For those who couldn’t join this week’s AMA with Director @dio_ell, we’ve put together a summary of the key takeaways.
You can find complete answers and more on VDF’s official Discord.
▶ Join here: discord.gg/vdefyingfate
Combat Feedback from the Alpha Test
Q. Battle experience from the previous alpha test resembled a souls-like game. What can we expect from future development?
A. We like to call our gameplay Vindi-like rather than Souls-like, but if it felt more like a soulslike game that is entirely due to our shortcomings. We promise to do our best to meet your expectations. We're currently adjusting our combat experience to be somewhere between the slow and heavy battle from early days of Vindictus, to the fun and exciting action from the middle days.
In a future test session, we believe that connectivity between action will be more fluent and there will be more aspects of control to deal with enemy patterns compared to the previous alpha test.
Q. I'm aware that many users gave feedback regarding unguardable/unavoidable attacks. I'm curious about the development team's direction on this.
A. We are indeed aware that many users debated whether these attacks were good or bad for the game. We also had continuous discussions on this matter internally after the Alpha Test. Those who wished to keep the attacks suggested we focus on easing or modifying them, but the final decision was to remove them entirely. This was a change the majority of players wanted, and we are confident we can make the combat enjoyable in other ways!
Q. The Alpha combat felt like a 'turn-based' loop of parrying and attacking in small windows to build groggy. Will you add motion canceling (with dodge or parry) to give players more freedom and reward skill?
A. That's a great point. We agree that the gameplay could sometimes become standardized and make it difficult to find an opening to attack, just as you said. We feel the main reason for this was a lack of freedom in stringing actions together, and that the rewards for using special actions weren't high enough for the risk involved. We are currently in the process of adjusting those aspects to create a more rewarding experience.
Q. Are you planning to emphasize hit lag (action delay on hit) more than you currently do?
A. Yes, but to clarify, we're not just simply cranking up the amount of hit lag. Instead, we're working on improving how it's implemented to create a much more satisfying sense of impact. The goal is to make hits feel better without slowing down the overall speed of combat.
Q. Will the number of active skills be increased, or can we expect any other improvements?
A. Technically, VDF isn't designed to be a game with a huge number of skills. But there may still be some aspects of improvement, such as some additional controls aside from the 4-skill, unlocked as you progress through the story.
You can also expect some improvements in other action, like Precision Action so that battle will feel more rich in experience.
Q. Are there any plans to improve the Ability System?
A. The ability system that you saw in the Alpha Test was an early version that was only included for initial balancing and structuring the first stages of the game. We are working on fine-tuning them so that in future tests, it will be much more in-line with other systems and allow detailed changes.
But we do want to mention, though, that VDF is a game with many different characters, and it's not really being developed as a game where you play a single character with various different builds. While it'll be possible to make small changes fit to your personal playstyle, a more fundamental change in style will require you to try out a different character with another action style.
Other Feedback from the Alpha Test
Q. The optimization during the Alpha Test was quite disappointing. I'm curious about how much optimization has progressed since then.
A: We apologize that we couldn't provide the smoothest experience during the test. As soon as the Alpha was over, we formed a dedicated team to focus on improvements. We have been profiling and analyzing all the factors causing performance drops and are actively working to fix them. Currently I can say that we've already achieved meaningful frame rate improvements, and we'll do our absolute best to ensure there are no optimization-related problems for the official launch.
Q. Can the characters smile?
A. We apologize for the limited range of expressions during the test. We felt the same way and are currently making improvements to create a wider variety of expressions. We are working to make our characters much more lively and expressive.
Q. Regarding outfits, there has been criticism from some fans about the "modern" aesthetic. How are you planning to address this feedback?
A. Actually, the abundance of modern outfits was due to our production schedule. The modern-style ones just happened to be scheduled earlier. We are currently developing a wide variety of outfits with different, balanced concepts. We're aiming for a well-rounded lineup that doesn't lean too heavily in one direction—including modern, fantasy, medieval, fusion, and even sci-fi styles.
Q. I really like the female body slider customization, but I feel there should be an option to further customize the lower body. Would this be a possibility?
