So now that Vindictus isn't drawing friends and guildies away from Mabi for a few days, conversations about what everyone has accomplished are around.
I'm curious to hear what people think about the game though, having had the opportunity to mess around with it. Specifically about character development mechanics, grinding, gearing up, and so on.
I'll start:
After divorcing myself from the idea that vindi is mabi, just a prequal and embracing that it is a completely different game, I've come to the conclusion that it is Diablo (the first one mostly). Actual gameplay between the two is strikingly similar. While there are some options for improving your character through gear, stats, and skills, for the most part you make your character run around, spamming your mouse buttons, and watching stuff die.
Skills seem to be things you can loosely categorize in three main areas: stuff that makes your clickspam hurt things more/faster, stuff you can do instead of clickspam briefly, and stuff that you have to learn to let you get other stuff/wear other stuff.
Being more skilled at the game is mostly about adding some patterns or rhythm to your clickspam.
So we have a rather lacklustre array of options for developing our character, and doing so lets us overcome some amazing dungeons full of destructable objects, hazardous traps, and crafty opponents. Or so I thought.
It quickly became apparent after the first few dungeons, that I was going to see the exact same plates and pots a lot. And while it is possible to destroy a lot of things in the environment, there is very little incentive to do so... and it gets old really fast. While picking things up to bash your foes over the head with has a certain charm at first, it quickly becomes apparent that your weapons are simply faster, cost less stamina, and are just more efficient. That is until you learn how to grab and smash your foes for insane amounts of damage.
Which brings us to our foes. We have gnolls, spiders, and... worm things. And the rare wisp things. Once we get to the next set of dungeons, with their interest change of scenery of iciness, we have... kobolds (since I didn't bother reading too closely, I didn't even realize they were different til I was wondering why I was not getting credit for obsessed neck grabber title for suplexing these things).
So far it's looking like vindi is plagued by a shortage of creative talent for it's mobile npcs.
While some gnoll/kobolds mix things up a little by shooting arrows at you, none of these things is remotely threatening. Once you get the hang of the simple task of pressing the left mouse button a few times followed by the right, there is no reason you should feel even slightly pressured by even dozens of any of these things. It's really more of a chore to get past them when you could just be running to to the boss.
Then we have the bosses. These are about the only thing I can say anything good about the game for so far. Unlike the trash mobs along the way, most of these are really aggressive, and have attack patterns that require some paying attention to. If anything, vindi shows some potential for fun in its boss fights.
I just kinda wish there was a bit more varity to them... instead of having to fight a dozen or so different overgrown gnoll or gnoll lookalikes.
Then onto the concept of grinding. Interacting with the content to further development of your character.
I've completed my set of Crimson Rage gear, which is apparently as good as it gets for several levels ahead of me. Wearing the best for my level I notice no real difference in how hard or easy some of the missions I've already completed and have revisited are. Decisive battle, for instance, still seems to take a pretty good amount of effort (counting the end boss only, all the rest of the dungeon is still a complete joke of course). So it seems that unless the upgrades I can look forward to in later levels are huge increases... gear does very little for you. So I don't see the process of getting new gear to be especially important.
Training skills up is another avenue for improvement. After completing some storyline quest I got a skill book for a new smash skill, Ivy Sweep. Slightly excited I read the book, then went off to a dungeon to try this new move out. Only to find it was a move that I could already do. In fact, I had already been doing a much better move, Amaranth Kick typically. So I get to look forward to learning the skill for this move I already use (Amaranth Kick) at some point in the future. But this kick already does incredible damage, and according to the wiki ranking the skill just boosts the damage some. Extra damage is pointless for the trash mobs because they already die to a single throw or some lazy clickspamming anyway. And even maxed our Amaranth Kick isn't going to one shot boss mobs, at best it might reduce how many times I need to connect with this attack before things die. Not terribly exciting.
But at least it seems AP to train skills is quite abundant. Typical skills costing around 1k-1500 ap to cap at the moment seems daunting til you realize getting 100 ap from one two missions is terribly easy, plus you actually steadily earn ap even while logged out due to meditation. SO we have a system that encourages some grinding to max out relatively easy to train skills (much easier than mabinogi) but the skills are very lackluster in appeal to rank.
Levels seem to act merely as a way to limit how much gear you can wear, along with some minor stat increases.
At first I was pleased with the idea of the titles system... then I realized that basically earning titles just ends up being an odd way to give stat boost rewards for completing various odd side quests. And since stats seem mostly unimportant... less exciting.
Where vindi starts to really shine is when you focus on the storyline. I hope. As a prequel to mabinogi there is a great deal of potential for entertainment. but so far I've not gotten to really see much storyline outside of what feels like very standard and overdone RPG faire... your typical young mercenary does tasks assigned by mercenary group. But since I know paladin and dark knight transformations will be available I'm pretty sure there will be some less mundane storyline soon to come.
The system for getting through this storyline though is a little bit convoluted though. The primary driving force involves defeating "battles" taking place in dungeons. Making progress through the storyline involves not just beating one of these battles, but doing so particularly well enough to earn a minimum number of battle points. I like the concept I suppose, but the reality of the system means that you'll possibly be forced to run through the same mission multiple times... even if you beat it each time, you may not "beat it good enough." And that can get pretty repetitive and boring (much like diablo).
Then we have the boat fair. Supposedly we'll be getting a lot less of these in OB and beyond. With the need to repeat the same missions over and over to advance the storyline, along with the need to repeat the same missions over and over again to grind ap/levels... this is going to be a serious hamper to actually playing much.
The graphics are prettier, the special effects are a bit flashier, and I dare say the boss fights are more complex, but in summary I think this game is pretty much the same as diablo. You follow (and have little to no decision making ability within) a dominant storyline. You can pause progress in that storyline to grind certain locations involved in it for loot and levels/skills. And the vast majority of your interaction with the opposition in the game boils down to rapidly pressing mouse buttons for extended periods of time.
If your the sort of person that diablo appealed to, then this game probably appeals to you as well. I personally don't see myself playing vindi very seriously at all.