Of course, these are all based off of my own opinion, but if you wish to add to this list, agree, disagree, you're free to do so. I'll try to categorize these as best as I can. I don't know where else I would put this either, so it's going in General discussion. it's long, but there are many things I wanted to cover. No tl;dr for you.

Gameplay

The gameplay for this game is actually really nice. I haven't been this interested in an instance based MMO(Somewhat) in a long time. It does a good job with making the game feel fairly open world while keeping the instance style. There are a few things however that should be changed.

• 1.) As has been suggested probably hundreds or thousands of time, and I know it's already being looked into, but Guilds, and many other common MMO features should really be made available here. Trade feature, chat channels, etc.
  
  
• 2.) The log in buff. Simply put, 1 hour, which starts immediately upon logging in isn't exactly very useful for me, at all. I'm sure many others may feel the same as well, but I don't immediately jump into the action when I first log in for the day. I check the player shops, figure out what I need to do, where I need to go, what I want to do first, etc. I have like a million quests I keep in my log. Not to mention the time it takes just to run to each place. This bonus should be extended greatly. Hell, because the boost is so low, I wouldn't mind seeing it permanent so long as you keep your login streak going. Perhaps remake it so that if you miss a day, you drop down a rank, and another for each day you did not log in. That way those rare events such as blackouts, etc. don't completely screw someone out of bonus Exp and such.
  
  
• 3.) Either certain bosses should really be reworked, or blocking/dodging should be reworked. All bosses are still possible to beat, yes, but many of them are completely Anti-Melee to the point where it's simply ridiculous. For example, I'll use that giant eyeball boss you fight when you save Kaguya I believe it was. When you get close to it, it uses a 360 degree lighting attack that will pretty much hit you no matter what unless you're already on the move creating distance from him. And then we have the stone golem boss at the end of Oonaobi Shrine outside of Izumo. His basic sword slash attack is nearly impossible to dodge unless you're moving ahead of time. Now I know, if you cant dodge, why not try blocking instead? I use an Oodachi. Now why that is a problem will be explained in the next suggestion. But putting it simply, a few bosses should be reworked to either be a little more Melee friendly, get a damage reduction, I don't know, anything to make it for fair for Melee, especially slower weapon users who have to get basic attacks in to replenish SP.
  
  
• 4.) The next suggestion, weapons. Or rather, just 1 weapon type because well, it's the only weapon I really know. This is just my opinion of course, and I have no idea how other weapon types have it, so bear with me here. Oodachi's, I love them, but I couldn't count how many times I've been screwed over because I simply cannot regenerate enough SP to use skills, or even dodge or block in prolonged fights. Even with a combo card on my weapon, I often find myself sitting at less than 1/5th my total SP because I have to repeatedly block/dodge, and spot strike to rebuild SP, hoping to hell I don't suddenly take a hit which usually 1 shots me. Now what is my suggestion? Increase the amount of SP regenerated per auto attack for slower weapon users. I suppose this could also apply to axes. But honestly, the way things are currently, it's far too risky to finish a basic attack chain, hell sometimes even do 2 attacks out of 3 for my combo just to get more SP. This isn't too big an issue, but it would be nice for slightly heightened survivability for slower weapon users.
  
  
• 5.) Redo enemy attack mapping. They should really be made far, far, far more precise to their animation. I'll bring up a great example, a type of enemy I literally just cannot stand because no matter what, unless I react ahead of time, I always, always get hit. Flies. Those things of which are melee users BANE. They spam their dash which not only puts them out of range of your attacks immediately, it hits you so long as you're in their path the moment the animation begins. That being when they fly back to dash forward. Countless times I have dodged, been completely out of their path, and was still hit. It's annoying. A lot of enemies are like this.
  
  
• 6.) Exp rates. I don't necessarily mind the lowered rates for this version, but the grind really, really, really becomes a snooze fest after a while. As explained somewhere else on this forum, the most efficient way to level up is to go into a Hell mode instance with a full group, and just hog all of the kills before anyone else gets any. This of course is made a bit more tolerable with Exp boosts, but those boosts are far too short in duration in my opinion. The ones obtainable in game should be made 1 hour in duration, and the ones obtained from the Item Mall, such as 200%/400% ones, should be 2 hours in duration. Especially if you're going to charge as much as you already do for them. That will be in a later suggestion though.
  
  
• 7.) Player Bazaar's. Please change it so that things can be sold using Ryou. Allow people to have the choice on what currency they want for what items they sell. because right now, nothing is worth buying because you have to spend a currency that can only be obtained using real world money. Not only that, but everything is completely obtainable in game fairly easily excluding certain rare world drops such as the black glass marble Magatama. This completely gimps the value of anything being sold at all. If people could sell/buy for Ryou, it would allow people who are sitting on a million or more Ryou because they have nothing to spend it on to get things they want easier, as long as it's being sold by someone.
  
  
• 8.) Up the amount of Exp you get from side quests. They do not feel like they're worth doing at all over mindless grinding. The only reason they're even remotely worth doing half the time is for the item reward, which is rare.

Item Mall

• 1.) The prices are just too much. Far, far too much. That, or the coin to dollar ratio is far, far too little. I know you guys are a business, I've worked for MMO hosting companies before and I know how things can be when it comes to marketing, but really, this is not the way to do it. All it's doing is repulsing people from even buying anything to begin with. Hell, even making the game repulsive, as there is a slight bit of pay2win mixed into the cash shop. (I cant imagine what PvP will be like if it ever comes out, honestly) Whatever the appropriate thing may be for this, something really needs to be done to the prices, or the amount of coins you get per dollar spent. Something like increasing it to 20 coins per dollar, or even throw an even dollar to coin ratio out the window and put some attractive total values in. Whatever it takes to make the item mall feel like less of a scam.
  
  
• 2.) The Gacha. Nyankapon whatever it's called. Simply put, at the moment it is a scam. There is no point in spendingany money on it what-so-ever, especially now that costumes cannot be sold in player Bazaars. Sure, there are other things you can get from it which can be pretty useful, such as a 400% exp card, but overall, it is just not worth it. And then on top of that, as crazy as it sounds, it is the only thing even worth spending points on at the same time. Compared to what else is in the Item Mall you can purchase raw, the most attractive things are in the Gacha. Everything else, personally, other than 200% exp boosts, I haven't had any interest what-so-ever in purchasing. Now I'm sure the regular item mall items are more useful to purchase later on when you wont be replacing weapons and such every few levels, but while this is true, the Gacha still needs some adjustments. No one likes RNG, especially when there is a very, very high chance they will get garbage (Basically all I've ever gotten from it). So what do I suggest?
  
