I actually have a well known Diablo III streamer playing Devilian to give it a try in the background (as I play myself) and I’m periodically reading the chat.
“Is this game any good?”, “Is it p2w?”, “Are you enjoy playing it?”, etc, etc. That’s what is wrong with newer generations of gamers. They need to rely on the opinion of their “idol” to verify and confirm that something is good rather than actually trying it for themselves, learning how it works, and formulating their own informed opinion.
And then you have some real idiots who say stuff like “I tried and I’m really enjoying it, but I hate that this game is p2w”. The reality is the game is not really pay2win at all; it’s closer to paying for convenience.
And then the REAL winner, “this game looks like shit”, “this game does not look better than Diablo”, etc. Sure, there is a point where aesthetics matters but game play is also another. I’ve always said Blizzard has the best graphics and aesthetics. This one comes pretty close. And Lost Ark just goes beyond BUT we all need to wait and see what kind of business model the localized version will use, and how the actual game play will be.
But yes, you have got to love Diablo III only players (when I say that, I mean the ones who primarily only play D3) dissing Devilian when D3 by comparison is the one that is significantly lacking (and isn’t going to get any better so long as that design team is in place). Sure, the graphics and aesthetics are a personal taste and not everyone will like Devilian. But it is comparable to Diablo III in many regards.
As far as actual game play goes, Diablo III is one of the most stupidly-easy to play games and takes literally ZERO player skill at end game because you can just spam button mash for the most part. It’s a game that has ONLY 6 active skills to manage. Devilian is a whole different world because you can end up managing 18 active skills where it requires more game play management at higher levels and specifically end game (especially if you solo the dungeon content and aren’t outgearing it by a huge margin) because for the most part, you cannot face tank content. Boss fights specifically are not designed that way. You need to move, you need to manage game play especially when it comes to Hell dungeons.
At pre-max level, normal dungeons are essentially training mode and the objective should be getting at least an A or S grade. And as this streamer is showing, it’s not exactly faceroll easy (whereas Diablo III pre-max level is just faceroll easy when even slightly undergeared).
Furthermore, just watching game play is completely different than actually playing it. And as I mentioned before, what some D3 players deem as “clunky” play when actually trying it for the first time is because they are trying to play the game the way they do D3 (buttton mashing and trying to force standstill/force move) when the biggest advantage in Devilian is flexible/hybrid controls because some skills allow actual mobility (where you can target, move, and fire off those skills simultaneously).
The latest patch allowed for better configuration to allow that (attack in place) but it’s not the optimal for many boss fights because you lose mobility/ And that mobility is actually an advantage mechanically in boss fights which can shave off time from those fights (which in dungeons, is one of the metrics used to grade the score (and thus determines the rewards). I.e. your actions and decisions actually make a difference and you are rewarded based on your actual performance. That is a far cry from Diablo III.
Devilian IS easy at lower levels because it is a running tutorial. Yet a lot of D3 players run their mouth off at this “baby mode” game when they themselves would likely due far worse than this streamer Granted, the one area where Devilian is lacking is it’s story because there really isn’t one as you quest (it’s just a design that continuously feeds you monsters to kill). And questing is designed to be generally easy. Where it’s challenging even at lower levels are dungeons (specifically boss fights). And D3 players shouldn’t even diss the lack of story either because most of us didn’t find D3’s campaign to be that good anyway (and just how many players actually enjoy doing the campaign?).
Yet this well know D3 streamer is slowly getting sucked into the game (basically finding the game play solid and he hasn’t even hit level 30 yet. And at that level, the game including dungeons, is still insanely easy. The difficulty only starts to ramp starting in the 40’s and closer to 50, you need to begin gearing for end game mechanics and monster abilities.
The game play gets even better at max level and unlike D3, it feels exceptionally smooth even when you have a ton of skills by other players being spammed (the game engine uses the PathEngine SDK which many other game engines like Unity and Unreal utilize). And that isn’t even getting started on activities to do in the game.
And then there are the PvP modes which includes both arena (3v3, 20v20) as well as open world areas that are classified as PvP areas that guilds can try battle for control of (Guild Wars). And you can open world PvP in this area. I’m not into that aspect myself but arena was actually fun and I also realize the value of PvP systems in the ARPG genre. Diablo III’s Brawling is no comparison in this area.
And I’m not saying Devilian is perfect. But the game has room for growth and it will be up to the publisher (Trion World) as well as the community of players to make this game better in the areas that it is lacking. But only a blind person would say this game lacks actual end game content and activities to do compared to Diablo III. It’s an action combat arcade game and lacking in so many areas when it comes to the ARPG genre.
