Just as the title says it.
I have been off the forums for quite a while now (sadly, going shorter on free time lately), but since the release I feel I ought to come back sometime soon to also drop in my couple of groshen on how the game turned out, as well as to say my own most sincere THANKS!
Díky lidi! Realizujete něco senzačního! Držte se! 
I’m still not too far into the game story-wise (just passed the hilarious drunken mass with Godwin this weekend, got to replay that one a few times more for those other options!), but so far I’m really enjoying it overall, despite some of those pains that seem to be everyone’s major topic during the past few weeks.
So, briefly on this and that stuff:
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The overall game concept is really what I expected in all the good ways. I love how this game implements a meaningful and fairly manageable system of character’s survival needs as a default, generally keeps its gameplay mechanics practical and authentic and even the very gamey aspects like item and gear stats are very reasonably balanced.
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The practical execution of the various mechanics is too varied though and needs deeper individual assessment. But overall, this game could have used its sort of Witcher-3-style final polishing delay.
Yeah, I know, I can imagine those reactons. I just really wouldn’t mind it myself… -
Graphical representation, sound and that music transitioning system… they are truly just as superb as they were about to be.
Hats off to you, ladies and gentlemen! -
Gameplay vs. storytelling:
I’m one of those who enjoy a good cinematic narrative, so… happy as a clam. It’s just the visible disparity between some of the gameplay cutscenes and some of the obviously more polished narrative segments that does hurt the impression when they go from one to the other. Which immediately brings me to the next thing… -
English and Czech language:
The use of English in most cases seems rather fitting to its circumstances, with only some exceptions occasionally going maybe a little too far/off (Sir Danush of Vavra’s opening line does feel a bit excessive, just for example…).
The use of Czech however feels very uneven and I hope that the dialogue text across the game will go through some proper writing pass before the full Czech localization is done. Some of the dialogue, mainly in the core narrative segments, is written seriously well (just as in English) and some of the “historical” item descriptions (potions…) are next to brilliant! Still, a lot of the sidequest and secondary dialogue sometimes feels like if spoken by current day teenagers, rather than like adult characters from a medieval-era story, albeit fictionalized.
Translational differences between what (and how) the character says in EN/CZ are also pretty substantial sometimes (figurative, or metaphorical meanings aside), but I hope this is just due to the Czech localization being work-in-progress. -
Saving system:
I do love this concept! It’s a really neat idea… but it hasn’t been handled too well, in both camps it seems… I fully share the frustration of some people over how their real life rubs with the scarce options to save. The Save&Exit option would help a lot, but the Schnapps still usually feels just way too precious to waste before the game leads you towards alchemy and brewing (and that takes ages). Not to speak about learning to read… yet another fantastic concept iplemented in a less-than-useful way in this particular context.
Including a small cooking/brewing/alchemy tutorial early at the Talmberg kitchen (or even somewhere in Skalitz) could actually do miracles to solve this issue! Once people KNEW they can restock Schnapps with a relative ease, they would learn to utilise it more effectively when it’s necessary… The Schnapps could be an interesting mechanic, if people didn’t fear to use it since it feels so rare early on. It’s a shame that so much damage is done now and people already learned to hate it and just abandon it with cheap mods…
The checkpoints also really need some revision and redistribution at least in some quests… -
Lockpicking:
This is a tricky one! In both the good and the bad sense… It feels dismissively difficult until you properly learn what to focus your sight on while turning the lock. After you figure this out (on your own, the game won’t help you), it becomes trivial with any lock on your level. You won’t lose a single lockpick unless you try a difficulty way above your level.
Difficult to learn, very simple to master.
I’m… honestly just not sure whether that’s good or bad.
About aiming stars and gold-dot reticles:
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Archery:
The idea to make archery more engaging without some plain on-the-spot aiming reticle is absolutely all right, but the current way goes to the length of undermining itself.
Firstly, it’s just absurd if the game strips you of any kind of even remote visual cue on where you’re aiming, but it also keeps on distracting your view with a completely useless gold dot at all other times. With the angle at which you’re holding the bow the game is leaving you with little to no idea on your point of aim. It’s optically distorted and just too difficult to read effectively. Awkward workarounds, searching for complicated visual cues well outside the effective sphere of aim just to be able to tell where it actually is, or shooting from a really close range, where aiming doesn’t matter… that’s barely a solution.
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Shooting a still sitting rabbit at mere two meters distance feels like a bad joke when you keep missing 3-5 times on average, usually so close that you would be scratching that poor thing. And even on level 3-4 archery, after beating Capon twice with two times his score…
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When you shoot a real bow and arrow, you do have to have a good imaginary picture on where you want to hit and it’s your neuro-motoric experience and skill with your bow that determines if and how you deliver it there.
In-game you need something to represent that imaginary focus in your mind, to just show the rough direction of aim and let your in-game skill govern the actual shooting.
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If you can have a huge aiming star for close combat, could you not have something… like semi-transparent circle, or some slight spherical visual effect that indicates the approximate area of intended impact during aim and shrinks with your increasing skill?
Mods can do that, sure. But mods should not be a solution with a game like KCD that aims to make mod-grade content a standard… -
Close combat:
I was really looking forward to this and I’m really happy over how smooth it works in its release version (so far in my experience). I love it, yet… some things related to aiming and perks/special attacks do need more attention. Even as far as on level 8 with swords, I’m having a lot of trouble making any use at all of the special attack sequences.
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The directional sensivity of the aiming star tends to act incredibly erratic and it’s hard to keep a steady control of it (using a gaming mouse). It works fine enough for the combat basics + perfect blocking but the direction indicator keeps on wobbling and shifting at a rate that makes perfect sequences a result of pure luck. It feels to me like the directional cursor could use some more dead-zone on each position before you make it change the direction of aim.
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Any of the more complex sequence-sensitive techniques feel almost impossible to pull out properly in real-time combat outside training. It’s usually vastly quicker and easier to just slash and pierce the enemy to the death with ordinary attacks. And testing the sequences out on Bernard in training combat is also near impossible, since he perfect-blocks almost everything and doesn’t let me finish any sequence no matter how hard and careful I try. -
Also… The perks. I almost feel like a spoiled kid to mention this, but it did surprise me that there isn’t a bit more of them available, with archery and hand-to-hand combat having none at all. I only guess this might have fallen victim to the push to have the game finally released. Hope there will be some more of them as the game polish and updates keep coming along in the future…
Weeeel… I guess I didn’t get much better at writing in brief.
Hope any of it will be of some use anyway. 
As always.
Mějte se, pevné nervy a hodně štěstí!