  -First, reduce the amount of coins it costs per single roll by 50% (Or even 40%), and adjust the bulk roll price to reflect.
  -Second, create a point system where if you do not like the item you got from the gacha, it can be traded in for a single Gacha Point. At say 3 - 5 Gacha Points, you get 1 free roll, consuming all of those points.
  
  
• 3.) Costumes. Now first thing is first, I play a male character, and I have to say, I feel as if I somewhat regret making a male. All of the male costumes are ugly. Compared to the female angel wings, cat ears, etc. the mail ones just lack in style in comparison. I find myself liking a custom mixture of basic outfits more than the premium costumes from the Gacha. Please introduce a few more cool looking male outfits.
  
  
• 4.) While on the topic of Costumes, some costumes should be available from the item mall to purchase with raw coins. Put more generic looking costumes in the item mall for purchase, and then put more unique ones with very small cosmetic and utility bonuses in the Gacha. That way people are free to get a premium costume, but those who want to look more unique and stand out from the crowd can try their chances with the Gacha.
  
  
• 5.) As explained in the Gameplay suggestions, increase the duration of the Exp boosts obtained from the item mall. it's explain in suggestion 6 with detail there.
  
  
• 6.) The Premium Boost Tickets. Putting it simple, they're just not worth it. Far too expensive for a very, very small buff. Now this could possibly change if you adjust the prices, but if you don't intend to redesign the item mall, then these should really be changed. Either buff the buffs it already has, or add something to each one that makes them far more useful for the price you're charging.
  
  
• 7.) Add a 5$ OC amount purchase option. Because why not?
  
  
• 8.) For the love of god make costumes (Avatar items) sellable again in Bazaars. There is absolutely no reason at ALL to restrict something like this. If you're worried about people obtaining them without going through the same chances as those who originally got the item, then that is your own fault for having the system set up in the way it was introduced. You don't restrict things like this as if your players are just animals who can be put on a leash. If you're worried about income because of it, sell more things, make more attractive sales, don't just flat out place retarded restrictions on everyone and limit their freedom. All that is going to do is ruin your own reputation with this game, piss people off, and kill the games population ridiculously fast. I'm sure some of your staff, be it a community manager, CM, or even the product manager himself has seen all of the complaints. I've seen games who do things like this, who have much, much, much larger income and populations, and they fell and crashed so hard because of this. I highly suggest not following that path.
  
  If something like this keeps up, all it's going to do is completely trash your own reputation. Even if you try to fix things later on, you'll still be looked at as a money greedy company who treats it's players like cash cows. Even if that's not necessarily true, or your ways have changed. These kinds of actions can leave permanent impression on people, very, very easily.

UI. User Interface

I like the UI, but it could use some improvements.

• 1.) First things first, the chatbox. It should be more customizable in what tabs are there, and what you want displayed in each tab. While in a dungeon with a group, I have to make sure I tell everyone to talk in party chat, and then only use my party window because of the Exp/Ryou/Item spam from picking things up that floods both the All tab, and the General tab. It just really sucks not having control of something like that.
  
  
• 2.) Storage. Allow the "Deposit all materials" button to even deposit materials that stack if your storage is full. I have to drag 1 by 1 into my storage to clear my inventory space because the deposit all button wont deposit items that I already have in storage that can be stacked higher. It's annoying.
  
  
• 3.) Skill Cards. It's impossible to tell what skill card applies to what weapon type unless you have super vision. I'm playing on a 1080p resolution, and I can barely tell what card goes to what type. Put in the cards hover status what weapon type it applies too, or add an icon to the cards image, anything really that can indicate what weapon it applies to. All it says in the description is 'to a weapon'. Might want to clarify what weapon a little more.
  
  
• 4.) Make temporary buffs show up as an icon somewhere on the screen. This is something most MMO's should do, really. When I use an Exp card, I try to get the most out of it by not stopping for anything. Being able to see what it's duration is at without having to enter my status window would be incredibly helpful.
  
  
• 5.) Keybinds, though I'm fairly sure that's already being worked on.
  
  
• 6.) Idk if this would count as User Interface or not, but please for the love of god redo the 'Random' part of applying premium skill cards to weapons. Every single card I've applied to any weapon so far always consumes the first slot. Always. Meaning I cannot apply more than 1 because it will just override the one I just put on. Perhaps it really is random and I just have bad luck with always getting that first slot, but it just doesn't feel random at all.

Forums

• 1.) The forum should really, really be made a little more.. user friendly? Useful? Don't know, but it's lacking. It needs more forums for things such as suggestions and feedback, and many other forums that would make people want to visit the forum more often. Right now everything is crammed into 2 general forums. Some ideas;
  
  -Class discussion
  -Fan Art (C'mon, we all know what kind of community this game attracts)
  -Guilds (For whenever the guild feature comes out, if at all. Hell, name it 'Player Groups' if you have to for now, so people have a place to recruit for their makeshift guilds and small clique groups. Dungeon run groups, anything.)
  -Patch Notes & Maintenance forum
  -Troubleshooting Forum
  -Bugs/Glitches report forum

Buuuuump for feedback.

I'm just going to give my opinion on your points.

Leonhardt wrote:Of course, these are all based off of my own opinion, but if you wish to add to this list, agree, disagree, you're free to do so. I'll try to categorize these as best as I can. I don't know where else I would put this either, so it's going in General discussion. it's long, but there are many things I wanted to cover. No tl;dr for you.

Gameplay

The gameplay for this game is actually really nice. I haven't been this interested in an instance based MMO(Somewhat) in a long time. It does a good job with making the game feel fairly open world while keeping the instance style. There are a few things however that should be changed.

• 1.) As has been suggested probably hundreds or thousands of time, and I know it's already being looked into, but Guilds, and many other common MMO features should really be made available here. Trade feature, chat channels, etc.
  Yep. I wouldn't mind if they left out trading, to be honest, the current shops are good enough for me. Not that I have anything against it.
  
