Indivisible Dev Addresses Difficulty Falloff, Promises Game Improvements

Indivisible Developer Mike Z recently announced upcoming fixes and improvements to the game on Discord.  In this message, he addressed common complaints on game difficulty balance, bug fixes, and various character moves.

The first major concern he talked about was game difficulty.  Many players complained about the "difficulty falloff" for the endgame, to which Mike responded, "The difficulty falloff is not, 'intentional.'"  

Instead, the team prioritized on the "many many MANY other things that needed to get fixed or be made at least somewhat fun before the game came out, like certain boss fights.  Since you could beat the game, difficulty was 'a big deal' but not the 'the biggest deal.'"

Dev Design: Difficulty Discernments

Comparing between the unpatched console versions versus the patched PS4 version shows some progress on this front, with Ajna receiving combos, different supers, fixed Incarnations, fixed endings, and more, but according to Mike, "Difficulty was also messed with, but not ...enough."

The most interesting developer design insight was for who the game was balanced.  With the unique combat system of Indivisible, Mike mentions balancing for players with varying game skills.  "There is a big difference between what someone who is good at twitch-type games thinks is 'hard' vs what someone who isn't as good a twitch stuff this is hard."  In trying to make sure that all kinds of people can enjoy the game, Mike explained, "We didn't want to balance things at the last second around what I think is fine and have nobody able to beat it, so we opted for the safe choice and to give ourselves more time to make sure it's harder in the correct way."

Improvement Lists and Community Feedback

Next, Mike listed an improvement/fix list for various characters:

• Rider's Bike

• Yan's Supers

• Phoebe's Supers

• More work on HX ("We have it but I'm not sure how best to organize them yet)

• Qadira's defensive super and [redacted]

• Leilani's [redacted]

Direct community feedback followed the improvement list, with specific features listed:

• Tutorial on the first Kabandha you fight - "That's a good suggestion!"

• Move list - "uh… maybe?  We have some ideas on that."

• Back Char falling off forever - "That's on my list already.  It used to work, even in the Backer Previews, I'm not sure what broke! :'("

• Run Away isn't coming back since the combo is used for Ajna's heal.  "Unless there are other ideas!"

• Fast travel - "Not a bad idea!  But I don't know that we could make it work without breaking all kinds of scripting that wants you to walk places.  I will mention it to the team, though."

Parting Thoughts

After going through the community feedback, Mike ended with a postive tl;dr: "We're GONNA fix the stuff that's been the most common complaints, like enemy balance in the last act, and bugs.  We don't abandon our games. :')"

Despite the criticism, the constructive nature of the feedback shows the fans' investment and passion towards the game.  Likewise, the developers' transparency and willingness to communicate with the playerbase shows sincerity and responsibility.  Given the reputation of Lab Zero Games for their dedication, I personally look forward to Indivisible's coming improvements.