Class of Heroes Anniversary Edition beaten in almost exactly 40 hours. The main game, anyway. There's some post-game stuff, I'll probably peek into it but not sure if I want to finish that as well.
My party was Samurai/Lord/Valkyrie on the front row, and Thief/Bishop/Mage at the back. I'm pretty sure I made bad decisions when it came to their races though, as my Lord was a Celestial, and he's unable to equip any good weapons and armor. But once the Cover skill was unlocked, he started pulling his weight nicely, he'd just fly around to take hits for other party members and evade most of them. Not sure how that works logically, but I'll take it. My Thief ended up being my most effective damage-dealer since I found a weapon for him (Full Moon) that has a long reach, seemed to always hit and do good damage, and was almost always the first action in a combat round. But the Samurai and Valkyrie weren't too far behind.
As a sidenote, I hate coming up with names for characters, so I paid some respect to Wizardry and named all of these ones just SAM-1, MAG-1, etc. And that doubly appropriate because the game is Wizardry as hell. Take a Wizardry game, change its theme to anime school and that's Class of Heroes.
Sima Tuna already covered the crafting in the sequel, it's the same in the first game. Could do with a lot of quality of life improvements.
What really threw me for a loop at the start is the map system. On the world map, there are several locations. But those are safe areas, the actual dungeon crawling happens in the paths between them. And they're not static. Instead, each path draws from a pool of maps that might get used there when you enter, with the center of each path always being the same. So you go on a path, and it might use maps 12, 16, and 38. Then the next time you go into the same path, it might have maps 10, 16, and 19. And different paths can use the same maps, so even when going into a completely new path, you might end up on a map you've already fully explored. And your exploration per map is retained no matter where it's used, so you can just use the shortcut to get to the exit. The map just has a different skin based on the path, so it's a cave in that path, a forest in that path, or ruins in some other path.
The map layouts themselves are good. Though especially later there are lots of spinners and dark areas, often combined, so you're just constantly taking the map out. And that's another odd thing. There's three ways of viewing a map. There's a spell for bringing out a minimap. Or you can just hit Select to do the same thing. Or you can hit Y (on Switch controller) to take out a detailed map that shows exactly what square is, what effects it has, and you can autowalk from there. So what's even the point of the spell? I believe using the detailed map requires having found or purchased that path's map, but the spell still feels completely unnecessary. Especially since I found an item very early on that apparently contains the maps (you still have to explore them, the item just allows you to record your exploration progress) for all maps in the game, so I didn't need to get any new ones after that.
The bosses were...weird. At some point I just couldn't fight them normally at all, they just kept evading all physical attacks, take almost no damage from magic, and hit like a truck trying to isekai the characters into a proper Wizardry game. Sometimes they even hit all characters with a single attack and party wipe you in a single turn. The only way I could beat them was to use Party Attacks, the availability of which depends on that kind of characters are in your party. One of these makes all characters do a melee attack with a guaranteed hit, with a chance of stunning. Two of those killed the final boss. So that felt horribly unbalanced and pretty un-fun to me.
Overall though, I do like the game. It's very, very old-school in its mechanics, the map system is weird, the crafting is clunky...but it was still pretty fun. Whether it's because of the old-school mechanics or because of them depends on the player, I think.
Dungeon crawler recomendations
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
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Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
I've been getting Legends of Amberland on a quite deep sale on the eshop for less than 3 bucks.
The game has retro, almost DOS style, graphics. If you can get past that, I'd say it is pretty fun and well built.
Please note that I am not a modern dungeon crawler expert by any means, but I find this game is entertaining and does a lot of things right : subtility in character party creation (but not so much to get overwhelmed at the beginning), simple and fast yet tactical combat system, exploration leading to new zomes with seemingly lots of things to do, diversity in mobs you fight, automapping, easy fast travel to areas you've already discovered.
The game has an overworld map and dungeons to explore. You move in classic dungeon crawler style in both, but the overworld map gives a nice sense of freedom compared to the dungeons with them infinite corridors.