• 2.) The log in buff. Simply put, 1 hour, which starts immediately upon logging in isn't exactly very useful for me, at all. I'm sure many others may feel the same as well, but I don't immediately jump into the action when I first log in for the day. I check the player shops, figure out what I need to do, where I need to go, what I want to do first, etc. I have like a million quests I keep in my log. Not to mention the time it takes just to run to each place. This bonus should be extended greatly. Hell, because the boost is so low, I wouldn't mind seeing it permanent so long as you keep your login streak going. Perhaps remake it so that if you miss a day, you drop down a rank, and another for each day you did not log in. That way those rare events such as blackouts, etc. don't completely screw someone out of bonus Exp and such.
  The login buff is actually quite significant, though I agree that having it activate immediately is sort of counterintuitive. Either, like you said, make it longer or permanent, or make it activatable, like an item you receive daily and expires at the end of the day.
  
• 3.) Either certain bosses should really be reworked, or blocking/dodging should be reworked. All bosses are still possible to beat, yes, but many of them are completely Anti-Melee to the point where it's simply ridiculous. For example, I'll use that giant eyeball boss you fight when you save Kaguya I believe it was. When you get close to it, it uses a 360 degree lighting attack that will pretty much hit you no matter what unless you're already on the move creating distance from him. And then we have the stone golem boss at the end of Oonaobi Shrine outside of Izumo. His basic sword slash attack is nearly impossible to dodge unless you're moving ahead of time. Now I know, if you cant dodge, why not try blocking instead? I use an Oodachi. Now why that is a problem will be explained in the next suggestion. But putting it simply, a few bosses should be reworked to either be a little more Melee friendly, get a damage reduction, I don't know, anything to make it for fair for Melee, especially slower weapon users who have to get basic attacks in to replenish SP.
  Ahriman's melee 360 isn't actually that big of an AoE. You should just attack immediately after he uses it so he won't cast it while you're attacking, it's the same regardless of whether you're ranged or melee. Yatsukazou is quite a pain to deal with though, I agree. Either needs to be slower or less tanky.
  
• 4.) The next suggestion, weapons. Or rather, just 1 weapon type because well, it's the only weapon I really know. This is just my opinion of course, and I have no idea how other weapon types have it, so bear with me here. Oodachi's, I love them, but I couldn't count how many times I've been screwed over because I simply cannot regenerate enough SP to use skills, or even dodge or block in prolonged fights. Even with a combo card on my weapon, I often find myself sitting at less than 1/5th my total SP because I have to repeatedly block/dodge, and spot strike to rebuild SP, hoping to hell I don't suddenly take a hit which usually 1 shots me. Now what is my suggestion? Increase the amount of SP regenerated per auto attack for slower weapon users. I suppose this could also apply to axes. But honestly, the way things are currently, it's far too risky to finish a basic attack chain, hell sometimes even do 2 attacks out of 3 for my combo just to get more SP. This isn't too big an issue, but it would be nice for slightly heightened survivability for slower weapon users.
  Most of the Odachi users I know just group up mobs and take them all at once with their damage. If you're low on mana between mobs of mobs, just whip out a staff or wand and block for a little.
  
• 5.) Redo enemy attack mapping. They should really be made far, far, far more precise to their animation. I'll bring up a great example, a type of enemy I literally just cannot stand because no matter what, unless I react ahead of time, I always, always get hit. Flies. Those things of which are melee users BANE. They spam their dash which not only puts them out of range of your attacks immediately, it hits you so long as you're in their path the moment the animation begins. That being when they fly back to dash forward. Countless times I have dodged, been completely out of their path, and was still hit. It's annoying. A lot of enemies are like this.
  Flies are the bane of everyone. I'm pretty sure even if redone the lag will still throw people off, though.
  
• 6.) Exp rates. I don't necessarily mind the lowered rates for this version, but the grind really, really, really becomes a snooze fest after a while. As explained somewhere else on this forum, the most efficient way to level up is to go into a Hell mode instance with a full group, and just hog all of the kills before anyone else gets any. This of course is made a bit more tolerable with Exp boosts, but those boosts are far too short in duration in my opinion. The ones obtainable in game should be made 1 hour in duration, and the ones obtained from the Item Mall, such as 200%/400% ones, should be 2 hours in duration. Especially if you're going to charge as much as you already do for them. That will be in a later suggestion though.
  http://onigiri.cyberstep.com/_/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3133 He gets like a level an hour or something even though he's 74, and even while hogging all the kills the party that's 20 levels under still gets like a level every half hour. Pretty sure it's fine. At lower levels it's pretty much getting to the point where Yakumo is easy enough and walking through it, in other words finding the right weapon with the right skills. Odachi and Axe do this the best since they have the most burst damage.
  
• 7.) Player Bazaar's. Please change it so that things can be sold using Ryou. Allow people to have the choice on what currency they want for what items they sell. because right now, nothing is worth buying because you have to spend a currency that can only be obtained using real world money. Not only that, but everything is completely obtainable in game fairly easily excluding certain rare world drops such as the black glass marble Magatama. This completely gimps the value of anything being sold at all. If people could sell/buy for Ryou, it would allow people who are sitting on a million or more Ryou because they have nothing to spend it on to get things they want easier, as long as it's being sold by someone.
  There's actually a lot of OC in circulation due to the beta. Just sell stuff that (misinformed) people will buy, pretty much. Or hunt for rare items that people want, like those Chian (Lifesteal) Magatama. Its recipe drops in hell kyoto dungeons (Gedoumaru probably best) and after you get that it's just farming Orange Glass Marbles. Pretty sure those will get popular.
  
• 8.) Up the amount of Exp you get from side quests. They do not feel like they're worth doing at all over mindless grinding. The only reason they're even remotely worth doing half the time is for the item reward, which is rare.
  Agreed.

Item Mall

I will never buy OC. Never spent on any game outside of dota. So no comment.

• 1.) The prices are just too much. Far, far too much. That, or the coin to dollar ratio is far, far too little. I know you guys are a business, I've worked for MMO hosting companies before and I know how things can be when it comes to marketing, but really, this is not the way to do it. All it's doing is repulsing people from even buying anything to begin with. Hell, even making the game repulsive, as there is a slight bit of pay2win mixed into the cash shop. (I cant imagine what PvP will be like if it ever comes out, honestly) Whatever the appropriate thing may be for this, something really needs to be done to the prices, or the amount of coins you get per dollar spent. Something like increasing it to 20 coins per dollar, or even throw an even dollar to coin ratio out the window and put some attractive total values in. Whatever it takes to make the item mall feel like less of a scam.
  
