Building jank, UI jank, Gameplay jank mechanics

[lapis otter]

Builds:
I have a big issue with a few systems added after hitting lvl 80 but End game builds is my main gripe. Characters all need specific memories/mods(for my Warframe fellas) to function and because of the way the game is designed(which is very poorly in this regard) you need 50 different layers of upgrades in order to make your character viable in any stages at all in the late game(6500+ BP range), those layers are all huge time investments and most of the time provide niche upgrades that aren't worth the time invested. And to make matters worse a lot of them lock your build a certain way, not allowing you to experiment(not that there is much to experiment with anyways) and to make matters worse those are necessary to engage in certain parts of the game which hold resources or more layers to improve your characters. Resonances and Harmony are clear examples of this. Heck, memories being tied to specific grid locations and only being able to be used by one character at a time is already ridiculous as it forces you to spend hours more farming for stuff to upgrade memories into different characters and resonating and then hypertuning. It sucks, it locks you to a build basically forever if you don't want to waste your time investment and then if a leap is added which changes the way your character is built like Lucia Crimson Weave's leap which adds a USELESS damage type with a janky build-up that TANKS your damage values unless you straight up ignore the ability. All of the systems involving builds need a revision INCLUDING the way we get memories and upgrade resources because buying them off a shop is the least fun farming method I've ever experienced in my many years of gaming.

UI:
Not much needs to be said here, needing to go through 78 different screens to collect stuff is unreasonable and overwhelming and objectively bad design. Wanna know what else is bad design? Useless currency conversions. Just use the base currency to buy what you need... (Wafers)

Gameplay mechanics:
First person was extremely poorly implemented, enemies with Super armour SUCK, I would rather you just shove more enemies on my screen and allow me to control them with combos rather than just having to wack them till they are dead, speaking of which some enemies take way too long to kill and again I would just rather facing multiple at once instead of wacking the same fly for 10 minutes and being constantly interrupted mid combo by the same enemy I am clobbering just because they have a "You can't stagger me" cloak while the moment they tickle my shin my character is suspended mid air for 5 business days, needing to constantly swap characters to keep up your damage is boring, characters need to be more self sustaining and allies should be deployed to deal with different situations as they appear.

Content is also not very repeatable as you get no additional rewards for clearing stages multiple times, this makes grinding for anything really boring as you have to play specific content to get basic resources that you need and you need to complete a checklist every week to get resources needed for end game rather than doing stages you like to get them.

[placid jungle]

[lapis otter]

Sorry I've been playing for less than 3 weeks and this is venting/feedback from the frustrations I've had with the game so far. I love the story and characters but the gameplay sometimes makes me tweak out

[obtuse grove]

• for memories just farm simulated battlefield and get 6 star memories, for new players 6 star weapons aren't really needed 5 stars are good enough to keep you competitive for the time being while building your teams, after you have dedicated teams for each dmg type then you can build weapons

• once you've completed the memories they're permanent so don't worry too much unless if you want to compete with top 100s on the leaderboards

• it's important to build a team especially tanks and amplifiers (tldr tank = removes enemy shield, amplifiers = increase your dmg), though rotation is a headache at first because each character has a unique playstyle but give it time and you'll get the hang of it
  honestly tanks are very useful in this game, you musn't forget irl tanks have big guns attached to them

• crimson weave's leap skill isn't kinda meant to increase her damage output but it does increase her damage output
  before her leap basically what happens is fill sword meter (fastest way is spamming blue orbs) > tap ult if available(or hold dodge and after that attack you gain energy for ult) > gain 600 points for big sword (or as much as possible depending on what you need) > hold dodge to fill big sword meter (or if the 0-600 aphotic points font becomes red instead of white) > do plunge attack > if ult not available do double plunge attack which you need to learn > tap 2nd ult > gain new set of blue orbs

now her leap does this thing where if you have spare orbs they get converted to blue orbs, so you can spam ults which stops the timer (basically you abuse time lag as much as you can)

p.s. so yeah faster rotation = more dmg output
her leap attack is just for style for now, who knows kuro might throw her in a new team in the future with the effects mechanic

if you need guides on how to play each character either visit https://grayravens.com/wiki/GRAY_RAVENS

or you can watch Spider2B, Rexlent, etc on each team builds and how they rotate

[lapis otter]

One of the things I was getting at is that the farming method being pressing a single button to auto clear a stage to earn currency to then buy memories I need doesn't feel great, especially not when it takes 150 serum to get the currency necessary FOR A SINGLE LEVEL 1 MEMORY. Then the resources to upgrade it and your characters come from the same mission.

