I'm back and I've finally had the chance to play Beta 14 (I checked my files and it turns out that my last version was Beta 8 lol) and I can definitely tell the game feels more fair.
It seems that easy mode makes enemies and bosses less agressive and reduces their health, but I can't really tell how much - is it by half?
I've replayed SOR1 and SOR2 on both easy and normal (and a part of SOR3) and all bosses seem more fair than what they used to be, although Jet is still a bitch to fight (you can't really combo or juggle him, so all you can do is hit and run, and he can take A LOT, plus he's quite difficult to hit regardless of difficulty) but I was always terrible at fighting flying enemies in beat em ups, so it could be just me lol.
Also, for some reason SOR2 Shiva seems a lot more difficult than before - did you swap SOR3 Shiva AI with the final SOR2 one by any chance?
I was barely able to land a hit on Normal - he's not only very aggressive but also blocks/counters a lot, so I lost a couple of lives during that single fight alone.
Speaking of Shiva, are you planning to add him as a full playable character, or will he only be available in rebellion with limited features, such as lacking air recovery and grab escape?
By the way, allowing the player to pick enemies as playable characters adds so much replayability, it's almost like a new game, I definitely love that, even if some of them are underpowered and some are overpowered, but I guess that's the entire point of this mode. Wouldn't make much sense to have Galsia who's as strong as Shiva, would it?
I also noticed that you mentioned reducing rare/elite enemy variant spawn chance in patch notes, but it still seems like only the two toughest variants of each enemy appear. If that's intentional, then just please disregard my comment - I honestly can't recall if that was the case in the original 3 games, but I'm pretty sure it does happen in SOR4. If that's the case, maybe it would make sense to buff the lowest ones and nerf the strongest? Because it kind of feels like you can take down low "level" enemies in a single combo, while top level ones feel like minibosses lol. Of course it's only subjective - perhaps it's fair the way it is.
Speaking of enemy ranks - how about an optional setting in unlockables that allows totally randomized enemy ranks? Top rank Galsia at Stage 1? why not? Each rank could have specific % chance to appear, with the weakest version being more common and the strongest a bit more rare. Or we could have 2 settings - 1 percentage based and 1 totally random, like a dice roll. Of course only if it's not too much hassle to code into the game.
At this point there's only some minor character balancing left and perhaps some new content if you ever feel like it. I haven't enountered any bugs or major issues.
I've probably already said this, but I love how much customization is available. Being able to pick number of lives and continues, or even enemy health and numbers independently from game's difficulty is something I always wanted in SOR4
Beta testing this project is a lot of fun, so I'm happy if it helps you even in the slightest
Gonna finish my SOR3 playthrough, see you in a few!
