Also, I am nervous about putting headphones on and this game needs sound so I'm just killing time while I keep an eye on Merrill

SO NIGHTINGALE

Um. It's clearly in Early Access and I would dare to say It belongs in Beta.

I've managed to complete one full realm (Forest Antiquarian) and the issues I have encountered so far have been: Frame rate drops at specific "cave" points of interest, Hope Echoes giving repeat rewards, Hope Echoes not giving any rewards, the planter box does not groweth the planteths and Coal and Sulfur have no weight to them lol

And one Occupation point of interest never acknowledged my victory

But I got the reward so who cares if the map doesn't update with (Complete) or not

I started the game with Background; Ne'er Do 'Ell at Extreme difficulty and set the tutorial world at Hard difficulty

Extreme difficulty means you have no clothing besides your pantaloons to start with. But even at Hard difficulty for the tutorial realm I was not at one-hit KO danger. So it really wasn't that bad. From a Dark Souls perspective, it was rather easy

The "Extreme" difficulty to start means very little after the tutorial. You'll be outfitted pretty quick thereafter! So that difficulty goes out the window fast. The only difficulty that matters is the realm setting when you make a new realm.

So I noticed pretty quick, realm difficulty impacts the realm level. Realm level impacts the drops you can get. Higher difficulty essentially rewards better stuff regardless of the realm title

So Hard for Antiquarian realms puts you at difficulty 40. My abeyance at Hard difficulty was at 25.

If you get the Twitch drops, it's broken af. The drops are a whopping 58gs and while it doesn't help your weapon score or shirt score so it balances a little you are a tank

I did not realize the Twitch drops had a gs! I thought it was just aesthetic. So I did not use it until maybe the last 5 hours I've played.

For reference my starter armor was 20 gs and then 40 after I upgraded it which put me at par with the realm I was in

But the Twitch gear went from 58 to 72

My follower is Roy atm and he's rocking my hand-me-downs like a champ

The story is both confusing and really interesting. I have no idea what direction it's going to go in but I'm very much happy to just take my time and find out

I won't give any story spoilers! But I will say that I don't trust Puck to save my life

But I mean. Fae. So. When should you ever trust a Fae?

I like the general concept going into things

But I do have a few worries mildly story adjacent.

The main hub, "Nightingale" takes a long time to get to which if you are in it for the online/multiplayer can be a bit of a drag. You can IMMEDIATELY multiplayer with friends! But without the hub, idk how the community looks, if there is one at all. So I'll just get there when I get there and mention that another time

25 hours, no hub is a lot of time imo for an online-only game

They stated they'll be making the game have an offline mode, which is good! But I am here for the hub and online community (if it exists) so I'm happy for those rooting for offline. But that's not a sticking point for me personally

That said, gameplay loop

Build Realm -> Find Tower, beat Tower -> Complete POI scattered around the map -> Upgrade gear to make that realm easier/unlock next realm -> Build new realm and repeat!

They have boasted group dungeons for end-game, I am not near end-game so I can't speak on that

So I assume the end-game loop looks like the one I listed above, but with the option to do group things as well

For mechanics. It's a lot of hack and slash with some strategizing on when to retreat, when to up your game with magick and when to cry in a corner shoveling health pots as you drive by your downed companion to give yourself 2 sec of relief as the enemies get distracted

I am doing a rogue like build by complete accident but I'm loving it

I turned my hunting knife into my main weapon and slapped a Recovery Enchantment on it with a stam recov Infusion. So I can slice and dice for longer, hop away and heal before going back in. Since it's one handed I can parasol the fuck out if need be as well which is great when you are in a crap bind

A LOT of people go for the maul or other two handed things. But idk, knife is less damage but it's very fast and easy to get crits.

