Assemble Entertainment and developer Tiny Roar just launched XEL, a sci-fi adventure on PC and Nintendo Switch. XEL entices players to journey through the exotic landscape of a mysterious planet trapped in a seemingly never-ending cycle of peril. Here is our PC video.
All comments (1)
Many people are praising the game's story, characters, combat, etc. But are rightfully criticizing the many bugs and old design ideas - like few save points and checkpoints, artificial difficulty to the point it's RNG-based luck whether you can defeat a boss or not, main character being blocked by the environment, etc.
Many of these things were brought up to the developers during the Steam's Summer Game Fest's demo and the community manager said they would address a few before the release, but most would have to wait till after the release since it was weeks away from launch.
At the time I thought, why not delay it so they can work on these issues before releasing it, I believe they're indie and wouldn't be pressured to release in order to meet a certain date. But maybe their money was running out and they didn't have a choice. Either way, I feel bad for them.
Specially since once they lose the initial impact of first impressions, reviews and word-of-mouth, it's really hard to create awareness about your game again after it's reputation has spread. I remember Hob having big performance issues at launch, which made a somewhat already niche game even less popular. Best to wait a few months so they fix most bugs and add much needed QoL changes.