* I saw the fight in question where Harlekin was struggling against the spider boss without Arwen. It displayed a lot of problems, namely:
= The spider didn't just crush him after a certain amount of turns. I normally give bosses a "limit break" attack that completely slaughters you if you waste enough turns on them, or pull out an uno reverse if you try to heal too often. It's supposed to break this exact kind of stalemate in combat, which leads me into...
= The fact Harlekin was able to just heal indefinitely since the spell in question was TP-based and only took like, 4 TP in a system where you get like 30+ from taking damage. Potions not having a limited stock and the fact they healed him for his entire HP bar was a tremendous oof.
= Ryder's skills didn't do
enough to break through the boss's considerable HP, even if you were getting perfect hits every time. It was, sadly, the exact kind of damage sponge boss that people often complain about on these forums.
Ki Strike (or whatever the one is that has a multi-hit animation) doing less than his regular attack is honestly kinda shameful - not even an extra benefit like inflicting a status effect that makes the enemy take more damage.
There's not really a lot of smart play Harlekin
could have done since there's no:
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* status effects like poison, sleep or paralysis (or even charm, to make the little spiders turn against their master)
- If you're worried about these states overpowering the enemy, you can very easily make a troop event that makes the boss immune to charm after it gets hit by it once.
* no attack items that can inflict the above without the presence of a specific party member
* no charge-up shield or something similar that would make the boss take more damage once it's broken, incentivizing the player to use specific skills at certain points to break the shield instantly while stopping the boss from inflicting a super ultra deadly move
* no buffs (even the grindy gacha mmo I like to indulge in lets you buff your character up, provided on a cooldown every few turns)
* no enemy counters forcing him to use different skills, so he can't just spam lightning slash the whole time
* equipment that does other things than just give the player bigger stats
(
ex: a weapon that does more damage against bugs, or a weapon that uses magic attack over physical attack to deal with enemies that have much higher physical defense, or an electric gun that paralyzes slimes into having 0 defense, etc.)
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So honestly, not having Arwen shouldn't be an excuse for not having the fight be interesting. Extra party members should be helpful, but you need to prepare for not having them available.
* MP and TP were so plentiful that resource drain was a non-issue, which is kinda a bad thing if battles are meant to have a tactical element to them.
* There's a lot of little fights against the same configurations of easily defeated enemies. They don't really have unique abilities or threaten the player in any way, they just kinda blindly attack. I'd either cut down on them or give them unique abilities + enough HP or special defenses so at least every new battle isn't just "mash the best attacks to win".
* I was never a fan of how only Ryder has timed hits and the weird camera zoom in thing. But more importantly that timed hits for
defending against attacks was never implemented. That would force the player to rely on skill a bit more and give you more leeway to create high damage attacks that lose their bite if properly defended against.
--
Exploration suffers from its own problems because, well, the combat system lacks the things I mentioned above that could give it more depth. So it kind of snowballs into you not providing meaningful items that aren't just potions and mp potions, because I'd love to get a Bug Crusher weapon to beat the spider boss, etc.
Plus the first dungeon is pretty much unchanged - which is a shame, since it was the least appealing maps + not a very compelling maze to travel through since enemies are choking one-tile long hallways.
--
I am praying,
genuinely, that you don't take what I'm saying the wrong way
@TESTOSTERONE. I know I may come off as extremely harsh, but I want Wind Ryder to succeed and be the best it can be.
Also, good on you for including the Keybind function last minute! That'll help you get an accessibility point.
;) 
