[Post-mortem added at the bottom]
Hi all,
I have stumbled upon this gem of a game while testing out all my games on the PS4 Pro.
After about 5 weeks I am level 250something on PC/Mobile and 60something on PS4.
First of all, the game idea is just brilliant… It’s like a cross between all the gem matching games we all love and magic the gathering. For someone who likes both, it’s awesome.
And when you add in all the different upgradable kingdoms, upgradable cards, different game modes and weekly events, you get quite the game!
I did buy path of glory 1 for both myself and my wife, to support the developers.
As a fellow game developer myself, I can appreciate the design and work that went into this game.
The basic game is just great. Create a deck, and go battle with it. Looking for moves that tumble into 4ers or nice chain reactions is as much fun as ever.
In light of this, I must say that freeze on 4/5 gem matches is a game breaking trait. I understand why you put it in, from a design view. And having it cast on you is good design, but having it being triggered on you constantly is not. Because basically it breaks the whole game idea of trying to chain moves.
The PC/Mobile version never misses a move. I never really thought anything of this, until I noticed that the PS4 version sometimes does miss a move. And this actually makes it more fun. I miss moves all the time, so why wouldn’t the AI?
I think it would be great if you add a small chance (like 5% or so) chance that the AI doesn’t see a good move. The best would be if you measured how often the player misses a good move, and adjust the AI accordingly 
And with spare time being in short demand, maybe somethings could be sped up a little?
For example, I like the buff effects at the beginning of a fight. But sometimes they go on for quite a bit, maybe you could make them skip-able? For example if I tap a gem, the buff animations abort and all stats are in their final state? That could speed up the start of a battle quite a bit.
Speaking about time… When the AI gets 10 to 20 moves in a row, it feels like cheating.
It’s cute that this can happen… but it should never happen at the rate it does.
Sometimes the AI makes a simple horizontal 3er, and then perfect matches just keep falling into the screen. Again, very rarely is ok, multiple times in one session is not really.
I’m not cheating… so it shouldn’t feel like the AI is either.
I like the variety all the cards offer, and the way you level them up by souls, which in turn makes kingdoms more powerful. Card ascension needs a little work though. This works much better on PS4, as you can click LEFT to go to max ascension. I would add this to the PC/Mobile version as well.
So if you click left when it says x0 (0/25) it should jump to cards needed to ascend: x25 (25/25).
This would remove a ton of clicking for no good reason at all.
Talking about clicking… there is a lot of it, and it’s often not necessary.
For example, if you cast a spell that targets an enemy, you have to select the enemy.
But if there is only one enemy left or target-able, then just perform the spell… there is zero need to have the extra click in there. If you’re afraid of this confusing people, then you could add it as an option that’s default off.
The quests in the kingdoms are cute. As are the challenges.
Whereas I feel it’s ok to dump players back to the map after finishing a quest step, I would not do the same after fighting a challenge.
As a player, I’m most likely doing multiple challenges in a row.
To do that now, I have to click the kingdom again, then challenges, and then scroll to the challenge again, and click the challenge. If you would just kick me back to the challenges screen after the challenge, then I would only have to click once to do the next challenge.
And when exploring, I have to click the kingdom, then explore, then explore again, then to battle.
Maybe the explorer popup could be but under an info button on the battle screen, or as a tab on the kingdom screen?
If someone is playing explore on a kingdom, I doubt they want to see that info screen every single time.
Again, this could be made optional by adding a “Skip explore info” option on the settings screen.
And why can explore mode be so hard? Does it take your level into account or something?
I feel like this should be much more tied into selected difficulty, as even on normal it can be nasty hard.
I like the vip setup, giving a reward for supporting the developers. Very neat idea.
Having to spend a 130 dollars on the game to unlock the vip chests on the other hand, that’s taking it way to far.
I would think that if someone spend 50 dollars on the game, they pretty much payed full price, and should get the full vip chests system unlocked. Especially seeing how this amount would remain the same, where as I could buy a tripple A game with all it’s expansions for like 30 bucks in a sale after a year or so.
Asking that much imo damages the game, and I haven’t spend any more money on it, because I’m not going to spend a 130 dollars on it, so why bother spending any more at all. So imo, this hurts you more then it benefits you, reputation and money wise.