Idk to me it feels like outside of the story and the bosses during events there's nothing interesting to do. I don't care about leaderboards yet, I only care about being able to build my characters to do stupid damage numbers(like in Warframe and Risk of Rain) and it feels like the building system of this game is SEVERELY outdated with 5 stars and below memories being placeholder and literaly 5 days after starting: garbage. While the 6 stars are mostly sets made for specific characters rather than being generalised which would allow for build variety. Systems like Resonance and Hypertuning just further locking that character into a single build which is terrible imo. It is unintuitive and takes away all the freedom of expression with builds. When I first started playing people kept talking about how you could turn whatever unit into whatever you wanted, tanks and healers into DPS and DPS into support but after weeks of playing it it feels more than ever like I am playing Overwatch again where I basically cannot "build" anything, as there are only a few ways in which a character will perform their function.

Also rolling back to the 5 star weapons, where can I even get them? I can't farm shards and Coop is extremely unreliable for farming weapons. Imo they need to ditch their star system for ranking gear and just work towards making all the 5* stuff viable and put them on the same red tier as 6* to see if it would entice people to use varied builds and experiment for optimal results rather than using character specific sets all the time.

[lapis otter]

And I get the whole rotation business now as I've been spending the last few days adjusting to that but I still cannot help but to think that its not a good system for the player, as a newcomer you don't know and most won't care to get any characters outside of the DPS class as that is what every game trains us to like playing when we want to deal big numbers. And in a game where I can't just farm the characters I need/want whenever I want this is a flaw as at a certain point in the content you hit a brick wall you can only overcome once you roll for the unit types you're missing, then upgrading them to be able to become rotations for you to use temporarily until you can get their upgrades, which requires you to roll again to get them.

I get it that it is the gaccha way but in a game where time is of the essence when fighting enemies it really doesn't feel good to get clobbered because the game just decides to add modifiers for the enemies that just make those units that allow you to burst them down a necessity, its not fun to get struck by lightning every 5 seconds, or having to smack an enemy for half an hour while they don't even flinch and as soon as they attack you while you're mid combo you get sent flying and go on a 5 day vacation.

I haven't even gotten to elements yet. While in most other games elemental damage is a form of crowd control or a system that enables further build options, in PGR its a checklist for certain stages and your team needs to all be the same element to be able to work in later stages to farm important resources, you can't use one element to weaken and another to burst and another to restrain nonono you use the element the enemy is weak to so that you don't hit them with a wet pool noodle for damage.

I get it that PGR is an older mobile game but I really think the early game and core mechanics need an update, especially for the coming DMC playerbase so new players can also enjoy the game and stick around-

And vets can get an up to date game where every aspect feels polished and well thought out rather than some important cornerstones being as barebones and nonsensical as they are right now. I don't even like Genshin but what they did with the combination of Elemental systems is awesome, something like that could propel this game hard.

(Also why do characters WITHOUT physical damage get an increase to their crit stat, WHICH THEY CANNOT USE, in both their level upgrades and their Rank upgrades? Either make elements able to crit or make every basic attack physical you dum dums)

[lapis otter]

This should be farmable in some reasonable way, either by the Sim shop like all the other stuff or take the loot from the Sim shop and make actual missions that go as long as you can handle for the same serum cost as lets say 3 runs and increase in difficulty over time, this and a rework to weapons and memory sets that are outdated would genuinely make such a difference on how enjoyable the game is. Keep the character specific memories but make it so it is stronger to use general use memories, this way construct specific memories are a good starting point for beginners, but more advanced players can use the generalised cards to greater effect, rewarding player expression over the ability to follow a specific mould.

This is my Lucia Crimson Weave btw, she hits her ult too often to use Cottie so I went for further lightning damage in the form of Heisen as I was never a big fan of constantly switching my characters unless I want to try a different approach to the fight rather than using them as a DPS boost.

[obtuse grove]

PGR used to have Babel tower where you cam challenge yourself to more difficult situations apart from killing bosses all the time, like -100% dodge and regen, -75% HP, enemies have uncreased 200% to 400% aggro and black hole around them so they pull you in
honestly hey should bring back that mode just for fun*
(ps. you can choose their buffs so you can control which difficulty you want)