A. We're glad you liked the body customization! We are still adjusting various aspects of it. I'll be sure to pass your specific feedback on to our Art Director and personally urge them to look into it.
Q&A related to the OG
Q. What characters from the OG can we expect, and what are the main factors that you consider when deciding the next character?
A. There were a lot of people who were interested if a specific character will be available in Vindictus: Defying Fate.
To answer this, we need to first explain our decision making process when we plan a playable character. As you would have experienced in the previous Alpha test, VDF is essencially a different game in aspects of action style from the OG. So we put a lot of importance on whether the character's playstyle fits in with VDF. Also, there's the level of development difficulties each character's system conveys, and some complex situations we encounter during development. Which is why we cannot say for certain whether each character will be available or not in the final version of VDF.
However, what we can say for sure is that although not all characters from the OG will be in VDF, we would have our own original characters that does not exist in Vindictus - Although it's still in our very early stages.. somewhat TOO early to even show something.
We will continue to update you on more details of upcoming characters through our official community.
Q. Will boss monster breakoff be introduced?
A. Regarding monster breakoff, we were surprised at how many people wanted to see this in VDF. We are currently developing this feature, but not for all bosses. Breakoff will only exist for specific bosses based on their design. If an enemy boss has breakoff, it would have a certain part that you can take off by attacking, and this will trigger a set interaction. Also we're making sure that this 'breakoff' feature will not be something specific characters can easily do.
Q. Will the original game's secondary weapons be carried over to VDF?
A. In VDF, each character uses one unique weapon type. We don't think there will be cases where a character uses two types of weapons like some characters did in the original.
Q. Will the original Dark Knight/Paladin transformation feature also be added in VDF?
A. We're not considering those for VDF at the moment. But you can expect them to appear in a different form during the main storyline!
Q. Will there be a party system to hang out with friends in private channels (while in the Colhen hub) to embark on missions together, similar to the original game?
A. In fact, yes—we're planning on it! We are currently designing a private channel feature where you can play with your party members or friends. We're not sure if it will be exactly what you're expecting, but we're planning a feature similar to the usual method where you enter a code to join.
Additional notes
Q. How much of the contents will support Multiplayer? Will it be available during the story?
A. Our aim is to grant you an environment where you can blend in to the lore and narrative, which is why we decided to focus on single play during the main story.
Like in our previous alpha test, multiplayer sessions will be available as a separate content where you can choose to play alone or as a party. We are currently developing our multiplayer environment so that you could depart as a party with your friends, or use the matchmaking system.
We are also currently working on a lot of battle contents so that you would have more contents to choose from in this format.
Q. Can we get a hint on the next test session or the official launch schedule?
A. I think we're a bit too early to discuss official launch.. yet.
There won't be any additional tests this year. We are currently undergoing changes based on your feedback, and adding more contents to the game - All for next year's test to show you what we've created.
Q. Will the game be Buy-to-play, or Free-to-play?
A. Although it is not yet decided, we've found a lot of you were wondering how the final game would be released.
To be honest, if development went along as the initial plan there would have been much more contents available and I would have not hesitated to launch as a buy-to-play package game. But we all know that nothing ever goes as planned. VDF was our first try at developing a game with unreal engine 5 and this was, and still is, a big challenge for us. We're still undergoing many do-overs to create a better game.
We're doing our best to keep up with the schedule, but if we were to add everything that we would like to show you in-game, we're expecting it to take more than 3 years from now to finish the project. Which is why we're currently considering a second option to launch VDF in a Free-to-play game, where we can add up more content and details after launch. But instead we would have to guarantee a more high level of completion for each update - like for instance if an NPC named 'Ingkells' that appears in Vindictus were to rebel, we won't be using some text lines and images but actually depict a detailed storyline with lots of resources.
Q. What are you most looking forward to in developing and servicing VDF?
A. I'm personally really looking forward to seeing everyone having fun enjoying the story, the combat, and all the customization aspects. VDF won't be a game where you have to compete with anyone. Everyone will be able to just comfortably play at their own pace, and we don't plan to create any feeling that you're being rushed.