Hello, this is the Vindictus: Defying Fate Development Team.
The eight-day alpha test has come to an end. We sincerely thank you for your enthusiastic participation and the interest you have shown.
We would like to take this opportunity to share some thoughts with all those who participated, regarding the direction we plan to take after this test and some reflections from the development team.
Preparing for the Alpha Test
This alpha test was prepared with the purpose of testing the overall structure of the game along with some specific pieces of content.
Unlike the pre-alpha test, this version allows players to experience the tutorial, customize their characters, play in the village after customization, and progress through the story.
In addition, we applied systems such as the Follower system that supports combat, newly designed combat areas, co-op boss battles, and the Fitting Room feature.
Since this was a test version, many systems were still in early and mid-development stages. However, we aimed to verify the basic gameplay cycle based on a structure that was mostly in place.
Throughout this process, we were fortunate to receive encouraging support from our players, as well as honest criticism and valuable feedback. Once again, we sincerely thank you.
Since the feedback was shaped by each player’s unique experiences and perspectives, we received a truly diverse range of opinions, and naturally, many of them conflicted with each other.
Even so, we believe that much of your feedback converged on three key points.
Key Areas for Improvement
• First: Optimization
The most commonly raised issue was optimization.
We fully acknowledge that poor optimization was entirely due to our shortcomings as a development team, regardless of the engine or any other circumstances.
Of course, part of the purpose of this test was to identify issues like this, but it is true that the optimization was excessively poor, and it seems this led to many cases where the gameplay experience was significantly damaged.
There were numerous instances where low frame rates or sudden lags caused necessary controls to fail at the intended timing, which made the combat experience feel frustrating and unpleasant.
We are truly sorry if you had a bad experience due to these optimization issues.
This experience will serve as a valuable lesson for our development team, and we will work hard to deliver much better optimization in future builds.
• Second: Combat Direction
Many players commented that the repeated playstyle of aiming for short attacks during brief openings after enemy attacks made the combat style feel frustrating.
Along with this, the slow pace of transitioning between attacking, dodging, guarding, and moving led to a lack of freedom, and many said the action style strongly felt heavy and overly restricted.
There were also opinions that even seemingly light hits quickly led to incapacitation, and that situations like the limited number of Flovian Flasks continued to cause discomfort.
In these circumstances, fast consecutive attacks or irregular-timed attacks from bosses were said to have made combat issues even worse and contributed to negative experiences.
There were also opinions questioning whether it was appropriate for the bosses encountered at this point in the game to have this level of difficulty.
As a development team, we generally agree with these opinions.
We have been discussing what kind of action style would be most fitting and enjoyable for the game we are making, and we have concluded that the combat should be adjusted to feel lighter and more dynamic than it did in the alpha test version.
We are not simply saying that attack animations should become faster.
We plan to improve the responsiveness and fluidity between actions, and we are also reviewing control mechanics that will allow attacks to continue even when interrupted, depending on the character’s mechanics and the situation.
Rather than focusing on memorizing enemy attack patterns and moving accordingly, we aim to develop combat in a direction where players can enjoy reacting with quick, intuitive responses.
We want to build a combat system that allows players to aim for impactful heavy blows or combos based on their growth and skill, instead of being limited to repetitive short attacks.
We will also work to improve the current ambiguity in skill usability and value, and we plan to add rewarding Precision Action mechanics to create more enjoyable combat overall.
• Third: Hit Impact
The lack of hit impact is something the development team also strongly agrees with.
This is something we should have done much better and the fact that we were not fully prepared in this area is not something we can excuse.
Rather than making excuses, we believe it is right to simply say that we fell short, and that we will make it better.
We have already begun various improvement tasks, including camera effects, visual effects, hit stops, and other technical elements.
We are preparing to improve not only the impact players feel when attacking enemies, but also the feedback when taking hits on both sides.
As for sound effects, we have just begun making improvements after successfully hiring a sound designer.
However, due to the lack of time before the alpha test, we proceeded with the test while the sound was still in an unsatisfactory state.
Our sound designer is highly motivated to create much better sound throughout the game, along with a more satisfying hit impact in the next build, and we will work together to prepare an improved version.
We are also reviewing many other areas of feedback for improvement.
For example, we plan to remove the campsite resting feature, enable automatic recovery, and add options to adjust the intensity of physical effects as you suggested.
Additionally, many elements that were temporarily applied because the game is still in development will gradually be refined into their intended final forms.
Reflections on the Alpha Test
There were many twists and turns as we worked to prepare the alpha test build in time for Steam Next Fest.
We built what we thought was the final version, only to find new issues, fix them, and build again. Honestly, we lost count of how many times we said, “This is the last one.”
At one point, we received an internal report that the game wouldn’t run on a specific graphics card.
We urgently tracked one down (even searching popular secondhand marketplaces) to get it on short notice.
After finally getting the card and attempting to reproduce the issue, the problem didn’t occur at all, which made troubleshooting even harder.
We patched what we believed was the most likely cause, uploaded what we thought would finally be the last build, and then began the test.
However, the issue wasn’t resolved. We continued tracking the problem and released near-daily patches to gradually improve and fix it.
In the end, it turned out to be a common issue in the engine version we’re currently using. We were able to partially resolve it by applying the latest version of the engine code.
On top of this, we also encountered login failures, account restrictions, and other issues that weren’t caused by the game itself but by external systems.
It took quite some time to track these down and resolve them by working with teams across the company.
We sincerely apologize to those who experienced these inconveniences.
Even so, many of you continued participating in the test and provided invaluable feedback. We are truly grateful for your patience and support.
As players, you naturally wouldn’t have known which parts of the game were finished and which were still unfinished, and of course, you didn’t need to worry about that when giving your feedback.
That said, we, as the development team, feel a great deal of regret about the unfinished elements you saw.
For example, the in-game settings menu didn’t yet offer detailed graphics options, which meant you couldn’t fine-tune the settings for smoother performance.
The Fitting Room was fully open from the start of the alpha test to allow smooth functionality testing.
The Fitting Room also included a test shop, and many of the available outfits didn’t match the world’s setting.
At this point, we have only a limited selection of finished armor and medieval fantasy-style outfits, but many more are currently in production.
We plan to significantly increase the share of world-appropriate outfits in future builds.
In co-op mode, we are also considering adding an option that allows players to display default outfits for those who prefer not to see designs that don’t match the game’s setting.
The gesture list was temporarily assembled for system testing.
Some of the gestures were for test purposes only, which sometimes resulted in visibly awkward arm movements.
Additionally, many other features such as Followers, Kalbram Supply, Ability, and item drops, were configured specifically for this test build.
We will continue refining these elements to bring them closer to the final version.
There are simply too many things we regret and are not satisfied with to list them all.
Before closing, we’d like to sincerely thank you once again for participating in the test and providing your invaluable feedback.
We always believe that we are not yet good enough, and it’s exactly this mindset that motivates us to keep improving.
Because we know our own shortcomings, we’ll keep working hard to deliver a better game.
From all of us at CAG Studio, Vindictus: Defying Fate Development Team.