Great work on the kit/player designs.
I have noticed a few things in my time playing, a lot have been mentioned on this forum already so will quickly cover them.
I’m finding the kicking mechanic enjoyable, and actually quite enjoy the scrum mechanic. To me, it feels simple, but maybe a more visible prompt to hook and the specific button shown on screen could be implemented? The prompt in the corner can be easily missed.
Rucks are very difficult to turnover, not clear how to defend a ruck. And only 3 people to a ruck? I feel like I should be able to put many players in, obviously there should be a limit to how many but i feel like 3 is quite low.
Different tackling types as opposed to just a dive tackle bound to the right stick.
Different try scoring methods like in RLL3/4 (press x for try/double tap for diving try). This was a satisfying mechanic. I’m not a fan of the one button for all. I would like to choose how I score a try.
Players being out of position. Will have a number 8 always getting the ball out from a ruck. Also, the fullbacks seem to be pushed way too forward. Whenever the opposing team kicks it’s always a chase back to the ball and hardly ever a catch.
A proper pendulum system for the backfield. On defence I notice the two wingers are standing even further back than the full back. I would like to see some rotation depending on the ball position on the field.
Box Kicking is the only kicking feature I am not really liking. The supposed 9 at the ruck will take a big jump back then kick instead of doing a kick almost from the side of the ruck, similarly to Rugby 22 (rugby 22 did this well, however there was only one animation for this so when kicking to the left side of the field, the kicker would still kick from the right side of the ruck). Also, box kicks are carefully taken in real life. They take time. I feel like I am in a rush to take a box kick as there is a timer on when the ball is kicked. I think a release the Y button to kick would be a better option, similar to kick-offs and goal kicks.
There is a chip and chase option but not really any high bomb kicks for players to chase down. Only a little dink over the top is available.
Another thing I have noticed was also a problem I had with RLL4. When jockeying a player (the left trigger button), this button also seemed to be bound to a mechanic that keeps your currently controlled player in position. This can be frustrating when jockeying an attacking player as a fullback and then the game can drag them to the backfield for example. Maybe an option to alter key-binds/controls can be implemented instead of choosing from a selection of pre-determined controls.
This isn’t a bug or feature problem but I think a counter near the score on the top left counting through the phases would be cool, similar to the number of tackles in Rugby League. And maybe an option to enable/disable this.
Looking forward to what the future brings!