability. Girl fighter has some weird "Provide cover for her" ability instead. Best setup is dual wield.
- Max, traps are such a big Game Over threat that you need one Rogue or Hunter character with high (can't remember if it's Speed or Luck) stat to trivialize traps. Also great for picking Bronze Locks. Tried using ranged from backline, but dual wield way better.
- Dervish / Blade Dancer dual wield is way too good for this game's action economy
- Fighter with Morning Star - this has medium range and can hit from backline - this is probably the first slot I'll be looking to replace, just picked her for fewer gear restrictions but most of the time was underwhelming
- Valkyrie - can hit from backline - got the LVL 15 one from seaside town. For some reason Valkyries feel better and better with each playthrough. Used to think they were meh in older runs. Some spears suggest they are capable of proccing a hit on entire enemy rank, haven't seen this occur yet. Maybe only works from frontline.
- I don't remember if this one was Priest or Bishop, could appraise items - got some holy staff early in the game, which meant she could spam autos from the backline for ~50 damage. Not bad, but not amazing either. I only rediscovered special abilities towards the end of my playthrough. Initially got her to cure poisons, but I think Valk Purification can do that too.
Party had way too little magic damage and was getting stalled by incorporeal shit like spirits or even backline casters that I couldn't prioritize.
I think difficulty is a bit all over the place. Most annoying enemies are the ones that stall and keep calling for reinforcements. The counter to that is to have race variety in your party so that these enemies get self-CC'd trying to H-animation a girl of compatible race while the rest of your party mows them down.
Played for about 6-7 hours and was surprised how much content I deliberately avoided because I already knew the plot and wanted to keep myself surprised. I think full version of this game can easily provide 30-40 hours of gameplay, probably even more if you take the time to read all cutscenes. (Unless at some point you pick up the pace, party becomes OP and just start blazing through enemies on autoattack)
I am actually intrigued to know how much the dev hasn't shown us already. There is a monster encyclopedia and an equipment museum that acts as a mini "collection" of seen things, but it's possible that the full version may include new entires.
Some of my takes changed on some of this, but a lot of what you've said is quite similar overall.
The buffed armor value of stuff MC can wear, makes his counter ability (he has it no matter the job, but only him btw) much more useful, in fact, if you forgo anyone evil, making him a lord is quite strong with a guard-all special skill lord gets, letting you counter-demolish lots of things, though he will eat shit very quickly, so give him every max hp barrel you find (also thank fuck the dev put that text on them, i never could remember which barrels were what, lol)
Torch is a priest spell. Priest magic is pretty good overall, having cure paralyze, cure poison, party-wide defense buff (lasts between battles!), torch, aoe heals, raise dead, etc.
Mage spells are much better for combat, and tbh, kindof necessary with the number of spirits and willowisp type shit that is immune to physical just to ruin your day.
Alchemist spells are not all really utility, but the _best utility_ are in alchemy. They do have analyze (identify), repair, & jump, as well as a detect traps spell iirc, so you CAN sub an alchemist for a thief, but you get only so many casts before you're guessing again, and i tihnk it didn't want to work for me.
That's why i like having the classes that kindof dual-purpose, unfortunately, they do gain spells MUCH SLOWER NOW. before it wasn't so bad, but now i've got a wizard on tier 4-5 stuff, and the sorcerer is still lagging in tier 2. so that got nerfed.
Valkyrie has always been good, and they don't have to be spears, they can sword&board it if you want a tankier role for them, but big halberds and glaives do deal more damage and reach through a row. And they get priest spells, so between combat heals and cures, or throwing up the def shield or torch later instead of the main healer burning casts on that stuff.
The option for IDing items without a spell or scroll is usable by anyone, thought it does seem bishops have a decently higher chance to work. It can fail extra hard by giving the character a fear debuff, but it lasts like 10 steps so that's not too bad of a problem, but if they can equip it and it fails, AND it's cursed, it will auto-equip and you'll have to pay to get it off at a store.
An assassin can work for a trap disarmer as well, but you gotta get a shitload of stats for that class, or use the little brown straight thief-only dagger's special release to turn a thief into an assassin (keeps level and stats, ignores alignment restrictions)
Difficulty is kindof spotty, but i tihnk it's because the dev wants us to have some hard stuff in the demo that isn't supposed to be so early, and yes, having one of each race is valuable for stalling out the sex monsters for that very reason. I don't really like the fairy, but those imps are little assholes, and i'd rather they were pawing up her rather than paralyzing everyone, lol.
I feel like str has a higher effect on damage now, in much older demos i felt like it was giving no changes and all the damage rolls were based on the weapon only. Now, i'm seeing ridiculous numbers, like 100+ off weapons i would formerly see dealing 40-60 top-end. This demo feels like stats changed a LOT. Weight is affecting speed less, vit is actually giving noticably more hp, str really buffs your equipment weight limit and that can actually be a hinderance... had a fairy thief go assassin and then not be able to wear shoes cuz she couldn't handle the weight of more than two pieces of slave armor, a ring, an ankh, and two chakrams.
Game'ss gettin crunchier, and i like it. yeah boi.
Edit: I do wish i could set up my MC Lord to do "protect all" and then auto the rest of the team, but auto-attack cancels all previously set actions. :/
I didn't see the salmon-colored "neutral" breastplate being kindof-cursed before, nor did i remember it having a hidden-power release... it changes your alignment to neutral. Interesting. I guess for getting a class and making it compatible with the party?
