How I wished some gameplay elements were after first playthrough
I completed first playthrough on DM, used the respec potion many times so I tried out all kinds of builds. Ended up with 70/30 combat/potion build for most of the endgame. Really like the potions. Like tailoring specifically for specific encounters.
But there was a few general feelings that stuck with me throughout the game. I will briefly detail them here, just for the sake of discussion. One caveat, I am a Souls Gamer through and through. No doubt, my suggestions will be biased towards bringing certain things in line closer to the way they are in those games. I recognize the fact that not every game needs to be like those games to be good, but like Bruce Lee we should pick and choose what is good, then discard the rest.
Throughout the game I continually felt that I was upgrading swords and armor so often that the equipment did not really matter. Equipment just becomes an ongoing quest to keep getting gear to keep up with the enemy levels. I guess this is good in the fact that it forces you to explore a little bit (although mostly you are taken care of in that respect from main quest missions), but I felt like it detracted from the gameplay. I would like to be able to pick and choose the gear I want to use from the get go, or as a find it, and just upgrade the items I like, mostly based on how cool they look.
From a realism standpoint, could one sword really ever be so much more deadly than another? Maybe the value of weapons could be in how long they remain sharp or how long before they are broken. Same with armor, but armor also effects movement and stamina, of course.
At the end of the day, basically what I want is for all elements in the game to focus me in on developing my actual gaming skill. I want to overcome challenges by making my own decisions - what equipment to use, how to employ it - not by just slogging through to get the most up to date gear. That is just following a script, so to speak.
For the most part I felt Witcher 3 allowed me the freedom to make my own decisions and live with the consequences, but I think the continually scaling gear and monsters takes away from that. Monsters stay the same no matter what, which is great, but I think weapons and armor should all fall within a certain range of effictiveness, with the ability to hone them somewhat. How much? I don't know. I did not like how in DKS 2 you got stuck with whatever weapons and armor you chose to upgrade simply because of the investment you made into it. But then again, the upgrade materials were fairly easy to come by.
I also like the idea that weapons and armor all remain the same, so a player can choose what they want to use solely on looks. Maybe certain weapons have distinct features, like a short sword swings faster than a longsword but does not cut as deeply, etc. I think the main point here is to further enable not just gamer freedom but also the need for the gamer to make critical decisions that will effect the outcome of each scenario.
Just a few rambling thoughts.
I completed first playthrough on DM, used the respec potion many times so I tried out all kinds of builds. Ended up with 70/30 combat/potion build for most of the endgame. Really like the potions. Like tailoring specifically for specific encounters.
But there was a few general feelings that stuck with me throughout the game. I will briefly detail them here, just for the sake of discussion. One caveat, I am a Souls Gamer through and through. No doubt, my suggestions will be biased towards bringing certain things in line closer to the way they are in those games. I recognize the fact that not every game needs to be like those games to be good, but like Bruce Lee we should pick and choose what is good, then discard the rest.
Throughout the game I continually felt that I was upgrading swords and armor so often that the equipment did not really matter. Equipment just becomes an ongoing quest to keep getting gear to keep up with the enemy levels. I guess this is good in the fact that it forces you to explore a little bit (although mostly you are taken care of in that respect from main quest missions), but I felt like it detracted from the gameplay. I would like to be able to pick and choose the gear I want to use from the get go, or as a find it, and just upgrade the items I like, mostly based on how cool they look.
From a realism standpoint, could one sword really ever be so much more deadly than another? Maybe the value of weapons could be in how long they remain sharp or how long before they are broken. Same with armor, but armor also effects movement and stamina, of course.
At the end of the day, basically what I want is for all elements in the game to focus me in on developing my actual gaming skill. I want to overcome challenges by making my own decisions - what equipment to use, how to employ it - not by just slogging through to get the most up to date gear. That is just following a script, so to speak.
For the most part I felt Witcher 3 allowed me the freedom to make my own decisions and live with the consequences, but I think the continually scaling gear and monsters takes away from that. Monsters stay the same no matter what, which is great, but I think weapons and armor should all fall within a certain range of effictiveness, with the ability to hone them somewhat. How much? I don't know. I did not like how in DKS 2 you got stuck with whatever weapons and armor you chose to upgrade simply because of the investment you made into it. But then again, the upgrade materials were fairly easy to come by.
I also like the idea that weapons and armor all remain the same, so a player can choose what they want to use solely on looks. Maybe certain weapons have distinct features, like a short sword swings faster than a longsword but does not cut as deeply, etc. I think the main point here is to further enable not just gamer freedom but also the need for the gamer to make critical decisions that will effect the outcome of each scenario.
Just a few rambling thoughts.