though I should make at least a few of these thoughts known to him, maybe I'll buy the steam version and put a review there lmao I owe him that much over (checks calendar) 9 years
first and foremost I find it baffling that I am always literally the only person who has made the observation that This Is A Mobile Game, fat fingering is, indeed, possible, and it's therefore actually outrageous that auto-travel is allowed when enemies are nearby and the only things that pop up an "are you sure" prompt are jumping down chasms, pricking the chalice, imbuing the staff, and starting the ascension run.
Things that should maybe also have "are you sure" prompts include stepping on discovered traps. This is a problem exacerbated by walls, which are visibly about 1.2 tiles tall and thus prevent you from seeing traps on the southmost tile of the room if there is an item on it.
I need to make it clear real quick that at this point you have discovered the trap. The game already makes a point of auto-travel avoiding traps. There is almost never a circumstance in which you would ever personally stand on a trap on purpose, I can think of only three: brimstone armor, potion of purity, and finishing your YASD medal. notice in two of these cases you would be literally immune to the effect. The other case is going out of your way to die to the effect. Either way you are knowingly using the trap. I have gotten in fights in the Stoneshard reviews over this (that game has still not addressed any of my complaints because they do not care about a singular nobody with Opinions)
Speaking of auto-travel, you know what else should have a prompt? Plants! Just every plant! Because they are ignored by auto-travel, can have really dangerous effects, or really helpful ones that you don't want to spend just yet! Give me an "are you sure" when I want to leave herbal healing, or earthen armour, or time bubble! It would be better than tapping the space next to the auto-attack button and instantly making a beeline across the map! Clouds should have a prompt too, because they're way more dangerous! misstepping next to fire has made me lose five scrolls before. misstepping next to paralytic gas has gotten me killed. misstepping through toxic gas? you had better believe that the game does not care about incoming damage when you're auto-travelling. yes, this means spellcasters will just fucking kill you if you misstep.
I dunno maybe I've just been spoiled by DCSS, which is apparently the only roguelike to have quality of life? with I think Cogmind and Nethack Pathos tied for second - but Nethack Pathos has to, because it is designed to be a mobile game? maybe DCSS is the weird one for being so nice about, you know, thinking the player might not want to Instantly Die for pressing the wrong button.
My other gripes with Shattered Pixel Dungeon are minor and non-gameplay related. The auto-travel thing and the lack of "are you sure" prompts are two big flaws of a very solid game, first pick for someone wanting to get into trad roguelikes.
But... why does Yog just yell now? It genuinely makes Yog way less threatening of an elder god if it's just shouting the whole time. It makes it seem like an angry chihuahua when it's barking in upper case, you know, but back when it was almost whispering to you things like "Your hope is an illusion..." I thought that was like Yog itself also being hopeless, like it's the absolute weakest elder god out there and it still ruined the dwarven civilization by just laying around waiting to be instantly annihilated by something beyond your imagination. And this is the singular story change that bothers me out of all the others he's done, everything else he's changed and added fit in perfectly but literally the fact that Yog has caps lock on just make me think like... We can face the old gods now guys. This guy is saying "YOUR HOPE. IS AN. ILLUSION." like it's personally the one that will kill us all.
Also my opinions on the new music are mixed because half of it is good, mostly the tension and ascension run songs and half of it is just confusing, like almost all of the first 10 levels, but overall it's good to have more than the one original song from watabou's original 7drl submission even if I think it's a way better sewer theme than the new one