Last June, I got a preview of Nexon‘s upcoming multiplayer optional action RPG, Vindictus: Defying Fate. I went in with low expectations and came away thoroughly impressed by its quality and polish, even though it completely kicked my ass.
So naturally, when Nexon offered me the opportunity to try its latest alpha build, I jumped at the chance. What I found was an experience not greatly altered from the last time I played, but with some positive changes.
Going in, press previewers were told this test was focused on improvements to VDF‘s combat. The devs even stripped out most of the story for this build only so we could speed run the fights more easily. Same as last time, I focused on playing as the sword and board wielding Fiona, and I quickly settled back into the rhythm of her well-rounded playstyle balancing offense and defense.
To be honest, at first, I couldn’t really see any difference in this build compared to when I played last. I did discover an option to display character’s combos on screen, which helps me as I struggle to remember those things in the heat of combat, but I suspect that was always an option and I probably just didn’t notice last time.
Mind you, the combat feeling the same is not a bad thing. I thought it was excellent last time, so steady as she goes isn’t a bad direction to go. I had a pretty good time smashing gnolls while barely clinging to life, even if it all felt much the same as last time.
Part of the issue might be the time since I last played. While the original alpha did leave a pretty strong impression, it’s still been almost a year, so it’s possible there are subtle changes in the initial play that go over my head because of the gap in time.
Once I got a bit farther in and started facing bigger bosses, though, I did start to notice some more significant tweaks.
Before, bosses had three kinds of special attacks. Those with a yellow glow could only be dodged, the ones with a blue glow could only be blocked, and the red ones you just kind of had to run away from and hope for the best. This time around, the red attacks were gone entirely, and the other two now feel a little more forgiving.
Blue attacks can now only be “perfect” blocked, so you need to tap block at the right moment rather than just holding down the button (possibly this was always the case and I forgot), but for most bosses the window to block felt pretty forgiving. I’m very bad at perfect block/dodge mechanics, but I was able to nail it for most bosses, most of the time.
Again, it’s been a year, so my memory may have failed me, but as far as I can recall last time around yellow attacks could only be dodged, and anything else would see you eat full damage. This time around I noticed that Fiona and other characters with blocks can now talent into passives that let them block yellow attacks.
It doesn’t prevent all of the damage, but it does prevent a lot, and it’s easier to execute than dodges, so there’s a nice trade-off there. If your reflexes are good, dodging is better because it negates all the damage, but if you’re not confident in your ability to consistently nail your dodges, you can block, which is far easier to pull off but will slowly wear down your health with trickle damage.
With these changes, bosses felt a bit more manageable, and it seemed like some might have seen some general numerical nerfs as well. Last time I played, I became hopelessly hardstuck on the final boss of the first zone, but this time, I beat him on the first try, and then beat him again using the recall feature for good measure.
The game is still not easy by any stretch, and most of my fights were nailbiting struggles, but I did come out victorious most times, so it feels like VDF is settling well into its apparent goal of being a more accessible take on the Soulslike formula.
With the first zone finally completed, I was able to explore the second zone, a mountain zone covered in light snow. The outdoor areas are very pretty, though unfortunately you spend most of it spelunking through dingy mines. Its final boss only took me two tries, at which point I came to the end of the demo’s content.
The only other small change I noticed since the last build is that there are now shrines you can pray at scattered here and there through the game’s zones. These function a bit like Guild Wars 2‘s vistas, granting you some scenic views of the local landscape while soothing music plays. It’s a nice break from the intensity of the combat, and you get a little bit of gold for each shrine you find.
There are a few things I hoped would be improved by this build that weren’t. NPC followers are still largely ornamental, as they’re too dumb to stay alive. This is the one area of the game that needs serious improvements before it goes live.
I was also kind of hoping active abilities might have lower cooldowns this time around, but no such luck. As I said in my original piece, there’s enough depth to the combat that you don’t really need faster cooldowns, and it might make the game a bit too easy if there weren’t other changes to compensate, but it still feels a little bad that your biggest moves can only be used every couple minutes, especially since it’s fairly easy to whiff them.
Although I was able to complete all the content this time around, I still wouldn’t mind if the easy mode (now labelled “story mode” as of this build) was a little more forgiving. I toggled back and forth between it and normal and honestly couldn’t see much difference between the two.
So I can poke a few holes here or there, but by and large this latest alpha only furthered my impression of VDF as a fun, polished game that looks to capture the visceral intensity of Soulslikes in a more accessible, less stressful package. At this point, the thing I want most from Vindictus: Defying Fate is a release date.
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