Andrew Gower, creator of Brighter Shores, has responded to growing community criticism around the game’s new combat system and made it clear that the recent changes were entirely driven by player feedback.
In an X/Tweet posted on April 15 (and later deleted), Gower addressed concerns that he was not listening to the community. He pointed out that the past five months have been focused almost entirely on community-requested features, including:
- Quality-of-life improvements
- Leaderboards, adjusted based on feedback
- Merging combat professions, specifically because of community input
- Legal compliance with the UK’s online safety bill
- Hiring new staff to deliver updates faster, based on requests for more content
“The reason we are behind on our early access roadmap,” Gower wrote, “is because I have been doing all that instead of my original roadmap!”
Community Reacts on Reddit
On the game’s subreddit, players shared mixed reactions to Gower’s post:
- Some felt the original combat system had potential and was abandoned too soon
- Others pointed out that much of the criticism is coming from players who never fully understood or explored the old system
- Veteran players who had over 400 levels in previous combat professions are now feeling punished, with massive knowledge point grinds just to unlock basic passives again
- Several players noted that visual and gameplay progression now feels slower, even if the current system is technically more efficient
There is also a growing sentiment that early criticism is premature, especially since the new combat system is still evolving.
It is clear that Gower is trying to balance his original vision with what the community wants, but that balance is proving difficult, especially when much of the criticism comes from an early and incomplete version of the system.
