The game is shaping up nicely but it doesn't feel like a long term game, right now at least

[Szczuku]

The new hunt and the new boss definitely left a good impression on me, didn't have a chance to test out new weapons and armor - I like the antleer set too much.

Take this post with a grain of salt, I'm no expert on the matter, just voicing my gut feelings here.

With that said, the addition of the capitol, with the volcano in its rooms' background, feels like we are nearing to a final hunt. Most likely within the volcano itself with a firery theme.

And while the game is shaping up to be a well-made experience, it doesn't feel like a "200+ hours, 3 years old with a sprawling community, numerous post-launch updates"-sort of game. More like a "played a few runs with friends who got the game on sale, they didn't stick around but I completed it, got about 36 hours of gameplay before dropping it". Granted, this isn't bad, plenty of good games that are a one-and-done 7 hours-long experience. And at the end of the day, as long as the players buy the game and can't refund it, the devs get their money.

But, looking at dst and oni, forming a community interested in the game long-term feels like a better move.

And, right now, Rotwood doesn't feel like a game that could pull that off. There's plenty of furries and other critters that people could hyperfixate on, like the Cult of the Lamb community, but Rotwood just doesn't have an interesting setting. Like, the idea is cool and all but aside from the newest hunt, all of the locations are just forests, swamps and the like. There's nothing interesting about them - sure, they are confidently made mountains and caves but it's not like Griftlands' settings that teemed with character and vibe. Npcs have proper character traits and the like, but in practice they just come of as bland - the camp life is too boring and they can't offer any lore or personal tidbits, besides their main trait. I just can't really imagine an active and sizable art community that would make fanart and fanfics of Rotwood.

I like hunts. Gameplay is engaging and replayable, especially with the addition of super frenzies and their modifiers. One thing I will note is that nothing is stopping players from just sticking to a single weapon and armor set. Maybe there could be an incentive to try out new weapons and armor. The camp-side of gameplay is boring af tho. Obviously base building is not the focus of the game but the camp really just feels bland. If you actually try to decorate then you quickly find out that there's too little space to try and be creative. Boss statues alone probably take up 15% of the available space. Npcs are as static as they come, not a single idle animation, nevermind movement around their stations, which leads to the aforementioned feeling that the npcs won't have fans making content about them

Personally I haven't given online play a try but if there are plenty of other players then I can imagine the replayability to increase.

Overall I think that Rotwood is shaping up to be a good game but it feels like it will just kind of quietly die within a year or two after the release. Still, if it can provide players with 20+ hours of good content and Klei gets the money they've put into this back - it will still be a success I guess.

But, like I said, these are just my thoughts on the matter. Good game, but can't imagine Rotwood becoming the new dst/oni of Klei, their money-maker

[BezKa]

I can't tell if I agree with you, because I come back to Rotwood a lot, and crave to play very often- but that's just one person talking.

A lot of the things you say aren't in the game seem to me as either impossible in the game format (we can't really have much environmental storytelling when every hunt is technically a separate trip to a different place, so the surroundings necessarily must be "somewhere in the woods" instead of an actual place that is in the forest. NPCs can't wander around town, because they have a gameplay function and we need them to stay put.) and others I kind of assumed are coming- like NPCs idle animations, more lore scattered across item descriptions and the like, because the town only has half the buildings in it, so there must be more content coming still. Maybe I'm mistaken, I've seen games at many different stages of development that turned out either "here's the other half of the game/update after the initial x months" and "we replaced temp dialogue in the game, we're releasing" so it's honestly hard to guess.

Aside from all of that, I would consider the success of Forge and all the mods that got made for it, enough people seem to crave the combat aspect to keep returning to certain games. I don't think anyone can deny just how fun the combat is in Rotwood, the easy online matching is a huge plus imo, and that's enough to keep a lot of people playing.

Not that I would complain if town customization got expanded, or NPCs got fe side quests or some sort of collectibles aspect.

[AviatorBean]

Not all games need constant streams of new stuff to stay fun. There are plenty of loadouts and powers to make the game interesting when playing the hunts again. We're still early in the game's early access, The devs are still just laying the foundation, plenty more gear and powers will come to spice up all the unique combos and challenges you can do. I already have 270 hours in the game with just the content we have. The gameplay loop and mechanics are very enjoyable which is the most important thing

[GodIess]

I support the idea that the camp is now very dead and there is simply nothing to do and no point in staying here. Mostly it's a place where you walk around 2 characters after a hunt and go back, there's no lively atmosphere like sitting around a fire or seeing 2 npc discussing something with each other and going back and forth. They just stand there like mannequins and sometimes perform animations, which is not very interesting. You don't need to take care of them, worry about them not getting hungry and being healthy. In general, this is a great game if you try to complete it completely. try to go through each level of super madness at least once. But in my experience, it will take a very long time)