• 2.) The Gacha. Nyankapon whatever it's called. Simply put, at the moment it is a scam. There is no point in spendingany money on it what-so-ever, especially now that costumes cannot be sold in player Bazaars. Sure, there are other things you can get from it which can be pretty useful, such as a 400% exp card, but overall, it is just not worth it. And then on top of that, as crazy as it sounds, it is the only thing even worth spending points on at the same time. Compared to what else is in the Item Mall you can purchase raw, the most attractive things are in the Gacha. Everything else, personally, other than 200% exp boosts, I haven't had any interest what-so-ever in purchasing. Now I'm sure the regular item mall items are more useful to purchase later on when you wont be replacing weapons and such every few levels, but while this is true, the Gacha still needs some adjustments. No one likes RNG, especially when there is a very, very high chance they will get garbage (Basically all I've ever gotten from it). So what do I suggest?
  
  -First, reduce the amount of coins it costs per single roll by 50% (Or even 40%), and adjust the bulk roll price to reflect.
  -Second, create a point system where if you do not like the item you got from the gacha, it can be traded in for a single Gacha Point. At say 3 - 5 Gacha Points, you get 1 free roll, consuming all of those points.
  
• 3.) Costumes. Now first thing is first, I play a male character, and I have to say, I feel as if I somewhat regret making a male. All of the male costumes are ugly. Compared to the female angel wings, cat ears, etc. the mail ones just lack in style in comparison. I find myself liking a custom mixture of basic outfits more than the premium costumes from the Gacha. Please introduce a few more cool looking male outfits.
  
  
• 4.) While on the topic of Costumes, some costumes should be available from the item mall to purchase with raw coins. Put more generic looking costumes in the item mall for purchase, and then put more unique ones with very small cosmetic and utility bonuses in the Gacha. That way people are free to get a premium costume, but those who want to look more unique and stand out from the crowd can try their chances with the Gacha.
  
  
• 5.) As explained in the Gameplay suggestions, increase the duration of the Exp boosts obtained from the item mall. it's explain in suggestion 6 with detail there.
  
  
• 6.) The Premium Boost Tickets. Putting it simple, they're just not worth it. Far too expensive for a very, very small buff. Now this could possibly change if you adjust the prices, but if you don't intend to redesign the item mall, then these should really be changed. Either buff the buffs it already has, or add something to each one that makes them far more useful for the price you're charging.
  
  
• 7.) Add a 5$ OC amount purchase option. Because why not?
  
  
• 8.) For the love of god make costumes (Avatar items) sellable again in Bazaars. There is absolutely no reason at ALL to restrict something like this. If you're worried about people obtaining them without going through the same chances as those who originally got the item, then that is your own fault for having the system set up in the way it was introduced. You don't restrict things like this as if your players are just animals who can be put on a leash. If you're worried about income because of it, sell more things, make more attractive sales, don't just flat out place retarded restrictions on everyone and limit their freedom. All that is going to do is ruin your own reputation with this game, piss people off, and kill the games population ridiculously fast. I'm sure some of your staff, be it a community manager, CM, or even the product manager himself has seen all of the complaints. I've seen games who do things like this, who have much, much, much larger income and populations, and they fell and crashed so hard because of this. I highly suggest not following that path.
  
  If something like this keeps up, all it's going to do is completely trash your own reputation. Even if you try to fix things later on, you'll still be looked at as a money greedy company who treats it's players like cash cows. Even if that's not necessarily true, or your ways have changed. These kinds of actions can leave permanent impression on people, very, very easily.

UI. User Interface

I like the UI, but it could use some improvements.

• 1.) First things first, the chatbox. It should be more customizable in what tabs are there, and what you want displayed in each tab. While in a dungeon with a group, I have to make sure I tell everyone to talk in party chat, and then only use my party window because of the Exp/Ryou/Item spam from picking things up that floods both the All tab, and the General tab. It just really sucks not having control of something like that.
  Agreed.
  
• 2.) Storage. Allow the "Deposit all materials" button to even deposit materials that stack if your storage is full. I have to drag 1 by 1 into my storage to clear my inventory space because the deposit all button wont deposit items that I already have in storage that can be stacked higher. It's annoying.
  Agreed again. Though you should really just sell some of those that can't be stacked, no point keeping them.
  
• 3.) Skill Cards. It's impossible to tell what skill card applies to what weapon type unless you have super vision. I'm playing on a 1080p resolution, and I can barely tell what card goes to what type. Put in the cards hover status what weapon type it applies too, or add an icon to the cards image, anything really that can indicate what weapon it applies to. All it says in the description is 'to a weapon'. Might want to clarify what weapon a little more.
  Luckily I don't use Swords / Odachi / Axes / Spears / Twin Swords. Can see why it would be confusing though.
  
• 4.) Make temporary buffs show up as an icon somewhere on the screen. This is something most MMO's should do, really. When I use an Exp card, I try to get the most out of it by not stopping for anything. Being able to see what it's duration is at without having to enter my status window would be incredibly helpful.
  Yeah.
  
• 5.) Keybinds, though I'm fairly sure that's already being worked on.
  Hopefully.
  
• 6.) Idk if this would count as User Interface or not, but please for the love of god redo the 'Random' part of applying premium skill cards to weapons. Every single card I've applied to any weapon so far always consumes the first slot. Always. Meaning I cannot apply more than 1 because it will just override the one I just put on. Perhaps it really is random and I just have bad luck with always getting that first slot, but it just doesn't feel random at all.
  I got mine on the third slot.

Forums

• 1.) The forum should really, really be made a little more.. user friendly? Useful? Don't know, but it's lacking. It needs more forums for things such as suggestions and feedback, and many other forums that would make people want to visit the forum more often. Right now everything is crammed into 2 general forums. Some ideas;
  
  -Class discussion
  -Fan Art (C'mon, we all know what kind of community this game attracts)
  -Guilds (For whenever the guild feature comes out, if at all. Hell, name it 'Player Groups' if you have to for now, so people have a place to recruit for their makeshift guilds and small clique groups. Dungeon run groups, anything.)
  -Patch Notes & Maintenance forum
  -Troubleshooting Forum
  -Bugs/Glitches report forum
  To add on to this, spoiler tags, youtube tags, strikeout tags, etc.

