I gotta say, all these new monsters so far are really doing wonders for the platforming bits. Much more often than before, I find myself leaving a particular area, going back out the way I came, in order to switch classes and perks based on whatever situation showed up in that tile. Which is a good thing, as that kind of choice-making seems very important with this game, and it goes along with the slower, more tactical combat. The different enemies so far are extremely varied in terms of what exactly they do, and how you must approach them, and what spells you want to use on them, and the surrounding terrain and presence of other monsters factors into this very heavily..... much more interesting than the first game, which mostly had alot of very basic straight-shot using enemies, and stuff like that. Though the first game is more about dodging anyway. Spell and perk selection though is even more important in this one than it was before. Really liking that.
A couple of balance issues though:
1, those, ah, flag things, or banners, I'm not entirely sure what it is.... but it spams 8 billionty little arrow things straight at me. This one kinda seems like it was designed around a lower difficulty level, because on Hero, there are so incredibly many of those shots going so fast and so rapidly that it's often completely impossible to dodge them..... and their caliber is high enough that most spells wont penetrate that crazed spray. I'm thinking there might be ways past them in surface areas.... but even then, it's very dependant on the terrain.... in buildings though, they seem impossible to deal with without just crashing through the spray and hitting them with something very strong at point-blank range. Or at least, that's the only way I've found that works so far.
2, those blue tower things, probably shouldnt appear in buildings at all, for the simple reason that their attack just doesnt work there. They're effective and dangerous in aboveground areas, but indoors or in caves, they may as well just be a pile of crates in your way.
I really like the fire guys in the desert areas, that's a big, impressive pattern that is still completely dodgeable, though you have to actually take them out for the little fireballs to spray outwards so you can dodge them.... just avoiding these guys wont work, gotta pop them and then dodge, I like that.
And those slow-moving metal things that shoot small fireballs straight to the left or right depending on their facing, I dunno what they're called, but they're the new Goddamn Bats for this game, I think. Not that they need to be changed, mind you. But I do use ammo spells on them often just to stomp the heck outta them, the blasted things.
Also those magnet ball spells got all awesome, they did.
