izigame.me

In Need Of Lots of Tweaking And Redesigning

By no means Voidwrought is a "bad" game. It has some moments, but a lot of confusing design choices bring the experience down. From way too easy difficulty to overlapping gating abilities, from cramped and over-designed level to almost non-existent story, the whole package just feels outdated comparing to other metroidvanias released in the same year.

Things I Like About Voidwrought:

Some Compliments

I love the art style. It has a good balance between simple and detailed. Each level has a clear and varied theme.
Monsters and bosses' designs are nothing short of amazement. Shame their combat capabilities can't keep up.
You can freely swap your Souls and Relics anywhere you want even in battle. Interestingly, the cool-down time for each relic seem to be calculated individually. You can swap out the one on cool-down for another and use it immediately. This trick adds a much-needed depth to the simple combat.


Things I Dislike About Voidwrought:

1. Over-designed Level And Overlapping Abilities
This is the first time I encounter this kind of peculiar problem Voidwrought has.

The gating abilities in Voidwrought are nothing impressive, which would be fine if they have any secondary functions. Alas, they don't.
Sliding has no i-frame and feels awkward to use; Wall latch and wall jump shouldn't be separated abilities; Slither form completely overshadow grappling hook, wall jump and even double jump; You can only grapple the circular hooks in the level. You can't grapple enemies; Heavy attack, tech-possession, and phasing are just keys in different shapes; Dashing has a weird freezing moment at the end.
There is also no "guidance" to which abilities players should get first. Allow me to elaborate: most metroidvanias have clear indications where players can go and can not. They can't access this location unless they have X ability. Voidwrought doesn't do that. Instead most of the level entrance features two type of traversal mechanic, like the cliff that clearly needs grappling hook to go up also has small ledges for players to just wall jump up.
This sense of freedom is certainly interesting, but the more I play the more confused I become. To me this design lessen the impact a gating ability should provide and also dwindle the excitement of using said ability. If I can access this place without grappling, what is the point of grappling? If I can just keep going, why should I go back and explore other places for new abilities?
As a result, levels need to cull some unnecessary traversal designs and close off some areas for proper ability-check.
What's funnier is that pogoing enemies allows you go to higher places meant for double jump. For my 15 hour of playthrough I genuinely thought this metroidvania is brave enough to go without double jump. Imagine my surprise and confusion when I finally got it after I've explored 95% of the map...

2. Difficulty And The Dull Combat
I don't want to be that guy who likes to "first try ggez noob gamemrkhojhc", but clearly something is wrong if I can just face-tank and spam every single boss with ease.

It's hard to pinpoint which aspect of the combats is wrong: maybe the health of every enemy needs some boost, maybe our attack speed need some slight speed change, or maybe the bosses need more distinct attack patterns.
Currently enemies feel way too squishy to our attack. It is way easier to rush through than to learn their move sets.
Bosses also lack more impactful performance. They get the striking appeal but not matching strength.
Our combat options may also be the culprit to the problem: spam attack and use two relic abilities. The protagonist's attack is really fast, and the relics are really powerful even with no combo.
Platforming doesn't fare well either. Not a single platforming challenge requires you to use more than two abilities.

3. Other Complaints

I know story in metroidvania is often light, but Voidwrought is almost devoid of any story elements. All we have is dialogue.
The marking system is horrendous, archaic even.
A note for all the quest progression would be nice.

中文小簡評
→本身不糟，就是諸多詭異設定讓遊戲體驗很差。
→這款類銀河系惡魔城給我的感覺就是生錯時間了(X。
→很喜歡這款的畫風，有點像空洞騎士和終結者莉莉的集合體。怪物與NPC的設計也非常到位，可惜實際打起來還是差強人意。
→可以隨時隨地切換靈魂(被動技能)和遺物(主動技能)。有趣的一點，遺物技能放完會進冷卻，可以立刻切換新遺物放新技能，算是讓單調的戰鬥多點樂趣的法子。
→這款的關鍵技能設計平庸就算了，在戰鬥中竟然也無法靈活運用，形同變相鑰匙。
→掛牆跟蹬牆應該合而為一；滑行沒有無敵禎用起來也彆扭；蠕行完全可以取代勾鎖、蹬牆甚至是二段跳；續力攻擊、附身機關和定點穿牆就只是變相的鑰匙；衝刺結尾有個很詭異的僵直。
→有個特別的問題只有這款有，關卡並沒有明確掌握玩家動向。一般類銀河系惡魔城在關卡間會有明確的坎，玩家沒有某技能就無法通過。Voidwrought並沒有這樣設計，同一坎常常設計兩種以上的通過方式(明顯是要用勾鎖過的地方牆邊卻也有縫讓你爬)。或許這樣設計會讓探索的自由度上升，但對我來說反而讓關鍵技能的重要性降低、獲得技能的欣喜感也大幅降低，如果不用勾鎖都能過，那我又何必回頭找勾鎖呢?
→玩的時侯我連這遊戲有二段跳都不知道，走完了95%地圖才找到...
→如此一來，我認為諸多關卡需要好好重新設計，把一些坎做好。
→遊戲難度無論是小怪還是Boss都太低了，可能是血量太少，也可能是主角攻速太快、技能傷害太高，也有可能是Boss的技能組太不顯眼。
→跳台的部分也沒有好到哪裡去，幾乎沒有需要玩家用到兩個以上的技能的挑戰。
→我知道類銀河系惡魔城要講故事有難度，但這款的故事有跟沒有一樣，幾乎是毫無交代，只有NPC對話玩家難以融入。
→地圖標記系統有夠難用。
→任務如果有備忘錄該有多好啊。