Not sure how long the game is, but I guess it is recommended if you need a quick fix of classical dungeon crawl without the overcomplex systems maybe found in other games.
The game has retro, almost DOS style, graphics. If you can get past that, I'd say it is pretty fun and well built.
Please note that I am not a modern dungeon crawler expert by any means, but I find this game is entertaining and does a lot of things right : subtility in character party creation (but not so much to get overwhelmed at the beginning), simple and fast yet tactical combat system, exploration leading to new zomes with seemingly lots of things to do, diversity in mobs you fight, automapping, easy fast travel to areas you've already discovered.
The game has an overworld map and dungeons to explore. You move in classic dungeon crawler style in both, but the overworld map gives a nice sense of freedom compared to the dungeons with them infinite corridors.
Not sure how long the game is, but I guess it is recommended if you need a quick fix of classical dungeon crawl without the overcomplex systems maybe found in other games.
Bravo jolie Ln, tu as trouvé : l'armée de l'air c'est là où on peut te tenir par la main.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Yep, I bought it on the same deep sale and I've been enjoying it quite a bit. I'm playing on Hard because I remember hearing from PC players that the game is kind of easy by default. Hard has been a stiff, yet enjoyable challenge.
The best way I can describe Amberland is "imagine if World of Xeen was much shorter, made by an indie team and had no voice acting or cool rotoscoped real people."
The best way I can describe Amberland is "imagine if World of Xeen was much shorter, made by an indie team and had no voice acting or cool rotoscoped real people."
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Doublepost for Legend of Amberland:
Finished the game! I enjoyed this one way more than I expected to. So much that I found myself rushing to complete absolutely every scrap of content I could find and to completely wipe the map of enemies. This is a fairly short game. I did everything, including killing the Black Dragon, and ended at around 14-15 hours. The end of this game feels like part 1 of a multi-part game. It has an episodic nature.
I think the game is just overall super solid. I loved the way the equipment worked. The game seems simplistic at first, and it kind of is, but very few pieces of gear ever become obsolete as a result of that. I guess the only point of criticism I had was you couldn't really "build" characters. My mages started with a 30% arcane bonus staff, and that bonus was larger than any other arcane piece of gear in the game. So they kept their tier 1 wizard items the entire game. Again, in a episodic game, that kind of makes sense to me. This is the "low level adventure" equivalent. I ended the game around level 50, but these aren't DnD levels. Levels in this game don't proffer a massive power advantage.
Spells are also basic. More non-damage spells would have been nice. The game has a lot of status effects in it, but you can't inflict any of them on enemies. Status effects are something you protect yourself from. I know for a fact that Amberland 2 added bows and a bunch of other things, so that people say it pretty much invalidates Amberland 1. But I had a blast playing Amberland 1 regardless. The simplistic nature of this game works in its favor, because combat is extremely snappy and it's easy to get in a rhythm of plowing through dungeons, resting, returning to town for resupply/training and rushing back to combat. The system feeds into itself nicely.
The encumbrance system is genius. Infinite holding space for random inventory junk, but limited and precious holding space for items worn on your person. This means that weaker characters naturally can't wear heavy armor, but it's not as limiting as 2E-style class item restrictions. I eventually found a "feather weight helmet" and was able to pop that onto my mage. So armor doesn't inhibit casting, you just can't wear it if you are too scrawny. Balancing your encumbrance has a lot of the flavor of RE4 Attache Case Simulator, or dressing up the paperdolls in Baldur's Gate. You want to get all your spiffy new items placed just so on the party members best equipped to use them. Accessories are free slots btw, so this means you aren't punished for not knowing an enemy was going to cast AoE petrification. Accessories do a lot of heavy lifting on status immunities.
My party was a Human Champion (Fighter,) Dwarf Knight (Fighter,) Half-Elf Ranger, Half-Elf Bard, Human Healer (Cleric,) Elf Sage and Elf Wizard. Bard and Wizard buffs are extremely powerful. I played on Hard, and the Death's Door buff the Bard can cast was vital for certain boss fights, including the Black Dragon at the end.