Otonashi wrote:

Leonhardt wrote:

• 4.) The next suggestion, weapons. Or rather, just 1 weapon type because well, it's the only weapon I really know. This is just my opinion of course, and I have no idea how other weapon types have it, so bear with me here. Oodachi's, I love them, but I couldn't count how many times I've been screwed over because I simply cannot regenerate enough SP to use skills, or even dodge or block in prolonged fights. Even with a combo card on my weapon, I often find myself sitting at less than 1/5th my total SP because I have to repeatedly block/dodge, and spot strike to rebuild SP, hoping to hell I don't suddenly take a hit which usually 1 shots me. Now what is my suggestion? Increase the amount of SP regenerated per auto attack for slower weapon users. I suppose this could also apply to axes. But honestly, the way things are currently, it's far too risky to finish a basic attack chain, hell sometimes even do 2 attacks out of 3 for my combo just to get more SP. This isn't too big an issue, but it would be nice for slightly heightened survivability for slower weapon users.

Most of the Odachi users I know just group up mobs and take them all at once with their damage. If you're low on mana between mobs of mobs, just whip out a staff or wand and block for a little.

Regular mobs are fine, what I mostly meant was boss fights really. Unless I can take the boss out in a few quick combos, I find myself running and either downing SP consumables every chance I get, or if the boss is really on my tail, just trying to passively regenerate SP while staying just outside of it's range. The speed of which I get even a single attack out is too slow with too high a risk to make it worth trying to ever regenerate SP off of a boss using regular attacks. Unless of course the bosses attention is on someone else, though that's usually rare since I'm built pure damage and tend to hit things like a truck full of truck parts.

Awesome list! Much more to add to it as well... hope they get their shit together >.<

My Two Cents
Gameplay

The gameplay for this game is actually really nice. I haven't been this interested in an instance based MMO(Somewhat) in a long time. It does a good job with making the game feel fairly open world while keeping the instance style. There are a few things however that should be changed.

• 1.) As has been suggested probably hundreds or thousands of time, and I know it's already being looked into, but Guilds, and many other common MMO features should really be made available here. Trade feature, chat channels, etc.
  Agreed With Guild and Trading. As for me I made a Chat Group as a place holder for a guild. Trading wise I tried to make stuff Free via Bazaar like a material I had plenty of that wanted to give to a friend. Didn't work since the min price was 1.
  
  
• 2.) The log in buff. Simply put, 1 hour, which starts immediately upon logging in isn't exactly very useful for me, at all. I'm sure many others may feel the same as well, but I don't immediately jump into the action when I first log in for the day. I check the player shops, figure out what I need to do, where I need to go, what I want to do first, etc. I have like a million quests I keep in my log. Not to mention the time it takes just to run to each place. This bonus should be extended greatly. Hell, because the boost is so low, I wouldn't mind seeing it permanent so long as you keep your login streak going. Perhaps remake it so that if you miss a day, you drop down a rank, and another for each day you did not log in. That way those rare events such as blackouts, etc. don't completely screw someone out of bonus Exp and such.
  I personally Don't pay attention to the bonus at login. It helps I guess but I know they don't last very long so I forget it exists. I'll grind the old fashion way. And if you say it'll be harder later on. Well then I have those free exp boost from quests stocked up.
  
• 3.) Either certain bosses should really be reworked, or blocking/dodging should be reworked. All bosses are still possible to beat, yes, but many of them are completely Anti-Melee to the point where it's simply ridiculous. For example, I'll use that giant eyeball boss you fight when you save Kaguya I believe it was. When you get close to it, it uses a 360 degree lighting attack that will pretty much hit you no matter what unless you're already on the move creating distance from him. And then we have the stone golem boss at the end of Oonaobi Shrine outside of Izumo. His basic sword slash attack is nearly impossible to dodge unless you're moving ahead of time. Now I know, if you cant dodge, why not try blocking instead? I use an Oodachi. Now why that is a problem will be explained in the next suggestion. But putting it simply, a few bosses should be reworked to either be a little more Melee friendly, get a damage reduction, I don't know, anything to make it for fair for Melee, especially slower weapon users who have to get basic attacks in to replenish SP.
  I agree the bosses are a pain. I still personally have a hard time with Deruma just because of the whole Spamming of exploding mobs of death. One way I fight during Solo is to find their reset point and rest up there for a minute then head in again. Certain bosses won't let me do that since some of their moves would STILL reach me from across that map. As for SP generating, I play as a Bow/Twin character so one might say I don't need to worry about it(On normal mooks I really don't)how ever at bosses use all my heavy Damage moves and it eats all my SP to regenerate it I switch to by Twin and attack the adds if non are found I would very carefully combo the boss. Depending on the boss' move set I would use a bow or the twin. The other method is just to kite them till my passive lets me use my skill. I do agree Bosses need some tinkering.
  
• 4.) The next suggestion, weapons. Or rather, just 1 weapon type because well, it's the only weapon I really know. This is just my opinion of course, and I have no idea how other weapon types have it, so bear with me here. Oodachi's, I love them, but I couldn't count how many times I've been screwed over because I simply cannot regenerate enough SP to use skills, or even dodge or block in prolonged fights. Even with a combo card on my weapon, I often find myself sitting at less than 1/5th my total SP because I have to repeatedly block/dodge, and spot strike to rebuild SP, hoping to hell I don't suddenly take a hit which usually 1 shots me. Now what is my suggestion? Increase the amount of SP regenerated per auto attack for slower weapon users. I suppose this could also apply to axes. But honestly, the way things are currently, it's far too risky to finish a basic attack chain, hell sometimes even do 2 attacks out of 3 for my combo just to get more SP. This isn't too big an issue, but it would be nice for slightly heightened survivability for slower weapon users.
  See last comment, Since it was tied there. Also a suggestion for you: Keep a fast weapon in a weapon slot if you can. Doesn't matter if you are proficient use it as a SP regen tool. Applies for any situation, Keep a wand with First aid and equip/use it to heal before you go to the portal since doing so will fill your SP bar.
  
• 5.) Redo enemy attack mapping. They should really be made far, far, far more precise to their animation. I'll bring up a great example, a type of enemy I literally just cannot stand because no matter what, unless I react ahead of time, I always, always get hit. Flies. Those things of which are melee users BANE. They spam their dash which not only puts them out of range of your attacks immediately, it hits you so long as you're in their path the moment the animation begins. That being when they fly back to dash forward. Countless times I have dodged, been completely out of their path, and was still hit. It's annoying. A lot of enemies are like this.
  Might help but personally I just dodge or stop just to give my self some breathing space. So I would dodge even if they are just about to do the move. I also rarely block, I only do so if I can't dodge. That is because I am squishy, I have only invested 5 points in every stat except for Dex. So I don't have alot of HP compared to Other Melee characters. So that blocked 250 can still be fatal.
  
