creating tension requires uncertainty, whether it's about where to go, what to do, what you might stumble into — whatever. it requires that there's some chance you might not make it through the next encounter, you might not have the resources to get to the next safe area, or that your victories might be pyrrhic. there has to be some reason to believe you have something to fear, and that has to be based on something of consequence

lunacid does a few things right, but it lacks that uncertainty. it's too generous, too tidy, and too easy to ever push you out of your comfort zone. despite ostensibly drawing heavily from king's field and shadow tower it lacks the backbone necessary to make a dungeon crawler work. to do these things right you have to be willing to give and take from the player in equal measure, you can't just coddle them

the design should be holistic: each component working in tandem with one another to accomplish the same goal. wear you out. run you down. disorient. disarm. overwhelm. the bread and butter of all these games, regardless of subgenre. combat, attrition, and navigation being individual threats that ebb and flow at different rates, but always in the same direction

this feels like a game where that wasn't considered at all. or if it was, it wasn't considered particularly thoughtfully. everything's weaker than you, and everything loses to kiting. the math is too player favoured, the environments are never leveraged meaningfully, and enemies can't compete with your movement or options. that you'll defeat your opponent is a foregone conclusion; it's practically deterministic. there's no threat of loss, no threat of failure, and no lingering doubt that you might not be prepared for what comes next

naturally this affects attrition because if there's no pushback there's no worry about dwindling resources. status effects could've helped a bit if they didn't disappear on their own, antidotes weren't 6 coins — three snails worth of cash — and bleed wasn't solved by kiting like everything else, but here we are. enemies won't hit you much anyway, so it doesn't really matter, but it's another bizarre decision in a game loaded with them

barely any traps, ambushes, unavoidable enemies, long uncertain treks, environmental damage, or anything. I walk from one pink crystal to another, I tear ass the entire way. I get to choose what enemies I engage with, I get to choose how I engage with them, and I'm always at an advantage. it's bewildering, and while I don't expect this to be some hard bone crunching experience, I do expect a pulse

the interconnected world is neat, and the levels are alright, but with everything inside them being so compromised it's just not enough to maintain my interest. hope king griffith, patches, siegmeyer, the moonlight greatsword, and the titanite demon do ok against the old one without me

love the soundtrakc tho