I hope Amberland goes on to become a series of games. Due to the asset reuse, I could see this as a game series that costs comparatively little to make but which could sustain a profitable future. All the pieces are in place and very solid. For the price, this game was a steal. But even at full price, I got 15 very fun hours of it.
Oh and the game runs flawlessly on Switch. Zero crashes, bugs or performance issues.
Finished the game! I enjoyed this one way more than I expected to. So much that I found myself rushing to complete absolutely every scrap of content I could find and to completely wipe the map of enemies. This is a fairly short game. I did everything, including killing the Black Dragon, and ended at around 14-15 hours. The end of this game feels like part 1 of a multi-part game. It has an episodic nature.
I think the game is just overall super solid. I loved the way the equipment worked. The game seems simplistic at first, and it kind of is, but very few pieces of gear ever become obsolete as a result of that. I guess the only point of criticism I had was you couldn't really "build" characters. My mages started with a 30% arcane bonus staff, and that bonus was larger than any other arcane piece of gear in the game. So they kept their tier 1 wizard items the entire game. Again, in a episodic game, that kind of makes sense to me. This is the "low level adventure" equivalent. I ended the game around level 50, but these aren't DnD levels. Levels in this game don't proffer a massive power advantage.
Spells are also basic. More non-damage spells would have been nice. The game has a lot of status effects in it, but you can't inflict any of them on enemies. Status effects are something you protect yourself from. I know for a fact that Amberland 2 added bows and a bunch of other things, so that people say it pretty much invalidates Amberland 1. But I had a blast playing Amberland 1 regardless. The simplistic nature of this game works in its favor, because combat is extremely snappy and it's easy to get in a rhythm of plowing through dungeons, resting, returning to town for resupply/training and rushing back to combat. The system feeds into itself nicely.
The encumbrance system is genius. Infinite holding space for random inventory junk, but limited and precious holding space for items worn on your person. This means that weaker characters naturally can't wear heavy armor, but it's not as limiting as 2E-style class item restrictions. I eventually found a "feather weight helmet" and was able to pop that onto my mage. So armor doesn't inhibit casting, you just can't wear it if you are too scrawny. Balancing your encumbrance has a lot of the flavor of RE4 Attache Case Simulator, or dressing up the paperdolls in Baldur's Gate. You want to get all your spiffy new items placed just so on the party members best equipped to use them. Accessories are free slots btw, so this means you aren't punished for not knowing an enemy was going to cast AoE petrification. Accessories do a lot of heavy lifting on status immunities.
My party was a Human Champion (Fighter,) Dwarf Knight (Fighter,) Half-Elf Ranger, Half-Elf Bard, Human Healer (Cleric,) Elf Sage and Elf Wizard. Bard and Wizard buffs are extremely powerful. I played on Hard, and the Death's Door buff the Bard can cast was vital for certain boss fights, including the Black Dragon at the end.
I hope Amberland goes on to become a series of games. Due to the asset reuse, I could see this as a game series that costs comparatively little to make but which could sustain a profitable future. All the pieces are in place and very solid. For the price, this game was a steal. But even at full price, I got 15 very fun hours of it.
Oh and the game runs flawlessly on Switch. Zero crashes, bugs or performance issues.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Funny how SIma and I happened to clear Legends of Amberland at exactly the same time !
Opinions on the game are exaclty the same with extremely snappy and satisfying combats, strategy needed to progress, not much chit-chat involved.
I would ad as cons :
* no zooming possibilities on the map, sometimes I dont know where I am.
* no respawning foes. Once they're all dead, they're all dead, and I cant try my new powerful spells on anything !
My party was much more straightforward as I played Healer-Warrior-Knight-Knight-Warrior-Wizard-Wizard. I tried a first run with more hybrid class like Bard, but did not know what to do with it in the beginning. In the few dungeon crawlers I played I tend to prefer a full damage party to kill everything as it comes.
