Ok, so Ive finally managed to play your game properly, started it yesterday and just finished what seems to be the last boss before the endgame stuff. so quick feedback on the overall experience from a first playthrough:
yeah, really really good game.
the difficulty and accessibility seemed fine for me. to give that context i have a stupid amount of experience playing arpgs, im not a god gamer arpg player but ive been playing them as long as theyve been a thing. i got from start to finish deathless by just picking a class, rogue, no build guide, no knowledge of what skills the class had, no real previous experience of the game nor its mechanics, just made it up as i went along and the game provided me with all the information and resources i needed to beat the campaign.
i would have liked to have a bit more info on my skills. ive intentionally not been looking stuff up so far because blind first playthrough, but it seems my skills have a set base damage right? and then the weapons are like stat sticks with the implicit granting some flat added damage to the skill? thats how it seems to me, but what is the base damage of my skill? it says somewhere its on the tooltip, but i see the damage per second, i dont see what the skills inherent base damage is, how many attacks per second it current has, a breakdown of what actual damage im doing, ie 134-210 physical, 23-43 poison @ 2.34 aps etc. that info might be there somewhere, but i had a look for it, didnt find it and i wanted to know it.
the skill system is one of the highlights i think. probably the best skill system ive seen in an arpg. the d3 system is alright but just too shallow and lacking in any commitment from the player. path of exile seems amazing at first with the gems, but actually along the years i think you eventually come to the conclusion its a bit of a fail, you got a million supports with a zillion potential combos and the result is that most skills feel pretty much the same to play no matter how you build into them, its all different maths leading to the same gameplay. actually i think the d3 system results in more interesting skill customisation, hate to say it. but you guys cracked it, this is way better than both of those, its better than grim dawn/tochlight/wolcen etc, i think its a new benchmark for the genre.
so far the crafting system and item system seem solid, the crafting seems particularly good actually. i need to play some endgame tho, thats where you find out if they stand up.
I played umbral blades, started off with a bit of flurry and puncture on a bow before switching over cause i love ethereal knives so umbral seemed fun. i can only comment on the gameplay from that limited experience but the gameplay feels great. punchy, loud, lot of impact, great.
really glad you changed your ui up on the passive skills. when i first tried the game and saw some random videos of people tinkering in it long ago that vertical passive ui… oh lord, i was just preying someone would manage to talk you out of that at some point and, hey, this new ui for the passive skills is really strong. actually i think ui is terrible in most arpgs, something about typical arpg dev teams seems to exist in a world where professional graphic design hasnt been invented yet, but your passive skill ui has the right amount of clean and smart without being too clinical which u dont want in a sword n sorcery fantasy.
the campaign is a mixed bag. its a really good campaign overall, lots of different environments, lots of stuff happening, i didnt get super lost at any point. compared to other arpg campaigns its solid, its up there with the great games of the genre.
i have some issues with it and theyre issues i have with pretty much all arpg campaigns. theres other issues and nit picks i have with some other aspects of the game but its been a long post and ill make another post at another time specifically going through negatives, cause theres always negatives and thats probably where the most useful feedback is. but my overall first impression is that its a really good game.