Sorry it's taken me so long to reply to this. I did not get a notification about your post. I'll reply as best I can.
I downloaded tFtSatA yesterday and while all the mechanics looked promising I can't enjoy the game in its current state. As soon as the game starts the first problem shows up. A room full of potential upgrades and downgrades which expect the player to make tough decisions when they have no idea how any of the mechanics they're altering will work yet. For example the first time round I took the downgrade to weaken Sienna's endurance figuring it's a porn game so I wouldn't want to miss any scenes.
These are really intended to spice up the game for players that are bored with the the first chapters. I'll make a note to simplify the process for new players.
Instead I was treated to a series of game over try again screens
That shouldn't happen so early in the game. I've tried to make it very difficult to die in the tutorial (unless your health runs out). With that said, this is a combat heavy game with hentai elements, so casual hentai gamers will face a steep difficulty curve compared to the usual fare.
and since combat was tough it seemed a good idea to always prioritise the enemy attacking instead of the enemy laying dormant. It was only after a lucky crit that I found out killing the dormant enemy first will gift the player nearly 10x the exp. Why is this? There is no strategy to it as the sleeping enemy never does anything but serve as an additional health pool for the main one. The only difference between having a second enemy offering massive exp and having one enemy with more health which always gives that exp is having two enemies serves as a newbie trap.
This is intended to give the player a choice and make early combat a little more interesting. Do you go ahead and take out the primary threat? Or do you take some extra damage while you grab the bonus exp?
With no knowledge of what ingredients could be used for it seemed I'd be handicapping myself by not pulling up, chopping and mining everything I could. This took far longer than needed since the animation plays out every single time. It may seem less immersive but just playing the sound effect and instantly adding the item to your inventory would be far more convenient.
This will be addressed in the next version, and is actually the thing I'm currently working on. I'm in the middle of replacing every rock in the game. It's a lot of work but I believe everyone will be pleased with the results.
I also managed to fall for another newbie trap by picking the sprite which penalises your mana to give you gems. Since you get this sprite long before the gem pouch that sprite's effect is visibly useless.
Ah. I should have thought of that. I'll make a note to remove that sprite as a possible selection.
- I had fallen for another newbie trap. In that first run warmth was a non-factor so I had taken the downgrade to cold resistance. Cold resistance as it turns out it is the one status you need to care about since every other condition can be treated by sleeping until food/bath yet there is no fireplace to warm Sienna (I would have thought working with the blacksmith counts but no).
I actually have a note to add warmth while being in The Tower's main area (where Sienna sleeps) and moreso while at the smithy. Sorry I haven't gotten around to that yet.
Currently the only way to recover warmth while there is to wait until you sleep and then you fully recover warmth while sleeping (naps don't count!).
In the opening upgrade room it seemed like hydration would be the biggest issue since cutting that is the only downgrade to offer two upgrade points yet the cup in the tutorial and meal time have ensured that condition is meaningless. Or maybe I'm just falling for another trap by not valuing the 40+ vials of water I have no use for but to feed the cat girl.
I took every bad trait in my playthrough and the hydration trait was the only real problem for me. After a certain point in The Tower, you'll no longer get those free meals.
The next issue I have is Sienna's motivation. She just got raped by a spider while watching her daughter get brutally murdered which puts her in the same league of mental trauma as Casca from Berserk. When she wakes up I'd expect her to be distraught, depressed, enraged any number of extreme emotions. Instead she's told she's got free run of the tower, gets a guard following her and does menial labour without complaint. She never gets to talk about removing her collar or escape or revenge, just mild aggression towards her murderer's sister and indigence to her guard. One of the first chores she can take is to cut vegetables yet no word from her or anyone else about using the knife.
Sienna may seem unusually accepting of her situation because of her past and who she is. The player can make a lot of choices for her but she's still got a rather fickle personality. Plus, "She never gets to talk about removing her collar or escape or revenge"? Never?
Outside the tower she's got a potential exit with a pile of dirt and a spade in front. She makes no mention of escaping through this only that it would take days to clear. I went ahead and tried to shovel it anyway only to eventually freeze and come back the next day and the day after to find nothing has changed. Telling the player something will take days and then giving them the days to do it without conveying if this act is actually helping them or is just another random loot drop activity is poor design.
I'll make a note to actually make the pile of dirt visibly change.
Speaking of design throughout this period Sienna is functionally helpless in combat so why do I keep getting offered combat buffs? The advancement from basic wand to advanced wand and the various damage upgrade orbs in the upgrade chamber are functionally worthless since Sienna is functionally worthless. They might get better later once she levels up but the best way to do that is to keep her alive in the drake boss fights and the best way to survive those is to put all your upgrades into the vit and endurance line. Outside the mana boost line every other upgrade on offer is functionally useless like the alchemy or damage boosts or literally useless like woodchopping, mining and fishing upgrades when Sienna doesn't have any tools. For such a complex looking tree the player is situationally railroaded.
The enemy design is questionable. Your first foes are spiders which can poison you then you have slimes which have no status ailment or damage output making them a non-factor and rats which spam wounds to the point the player either grabbed the wound prevention sprite or is going to be a mummy before getting through the tutorial. The wyvern has a cool opening sequence yet the fight itself is just attack x2 then block the splash to win. While I already mentioned the spider can be dps raced to death. The scorpion/centipede combo is functional as an upgrade to the spider fights however the oozes are even worse than the slimes. They still have no damage output only now they multiply and with Sienna unable to harm them without burning mana you're looking at a dozen turns of your bodyguard mashing attack. This is not good for the most common enemy. The two drake bosses are fun however overly reliant on rng since unless you pumped Sienna's health line and chose gifted+more stamina at the start she's going to get one shot every time her sleep spell fails. For both fights if you dare to use any command but sleep/defend you're rolling dice to see if she dies.
It's possible to make it through The Tower without spending any upgrade orbs, and much of the content there is completely optional.
Finally there's progression. The drakes are dead, all the enemies are gone I'm only left with a log I can't pass requiring magical fire (I thought that's what her her wand did from the tutorial with the shroom?), a black flame doing a Gandalf impersonation, a door that's too cold and the door that's too buried. All of these paths are dead ends, my only sense of progression remaining is to just pass the days while Sienna gets raped until eventually something happens. However after the tentacle plant scene she's had two children and according to the opening post she could have up to ten. With each child taking two days I can not bring myself to sit through another potential 15 days of the same eating, bathing doctor scenes to see.
I intend on adding options to skip dialogue (and hopefully entire scenes). Hopefully in the future I can add enough content to The Tower that it will keep players busy the whole time they are waiting for the days to pass. That was the intention of some of the chores and the gambler's den, but unfortunately not everyone seems to enjoy those.