This worked pretty well for this run as much late-game ennemies did not survive the 1st Wizard ; but I played Normal difficulty. I guess this could also work on Hard but would require a bit more carefulness in the beginning. When reading difficulty description I did not see the point of playing harder than normal since you get no benefit at all from this (some games give you more XP/gold for playing harder ; here it is just less everything).
In the end I guess I did 100% the game, but not pretty sure about this. I only have the "find forgotten crown" quest left, did all other quests I found and cleared all visible locations on the map. However there are at least 2 NPC whose dialog look like they can go further :
* lady near lake who wants the fisherman to fall in love with her ; she asks you for a love potion ?
* angry man in hut near Dark Castle (Gravenholm battle location) is upset because foes took his castle ; I cleared the foes but he is still angry ?
Opinions on the game are exaclty the same with extremely snappy and satisfying combats, strategy needed to progress, not much chit-chat involved.
I would ad as cons :
* no zooming possibilities on the map, sometimes I dont know where I am.
* no respawning foes. Once they're all dead, they're all dead, and I cant try my new powerful spells on anything !
My party was much more straightforward as I played Healer-Warrior-Knight-Knight-Warrior-Wizard-Wizard. I tried a first run with more hybrid class like Bard, but did not know what to do with it in the beginning. In the few dungeon crawlers I played I tend to prefer a full damage party to kill everything as it comes.
This worked pretty well for this run as much late-game ennemies did not survive the 1st Wizard ; but I played Normal difficulty. I guess this could also work on Hard but would require a bit more carefulness in the beginning. When reading difficulty description I did not see the point of playing harder than normal since you get no benefit at all from this (some games give you more XP/gold for playing harder ; here it is just less everything).
In the end I guess I did 100% the game, but not pretty sure about this. I only have the "find forgotten crown" quest left, did all other quests I found and cleared all visible locations on the map. However there are at least 2 NPC whose dialog look like they can go further :
* lady near lake who wants the fisherman to fall in love with her ; she asks you for a love potion ?
* angry man in hut near Dark Castle (Gravenholm battle location) is upset because foes took his castle ; I cleared the foes but he is still angry ?
Bravo jolie Ln, tu as trouvé : l'armée de l'air c'est là où on peut te tenir par la main.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
I didn't find any way to make the pissed off angry wizard less angry, or discover any love potions. I think maybe they're just supposed to be flavor text. I cleared every dungeon including the Beholders one.guigui wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2024 11:56 am Funny how SIma and I happened to clear Legends of Amberland at exactly the same time !
Opinions on the game are exaclty the same with extremely snappy and satisfying combats, strategy needed to progress, not much chit-chat involved.
I would ad as cons :
* no zooming possibilities on the map, sometimes I dont know where I am.
* no respawning foes. Once they're all dead, they're all dead, and I cant try my new powerful spells on anything !
My party was much more straightforward as I played Healer-Warrior-Knight-Knight-Warrior-Wizard-Wizard. I tried a first run with more hybrid class like Bard, but did not know what to do with it in the beginning. In the few dungeon crawlers I played I tend to prefer a full damage party to kill everything as it comes.
This worked pretty well for this run as much late-game ennemies did not survive the 1st Wizard ; but I played Normal difficulty. I guess this could also work on Hard but would require a bit more carefulness in the beginning. When reading difficulty description I did not see the point of playing harder than normal since you get no benefit at all from this (some games give you more XP/gold for playing harder ; here it is just less everything).
In the end I guess I did 100% the game, but not pretty sure about this. I only have the "find forgotten crown" quest left, did all other quests I found and cleared all visible locations on the map. However there are at least 2 NPC whose dialog look like they can go further :
* lady near lake who wants the fisherman to fall in love with her ; she asks you for a love potion ?
* angry man in hut near Dark Castle (Gravenholm battle location) is upset because foes took his castle ; I cleared the foes but he is still angry ?
