I played through the demo now as well.
My pro and contra list with no particular order of topics:
What I didn't like:
- Inconsistent art style in the texture work as well as in portraits
- Music occasionally doesn't fit the mood
- Like with the music, some of the sound effects don't seem to fit or are lacking (not hearing footsteps made me personally feel like a ghost floating around)
- The humorous writing wasn't my cup of tea (this is just me personally of course, I am sure others do enjoy the type of humor that this game offers)
- The UI takes up too much of the screenspace in fullscreen mode with my 1680x1050 resolution
- Vital information is partially only accessible by digging through various submenus (for example the cost and damage of a spell/enhanced spell, or comparing items)
- Generally some information is only accessible by digging through various submenus that should be easily accessible (for example why can't I have an option to display health and energy numerical directly on the UI instead of just vague bars? I can view the numbers by clicking on a portrait, this means the developer is OK with the player knowing the exact numbers)
- The lack of creating a party yourself from scratch
- The overall feel of the controls and navigation of menus feels a bit clunky to me personally
- No difficulty modifiers/levels
What I did like:
+ Monster journal that gives you detailed informations about the enemies (also it's done gradually - the more you slay of one type of enemy, the more you learn about it. There is also a spell to 'analyse' an enemy and gain access to everything at once)
+ Ingame encyclopedia with detailed informations about core mechanics, feats, spells and everything
+ The already in this thread discussed Drama-Star system
+ Ingame maps that look like they were drawn by the adventuring party themselves
+ Turnbased combat that offers you many varied options
+ Possiblity to develop the characters in many different directions (somewhat - but not fully - redeems for the negative point of not beeing able to create your own party from scratch)
++ The inclusion of party banter and varied descriptions of things you encounter ingame e.g. not every crate that you click on gives you the same text (even though the nature of the humor is - like I stated in the negative points - not to my personal taste, this + is a really strong point)
+ Many different spells, feats and skills
+ The resting mechanic. You can rest anywhere but some areas are safer than others (e.g. you get a lower percentage of beeing disturbed - through the way of an encounter - while resting in more secluded places).
++ The energy bar, which is used for spells and combat abilities both (so basically Mana and Stamina mixed together). The maximum energy is temporarily lowered the more you use your special abilites and spells.
From what I gathered in the Demo, the only way to lift the temporary lost maximum energy is by getting 'real rest' in towns.
As I played only the Demo I can't say much in the ways of dungeon design, encounter design, enemy variety or plot.
My final verdict: Even though my love for turnbased combat is strong and what I saw of the game was more on the 'me likey' side of the scale, I personally will throw my money at Grimrock (
Codex Thread)
Also not beeing able to get the information you desire in an easy (as in with the least mouse clicks possible) fashion turned me off from Frayed Knights quite a bit because this is something that you will do countless times during a playthrough of the full game and I can see this potentially getting much on your nerves down the road.
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