I love the weekly events.
The tasks on PS4 are nice, they give you little goals, but the events are just great.
They give you a reason to come back every week, change up teams, and do different things in game.
Talking about the PS4 version… uhm… Not sure how to put this remotely nicely… but this is the buggiest game I have played on PS4, if not on a console… ever!
It constantly hangs, and it sometimes freezes the whole system, so that I have to power cycle.
It’s that bad, that I am truly wondering how this got through QA.
And it’s not my PS4, my brother in law quit playing because of it.
The only constructive criticism I can give here is, please look up all the reported issues and start fixing them.
Because this is one really really really great game!
Thanks for your time,
Michaël
GamePlayHeaven.com
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EDIT 1:
One thing I forgot to mention, if there is no plan of linking up PC/Mobile to PS4/Console, then the tribute system should be redesigned for console.
A tribute system works great for a mobile version, as people can check the game every now and then.
I don’t know many people walking around with a portable PS4 setup 
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EDIT 2:
In regards to my vip comments, I would like to clarify that I did not mean that you should have ALL vip items available for 50 dollars. Not at all, people who put a lot of money into it should most definitely get the higher vip rewards.
What I meant is that the chests that unlock at vip level 5 (which costs 130$ to reach), should unlock at an earlier point, like vip 3.5
I would have spend 50$ on the game if it would have unlocked the vip chests. Now I only spend 15.
I believe that people that do spend 130$ on the game will do so anyways, they won’t just do it to unlock the vip chests.
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EDIT 3: Post-mortem
Today I called it quits, and I’m not gonna create a good bye post, as everyone seems to hate those, but I will update my original feedback post, and add my thoughts on the state of the game. Who knows, maybe @sirrian and co still read these
Why am I quitting?
Well, to me, the game just isn’t fun to play anymore.
I have been very vocal on here on some changes, like the cascades. Which got answered with the usual “we’’ tweak it further”, which never seems to happen, and even worse, questions about it go unanswered.
The cascades together with the removal of skull baiting result in a strategyless game, and your just clicking now, whoever gets lucky first, wins.
This combined with the addition of some cards lately (wisp/fizzbang), results in games that can be lost in one turn, even if you go in with the correct counter team.
I played no-skull baiting on PS4, and it was playable. It just doesn’t go together with the cascades.
And the forever looping teams, who kill you in one turn… tja… to me… that is not playability.
I honestly think the nr of moves in 1 turn should be limited to 2 or 3… that would add strategy to the game.
That was my 2c on playability…
The other problem is end game progress.
Past level 1000, and especially 1100, leveling up in itself is no longer fun, as it takes way to many matches, even with bonus experience.
Imo… there should be a cap on the XP it takes to level, and it shouldn’t exceed 100 matches.
Ranked PvP is boring, as it’s the same teams over and over again, mostly containing the worst cards the game has to offer.
People should be rewarded for fun/different/unique defense teams. This would make ranked pvp more fun.
Traitstone farming is a PITA. Not only is it extremely boring (same thing over and over again), but it’s also not rewarding, when you can go hundreds of matches without a single arcane dropping.
The “promised” feature of rewarding an arcane after xx matches, should be added to the game sooner then later.
Dungeons are a fun idea… but it’s way to limiting. 3 matches a day is not enough imo…
Make it 10 or unlimited, increasing in difficulty and reward.
Crafting… tja… what can I say. The idea is great. But 10+ weeks to create 1 mythic? lol… So by the time I can create 1, 2 new ones have been added to the game.
Also… 5$ for the pack each day is just criminal. I guess that’s how you make money, so congrats on that.
You did sell out however, but that’s your decision, and if you can live with it, good for you.
Nerfing the rewards because of x4 speed is not a great idea. You might as well remove the other speeds now, as everyone has to play on x4 speed.
As a player in a top guild, who hasn’t ranked below the GW 4-6 spot and completes 20+ legendary tasks each week, the rewards were already not great. And now you nerfed them.
For people in guilds with lower requirements, this is even worse.
Summarizing:
For me, the removal of strategy from gameplay, and one turn slaughter fest, combined with nothing rewarding left to do, resulted in my decision to quit.
Best of luck everyone, I had some great times on here as well as in game.