Though if you get bored you can either do these for a challenges

For rerolling memories just take your time since on end game content if you hoard too much they eventually become useless

ps. I highly recommend you stick to diesel + cottie
if you can manage it with cottie then alpha can do 3 ults in a row, adding to her weapon harmony that everytime you trigger her ult she gets more extra dmg

building memories and weapons isn't really needed to be in depth since the game encourages for a better gameplay, though there are other game modes that is available for pgr to express freedom in terms of gameplay and how you rotate your characters (especially with the orb system, almost no gameplay is identical)

though for now we have to wait until PGR catches up with CN patch, too much events would basically make the players feel tired and having so much to do

also I get the feeling that the enemies feel too hard and doesn't flinch when you hit them but you can soon later on learn how to abuse frames so your character is still attacking but is invulnerable to enemies

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tn89iJYra6o

once you've learned how to use a character then you can turn each bossfight into a horror experience for your enemies

for coop it used to give you 5☆ weapon shards ×50, you only need 150 to get 1 weapon i dunno what happened now tho

Vergil and Dante's ping system works like pyroath, although there are no random orbs you still need to earn enough to use their skills

Farming for character's shards only takes about a month or two up to SS

[placid jungle]

dang more juicy pastas

[lapis otter]

Tried but didn't like it, I found that the burst damage alone from Heisen helps me more since she gets her ult pretty consistently because of her leap converting orbs(still hate Darkflow though)

And my point with the outdated modding/building system is that it leaves a bunch of memories that SEEM good because of their rarity but end up being garbage once you unlock auto clear sim trials, I want stuff to be good so I can juice up my characters in whatever way I see fit so they fill a role I need rather than each character having a predetermined build and function

Long story short I hate authority and I want to rebel 🤣

[obtuse grove]

just imagine darkflow as one of her additional dmgs, the main point was the faster rotation though, once you've set her up you can probably do 3-4 ults clearing at least 8 stages in warzone with 1 rotation then taper off to 4 stages with the efficient pattern as much as possible, normally you can go to floor 20 on hard difficulty

also some memories are meant just to be collected they're not that useful honestly

[lapis otter]

Thats just bad design tho 😭

[obtuse grove]

like these ones

Would I use them normally

• probably not
  Would I keep them
• absolutely

[lapis otter]

Also about Darkflow, it is NOT Dark damage type as far as I can tell even though it uses the same symbol and it replaces her usual electricity and the electric hits to be darkflow, where the problem lies is that you cannot mod for darkflow and also it needs to be built up with her nodachi(small sword) using preferably blue orbs, which can take a while since it builds up to 10 stacks if I recall correctly and it ends up doing the same damage as her electricity by base BUT it could be used in darkflow stages if there are any

[lapis otter]

Why is poor Liv a memory 😭 😭 😭 did she die???

Omg thats the whole gang

[obtuse grove]

Nah just on events back then

[lapis otter]

Aren't memories meant to be dead people???

[obtuse grove]

Some are just for collection though, just for fun in events, like extra rewards

[lapis otter]

I see

[obtuse grove]

Darkflow is probably related to alpha being an ascendant or something, though her leap is a huge relief from the headache we used to deal with after her 2nd ult

[lapis otter]

In those cases sure they can be mementos but for memories that are there for general use I think they should be reworked into having useful effects and then being categorised by what type of buff they provide, base stat buffs being in the lowest tier, elemental buffs being in the mid tier, and character specific being in the highest tier BUT make them all strong so people can build for whatever they want the character to accomplish.

[obtuse grove]

Theyre useless in actual combat *(since it takes too long to wind up before doing any significant dmg)*where time is of the essence but they do have nice animation for those who want to play with style

[lapis otter]

Real

[lapis otter]

Anyhow going back

[obtuse grove]

Nah I'd rather prefer not having memories being powerful as previous players cant have these materials, I dont remember liv's memories having a rerun since the day it launched

[lapis otter]

This is how Risk of Rain balances its items(kinda) whites(green in this game) give stat buffs like attack speed, crit chance, damage reduction, healing when you do X thing

[lapis otter]

I'm talking about the non event ones

Greens(blue and purple in this game) give special effects of some kind like hitting enemies chains a portion of the damage to nearby enemies(an example would be the 5* elemental bursts causing explosions, and no I'm not saying to add this effect to the game but rather think of the possibilities for the builds), extra ability or equipment/cub charges, etc...

