Hello. I've played through all three arcs at this point, and I am very very impressed. I'll mostly talk about the third arc though, because it's just been released.
- I guess my favorite thing about Arc III was the wonderful and well used music. The song that got played sometimes when Gabriella was around, with the fast guitar plucking, was particularly awesome in my opinion. However, that other song played when Auburn is fighting Goma's minions felt awkward; at least part of that is from the Incredibles, and well, it makes the game feel a lot less like a good RPG at that point. That's just how it hit me. Volrath said: "IV won't use as much music, I'm sure." Please don't let the music be less prominent next time! It was just too good!
- The maps are not without their ugly imperfections, unfortunately. I've walked through walls and some objects in ways that shouldn't be allowed, in maybe...5-10 cases? These things are generally out of the way and aren't a big deal, but for the player that happens to run into them, it could be a turnoff. Not that it really bothered me.
- The minigames were quite entertaining. The quick draw one was my favorite, even though it was very simple. It might have been good if one of these things was part of the Monk...blah blah class and the scene where Evrind helps Cade with his technique; you could control Cade as he dodges blows and counters them.
- And the puzzles...actually, I thought the puzzles and the game as a whole was way too easy for me. In the earlier arcs, some of the puzzles were fairly impressive and innovative (thinking of that switch puzzle). These ones barely got in my way at all. It would be great if more of the puzzles in this series were good enough to be notorious. If that seems unreasonable, maybe there could be a difficulty setting, with greater rewards for the higher difficulty, or maybe at least some especially challenging puzzles could be optional.
- Sometimes, there would be so much talking going on for so long that the game started seeming like an interactive movie. Fortunately, it was a very good interactive movie.
- Maybe it would be nice if you could configure the game to make the minigames more challenging.
- When you are in a forested area, there are many paths you can travel through between the trees that lead to a dead end, which I found bothersome...should I try going through the trees this way? Maybe there'll be something over there...but it seems there only is when something indicates it. I wanted to be somewhat sure though, so...
- In a battle, I often feel like "Okay, I've basically have the enemy defeated. Now I just have to keep pressing the buttons and waiting for the enemy's attacks the same way for numerous turns. This isn't very interesting." RPGs are often like that, but I'm just saying...
- It's hard to give specifics, and I might be wrong because I don't really understand all the subtleties, but some of the dialog seemed like it didn't flow with the events that went on properly. It's not the timing that I think might be off sometimes, but the meaning. Most of the dialog was excellent. I even learned some new words, like demagoguery (I think that's the spelling).
- I understand that not all of the artwork is done, but I just want to say that some of the faces do not match up to the sprites that go on the map. The eyes were especially problematic. For example, Gabriella has nice red eyes on the face picture, but what looks like blue on the map sprite. This is also the case with Evrind. Was this intended to be changed? High resolution faces of certain characters might also be nice.
- There's something weird about how the icy reflection plates things line up with the torches on the left and right sides of that one puzzle room. It's like the part of the torch that lights up is placed higher, but the reflection plates are on the ground. It looked strange to me. And the idea of the fireball going down the stairs somehow when it used to travel over them just doesn't seem right. I don't know how that could be changed, but it doesn't make sense.
- The "I AM ERROR" reference, and much of the humor from NPCs in obscure areas was fantastic.
- There's a lot of goofy criticism here, but seriously, this game is...uh...one of the greater things since sliced bread. Keep going! : )
