I totally agree that the game just throws you in there with not much in regards to showing you what to do but after spending a few hours with the demo, it's a day 1 purchase for me.
Going to copy/paste a few things from the other thread for those that may not have seen/known:
Spellcraft
Each magic has the ability to be Enhanced via Spellcraft:
Spellcraft asks you to do a particular action with the specific magic you want to enhance. In the example above, if I wanted to enhance Blast Slice (which will give me more damage and +1 in Red Magic), I need to "Strike enemies from afar 15 times."
Have you been inside a small refuge house and come across a bookshelf you can interact with? That's where you can choose which Spellcrafts you want to go after. You need to have that particular magic skill unlocked in order to go for it. You can go after 3 challenges at a time.
Once you completed a challenge, open the Magic menu and go to that particular skill. Hold A on it and it will be enhanced.
Magic Parkour
When you're dashing fast and you see your character flash a bright red, press O at that moment to do a quick dash WITHOUT draining your Stamina. You actually regain 1 bar of stamina doing this. Check the clip below:
View: https://twitter.com/Hispanicguyyy/status/1602371279067267088?s=20&t=d_9G8hgkyF3KKnProbrQxQ
This can also be enhanced via the just talked about
Spellcraft, so that you can instantly recover ALL stamina when timed correctly.
Other than pressing O to dash, another way to move quick (or at least look good doing so, lol) is using the X button. I believe the skill is called Shimmy in the menu. While running, press X to jump and then when your character touches the ground, press X again. You'll jump off the ground quicker. Keep timing your jumps and you'll look like this:
View: https://twitter.com/Hispanicguyyy/status/1602386984625897481?s=20&t=cVXqJVQcXrxD0MvuR2Oy6A
Inside a Refuge
When you're inside of a refuge, you can Craft materials and Upgrade your equipment.
You can upgrade the following in your Cloak and Necklace:
Health, Defense, Purple Magic and Red Magic
*Some are locked until you have a skill
Not only that, but both pieces of gear can be equipped with 3 passive skills. For example:
Critical Hits can boost attack
Defense +5%
Enemies can be knocked to the ground more easily
Both pieces of gear can be equipped with the same passive skills so maybe they stack. I'm not sure.
You know the healing items you have? When you run out, this is where
Crafting comes into play. You can craft more and also increase the size of your pouch to hold more stock. Also in
Crafting, you can craft some mats using other mats.
Magic
If you go to the Magic menu, there are some skills you can "Convert Back to Mana."
This means you can get a refund on the cost of a skill and choose a different skill instead. There are skills that cannot be refunded though.
I tend to prefer Sila's Magic (red magic). More fun to use, imo. So I refunded whatever I could in Frey's set and chose more of Sila's.
Nails
Other than your gear, Nails can give you more passive skills as well.
Your left and right hands can be equipped with a different set of nails, or you can choose the same ones. Each color gives a different effect. Spell damage might increase or improved critical hit rate, for example.
*You need specific materials to equip Nails
Archive
I highly suggest checking out the Tutorial section in the Archive as well as the control scheme. Definitely helps with figuring out what everything means. Also within the Archive, you can see every enemy you've fought and what materials they drop. Might not matter in the demo but in the full game, you might need to farm mats.
There are a few settings you can adjust that may help things:
Spell Switching Slowdown
When switching spells, do you want the game to slowdown while you're switching? Or maybe you want the game to fully pause while you switch so you have infinite time to decide?
You can change the amount of damage you receive.
You can change how quick you recover Stamina
Do you want healing items to be used automatically when at low health?
Automatic item gathering? (Should be "ON" for sure)
Magic Parkour Springing (TOGGLE is the better option)
Leap/Sour Controls (SEMI-AUTO is better)
There are other options but those would be personal preferences. So definitely mess around with things.
Other notes:
You can counter some attacks. A Triangle symbol quickly appears when you're able to do so and the window is small.
If you start a Magic Parkour run and then hold R2, you'll instantly reach the highest level for that specific attack you have equipped.
The Square button lets you use a "grappling hook" that, when used on enemies, can pull you to them. There is also a skill you can unlock that lets you use the rope to pull enemies towards you instead.
When you lock on to an enemy, look for the purple arrows that signify which enemy you're currently locked on to.
When looking at an enemy, you'll see a yellow circle that may have an arrow. If the arrow is pointing Up, that means it's weak against the Magic you currently have equipped. If the arrow points down, it's strong against it. If there's no arrow, then it's neutral and anything works.
Like I said at the start, it's a day 1 purchase for me. I'm not too impressed with the graphics.
I'm big on photomode and I've been trying to take some good shots but nothing has really stuck out to me. Edit: there are specific places that don't look too bad but it made me realize the world needs just a liiiitle more color in these parts. Don't even get me started when trying to snap a picture of magic though, lol. Just doesn't look right. Performance wise, I've been playing on Performance mode with 120hz and I'm satisfied with it.
I can understand why people might be turned off by it but I also understand that it does take some learning to get accustomed to and possibly start enjoying the game. I kinda feel it has this mix of wanting to be fast paced but then when fighting a boss, you want to play a little bit slower, thinking of what magic you want to use and at what moment.