I agree about the lack of map zoom. It would have been nice to zoom the map out for fast travel. Near the end of my playthrough, I was zipping all over the world to find quest triggers. I'm not sure how to feel about lack of respawning enemies. I'm usually in favor of RPGs with a finite amount of in-game XP, since it limits powergaming and enforces some small amount of strategy. For example: The red scorpions in the desert were way too strong for me at first. I had to seek out multiple optional dungeons and still resorted to sneaking past a lot of the fuckers. Going back to wipe them all out was very satisfying. I don't think I'd like it very much if the scorpions always respawned or the goblins in the beginning town zone respawned to pester you even at level 50.
But I know Amberland II does have some enemy respawns. Not sure how it works exactly.
Sage is functionally just Wizard with Mass Power Heal. In practice, my three front melee dealt damage with Slaying weapons while the back line slung primarily Lightning magic (because it had the highest damage range per cost.)
Some of the Hybrid classes are pretty ass. Ranger gets some basic spells but none of them are worth using. You sacrifice a ton of encumbrance for that, and the only spell I did use was Elven Song, her racial spell. Should have gone Knight or Warrior with her. Gear is just so powerful that I think if I were to run again, I'd prioritize the classes with either max damage potential or max encumbrance, with a couple exceptions like Bard who genuinely bring something unique (extremely good buffs.)
Edit: Oh yeah and Mithril gear was crazy useful in the early and midgame.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
I did not see all those subtle things you mention about Sage, Bards, mithril stuff. Just use lots of slaying weapons, lots of fire and lightning spells, lots of healing when needed. So yeah, harder difficulty is definitely recommended if one wants to explore more things about gameplay.
Also, what did you do with your Cristals ? Seeing how the resource seemed very limited in the game, I saved them for when I'd need ... and ended up not spending them at all.
Now I can buy those crunchy +12 strength gauntlets, but have no ennemies to defeat left ! So my 170ish cristals sits there doing nothing. By the way, 170 is indeed limited in a game where the most expensive object costs 120.
About foes respawning, I'd say the now overused New Game + system could have been fit here. I'd love to restart the game in harder difficulty with my current team. Not sure about starting from scratch though.
Also, what did you do with your Cristals ? Seeing how the resource seemed very limited in the game, I saved them for when I'd need ... and ended up not spending them at all.
Now I can buy those crunchy +12 strength gauntlets, but have no ennemies to defeat left ! So my 170ish cristals sits there doing nothing. By the way, 170 is indeed limited in a game where the most expensive object costs 120.
About foes respawning, I'd say the now overused New Game + system could have been fit here. I'd love to restart the game in harder difficulty with my current team. Not sure about starting from scratch though.
Bravo jolie Ln, tu as trouvé : l'armée de l'air c'est là où on peut te tenir par la main.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
I think I spent them on displacement capes and vials. I figured the extra stats right now + displacement on my front row would be more valuable than some theoretical mega item.guigui wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2024 7:13 pm I did not see all those subtle things you mention about Sage, Bards, mithril stuff. Just use lots of slaying weapons, lots of fire and lightning spells, lots of healing when needed. So yeah, harder difficulty is definitely recommended if one wants to explore more things about gameplay.
Also, what did you do with your Cristals ? Seeing how the resource seemed very limited in the game, I saved them for when I'd need ... and ended up not spending them at all.
Now I can buy those crunchy +12 strength gauntlets, but have no ennemies to defeat left ! So my 170ish cristals sits there doing nothing. By the way, 170 is indeed limited in a game where the most expensive object costs 120.
About foes respawning, I'd say the now overused New Game + system could have been fit here. I'd love to restart the game in harder difficulty with my current team. Not sure about starting from scratch though.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Finished Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation - Quest of Memories on Switch in 32 hours for the main quest line, after which one more area opens up with, and it took me four more hours to clear that, beat the True Last Boss, and finish up a few things to get all the achievements. So 36 hours overall, which is a pretty nice length, I think.
