Reviews for Divine Arms Alpha Demo v1.9

[Kikoshou]

Gorgeous art and animation, but it's too bad the gameplay feels awful. While in part due to a bizarre bug where clicking the attack only sometimes results in an attack actually coming out(playing with a laptop touch pad if that helps).

Despite that bug, the spells take way too long to charge for the amount of effect they have, and nothing aside from a terrible grind or cheating makes it bearable. Too many of the charge spells are aoe spells with an effect that pushes the enemies away from them, while the buzzsaw at least seems to contain any foe that it hits in the center. It'd be so much better if their utility was a bit more reliable(i.e. ice walls stunned enemies or was a wall between you and them, tornado sucked in, etc.)

Lastly, the enemies are fun looking, but a chore to play against. Their random pathing is only bearable for a skillshot game because they're so bad at attacking you. All of them have point blank melee and some form of gap closer attack. It'd be more enjoyable to all but scrap the melee and make their capture attack their primary form of attack, with a longer form of recovery if they miss. That'd give you the window to actually charge anything.

Best of luck, and hopefully we'll see another update sooner than 2 years from now.

vipervgames responds:

the implementation of random pathing is being fixed for 2.0, and yes the spells will also be retweaked. thanks for playing!

[fredrick215]

Stuck on a white screen, great art though.

[rainman010]

tooooo slow

[drtujkuihtyre]

==========================
General Tips for Beginners
==========================
-Take 15 seconds out of you precious day and read the damn beginning excerpt
-RIGHT CLICK / SPACE ON THE MAP to access the menu for attack/passive upgrades and the gallery
-So far, there's the tutorial level and like 500 arena levels with (so you're not missing out on too much past the tutorial)

================
List of Controls
================

Universal
~~~~~~~~~
T: Toggle full-screen
M: Mute
Q: Toggle quality

Map
~~~
Right-click OR Space: Reveals and exits the map menu (upgrades, gallery, general options)

In-game
~~~~~~~
WASD: Duh
Left-click: Attack (hold to use spells)
E: Cancel spell casting
P: Pause (Note that you can abort mission)
R: Toggle halocopter modes
-1st: No attack
-2nd: Auto attack enemies on sight
-3rd: Attack according to your mouse position

==========================
Hints for the Secret Scene
==========================
-Credits to patreon user "kenkko" for providing the the full instructions list (located as a comment on viperv's patreon)

a) The secret (location) is located near a tree
b) Meme + map menu

=================
The Actual Review
=================
After playing the first demo, this game has seen a lot of improvement. For example, the buzz lightsaw (regular attack) deals sufficient damage now, which is nice. The overall quality of the scenes and combat is amazing. Of course, there is still room for improvement:
a) Instructions:
All games should have instructions for when the player gets stuck! Have instructions somewhere immediately visible in the map menu showing ALL the controls, and other relevant info to the game. I don't think the game actually mentioned how to access the map menu without playing the first demo, and that menu is crucial for doing literally anything.
b) Combat controls:
The fact that the spell casting and the regular attack is combined is a little bit weird. I suggest that an entirely different key (maybe right-click) should cast the regular attack while holding down left-click still casts the other spells. This is because occasionally, whenever I want to use the buzz lightsaw, I instead charge for a spell which means I lose mobility for an unnecessarily long period of time.
c) Sound:
At the very least, have a master volume bar. If possible, have two separate bars for music and SFX. This is just a quality of life suggestion, since I always find the volume to be too loud even with the computer volume at 1%.
d) Stats
Some stats displayed for the upgrades are generally meaningless for the average player. What does charm do? What is a range of 450? What is a repel force of 270? I suggest putting information like that somewhere in the instructions.

Otherwise, still giving it 5 stars because it is a demo with LOTS more potential. I look forward to the next demo during the year 2023 (kappa).

vipervgames responds:

yeah, i'm gonna have to steal some of these for the next update if you don't mind.

[unicandar]

Brilliant, I love it. Good gameplay and great scenes, cant wait for later versions and more scenes.