• 6.) Exp rates. I don't necessarily mind the lowered rates for this version, but the grind really, really, really becomes a snooze fest after a while. As explained somewhere else on this forum, the most efficient way to level up is to go into a Hell mode instance with a full group, and just hog all of the kills before anyone else gets any. This of course is made a bit more tolerable with Exp boosts, but those boosts are far too short in duration in my opinion. The ones obtainable in game should be made 1 hour in duration, and the ones obtained from the Item Mall, such as 200%/400% ones, should be 2 hours in duration. Especially if you're going to charge as much as you already do for them. That will be in a later suggestion though.
  I might not be feeling it right now since I'm only at 27 but at the moment It's not that bad. I don't use EXP pots, If anything I'm using the normal multiplier in dungeons. Since there is technically no downside for staying inside for a long time I would keep killing infinitely spawing mooks in a dungeon for an hour and then finish said dungeon. In essence you tripled your exp gain since the exp from the pool gets doubled, and the one in the pool is the same amount of exp you gained from killing the mooks, as far as I can tell. That is ofcourse if you didn't die at all.
  
• 7.) Player Bazaar's. Please change it so that things can be sold using Ryou. Allow people to have the choice on what currency they want for what items they sell. because right now, nothing is worth buying because you have to spend a currency that can only be obtained using real world money. Not only that, but everything is completely obtainable in game fairly easily excluding certain rare world drops such as the black glass marble Magatama. This completely gimps the value of anything being sold at all. If people could sell/buy for Ryou, it would allow people who are sitting on a million or more Ryou because they have nothing to spend it on to get things they want easier, as long as it's being sold by someone.
  Agreed! One might say there is an excess amount of CO around from Beta, how about the ones who aren't from Beta? They have 0 or probably used it already for a revive in a dungeon cause they didn't know they have to use it to buy in the bazaar. Those who are from beta would probably save it till something NEW or really important comes up. Those who buy COs probably are buying stuff from the Item mall and not from Bazaars.
  
• 8.) Up the amount of Exp you get from side quests. They do not feel like they're worth doing at all over mindless grinding. The only reason they're even remotely worth doing half the time is for the item reward, which is rare.

Agreed. To a certain degree. At lvl 27 they can move the bar a tad bit. Granted I haven't done a single Side quest except for Milky's Quest and the Partner Quests. I am guessing they gave about the same amount of exp. Depending on the diffuculty/level of the quest.

Item Mall
Unless they have a prepaid card in gamestop I probably won't EVER get COs so I have very little to say in this.

• 1.) The prices are just too much. Far, far too much. That, or the coin to dollar ratio is far, far too little. I know you guys are a business, I've worked for MMO hosting companies before and I know how things can be when it comes to marketing, but really, this is not the way to do it. All it's doing is repulsing people from even buying anything to begin with. Hell, even making the game repulsive, as there is a slight bit of pay2win mixed into the cash shop. (I cant imagine what PvP will be like if it ever comes out, honestly) Whatever the appropriate thing may be for this, something really needs to be done to the prices, or the amount of coins you get per dollar spent. Something like increasing it to 20 coins per dollar, or even throw an even dollar to coin ratio out the window and put some attractive total values in. Whatever it takes to make the item mall feel like less of a scam.
  
  
• 2.) The Gacha. Nyankapon whatever it's called. Simply put, at the moment it is a scam. There is no point in spendingany money on it what-so-ever, especially now that costumes cannot be sold in player Bazaars. Sure, there are other things you can get from it which can be pretty useful, such as a 400% exp card, but overall, it is just not worth it. And then on top of that, as crazy as it sounds, it is the only thing even worth spending points on at the same time. Compared to what else is in the Item Mall you can purchase raw, the most attractive things are in the Gacha. Everything else, personally, other than 200% exp boosts, I haven't had any interest what-so-ever in purchasing. Now I'm sure the regular item mall items are more useful to purchase later on when you wont be replacing weapons and such every few levels, but while this is true, the Gacha still needs some adjustments. No one likes RNG, especially when there is a very, very high chance they will get garbage (Basically all I've ever gotten from it). So what do I suggest?
  
  -First, reduce the amount of coins it costs per single roll by 50% (Or even 40%), and adjust the bulk roll price to reflect.
  -Second, create a point system where if you do not like the item you got from the gacha, it can be traded in for a single Gacha Point. At say 3 - 5 Gacha Points, you get 1 free roll, consuming all of those points.
  Agreed.
  
• 3.) Costumes. Now first thing is first, I play a male character, and I have to say, I feel as if I somewhat regret making a male. All of the male costumes are ugly. Compared to the female angel wings, cat ears, etc. the mail ones just lack in style in comparison. I find myself liking a custom mixture of basic outfits more than the premium costumes from the Gacha. Please introduce a few more cool looking male outfits.
  Semi Agreed. I actually Like the Commander Armors Just wished The color I want was there. The rest? not so much... Would like a ninja outfit for males. Maybe in two styles much like the females do. Females have a Ninja outfit in the Gacha and a Kunoichi outfit as one of the default set.
  
• 4.) While on the topic of Costumes, some costumes should be available from the item mall to purchase with raw coins. Put more generic looking costumes in the item mall for purchase, and then put more unique ones with very small cosmetic and utility bonuses in the Gacha. That way people are free to get a premium costume, but those who want to look more unique and stand out from the crowd can try their chances with the Gacha.
  I want to agree but again, don't really use Coins so Was hoping for In game gold for the non "unique" costumes. Maybe the Outfit bought with coins will have an accessory? And the one in Gacha have 2 or maybe a better/longer Accessory?
  
• 5.) As explained in the Gameplay suggestions, increase the duration of the Exp boosts obtained from the item mall. it's explain in suggestion 6 with detail there.
  
  
• 6.) The Premium Boost Tickets. Putting it simple, they're just not worth it. Far too expensive for a very, very small buff. Now this could possibly change if you adjust the prices, but if you don't intend to redesign the item mall, then these should really be changed. Either buff the buffs it already has, or add something to each one that makes them far more useful for the price you're charging.
  
  
• 7.) Add a 5$ OC amount purchase option. Because why not?
  
