Just checked out the new version. Way to go guys -- I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Virtually everything in the game has improved tremendously and the elements come together very nicely.
Here are my other thoughts in no particular order:
- The logo IMO isn't as nice as the previous logo. Sorry. I agree that it seems messy, and really looks like it's part of an animation. I think in this case simple is best. Take off the effects from valley and without wind, and you'll have a perfectly fine logo. It seems like it's trying to do too much. If you want to convey the effect of wind, you can tilt 'without wind' a little maybe.
- The interface color is... well, I really liked the previous color. This is more serious and darker looking, but I don't know how much it fits the theme of the game. The previous color reminded me of an old map, like a lost world vibe. This color scheme is wooden looking, but it doesn't go for a full wooden look... Maybe it'll grow on me but right now I miss the previous color scheme.
- Commodity towers probably have too many boss rooms. I'm projecting into the future when there are more bosses, but you probably don't want to waste too many mini-boss types at a time. Also by having so many boss room layouts, you're exhausting the supply pretty quickly. It's a minor point though.
- One issue that crops up with the missions is that it's almost not worth going anywhere where there's no mission at this point. I know you're going to address this with extra content, but consider the option of having the missions only appear via exploration first. I feel like a map is best when it reminds you of stuff you've found rather than telling you what's present in places you haven't been to. I think it would be cooler if the first thing the player saw was a space to explore rather than missions. As the player explores areas of the appropriate levels, missions spawn and are discovered within the areas. Once a mission is encountered, it would then appear on the map. This would make missions something you explore to find.
- Fog of war was brought up in the other thread, and I think perhaps it's worth considering it while at the same time reconsidering the area numbering system. In fact, one has to consider them both together since the current gating system is the numbering system. I always found it a little strange that areas had visible level numbers. It's not a bad thing, but it's a little artificial feeling -- other games usually do this behind the scenes in some fashion. How about a system where you slowly expand the area that's visible (ie. not in the fog of war?) Areas that are semi-foggy will have higher level monsters (they'd be higher level than you), while explored areas will be your level. Perhaps really bright areas will be lower levels. In a sense, the brightness of a tile would represent how much you've tamed that tile. This gives a more intuitive feel to the area levels, while incorporating a mechanic to keep the world 'unknown' and mysterious.
- Water espers spawn too many attack waves.
- Fire touch should be the first thing to become really cheap mana-wise. Too often you're caught with nothing to attack with at all once you've used it, and that shouldn't be the case.
- Perhaps a portion of your mana bar should remain locked for some spells when you're fighting monsters? It's annoying to run out of mana because you've double jumped too much, so perhaps the usage of movement spells like RtL could be limited to always leave you some mana to fight with when you're around monsters?
