Fun so far, but the incremental elements detract from the game.
I unlocked the Attunement while I had 130 max mana. I explored the mansion and searched every pot without finding anything to increase it. Even with enough Interaction levels to reduce the cost to 123, none of the crystals were close enough to a mana source to actually complete the task.
I ended up setting a grind loop for Movement exp to reach lvl 15, which increased my mana enough to comfortably finish the task.
This makes me sad: I loved playing trough it as an unfolding puzzle. Locking the tools to solve the puzzle behind a mandatory grind means all my efforts to play smart and progress fast are wasted.
I realized when reading the comments that the chest in the starting area can be opened when you have some Instability. I thought I needed to activate the mysterious orbs to remove the barrier, because the chest is visible at the start and the very first thing I tried was to interact with it.
After unlocking Focus and realizing it has a skill you have to grind, I set up the most boring loop: get out of bed, Focus, reset. This is the fastest way to grind Focus, which is the only way to increase how much Instability you can gain before it resets the loop. It looks like the Instability penalty increases how much Instability you gain? The ways to reduce Instability are very limited,
I was disappointed when I unlocked the ability to absorb echoes. I was hoping for a mechanical boost, something to help solve the Meadow puzzles. At that point I had already solved how to reach each echo, unlocking them came much too late.
Bugs:
- If you use Focus on your bed, the game soft-locks. Reloading fixes it.
- At some point I was unable to queue attacks against the Slime in the top part of the Mansion. Reloading fixed it.
- If you use the Plan menu to switch between regions, it doesn't reset the zoom; if you have barely explored the Meadows and go back to the Mansion you only see a tiny bit of the starting area.
Suggestion:
- Add an Instability Barrier on the Drawer near the Meditation Mat. This should help the player notice how it reacts to Instability and remind them about the early chest.