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Shattered 2 - The Promise's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #1 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
| Fun | #2 | 4.000 | 4.000 |
| Audio | #4 | 3.800 | 3.800 |
| User Interface (UI/UX) | #5 | 3.400 | 3.400 |
| Graphics | #9 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 5 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
DevLog Link
https://xcvg.itch.io/shattered2/devlog/480471/an-update-on-the-update-shattered-2-build-ec3fca3
Developer Feedback Questions
What are the most burning questions you have about the setting of this game?
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Comments
I'll keep my feedback relatively brief, since a lot of my feedback was already sent a while back. I tried playing on the hardest difficulty and going the non-Berton route I ended up not surviving the castle entrance. I don't think it was unbalanced really, I just didn't have time to go back and finish it, so if I missed something there (and from reading the devlog I don't think I did?) I apologize.
First off I'll say I only encountered one new bug in my playthrough, and its a somewhat obscure one that can be easily bypassed. In the temple if you speak to the woman by the matron it just opens a lorem ipsum dialogue that can't be exited. But I was able to fix it by just loading the autosave.
A good thing I noticed is that enemies seem to be more aggressive and co-ordinated in attacking the player. The pathfinding is still janky, but I didn't see any enemies milling around in the opening sequence like I did the first time I tried this game.
As much as the original release allowed me to kill mostly everyone, I appreciate that its been extended further.
I think the extra sidequests were a good addition, they made the area outside the village feel less empty, and provided a bit more worldbuilding. I think they're also a fairly unobtrusive way to include the ability upgrades. The attack speed increase I especially appreciate, though to be honest it does make me want a game in this style with really quick melee attacks.
Speaking of worldbuilding I loved the lore additions in the temple, the idea of the 4 gods/aspects being represented in the icon seen on the outside was neat, because I don't recall there being any explanation previously. I especially liked the design of The Beast, and frankly I always find the evil/chaotic gods interesting in fantasy. If I had a suggestion for further content in this world, I think "Beast Cultists" could be a neat one, whether they're like fanatical Cthulhu worshippers or independent people with their own agendas like characters marked by The Outsider in Dishonored.
Other areas I think would be neat would be more exploration of the East, since it sounds like in this universe its more "wild" due to the mention of warrior women. I imagine groups similar to nomads from the asian steppes or the Fremen from Dune, but whatever you wanna try out I think it could be fun.
Overall I liked the update, and I'm sad I didn't have more time to try it out and I didn't find the hidden level. But I'll definitely try it again when the next update comes out.
Hey, thanks for playing!
You're correct, there isn't anything new in the castle. The full update will add some collectibles to the castle, and some achievements for doing certain things/taking certain paths if those end up implemented.
There's no dialogue file for that character yet, so it tries to load it and fails. "Gracefully handle missing dialogue files in DialogueController" has been on the board for a long time, maybe it'll finally land in Edgewater (though that'll be too late for Shattered 2). Fortunately there's an autosave when entering the temple (you can also clear the dialogue through the console but that's obtuse and not really documented).
I wonder how much of what you're seeing with the enemies is placebo effect- I was surprised to hear they seemed to be acting more intelligently. I haven't made any changes to them for Shattered 2 specifically, nor any major changes to actor logic upstream. However, a few bugs and minor issues with actors have been fixed, so maybe they were being extra-stupid before and are now working properly.
I'm glad you feel the sidequests are worthwhile. To be honest, I was worried that most players might just skip them entirely, although that's one reason why I'm planning to add achievements, to kinda push people to explore and do the side tasks. I played with speeding up the sword attack way back when building A Dream of Valhalla, and it definitely felt better, but I felt a slower, more powerful attack made more sense for non-gameplay reasons.
That pull between narrative and gameplay and the inevitable compromises I had to make have been a recurring thing throughout the development process of this game especially.
The "four aspects" pantheon was partially conceived before the game was first released but there was just no way to incorporate it past passing mentions and that one texture.
I do like the idea of people who worship the "evil" Beast, and there's certainly a lot that could be done with the religion and culture of the Kingdom, but I have no idea how much of that will ever make it into a completed game.
By the same token, it would be interesting to explore the other cultures of the world, but most likely the East will never be developed beyond "mysterious foreign land we sometimes make reference to" for scope reasons. You never know, though. It would be the ideal setting for a game loosely inspired by East Asia the way "normal" fantasy is loosely inspired by Europe.
I do actually have one game in mind that's set in this world, but in a different part, different time, and not formally part of the Shattered series. We'll see about that one, though.
I'm hoping the next update (which will almost certainly be the big one, no in between steps) will be done soonish, but I've got a lot of stuff coming up IRL, so we'll see.