  
• 8.) For the love of god make costumes (Avatar items) sellable again in Bazaars. There is absolutely no reason at ALL to restrict something like this. If you're worried about people obtaining them without going through the same chances as those who originally got the item, then that is your own fault for having the system set up in the way it was introduced. You don't restrict things like this as if your players are just animals who can be put on a leash. If you're worried about income because of it, sell more things, make more attractive sales, don't just flat out place retarded restrictions on everyone and limit their freedom. All that is going to do is ruin your own reputation with this game, piss people off, and kill the games population ridiculously fast. I'm sure some of your staff, be it a community manager, CM, or even the product manager himself has seen all of the complaints. I've seen games who do things like this, who have much, much, much larger income and populations, and they fell and crashed so hard because of this. I highly suggest not following that path.
  
  If something like this keeps up, all it's going to do is completely trash your own reputation. Even if you try to fix things later on, you'll still be looked at as a money greedy company who treats it's players like cash cows. Even if that's not necessarily true, or your ways have changed. These kinds of actions can leave permanent impression on people, very, very easily.

I actually REALLY agree to this. While the outfit just cosmetics, it really limits the players choices. We already can't recolor the outfits so there's already that limit.

One problem I think some people are having is In game Gold Sink. Once they Enchanted/Smelted their ultimate weapon of mass destruction, there isn't much one can use the in game gold for. Turning them into OC can be a possibility. Maybe when Guild/Other Features are added there can be a gold sink. I would imagine building a "Guild hall" can be a great money sink, or even Player Housing.

UI. User Interface

I like the UI, but it could use some improvements.

• 1.) First things first, the chatbox. It should be more customizable in what tabs are there, and what you want displayed in each tab. While in a dungeon with a group, I have to make sure I tell everyone to talk in party chat, and then only use my party window because of the Exp/Ryou/Item spam from picking things up that floods both the All tab, and the General tab. It just really sucks not having control of something like that.
  
  
• 2.) Storage. Allow the "Deposit all materials" button to even deposit materials that stack if your storage is full. I have to drag 1 by 1 into my storage to clear my inventory space because the deposit all button wont deposit items that I already have in storage that can be stacked higher. It's annoying.
  Also Maybe a "Shared" Storage for all your characters?
  
• 3.) Skill Cards. It's impossible to tell what skill card applies to what weapon type unless you have super vision. I'm playing on a 1080p resolution, and I can barely tell what card goes to what type. Put in the cards hover status what weapon type it applies too, or add an icon to the cards image, anything really that can indicate what weapon it applies to. All it says in the description is 'to a weapon'. Might want to clarify what weapon a little more.
  
  
• 4.) Make temporary buffs show up as an icon somewhere on the screen. This is something most MMO's should do, really. When I use an Exp card, I try to get the most out of it by not stopping for anything. Being able to see what it's duration is at without having to enter my status window would be incredibly helpful.
  Agreed
  
• 5.) Keybinds, though I'm fairly sure that's already being worked on.
  
  
• 6.) Idk if this would count as User Interface or not, but please for the love of god redo the 'Random' part of applying premium skill cards to weapons. Every single card I've applied to any weapon so far always consumes the first slot. Always. Meaning I cannot apply more than 1 because it will just override the one I just put on. Perhaps it really is random and I just have bad luck with always getting that first slot, but it just doesn't feel random at all.

Forums

• 1.) The forum should really, really be made a little more.. user friendly? Useful? Don't know, but it's lacking. It needs more forums for things such as suggestions and feedback, and many other forums that would make people want to visit the forum more often. Right now everything is crammed into 2 general forums. Some ideas;
  
  -Class discussion
  -Fan Art (C'mon, we all know what kind of community this game attracts)
  -Guilds (For whenever the guild feature comes out, if at all. Hell, name it 'Player Groups' if you have to for now, so people have a place to recruit for their makeshift guilds and small clique groups. Dungeon run groups, anything.)
  -Patch Notes & Maintenance forum
  -Troubleshooting Forum
  -Bugs/Glitches report forum

MY personal Suggestions
-As mentioned Guild and Guild Halls/Base
A meeting place for guild mates, a hub for guild meetings, quests, etc.

-Player Housing
Useful for Roleplaying, or simply to show off, Hangout with friends. Gold Sink.

-Marriage?
Cause Why not? Maybe buffs if your in a party with the person you married or same area? Instant teleporting? NPCs gives couples quests? Find a way for it to be a Money Sink?

-Emote/Animations
For Roleplaying, messing around, To do when your bored or waiting. I'm talking about the commands like /dance, /greet, /eat, etc.Also might want to add in
-World interaction
There are benches and chairs around the towns, and let's not forget the ladders... would actually be nice to use em me thinks.
-Walking
Cause Why not? we can walk in cutscenes why can we walk normally. and on the other side of that
-Sprinting or Mounts
Don't know about the towns after but Kyoto's pretty big, Would be nice to get from one side to the other quicker. Same goes from a dungeon in the field to the town. And getting back to the boss after giving up in a Party Dungeon.

-The world
It looks beautiful. But why can't I cut across this fairly small boulder to get to the other side. There's alot of restrictions on the world and I can't explore as much as I want. Can't climb that watch tower and act like a watchman, can't jump from roof to roof(at most cases) like Ninjas. I can't even swim. Didn't know Onis were afraid of Heights or Water... Just saying.
I'm also wondering does Izumo STILL look like THAT even after you kill Beezelbuubs? Cause Little Izumo Rest stop girl made it sound like it went back to looking less... Eww. Just the mood. Changing the sky to something less bleak can help greatly.
Also would like something like a day/night system. I would like to see how some of the towns/areas look at night. I imagine Kyoto would look pretty danm nice. This can also trigger new quests. Or special buffs. Like if it's "night" in the game then certain mobs will be slightly tougher but also give more exp/give better drops.

-Companions?
They are too weak and other than as a distraction serve little in dungeons.
While I like seeing them in the towns and "safe" areas, which reminds me of the Star Ocean Series, I want to see them do more. Maybe walking around, interacting within their immediate area, something that brings in more life into them and not just static. Some people might not like that so and option to make them static can be toggled. I also don't know much about the late game but maybe delve into what relationship you have with said NPCs. I noticed it does tell you something similar like "Cooperating", "Interested", "Drinking Buddy", and the likes, And there are some Dialogue choices at some of the events after certain ranks. It would be nice if those actually matter and not just for show.

