I don’t get why being forced to level up is in any way, shape, or form okay, what if some people like the challenge in speedrunning the game and being overleveled? Worst case a warning can just be put saying progressing at the wrong level could ramp up difficulty.
Afterall, isn’t AO all about player freedom and doing what you like? You implied this yourself too:
Seems hypocritical to say that and at the same time support a literal roadblock in story progression.
I’m glad you had fun and I’m not negating that I’m saying that artificial barriers aren’t made to increase fun or enjoyment because your following decisions don’t feel like they’re yours if that makes sense.
Arcane Odyssey is an open world game that encourages you to explore and make your own adventure but ONLY when the game gives you permission to. The level slumps should be more of a suggestion then an actual roadblock. Players would be more encouraged to do other things and explore if they ran into a hard boss like Elius under leveled and got their ass handed to them, rather than being coddled. This would be an organic barrier, and anything the player decided to do after this to level up, would be their decision, giving them agency rather than a forced halt in their adventure.
Imagine if you played Elden Ring and you beat Margit early on but were blocked from going further cause you didn’t have a high enough level. You’d feel like you were being punished for being “too early”.
tl;dr
Level blocks only make sense in a game with a defined path, in an open world game it does the opposite of what it’s trying to accomplish and makes you feel like you did something wrong for getting somewhere too early.
I should rephrase, “magma is redundant”, i already have a fuck ton of damage and power from metal, and Magma isn’t that much faster, all it really offers in addition to metal is maybe area denial and a slight amount more destruction (which is funny).
I mean, i get the whole upgrading things, but like, lets say, for the sake of a first time player who probably hasn’t gotten to a level lock yet, that someone’s following the story, and they’re just out of the Sky Islands, so, about level 63(ish). When they get to Sailor’s lodge, they will realize that they need 13(ish) levels to continue the story, and at that point, there are literally 3 quests, seriously, and one is one of the hardest quests (for the level, anyway) in the game. HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO GET THAT MANY LEVELS??? THATS DUMB (i know its early access, but like still, you should be able to continue at your own pace, like, you can just do everything you said without the level locks)
I understand there are more ways of getting XP (cargo, fishing, sinking ships) but those are all boring as shit. Also, there actually aren’t any repeatable quests in Sailors Lodge (at least, before Fort Talos). Theres only three quests in Sailors Lodge, with one more after level 82, seriously, you can check the wiki. If you mean in general, sure, you can sail across the map to do the repeatable quests, which you’ve probably done at least 5 times before (this is kind of excusable because of it being early access, so i wont harp on anymore). Either way, you should be able to progress the story at your own pace. If not, at least have enough quests to do to get enough xp to continue without having to do anything else.
Heavy navy ships are honestly obscene. Make me feel like the doom slayer on that cover surrounded by an endless horde of demons. 'Cept they aren’t just fodder, each one has a magic with their own status affect. 8 mages damaging you directly and buffing the damage of one dude and his secretary. And that one dude is the snail of death, following you everywhere just barely slower than you. Then multiply that by three.
You either pay a fee ranging from 500 to upwards of 2000 galleons if you can fight them off, or get caught. Or hope the AI gets stuck on a rock somewhere and you get completely free reign to do whatever.
The treatment of Munera Garden by Vetex is beyond dissapointing to me.
Forced to use a Camp Marker to set spawns, rather than simply spawning there again upon death (like every other previous arena we’ve had in the series…)
The arena being destructible adds absolutely nothing and only takes away from combat. I thought he would have learned after all the complaints from WoM.
The Grand Navy can still send units to you at Munera if your notoriety is high enough, which is beyond annoying.
Grand Navy members killing negative reps at Munera will imprison them.
Assassin Syndicate members killing negative reps at Munera will imprison them.
Assassin Syndicate members killing anyone at Munera counts as an assassination, resulting in heavy Renown loss.
Why is Munera missing so many simple QoL features? It’s the game’s main arena and honestly it’s shaping up to be the worst out of the franchise so far, despite how visually impressive it is (the hot springs theme is sick, in my opinion). Judgement Isle and the Coliseum were both treated far better.
