My feedback (100h, Solo Play, PS5)

I love the game. Each character has unique and tight mechanics and diverse builds to play with. Top of class in this regard.

My main concern? I feel like the game is overtuned, putting the emphasis on challenge over joy. I've only ever beaten the game on Darkness difficulty with Aladdin and Sun Wukong and Carmilla. Still getting absolutely stomped by Nightmare difficulty. Granted, up to now I've just max levelled each character, before moving on to the next.

Chapter 1 especially, before a build comes together, is frustrating for me. I feel like chapter 1 should be tuned to allow for being more playful. As is, only DPS-focused builds feel viable. If a build doesn't come together right away, it can feel like an absolute slog. There's just not enough time, when working with a suboptimal build, to clear enough of chapter 1 to feel properly prepared for what's to come, or to experiment and not feel like I've doomed the run from the start.

In general, I don't love the whole "run past every combat encounter to the next point of interest" design of the game, further reinforced by the whole -XP from monsters angle to difficulty scaling. I believe every beaten encounter should shave like 1% of the chapter bosses health bar, and every enemy should drop some dream shards. The events what reward -20% boss health should rather add an additional half day to the timer.

For me, the joy of ARPGs is building towards a strong build. To me very few builds feel strong. Most builds feel weak. Low DPS builds make the game an absolute slog. Especially boss encounters feel like suffering from a slow-killing wasting disease with low DPS builds.

Maybe reducing enemy health pools in chapter 1 and increasing enemy damage values from chapter 2 over current values might improve the overall experience? De-emphasizing DPS, making survivability and mobility more important - allowing for more diverse builds to feel more viable, and making chapter 1 more reliably enjoyable?

Cheers & thanks so much for Ravenswatch!