Player since: December 2022
This isn’t another “game is too hard” circle jerk. Let me start by saying that Naraka is still one of favorite games, if not my favorite and I want the game to do well. So if the community disagrees with anything, I’ll take the heat and chuck it up to my taste for games being poor perhaps.
With that said, this game has been going downhill for me quickly. I’m not a game developer and I’m a casual player in every sense so take the following with a grain of salt.
IMHO, this game is all over the place. While that’s not necessarily bad on its own, there’s many other things players find distasteful, on top of simply having a high learning curve. I’m going to try to be succinct on each point.
Queueing issues in ranked: I stopped playing ranked after achieving Gold. After, lobbies were full of Asura players. Obviously, anyone better than Solar isn’t going to complain about lower ranked players—which is why it isn’t fixed, I guess.
Yama’s Abyss is incredibly grindy: showdown wasn’t necessarily the best mode but it’s what I played mostly, along with Bot mode. It was super fun and I enjoyed helping other players level up, and learning each boss kept it kinda fresh along with Doom/Speedrun every week. I got so sick of Yama tho and I don’t care much for the Anima Rings. It’s hard enough to remember the jades, and finding a setup that works but now introducing anima rings to make Yama more grindy was kinda lazy in my opinion.
The levels make it hard for ppl to help you or find teams in the same level. And forget about it if the group you play with got ahead of you bc most players don’t want to help you catch up.
Skins are expensive: I know what everyone will say: “well Fortnite blah bleh, and DLCs blah bleh”. I don’t care how much a skin goes for on Fortnite. I want to collect skins without it feeling gimmicky, “act now, for a limited time offer” or forever hold your peace. That said, I don’t think gotcha-chests are a big problem. They are what they are and if you’re dumb enough to spend hundreds on them, then that’s on you.
All over — my issues with Penglai land, skyrace, playing instruments, limited time events, new game modes, new skins, 2 game passes, glyph system, new OP characters which are then nerfed…is that, in an attempt to make the game more immersive I suppose, it’s spreading the game thin. Why not, make a new map for example? Why not expand or provide more background (via showdown maybe) for each character? Perhaps make cool animations for all characters like that of Wuchen? Idk, I think there are so many ways to make the game better than just creating an instrument to play.
It’s simply exhausting as a new or established player to be excited about playing. I don’t even play that much and it’s exhausting. I took a break for a few weeks, came back and it’s exhausting.
I hope this provides helpful feedback as im not trying to shit on the game.
Edit: typos, bad sentences. Edit 2: added a “player since” stamp
I don’t see anyone mentioning smurfing. Yes, there’s plenty of it I’ve experienced first hand with my chamber.
Also, I get that it’s a top 50 game on steam but you also have to remember: -There’s several servers —Then, there’s PvP vs PvE and idle (lobby area/training).
PvP has at least 3 game modes available at any given point. 1. Ranked 2. Quick Match 4. Bot Mode 5. Capture the Spirit Well 6. Bloodbath
PvE has 1. Yama (50 different levels) 2. Campaign (3 difficulties x 11 stages) 3. Doom (5 stages) 4. Enigma
So while the game can be a top 50, if you’re looking to queue up with a random team, at level 13 Yama for example, can be near impossible.
Most ppl just want to get a high ranking and if you’re not at their level, team building goes out the window (that’s why I dislike that showdown is now ranked). Prior, yes the levels were grindy, but you could more easily find players to complete stages. With Yama, levels are repetitive and if you don’t have a team, your best bet is to just solo it but there’s nothing interesting about grinding the exact same thing hundreds of times by yourself, IMO.
What is the state of the game?
NarakaBladePoint