And then golds are boss items which could be the 5* of this game, giving unique effects related to the bosses they come from

And finally legendary/red/6* being strong effects that enhance the previous items or your character specific builds

[obtuse grove]

Attack speed might break some characters in this game like if cw can gain 600 aphotic points in an instant she could might as well overshadow nanami or bianca stigmata could go back in meta since you can skip her basic attacks, crit chances are already high enough for some chracaters especially with amplifiers though it is better to improve crit dmg instead so it keeps the "randomness" just like in the gen 1 orb system, for hp and def is not really needed im this game because its either you get hit once you die/lose significant progress either in warzone or phantom pain cage

the animation when getting hit takes too long you're better of restarting the whole run

The elemental buffs for additional content can be gained from hypertune if you really want those characters or weapon harmony which is really useful

[lapis otter]

Its a pitch idea on how the memory system could be improved to be more inclusive to players of all levels as every memory would be important so long as you know what you're doing. Any memory is better than no memory but as it stands it doesn't even take 5 hours before 50% of the memories in the game become obsolete even for newcomers

[lapis otter]

Then instead of changing their effects we could change the individual memories to give different stats instead of it being just health + crit and attack + defence

Imagine a memory giving sprint speed as a base with no condition, attack speed at all times but only lets say 15%, more dodge stamina at all times, and all of that WITHOUT needing to be endgame and doing clash reflection to harmonize your weapons

I say this cause getting characters after a while slows down drastically and not every newcomer knew what to get

Which now locks them in an awkward spot of not having what they need once they hit lvl 80 and need certain teams for certain activities

[obtuse grove]

Overclock material box a and b gives enough for upgrades though I wish it doesnt cost as much but you can convert the b materials to a and vice versa

Having effects such as increased sprint speed isnt really needed as some amplifiers, tanks and cubs can gather enemies instantly even locking them in place

anyway this is probably the first time after a year since I have seen babel tower you should check it out too

[lapis otter]

And harmonizing is only available to signature weapons which makes it bad for most players since it takes a long time to get 6* weapons so imo we should not gatekeep good builds from people just bc they cannot get a certain thing bc of how the game is designed

[lapis otter]

What I was getting at is that most people won't have optimal teams and maybe the system needs to be better balanced to not have redundant content so people can actually enjoy all aspects of the game even if they started recently, I get it that its hard to gauge when you've played for a while but for newcomers it takes a long time to understand the game(especially bc its not so mainstream to the point guides are abundant) to know what they need for certain activities. And making builds should be just as big of a part in the game as perfectly timing dodges and rotations

Getting characters is a big time sink and levelling them up and their memories and their gear is even deeper of a time sink

[obtuse grove]

There used to be events that give target weapon r&d tickets for 6☆

also babel tower kinda sucks, back then it used to be fighting 50 enemies while you can only dodge once every 20 seconds and 1 hit from a basic enemy with 600% increased aggro and dmg

anyway rather than the game being "balanced" in terms of being too grindy for specific materials, it's just the result of kuro catching up with CN patch, hopefully everything will go back normally once the patches are aligned

5☆ memories are not entirely useless as you can use them to level up 6☆ once you have them

depression on this game will soon be over once glb is done catching up

hopefully because we're depressed enough from the game's story

nvm last event that the features that we've discussed previously was available like 2 years ago

probably because players here are obsessed with defeating bosses as fast as possible/styling on them but hey that's what the majority of the players want then kuro gives it to them

[lapis otter]

All I want is to not feel like I'm hitting basic enemies with a wet pool noodle unless I am using a whole team of fully built characters to constantly call them in and out of battle. Its the most ADHD behaviour ever and I have ADHD and I hate it. Also it really makes end game upgrades seem like the BASIC rather than the final

People even make memes on how much they hate bosses with 500 health bars and 20 different buffs

I hope once we're synced with the glorious mainland China they focus more on the base game than these silly side events

I want to build my constructs to be basically raid bosses

10 second long Matrix after a dodge, more move speed, and 5* and below stuff not being XP fodder for 6* 😭

[obtuse grove]

same but either this

Focus on a hypercarry and build for your team OR idk honestly I've gotten used to grinding every lucia that I have to SS3 or higher

Though bosses I agree to be annoying having too much hp bars did you know that Chaos has 1100× HP bars on overclock? like why lmaoaoaooaoao

Kuro should bring back PGR's brutality where characters like crimson abyss used to nuke every wave of enemies

i feel like old now it's like "back in the days we used to have this" where the game isn't focused on bossess too much but rather always getting you on edge to the point that one simple mistake can cause you your entire run

also if you wanna move more use frederick memory
if you dodge once it gives you extra dmg and 15% movement increase, can be stacked 3 times

OR

Dodge > attack(to cancel animation) > dodge > repeat to cover more space
won't work on characters like crimson weaver as after you've dodges she launches sword waves but that's the thing why hit them later when you can hit them now

OR

Some characters like crimson weaver when you hold dodge they can cover half of the stage just dont use it too much or you will run out of stamina

OR

combine them all and turn every match into a horror POV for your enemies