Normal attack at 40gs for my knife is like 32dmg roughly but if I crit just right it's 320dmg soooooo

Yeah I like the hunting knife haha

The magick system looks neat but is dependent on enchantments you put on pieces of gear so you can't ever really go full magick it seems. BUT I have literally 2 spells to my name so maybe that changes later

The building is much easier to manage, you never have to deal with "raids" on your base. Just sleep through the night seems to solve that problem from what I've experienced

I usually do a sleep through the night anyway cause it's hard to see at night and squinting isn't fun

BUILDING ITSELF is a bit more tedious at the start. It takes time to get a basic layout of wood because you need 3 of 3 materials for each piece

But staring at any wall can let you add to the blueprint you set, you don't have to walk to the specific piece so that's really nice

The design styles look pretty nice

And

Honestly, the game is very pretty, very chill, minus the things that go bump in the night and it has a nice challenge level to whatever you wanna do or not do

I also wanna say that building wise

Other objects near an object can give stat boosts or nerfs

For example, the plater's box (that isn't working for me atm, already reported that bug)

It receives a buff if it is exposed (no roofing) or a debuff if it is sheltered (roofing) it gains a buff for being in a well lit space

The buff decreases time to get a plant, the debuff adds time before you get a plant

This is the same for all workbenches in one way or another, although they wanna be sheltered, not exposed

The upgrades for benches so far has been kinda like little accessories you can sprinkle around

Like the spinning wheel for masonry (I think?) has a jug accessory and you can place that jug anywhere and the bench gets a buff to do more craftable things

Which is a much more natural way to go about it, in my humble opinion

So in general, I'm liking the game so far! I can see some of the criticisms about it - a lot about no offline mode - and idk. I think it is not for everyone. It is a bit grindy

BUT lmao COMING FROM A KOREAN MMO, this is not grindy

But for people who are used to other game genres... ya it's kinda grindy

The twitch drops are busted lol. Awesome for EA launch babies but probably not consistent with full release later. I’m thinking of making a second character and sticking only to craftables for feedback purposes

It’s a little grindy but in a relaxing way? Def not KR or JP MMO levels though! Getting overencumbered quickly will likely be less of a thing as more recipes unlock, too

I’m glad offline mode for single play focus isn’t affecting regular development, so it sounds like the framework of the game likely had that in mind as a possibility. But the dedicated servers meaning the camp being shared in co-op isn’t limited to only when one person is online to host, which I like a lot

But there’s some clear QOL things that need addressing and improving haha. BUT the game is in a very playable state.
I think the most annoying puzzle that bugged for me was one where you activate the glyphs? I could not for the life of me find the remaining 2 anywhere on the big ruins I was in, and I’d checked everywhere..

All walls smashed and climbed too lol. (The sprites were not helpful)

There was one I was in that had a hidden wall that needed you to stand on a pressure plate to find

Not sure if that helps you at all though

Lol my follower usually ends up killing the sprites, I've never used them

My follower is useless fhfhggb the last 2 sessions they’ll gather but they just stand there, not fighting

I will have to check for pressure plates tho! That might have been what I missed, as I hadn’t encountered any prior

I just gave my follower a maul, so all he does is fight. When I gave him a pickaxe he would gather in the middle of combat lmao

I would say walk around with not the pickaxe as well because you'll get the level indicator pop up that something can be axe'd in case you did miss a floor, wall or ceiling tile that could be knocked down

Yeah usually I scan for that, but I just wasn’t finding anything. It might genuinely have been bugged, it’s hard to say.

Good plan with the maul! I may do that when I get one

Yeah, it could very well be bugged.

More on Nightingale, so I started a Swamp Astrolabe realm as per course and I realized Well, what if I missed something unique to the desert and swamp Antiquarian realms?

So I went back and I'm doing Swamp Antiquarian and then I'll do desert

So far, swamp seems to have different resources from the desert/forest and one essence trader had 3-5 items I didn't have already from going to the essence trader in the forest biome

I'm not sure if the POI will yield the same Hope Echo rewards or not, but I assume some will be blank repeats

I'd say you definitely can skip the other biomes, I just think it's fun to get all the Hope Echoes and codex entries if I can

Most Hope Echoes have only rewarded large amounts of essences but no new schematics so far. Still gonna do them all cause why not haha