-Player interaction encouragement?
Something that encourages player interaction. Cause quite frankly I technically Didn't need anything from other people. Guilds, trading, marriage, etc. usually helps with this. Something Fun and not frustrating like making an impossible dungeon for a team to take on since it might not be the best idea if you make it a requirement to progress the game. Maybe you get a set of new "main quests" if you join a guild, or if you go dungeons with the same people/group you'd both get quests you have to do together.
And MMO that doesn't encourage interaction with others isn't doing a very good job of being a MMO. I understand that it's still early but it's a bit of a let down. Still fun, but lacking at the moment.

Ryusen wrote:See last comment, Since it was tied there. Also a suggestion for you: Keep a fast weapon in a weapon slot if you can. Doesn't matter if you are proficient use it as a SP regen tool. Applies for any situation, Keep a wand with First aid and equip/use it to heal before you go to the portal since doing so will fill your SP bar.

I usually keep a pair of dual swords in 1 of my slots just so I can break boulders faster since no matter how hard hitting or slow of a weapon you use, you only do 1 damage to it with each hit. Having to switch to them though in a boss fight just to regain SP makes me feel really gimped.

As for the wand with first aid thing, I tried it out, it doesn't even heal me for 1/10th of my total HP. I'm only at around 1.4k HP, and the first aid heals me for less than 100 if I remember correctly.

Leonhardt wrote:

Ryusen wrote:See last comment, Since it was tied there. Also a suggestion for you: Keep a fast weapon in a weapon slot if you can. Doesn't matter if you are proficient use it as a SP regen tool. Applies for any situation, Keep a wand with First aid and equip/use it to heal before you go to the portal since doing so will fill your SP bar.

I usually keep a pair of dual swords in 1 of my slots just so I can break boulders faster since no matter how hard hitting or slow of a weapon you use, you only do 1 damage to it with each hit. Having to switch to them though in a boss fight just to regain SP makes me feel really gimped.

As for the wand with first aid thing, I tried it out, it doesn't even heal me for 1/10th of my total HP. I'm only at around 1.4k HP, and the first aid heals me for less than 100 if I remember correctly.

There Is a discussion in about healers and it sounded like you can do more if you do Sanctuary then switched to your main since it'll be higher attack. I also mentioned the staff/first aid thing since I am a glass cannon I'm at flat 900 at lvl 27. Those heals before the Portal is just there for "buffer" if you have full SP bar and 10% of your HP gone why not try to heal said 10%? If you don't have spare SP... Then forget about it.

You might feel gimped but at what cost? Getting SP back quicker? I understand if it really isn't your "style" of playing, but it is a method you can try. Other wise it's just trying to conserve SP and pacing it so you don't use too much.

Ryusen wrote:

Leonhardt wrote:

Ryusen wrote:See last comment, Since it was tied there. Also a suggestion for you: Keep a fast weapon in a weapon slot if you can. Doesn't matter if you are proficient use it as a SP regen tool. Applies for any situation, Keep a wand with First aid and equip/use it to heal before you go to the portal since doing so will fill your SP bar.

I usually keep a pair of dual swords in 1 of my slots just so I can break boulders faster since no matter how hard hitting or slow of a weapon you use, you only do 1 damage to it with each hit. Having to switch to them though in a boss fight just to regain SP makes me feel really gimped.

As for the wand with first aid thing, I tried it out, it doesn't even heal me for 1/10th of my total HP. I'm only at around 1.4k HP, and the first aid heals me for less than 100 if I remember correctly.

There Is a discussion in about healers and it sounded like you can do more if you do Sanctuary then switched to your main since it'll be higher attack. I also mentioned the staff/first aid thing since I am a glass cannon I'm at flat 900 at lvl 27. Those heals before the Portal is just there for "buffer" if you have full SP bar and 10% of your HP gone why not try to heal said 10%? If you don't have spare SP... Then forget about it.

You might feel gimped but at what cost? Getting SP back quicker? I understand if it really isn't your "style" of playing, but it is a method you can try. Other wise it's just trying to conserve SP and pacing it so you don't use too much.

What makes me feel gimped is having to rely on a weapon type that is completely outside of my build. Sure I can switch to dual swords to regain SP, but even that will take some time to do (Duals regen 4 SP per hit, Oodachi's regen 7 SP per hit), and if I take a hit while doing it at all, there's about 4 more HP consumables gone (Yes, I have to spam a few of them to get my HP back, even the higher healing ones) while having done next to nothing to the bosses HP in return.

Got some SP back, use like 4 or so skills on the boss, and repeat that cycle. Why should I be forced to rely on something like that just to keep myself going? There is plenty of burst, but the recover from that burst really lacks on a lot of boss fights unless I can stand still and do a ton of basic attacks, which in just about any situation where the boss does any type of AOE, 360 degree, or even a cleave, gets me either killed, or hit for more than half my HP.

But as I said, this is just something I myself personally don't like. I feel as if the burst is definitely there for the type of play style I'm doing, just a lack of recovery from the burst.

Leonhardt wrote:What makes me feel gimped is having to rely on a weapon type that is completely outside of my build. Sure I can switch to dual swords to regain SP, but even that will take some time to do (Duals regen 4 SP per hit, Oodachi's regen 7 SP per hit), and if I take a hit while doing it at all, there's about 4 more HP consumables gone (Yes, I have to spam a few of them to get my HP back, even the higher healing ones) while having done next to nothing to the bosses HP in return.

Got some SP back, use like 4 or so skills on the boss, and repeat that cycle. Why should I be forced to rely on something like that just to keep myself going? There is plenty of burst, but the recover from that burst really lacks on a lot of boss fights unless I can stand still and do a ton of basic attacks, which in just about any situation where the boss does any type of AOE, 360 degree, or even a cleave, gets me either killed, or hit for more than half my HP.

I get what your saying, but that is the downside of said weapon. You'll have to create tactics that center around it, what I mentioned is just one I created for myself which I though can apply to almost all situations. There is also letting your companion/follower as a distraction, something a bit harder for me to do but is doable. They won't last long but you'll get some breathing space to do what you need to do. Depending on what the boss is there are also adds that spawn. If you time it you can kill/combo/build your SP using them, it requires paying attention to both the boss and the add. A more "cheap" method I came up with is using the Boss' reset point to my advantage. If I ran out of SP and don't think I can build via hitting then I will run past the reset point or the "safe zone" and wait it out. Not all Bosses have this point tho so It won't always work. One Boss that comes to mind is Chief Dekuma since his homing bombs can get you even from the entrance of his stage.

As players we can adapt, just need to find your own method. Trial and error friend. And I am guessing you block for the most part? Being a Melee player and all.