Keylocker | Turn Based Cyberpunk Action Preview - A Rythmatic Delight

[@vincentl2611]

Immediately flashback to okami for the opening Game Narration

[@tajinbuu3473]

curious to see your follow up/review of this

[@danielwalacegouveiasantana5708]

Developers are from Brazil!! 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷

[@esk8jaimes]

Has this game been patched since release?

[@PollyPlushie]

Never felt like any of the timing in the combat felt good at all. The windows for dodging/perfecting attacks feel too small and the windups/telegraphs don't tell you enough about WHEN the window is, even with the subtle flash, some cues just don't make sense or feel good. It's impressive looking and all the world building and character building systems seem fun, but the combat's just a complete non-starter for me.

[@MoonanaGames]

Our previous game, Virgo Versus The Zodiac, received loads of feedback like this and backlash due to its hard difficulty and heartwrenching story. I hope this game will reach more likeminded individuals who enjoy difficult combat that requires trial and error to get the hang of and will give in result a satisfying feeling of winning after much suffering. That's the feeling I love in games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring, and that's the feeling we try to pass through in this game. The comment down below pretty much summarizes it for me. I hope people like that who understand our vision can get to see this game and not ignore it. And for those who prefer an easier experience, pretty much any RPGs that were released before this one will be easier, there's many options actually, even with timed actions as well. I recommend Ikenfell for an easier game, there's even an option where you can avoid combat altogether on that game. Thank you for the feedback, but anything related to reducing the difficulty, won't be implemented. That's the intended way of playing the game, it's supposed to be hard and you're supposed to learn as you play more of it, playing only a few measly minutes won't allow you to understand and enjoy the game, the first time I played a dark souls game i had to fight a boss more than 80 times before I won. By not giving up, I had the best time ever, and understood the hype. Giving up, of course, is allowed, and what you get on the demo is pretty much what the game has to offer, difficult combat with enemies that have their own unique timings that you learn through experiencing battles over and over. There's plenty of combat to try things out and find your best build.

[@PollyPlushie]

@@MoonanaGames Best of luck to you, obviously. I think every creative should follow through on their vision. I'm not so full of myself or entitled to think that everything has to be made to appeal to me. I've played literally every game and inspiration you named in your comment. I'm no stranger to playing and difficult or challenging games at all. My favorite series ever is Contra, and I've SLV1'd Dark Souls, so it's definitely not me complaining about the game being too hard. It's more a matter of taste. The combat in this game in particular just doesn't feel good *to me.* I don't feel like impact/feedback are good enough in determining the timings for attacks/defends. These systems usually work best when those timed button presses are on impact, not at some arbitrary point in the windup. I can intuit when an enemy's attack is going to hit me from just having played lots of videogames. Learning what point in windups/telegraphs the flash is going to happen isn't the kind of trial and error I like. If I botch nailing a timed hit that's timed to an attack's impact on me, that's on me. That feels like good trial and error. If I don't know what arbitrary point in an animation a timed press is going to happen that *doesn't* feel like good trial and error to me. It's cool if that's what you like and want, but my tastes just prefer a more impact and easy to read/intuit style.

[@birdomancer]

@@PollyPlushie I 100% felt the same way about this demo (and Virgo, which i didn't realize was the same dev) i think a large problem of it is that in a game like dark souls, you see a swing animation coming. the feedback and timing are communicated as exciting things, and in this game you just have to memorize the time the thing flashes because its got the pixel style/lower framerate thing going on. I enjoy hard games, and i respect the vision of the developer, but there's a difference between hard and fun, and hard and not fun, and yeah: the impact/feedback/visual information just isn't enough, and the combat feels like mechanically hard, but not fun. It's easier to die to a boss 80 times to learn how it works if the game loop is punishing but enjoyable.

[@PollyPlushie]

@@birdomancer This combat can work in 2D completely fine. LOTS of RPGs have handled it. It's a matter of the button presses NOT being timed to the impact of the attack, but instead to random parts of the wind up. It doesn't FEEL good and it's not intuitive at all. I think folks (including this dev) often completely miss what makes the good Dark Souls fights feel great, and it's not that I died to them 80 times. Difficulty isn't the point of Dark Souls, and too many devs think that's it. It's not because I didn't learn a very specific window to press a button, it's the tension, the impact, the framing, and studying attacks. This game's combat is just "figure out the gotcha moment with attack animations and if you don't we kill you really fast! Just like Dark Souls."

[@birdomancer]

@@PollyPlushie yeah, agree 100%, and you're right, not having the button press timed to the impact really doesnt feel as good!

[@warcatbattalion]

no switch...

[@NoisyPixelNews]

Not yet lol

[@MoonanaGames]

Yes, switch is confirmed for this title (developer here).

[@JohnD131]

​@@MoonanaGames That is great news! This looks incredible.

[@Hathur]

"Where singing is outlawed" .... soooooo... like, 70% of the Middle East today.

[@NoisyPixelNews]

Deep cut

[@obedear_]

Completely outlawed, never allowed? Gonna need a source for that one there bud, because that’s just not true in any *practical* sense. “The Qur’an says so” isn’t a reason either, because we all know what the bible says doesn’t apply to all of society.

[@rafe9852]

@@obedear_ I just checked, in iran it is a punishable offence to sing in public, absolutely ridiculous

[@obedear_]

@@rafe9852 Iran isn’t 70% of the Middle East. I’m not about to say that there aren’t some ridiculous laws in Middle Eastern countries by western standards, but to make a snide and sweeping claim like OP.. well, the intent is clear.

[@obedear_]

And also, men are allowed to sing in Iran in public. Now.. I’m not saying that is a good law, it clearly isn’t. But it just further proves that an entirely generalised claim with a made up statistic like “singing is outlawed in the 70% Middle East” is bunk. If you wanted to be more precise with the criticism and say “it’s oppressive that women can’t sing in Iran”, then yeah that’s a topic we could get into, and I would be in support of critiquing that law because it’s daft. But off-hand sarcastic remarks with fake statistics help no one.

[@babyitsnatural]

NP... you shouldn't really complain about the rhythm game aspect of keylocker because every Souls-like game is basically doing the same thing. You have to get hit in order to learn the right frames and timing to attack or defend your opponent. In Souls-like games, because of the arbitrary and unnatural frame data that is associated with attacking and defending, there is no way to intuitively dodge or attack... instead you have to learn by getting hit over and over and over again - memorizing the frame data - at which point the battles then become what essentially amounts to a rhythm game. Unless you are saying that the Souls-like genre is busted, then you should probably just accept keylocker for what it is a JRPG with Souls-like spin on attack/defend inputs.

[@MoonanaGames]

This is the first time ever that someone understood our ideals for our games, it unfortunately took us 7+ years of doing this one thing to finally start reaching out folks that appreciate our messaging. Thank you for standing by our game design choices. I hope you enjoy the final product as well.

[@theworld6710]

That’s not entirely true. Some souls-likes do that. But plenty others have bosses you can learn and beat realistically on your first attempt if you’re good enough. Again, at least in many Souls-likes, repetition helps but isn’t essential.

[@_supersolar]

@@MoonanaGames My wife and I have loved this about VvtZ since we played it ~5 years ago. Please keep it up, other devs and artists see what you do, and create in kind