Every time I try to play this [i]something[/i] always makes me want to stop and I never really enjoy myself that much. The biggest issue with this game is a shocking lack of QoL in many areas and how tedious a lot of things are.
Getting quests is a needlessly annoying process with bad QoL, making you cycle through every quest type in the game to get the type you're after, including those that your build is extremely poorly suited for, and then you have to just [i]hope[/i] that the reward it offers isn't terrible. Undesirable reward? Time to cycle through every single quest again. I suggested a fix to this problem, which was simply a system that allows you to choose what type of quest is generated, and the response was that it was a bad idea because of the system that disincentivizes repeating the same quest over and over, even though what I had suggested in no way would have stopped people from putting their own variety into the quests they take.
Some quests are also just plain bad. Protecting friendly NPCs is tedious, the NPC spawns far away from you meaning they could potentially get killed before you even have a [i]chance[/i] to protect them, and the timer to protect them in my experience is too long and makes this mission a drag every time I take it. Spying on an enemy NPC is even more tedious, there [i]are[/i] some things like invisibility, but you can't use them for very long before you need a very long recharge to use them again. I also almost never get to spy on the NPC for more than ~5 seconds at a time because the NPC always erratically looks in different directions, constantly turning around and almost detecting me, this alone causes this mission to take way too long to complete every single time, and that's assuming I don't get detected halfway through what is already a slog because of how erratic the NPC is. I have never successfully planted a bug on an enemy because of how close I have to get to them mixed with them just suddenly turning around with no warning so often, I never even consider taking these quests at this point.
I cannot fathom why the toxic gas areas even need to exist, I've had kill targets quests put targets in unreachable areas because of it, I've had to tediously go a very long way around them just to get from one place to another, and I have only ever had my experience [i]negatively[/i] affected by these areas.
Going through towers is also very tedious. I can go through them just fine, clearing out the enemies and getting some better items out of it, but having to slowly run back through the whole thing afterwards makes me not even want to enter them to begin with half of the time.
Traveling takes a very long time, the only ways to really speed this up that I've found are scooters and ships, which have limited charge and most of the time I can't even find one at all, and giant cannons in the middle of nowhere that you have to just hope is facing the direction you want to go, and then hope it doesn't drop you in the middle of a toxic gas area with no protection. You can recharge the vehicles, but there have been times where I've effectively run out of charge in the middle of nowhere without that option, so I'd say that could still be better.
Even just getting into cities is tedious because of how tall the walls are and how many times I've struggled to find an entrance, there [i]are[/i] items you can use to get over walls, but you won't always have them and the experience really suffers from those times.
I've also had a number of issues with things that are apparently attributed to the fact that the game was designed for VR. Honestly, I think designing the game for VR was a mistake.
While this game [i]does[/i] have its merits, the issues make me confused as to how the reviews are as positive as they are.
In reply to the developer's response: You seem to have ignored the part where I mentioned that letting people choose what type of quest was generated [i]in no way stopped people from adding their own variety to quests.[/i] and regardless, the way it works now does not stop people from doing the same quest over and over if they really wanted to, it's just more tedious to do so. At that point, either put in some kind of limitation or make it less of a pain. And what I suggested does not include choosing your own rewards, those would still be random. Just the type of quest itself would be chosen by the player themself. I'm pretty sure I remember saying this myself when I previously suggested this change to the quest system, and you did not respond.
In the [i]current version[/i] I have always had protect NPC quest targets spawn at an uncomfortable distance. Invisibility is not guaranteed and the way level scaling works means that when you [i]do[/i] get it you won't be able to use it for that long before the base item becomes worthless. And either way you can't use invisibility for long, as I said in the review already, without it draining all your energy causing you to have to wait for it to slowly recharge. I even had enough stealth to be silent in the area I did spying quests, and the erratic movement of the target meant that the mission was still a pain. And you say we shouldn't be forced to take quests we aren't suited for. Which is [i]exactly why[/i] I suggested a system to choose what quest type is generated. I kept having to sift through the same bad quests over and over to get good ones with rewards that weren't so low as to be pretty much worthless.
Toxic gas areas do not [i]feel[/i] optional when they're so large, block my way when I'm trying to travel, and quest targets spawn in them even when I take quests in areas that [i]aren't[/i] toxic gas when I don't have protection for it. It just feels like a drag, and as I said before, only ever detracted from my experience. It never felt like it was a risk vs. reward mechanic, it was only a hindrance and nuisance.
As for the towers, getting through them initially was fine because fighting the enemies along the way made it interesting. The problem is how slow the movement speed is when trying to leave when there are no threats left, it's just a slog to walk all the way back through the whole tower needlessly. If you're worried about people cheesing them by just running past the enemies straight to the bosses, then implement a system that makes that impossible. Make fighting the enemies along the way a necessity, have a door blocking the way to the bosses that won't open until the enemies are gone, [i]something[/i] that stops cheesing while not sacrificing QoL in the process.
Also, as another review previously pointed out, things like grappling hooks aren't guaranteed. They're tied to RNG in a way that isn't fun and you have to just [i]hope[/i] that you get a decent armor that has them and even then it won't last for that long as they'll become obsolete as you progress to harder areas. Maybe just some sort of utility item you could use in the weapon slots, sacrificing space for weapons in favor of said utilities where you could have more permanent grappling hooks and whatnot could have been better. The way it's implemented now never felt good in my experience.
And the game never really felt that exciting to begin with, so I [i]don't[/i] think it's a worthy addition to VR. Honestly, I really tried to enjoy the game but every single time something really would just tear it all down and make me want to stop, and each time I've found it harder to get back in. The issues in my experience have been so detrimental to the experience, especially when added together, that I genuinely fail to understand how so many people enjoy this. Honestly, at this point I just want to chock it up to Steam reviews being as unreliable as ever and yes-man fans not caring.
The points I made still stand, and this response has only made me lose interest even more. I highly doubt I'll ever be launching this game again, and I'd be refunding it were I still eligible.