It's not only based on the light novel/manga/anime of the same name, but the game actually starts at the very moment the recently aired second season of the anime ends, and it pretty much spoils the ending within the first minute. So if you're following the show, don't start playing the game until you finish season 2. The game is framed as having the MC telling the events of the last few years to [REDACTED], where he goes on a very DRPG-like adventure of picking up guests from a guild.
The game's made by Lancarse, who were involved in developing the first two Etrian Odyssey titles, as well as Zanki Zero: Last Beginning, so they have some solid experience with the genre. The thing is, the game's a simplified version of Etrian Odyssey. I'm guessing the publisher/developer didn't want to create a hardcore-DRPG, more of something on the simple side so it's more appealing as a licensed game to fans of the anime. The show does have some very dungeon crawler-y parts, so it's not a completely shocking choice of a genre, but still kind of weird.
Imagine Etrian Odyssey, but everything's just a step or two more basic. Obviously there's no manual mapping. The map layouts do have a similar feel to EO to them, with the shortcuts especially, but they're just not as interesting. Rather than having one large labyrinth, you have a dozen-ish smaller ones, and they don't connect to each other at all. There's no creating your own characters, for a good while at the start you only have the three starting characters at your disposal. You do end up gaining access to five additional characters as the game progresses, but I didn't see any need to use them. They can still be beneficial, as they still collect experience and skill points even when they're not actively used, and you can use their healing skills outside combat even when they're not in the party (which you can edit whenever outside combat), so they basically work as extra healers while exploring. At least the ones who have a healing skill. There's no front or back row, so the placement of characters in the party doesn't matter.
The gear customization is limited at well. The only gear you can change are accessories, of which each character can have up to three equipped at once. The accessories themselves can be further tweaked by inserting additional features to them, from simple ones that just give bonuses to stats, to really useful things like normal attacks always happening twice, or halving physical damage, or recovering MP just from walking around. That last one basically made my party immortals (while exploring, anyway), since after a battle you could just heal everybody up, and be up to full MP before the next fight took place.
Killed characters get revived to 1 HP automatically after a battle, and all status effects like poisoned and paralyzed are nulled at the end of combat as well. You can return to town from exploring at any point when not in combat, without any items, skills, or spells, or suffering penalties. I actually didn't realize this until after I had already explored 100% of the maps...
Skill customization can be done whenever, and the spent points can be recovered whenever without any penalties so different builds can be tried out easily. Sadly the skill trees aren't terribly interesting.
The combat system is pretty cool, though. It's kind of like Active Time Battle but all the participants on both sides share the same time bar. From the moment you choose your character's action they still need to hit the end of the time bar before it's executed, and some actions are faster than others, and some actions have the character restart their trek further back on the time bar so it takes longer for them to have another action. Some skills can affect enemies' placement on the time bar, and they can do the same thing to you. It's pretty neat on paper at least, but it's not utilized enough, you can more or less ignore the whole thing. Naturally bosses are immune to any action-cancelling or delaying skills.
Seems like QC was asleep at the wheel, as there are some wrong texts here and there (the description for accessory feature to increase INT says how it's going to increase STR instead, for example), and one accessory flat out doesn't do what it says it does. When you're trying to escape from combat and fail, it actually reads "But they escape!", like they forgot to put a "can't" there.
Mention must be given to the restaurant minigame that you're forced to play a few times.
It is bad. It is so RNG-based and uses positive feedback loop to a ridiculous degree. I had to try the tutorial like five times before the stars aligned and I beat it. But once you get a good start, it's impossible to fail. And it barely even qualifies as a mini"game" as player input is restricted to very small actions. The pixel graphics in the restaurant are nice at least.
There's really no point in picking the game up if you're totally unfamiliar with the source material, it doesn't stand on its own. If you're a fan of the show, then some enjoyment can be had. I think the game actually threw some foreshadowing about the fate of one character who hasn't been seen in the anime for a long while. But if you strip the license out, it's a basic, simple DRPG. So I guess the optimal audience would be people who like the anime and haven't played games of this genre before, but are curious about them. On the whole I did enjoy my time, but there are lots of better DRPG's available.
