Mother 1 was always my favorite of the series so I'm super excited to see Act 2 came out. A few things I'd like to say:
Firstly, I feel like the stat boosting effects like OffenseUp or the Defense Shower are really underpowered. They're really useful in Mother 1 and 3, but for whatever reason barely give any bonus in Encore. I've just stopped using them and solely rely on Shield if I need it. It'd be nice if those were more practical to add a more strategic element to the game.
Truthfully I should admit I started feeling frustrated with the combat around the time I left Magicant and that didn't really go away until I got PK Flash and Lloyd's sticky machine. I felt like I didn't really have any options for combat. Sure there are the special moves but the enemies started hitting for like 40 damage a hit even with the best armor that I couldn't think to do those. Besides by the time enough turns have passed that I built up enough of the gauge to do a special move, I've already got like 100 damage queued up for me to take. Every fight was just me mashing attack as to take as little damage as possible by ending the fight sooner. Heck when Lloyd joined it just slowed me down since he couldn't do anything but his turns wasted time on the rolling HP. I had an absolutely miserable time against the rat king, but Dr. Distorto actually felt pretty fair and fun in comparison.
Also a minor thing but come on, let Pippi be freakishly strong like she was in Mother 1! You don't get to keep her for very long anyways, I liked how even if she was underleveled when you get her in 1, she still does amazing damage for the short time you have her.
I did enjoy it, it was really cool getting to see Mother 1 reimagined, it was nice getting to meet Lloyd and I really like what you all did with places like the Sweet Little Factory and Duncan's Factory. I just hope the gameplay can be ironed out more in the future.