comments for Gravend

Just a bit into this and so far I'm really enjoying it. I can tell a lot of thought went into it. My only criticism is that it does throw an awful lot at you right away, but once you are over the slight learning curve it's not hard to understand.

I want to like this game but the UI needs a lot of work still. Multiple scrolls bars and lots of dead space on the page at the same time isn't a great experience.

Cant even get started honestly. Understanding what is happening is impossible unless you really want to understand it. The UI needs lots of work. Like a lot. Make the main window bigger. Move everything to the left, above or below. And keep subtabs to the top left. Right now its literally hurting my head to even look at because everything is so small and you have to read everything yourself. Games like these need to have a simple UI or you will turn away 90% of people. Theres a reason I dont play Runescape. Too much to see, too little to do.

an absolute gem, at least based on first impressions. the UI and initial onboarding are a bit rough around the edges, but it's far from the worst I've seen and the amount of customization on offer makes me think I'll probably get it configured to feel better once I understand the game loop well enough to know which things I need quicker access to. Nothing that's a dealbreaker, and I'm sure the dev(s) will polish things up later in development once the content and features are in place and have been playtested enough to be unlikely to change too radically by release.

There is clearly a lot of content on offer already, even for an early beta release. Pretty familiar core concepts - a combat and character build-focused semi-idle RPG with a big world to explore, crafting, loot, different classes and skills to train, a prestige mechanic that also serves as a way to change classes and try out new specs while accruing permanent upgrades and new class options for future prestiges. There are towns, quests, dungeon-like chains of fights with limited potions/consumables, exploration, gathering, grinding, and no doubt plenty of stuff I haven't seen yet.

The biggest standout aspect of the game so far is the art and atmosphere/mood/vibe. After playing so many games on here with no art, or AI generated slop, or generic filler art from some open license asset library, it is really refreshing to play a game where the art assets feel like they are actually part of the game and add to the experience. There's a nifty juxtaposition of comforting pastels and creepy, unsettling elements that have me excited to see where things go. Seems like it may have some original twists on the familiar "wake up from being dead and try to figure out what the hell is going on" premise (I'm tempted to coin the term Sonny-like, it seems to be a thriving subgenre of browser incremental/prestige loop RPGs). I'm a sucker for this sort of slow burn thematically rich setting that incorporates gameplay systems and mechanics into the lore and plot.

tl;dr push past the awkward interface and give this one a chance to grow on you, it's clearly a labor of love and definitely more worth your time than reading this verbose review was ;)

Small bit of advice for after you reach the first temple: sanctify the thief passive ASAP

This is currently among my favorite games here! Already want to buy it on steam!

I've had a good time playing this game. I like that there is a bunch of different ways to progress through it unlike some incremental where it starts to become more like following an exact guide after a while this really does feel like an adventure game.

Unless it works against the themes, you could consider saying that instead of dying, you just warp back or rematerialize to your home point. That naturally explains why you don't lose anything. It would make it a bit less confusing. That out of the way, I am SUPER enjoying this game. It is sooo interesting and expansive. Kind of frustrating but in a way that makes you want to figure it out.

There are some confusing things. Like I didn't realize what sanctifying passives actually did until doing it (probably should mention that it just makes them permanently equipped without counting towards your limit of 2 equipped). I held off because the game warns you about it multiple times, but it's super worth doing when you have some exp built up. Also still don't really know what death quest dungeons are for. Do they give you something or do they have exclusive loot or something? I checked the in-game help but it didn't really say anything about it.

Otherwise really am liking this. Games with interesting stacking systems (like beating a boss to unlock fishing to be used in cooking to be more effective) are the type of incremental games I like.

One other mild issue, I think the map could be a little better. Using the filters to dim/highlight things isn't really strong enough to be easy to distinguish with the images on them. Plus using filters to see level of zones is a bit tedious. The nearby minimap has the nice function of show tile levels but only works on the immediately surrounding tiles.
Another thing I like, the game seems to remember gear sets for classes. Any thoughts on adding a similar thing for skills? Like when equipping cooking, I'm probably going to want the two cooking passives on (if I don't have them sanctified yet).

I really like the game concept, but man, changing jobs can be quite a chore, especially for some crafts requiring multiple jobs to be accomplished properly. While I can respect not giving too many hints to where to go, I did find myself confused as to where to go after unlocking the second temple. Plus, combat feels like a wall sometimes, maybe to fight against possible potion spamming that can be easily done to overcome difficult sections.

It feels good to have finally broken the outer barrier.

The Drowned Altar confounds me, I managed to clear its lurker but have no clue what actually gives you immunity to its drowning trap from Scarecrow's hints to be able to restore its altar! And nobody has asked here yet

beautiful game, lot of fun. wish grinding for XP in the arena didn't take so long but that's understandable i guess.

Officer's active abilities and the ap manual are such a tease when it's combat job only and I have so much AP on Monk and Thief that I wish I could give to Mason to finally, FINALLY reach the 2k masons to build the Obelisk to break the reality limit. biggest walls yet.

This is a really fun game. Best part is learning to do everything by yourself figuring out the mechanics.

Would be cool if the art mini-map could have icons. I like that the main map can highlight/dim things, and it uses red for impassible things, but it'd be cool if the mini map could tell me which tiles have home or fish or temple or match the criteria of the main map. Particularly tier, if I've already discovered that I have no chance, it'd be cool for the mini-map to have a little skull or a 4 or something.

This is fantastic, the art, the qol and just love for the game can be seen will for sure play it through. If i find any bugs or things to add I will comment!

suggestion: for the quick swap and class sections, instead of sorting them by alphabet, it would be nice if they were separated by combat/noncombat, and intended obtainment order. would make it alot easier to switch between them

grinding for crafting and gathering golems isnt rly fun, but also seems to be necessary to clear empty sanctum. AP from actively grinding those jobs is low, and accountant is slow without those other golems at high level.