Suggestions Post-Game completion re: Companion balance, Transmog, Combat Balance.

[Crescent Dusk]

What I loved:

- Rather enjoyed the game with my hybrid 2 Hander+wan/grimoire setup. Gorgeous high fantasy world, I love having the option of an RPG with beautiful fantastical maps instead of some grey/brown edgelord paradise with the recent dark fantasy spam.

- I enjoyed the camp chatter quite a bit, the rapport between the companions makes for a more lived in party. If you ever expand on this, consider giving each companion their own themed camp dwelling spot with themed accessories, as well as giving your own character an opportunity to customize the camp as well.

- I like the continuity in decisions. I like that my choices with characters matter all throughout the game.

 

What I would like to see:

- Transmog for weapons. It's a really, really odd choice to allow players to transmog armor but then not allow them to transmog to the weapon skins they actually like.

- Character magic mirror to re-customize character appearance. Sorry, but what looks good on the character creation screen can end up looking odd outside it with different lighting. I want to be able to modify my character looks, if only to change hair/beard color and hair style to match my outfits.

- Re-evaluate store prices. Money is pretty scarce in the game if you want to try build variety. What I collect in the entirety of one map playthrough can be wiped out by a single armor piece price on the next map. That's crazy! Moreover, since there is no preview for how an armor will look like, I then have to save scum to reload because purchasing the armor and it turning out to not be as good looking as I thought while still emptying my bank sucks.

- Bigger hammer head options and great axe head options. Also, holding Emerald Splitter so near the head when swinging hurts my sould, it makes a great axe feel so much shorter and lacking heft compared to using a greatsword.

 

What I think really needs work/change:

 

- Yatzli's dispel needs an alternative just like any other companion. Every other companion can be substituted either by a throwable elemental grenade for fire/electricity/impact, but there's this one throwable grenade item you get on the very first map, the forgotten soul grenade, that does nothing and could easily take the place of an alternative to Yatzli. This is important because Yatzli is not really that optional. Her ability to reveal chests or open the way to totem fragments is a serious handicap you put on yourself if you pass it up. Yes, you can travel to camp to swap companions and travel back, but it is really tedious to go through 2 loading screens and one menu UI frequently, especially in the later maps where this becomes more frequent.

- Marius feels weak. Every other companion fills a strong niche. Kai is the party tank and taunt/CC character. Giatta is the healer/buffer. Yatzli does offensive magic and debuffs. Marius is mostly a single target damage character, outside a perk for heart short and one of his skill, he doesn't really do much to cement a niche for himself. He could be a high single target damage specialist, but there's a problem with that:

This game's combat from beginning to end is all about dealing with the ranged zerg. Every combat encounter of note involves multiple targets, including bosses. Marius will simply find no chance to shine here, because purely single target encounters simply do not exist. Your gameplay loop is to find the healer enemy so he doesn't reset the enemies back to full and waste your opening cooldowns, and in the meantime deal with the barrage of tracking arrows/projectiles from the several ranged mobs while also making sure to not get pummeled by the bruiser and sword/shield guy coming at you if Kai hasn't taunted them yet.

- Secondary weaponsets still need to provide their bonus stats/effects even if not in use. This became pretty apparent when I got a unique shield that raises essence and stamina by 50. Only problem is, my sword and shield setup is my secondary, and when I swap to it, the essence and stamina pools increase, but only their caps, the bars are still partially empty, and if I regenerate up to those new +50 caps, once I swapped back to my wand and grimoirse, that 50 stamina and essence is gone and once I swap back to shield and sword I have to regenerate the 50 stamina and essence again, be it consumables or the passive generation.

- Because dialogue choices can come with stat checks, my gear variety felt pretty stiffled. I basically prioritized gear and accessories that would pad up my stats over, say, a "increases stamina by 30 or attack damage by 10%", because those stats don't affect dialogue checks.

- Going further into dialogue checks, please allow us to use stat raising consumables in a dialogue. What's the point of the Libation consumable raising +6 stats in speech checks when I have to game that benefit by saving before any possible conversation, finding it requires a speech check, and reloading to consume the Libation before starting the dialogue?