Hi, as someone who’s been enjoying the game for some time now (and loving it), I think it’s important to talk about an area where Last Epoch could really use some improvement: its animations .
While the game’s graphics are generally impressive, the animations can be quite clunky and in need of polish. Attacks can feel floaty or lacking in weight, and character movement can feel stiff and unnatural, this can be especially noticeable on melee attacks.
Combat animations are an integral part of any action RPG, and can really make or break the overall experience. In Last Epoch, the melee animations often lack the weight and impact that players expect from a satisfying combat system. Attacks can feel floaty and disconnected, making it difficult to gauge the effectiveness of your strikes.
I also feel there’s some sort of “animation cancelling” in certain skills, both melee and ranged, making gameplay more inconsistent since it allows the player to bypass cast speed modifiers but I’d say this isn’t super important.
Improving the melee animations in Last Epoch would require a more detailed approach to character movement, attack windups, and more follow-throughs. Adding more frames to the animations, adjusting the timing of the strikes, and increasing the visual and auditory feedback of successful attacks.
Of course, improving animations is not an easy task, and it would take time and resources to make these changes. However, I believe that improving the animations in the next couple of updates would be well worth it in the long run.
I want to be clear that I by no means am talking bad about the animators in the team. I know that creating animations can be a challenging and time-consuming process, and I appreciate all the hard work that has gone into the game so far, there are definitely good animations and foundations present in the game already.