Also, funny connection to shmups. This game was directed/programmed by Mitsuhiro Hoshino, and according to MobyGames they were also a programmer and a demo player for the GameCube port of Ikaruga.
It's not only based on the light novel/manga/anime of the same name, but the game actually starts at the very moment the recently aired second season of the anime ends, and it pretty much spoils the ending within the first minute. So if you're following the show, don't start playing the game until you finish season 2. The game is framed as having the MC telling the events of the last few years to [REDACTED], where he goes on a very DRPG-like adventure of picking up guests from a guild.
The game's made by Lancarse, who were involved in developing the first two Etrian Odyssey titles, as well as Zanki Zero: Last Beginning, so they have some solid experience with the genre. The thing is, the game's a simplified version of Etrian Odyssey. I'm guessing the publisher/developer didn't want to create a hardcore-DRPG, more of something on the simple side so it's more appealing as a licensed game to fans of the anime. The show does have some very dungeon crawler-y parts, so it's not a completely shocking choice of a genre, but still kind of weird.
Imagine Etrian Odyssey, but everything's just a step or two more basic. Obviously there's no manual mapping. The map layouts do have a similar feel to EO to them, with the shortcuts especially, but they're just not as interesting. Rather than having one large labyrinth, you have a dozen-ish smaller ones, and they don't connect to each other at all. There's no creating your own characters, for a good while at the start you only have the three starting characters at your disposal. You do end up gaining access to five additional characters as the game progresses, but I didn't see any need to use them. They can still be beneficial, as they still collect experience and skill points even when they're not actively used, and you can use their healing skills outside combat even when they're not in the party (which you can edit whenever outside combat), so they basically work as extra healers while exploring. At least the ones who have a healing skill. There's no front or back row, so the placement of characters in the party doesn't matter.
The gear customization is limited at well. The only gear you can change are accessories, of which each character can have up to three equipped at once. The accessories themselves can be further tweaked by inserting additional features to them, from simple ones that just give bonuses to stats, to really useful things like normal attacks always happening twice, or halving physical damage, or recovering MP just from walking around. That last one basically made my party immortals (while exploring, anyway), since after a battle you could just heal everybody up, and be up to full MP before the next fight took place.
Killed characters get revived to 1 HP automatically after a battle, and all status effects like poisoned and paralyzed are nulled at the end of combat as well. You can return to town from exploring at any point when not in combat, without any items, skills, or spells, or suffering penalties. I actually didn't realize this until after I had already explored 100% of the maps...
Skill customization can be done whenever, and the spent points can be recovered whenever without any penalties so different builds can be tried out easily. Sadly the skill trees aren't terribly interesting.
The combat system is pretty cool, though. It's kind of like Active Time Battle but all the participants on both sides share the same time bar. From the moment you choose your character's action they still need to hit the end of the time bar before it's executed, and some actions are faster than others, and some actions have the character restart their trek further back on the time bar so it takes longer for them to have another action. Some skills can affect enemies' placement on the time bar, and they can do the same thing to you. It's pretty neat on paper at least, but it's not utilized enough, you can more or less ignore the whole thing. Naturally bosses are immune to any action-cancelling or delaying skills.
Seems like QC was asleep at the wheel, as there are some wrong texts here and there (the description for accessory feature to increase INT says how it's going to increase STR instead, for example), and one accessory flat out doesn't do what it says it does. When you're trying to escape from combat and fail, it actually reads "But they escape!", like they forgot to put a "can't" there.
Mention must be given to the restaurant minigame that you're forced to play a few times.
It is bad. It is so RNG-based and uses positive feedback loop to a ridiculous degree. I had to try the tutorial like five times before the stars aligned and I beat it. But once you get a good start, it's impossible to fail. And it barely even qualifies as a mini"game" as player input is restricted to very small actions. The pixel graphics in the restaurant are nice at least.
