Afterimage Review (A.X.)
Some very noticeable problem of the game at current stage:
1) Fast travel. Who TF thought it's a good idea to require consumables which you CAN'T buy, and is even rarer than upgrade materials, armors, weapons etc. I beat more bosses than the amount of consumables I hold. So you basically can't fast travel because every time you want to go somewhere else you need to have at least 2 consumables, 1 for going there, 1 for coming back. I already cleared around 6-7 maps and I just don't see free fast travel unlocked. So whoever is playing the game, likely in their first 10 hours will have no fast travel ability.
2) The problem with fast travel further aggravate the issue with checkpoint placement. The amount of bone fire is pathetic. To put hollow knight comparison, just imagine the entire crystal peak area has 2 benches total. This basically how the checkpoints are placed in this game. Now with the fact you can't fast travel... I don't understand why anyone play tested the game would think this is a good idea.
3) The downward kick movement, the control says stick down + A button, but when you actually play it, simultaneously hold your stick down and press A doesn't work. Stick down needs to happen first. Again, why?
4) Resources early game. With my progress now I am sufficient with healing & resources, but the first maybe 5-6 hours? You will only have ONE healing. Yes, you will be clearing 3-4 big regions with only 1 heal available, beating bosses with one 1 heal. And the fact that you can't fast travel, and the fact that there are only like 2 checkpoints for one entire region...
5) Merchants are mostly useless. I don't understand, devs placed so many npcs as merchants, but they are mostly useless. They don't sell upgrade materials, they don't sell fast travel consumables, some merchants will have 1-2 legit useful items but that's it. Blacksmith sells weapons that are worth that the ones you can acquire in game, the cooking girl is only useful once, after you bought all her meals she is useless. I've encountered 4-5 merchants so far, and they just feel useless. Unlike hollow knight, you can buy pins and charms and notch, blacksmith does your upgrade, but in this game, these stuff you need to find by exploring, and you can upgrade weapon in the menu yourself. Just feel like defeats the purpose of having these NPCs.
6) Weapon imbalance. Usually I go for greatswords, but as far as I can tell, it's so much worse than scythe/whip/dual swords. The problem with greatswords is you can't interrupt enemies. Just can't. And it's slow. The time you do a single attack dex weapons already did at least 2, so dex weapon actually deals more damage. And scythe/whip wins the war with long reach, especially whip has special jump attack which is a f***ing AOE that clears out the flying enemies with ease. Not to mention bosses's attack interval is smaller than greatsword's attack speed, using greatsword in boss battles is basically suicide. Weapon class needs to be balanced.
7) Charms. 8 hours in the game I collected total of 3 charms. Judging by the charm slots there should be around 30 charms if not more. The resource placement again is weird. I understand devs don't want players to be OP, but not giving anything in early game is not the way to go.
8) enemy placement. This is the problem with collision and enemy AI. So you have no invincibility when dash (at least I haven't got it yet), meaning collision damage. BUT, once an enemy spots you, they will STAY at the platform edge. See the problem here? You just can't jump to that platform without taking damage unless you somehow figure out a way to kill them, normal enemies are fine, but often you will have ranged enemies throwing firebombs at the platform edge, meaning you can't kill them/jump on the platform without tanking the damage. If i-frame is too much, just don't let enemies glued on the edge. I don't recall hollow knight has this problem ever, enemies will no occupy player's landing point forever.
I actually like the game, but these problems are very frustrating especially fast travel. Everything else is just minor frustration which can be dealt with, but fast travel mechanism is a major issue here.