Dear Tacticians,
Thank you so much for joining the official release of Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch. Despite an 11-month Early Access period, we know that no game is perfect and there is always room for improvements.
We've been happy to see all the feedback you’ve shared in Steam reviews, discussion boards, and on Discord. (And if you haven’t joined the conversation yet, we encourage you to do so!) Of course, our hope is always to see nothing but positive reviews and feedback all the way, but as expected, we've also received plenty of thoughts on ways the game can be made even better.
We’ve worked through the weekend and discussed with the team about how best to address some of the most common points of feedback we’ve received thus far. Today we want to briefly discuss what we’ve learned and adjustments we'll be making.
The two most common points of feedback we’ve heard are:
Persistent progression takes too long, and seems to force players to grind expeditions (runs) in order to stand a chance
The level of difficulty seems to spike unevenly and/or is too high in general, which feeds into point #1
There are other pieces of feedback we’re aware of and are working on, but these two seem to be the biggest friction points for players who don’t yet feel like the game is clicking for them.
We have reviewed internally and agreed on a few points:
Our intention behind the current speed of persistent progression is not to keep people replaying or grinding; it’s to give players a steady sense of reward after each expedition that gradually expands the range of possible gameplay options.
Combined with the above point, as players are not unlocking persistent progression elements as quickly as might be ideal, it makes the level of difficulty feel higher than intended. This is especially noticeable in the boss fights, because of all their unique abilities that feel a step above what the player starts out with.
Now I'll discuss how we’re planning to address this.
1. Faster Persistent Progression to Reduce the Grind
After reviewing the current balance internally, we've come to the conclusion that expeditions are generally taking players longer than we expected.
Despite Veil of the Witch’s overall fast-paced approach to turn-based combat, fans of the genre still want to spend time carefully strategizing their moves, particularly early on. As a result, the ratio of persistent progression to gameplay time has been a little lower than we assumed. This most likely stems from the fact that the team has been working on (and playtesting) the game for a while now, so we have a great deal of familiarity with the stages, skills, and fight mechanics.
We acknowledge that the current balance of persistent progression is not adequate and fails to provide the desired sense of forward momentum after each expedition.
Thus, we're working on some changes to the overall speed of persistent progression. Again, our intention has never been to gate content artificially, force players to grind runs, or pad playtime. Here are some changes you can expect:
Sacred Embers will drop at a higher rate, allowing the player to progress more quickly through the Altar of Fire perk trees. We’re also carefully reviewing the possibility of unlocking Greater Blessings earlier.
Partnership Points will progress at faster speeds, so players can unlock synergies and additional classes for Ashe at a quicker pace.
We’ll be upping rewards for Runes and Rune Fragments, so the player gets access to the class system as a whole a little sooner.
We're also reviewing speeding up the process for recruiting additional characters.
We believe the game's focus should be on providing players with fun tactical challenges based on their experience and skill, and the persistent progression elements should support that, not hinder it. We're testing these changes internally now and hope to share them soon.
2. Level of Difficulty
Our design philosophy has always been to find the proper level of balance that makes the game feel fair, yet difficult to complete on your first run. But now that the game is out in the world, we're finding that a lot of players feel the game’s difficulty could use some adjustment.
We want more players who love the genre to enjoy our game, but It's also important not to blunt the experience for players who love a high challenge level. So:
For new and less experienced players: We will be lowering the game's base difficulty level to something more in the ballpark of the Eidolon’s Chosen mode. (This mode, in turn, will be removed.)
For players who prefer a challenge: We'll be adding a new, higher difficulty option. Meaning, if you like the difficulty where it is now, this option is for you.
For players who want even greater levels of challenge, we’re confident the existing Trials mode will satisfy that desire.
Finally, we'll be adding more tooltips to the boss stages, to ensure that when players first encounter categorically new gameplay mechanics, they’ll be a little more informed and better able to strategize.
We’ll be starting with these changes, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on balance issues and making additional refinements as needed, just as we have all throughout Early Access.
Conclusions
Higher drop rates on Sacred Embers, Runes, and Rune Fragments
Faster progression of Partnership level between allies
Potentially other changes aimed at speeding up persistent progression elements
Lower base difficulty and related removal of the Eidolon’s Chosen mode
To offset this: a new, higher difficulty level similar to the game’s current balance
New tooltips for unique boss mechanics
As mentioned, these are just a starting point based on the feedback we’ve gotten since launch. We’re also reviewing various other Quality of Life improvements and working on fixing reported bugs.
We will be diligently reviewing all feedback and making continued improvements to the game. We invite you to continue sharing your thoughts, and we hope you'll enjoy the new changes and consider leaving a positive review.
Whether you’re a new player or a returning Lost Eidolons fan, we appreciate your support. Our whole team is incredibly grateful to work on the kind of deep, turn-based tactical games that we love to play—and with your support, we hope to continue our journey with the franchise.
Thank you,
Ocean Drive Studio