There's really no point in picking the game up if you're totally unfamiliar with the source material, it doesn't stand on its own. If you're a fan of the show, then some enjoyment can be had. I think the game actually threw some foreshadowing about the fate of one character who hasn't been seen in the anime for a long while. But if you strip the license out, it's a basic, simple DRPG. So I guess the optimal audience would be people who like the anime and haven't played games of this genre before, but are curious about them. On the whole I did enjoy my time, but there are lots of better DRPG's available.
Also, funny connection to shmups. This game was directed/programmed by Mitsuhiro Hoshino, and according to MobyGames they were also a programmer and a demo player for the GameCube port of Ikaruga.
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Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Thanks for the write-up Ghegs. Will certainly pass on this one, dont know the anime at all.
I tried Dungeon Encounters, feels nice but maybe a bit repetitive and barebones. Currently floor 10-20 and not sure I'll get to the end of this one if so few things happen to break the combats stillness.
Will also very soon buy Gheg's number one : Undernauts Labyrinth of Yomi, currently 75% discount on the Switch.
Also have my eyes on Metro Quester. Post apoc DRPG which looks pretty nice. Anyone ever tried it ?
I tried Dungeon Encounters, feels nice but maybe a bit repetitive and barebones. Currently floor 10-20 and not sure I'll get to the end of this one if so few things happen to break the combats stillness.
Will also very soon buy Gheg's number one : Undernauts Labyrinth of Yomi, currently 75% discount on the Switch.
Also have my eyes on Metro Quester. Post apoc DRPG which looks pretty nice. Anyone ever tried it ?
Bravo jolie Ln, tu as trouvé : l'armée de l'air c'est là où on peut te tenir par la main.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
I tried Metro Quester for around 20-30 minutes and couldn't figure out how to do anything. One of the couple of starting enemy formations is/was a complete party wipe every time it popped up and I didn't understand what I was doing wrong.
I haven't written the game off and do intend to go back to it. It's just frustrating the game is so different from every other game I've played, yet there is no information online for it.
If anyone does learn how to actually play this, they should post a guide somewhere on the internet (some free blog, etc) so the rest of the world can finally understand WTF is happening.
Edit: You can take a look at the manual:
https://www.thousandgames.net/quester/i ... -eng/help/
I didn't find it very useful. Knowing about how the aggro meter works is not going to help you avoid your tank getting one-shot on turn one.
I haven't written the game off and do intend to go back to it. It's just frustrating the game is so different from every other game I've played, yet there is no information online for it.
If anyone does learn how to actually play this, they should post a guide somewhere on the internet (some free blog, etc) so the rest of the world can finally understand WTF is happening.
Edit: You can take a look at the manual:
https://www.thousandgames.net/quester/i ... -eng/help/
I didn't find it very useful. Knowing about how the aggro meter works is not going to help you avoid your tank getting one-shot on turn one.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Thank you for feedback Sima Tuna, now you have me even more interested in starting the game !
Guess some people could get through the first fight though, reddit as one or two advanced discussion about the game.
Guess some people could get through the first fight though, reddit as one or two advanced discussion about the game.
Bravo jolie Ln, tu as trouvé : l'armée de l'air c'est là où on peut te tenir par la main.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Since roguelike talk has mostly landed in this thread:
A rebranded version of DoomRL on the Jupiter Hell engine is being developed, with all gameplay and backend changes to also be implemented into the original open-source game, kind of like the ADOM situation. In fact the original game has already had a new release as a beta launch pad for the commercial version.
There's something deeply ironic about how, although the remake's graphics look a bit worse than the original's IMO, it's still a visual step up from JH's avant-garde Doom 3-at-a-birds-eye-view-cum-indistinguishable-silhouettes approach. It's very bizarre how this franchise(?) has turned out. I was completely blindsided by this news after all the weird and often fundamental failings JH had.
A rebranded version of DoomRL on the Jupiter Hell engine is being developed, with all gameplay and backend changes to also be implemented into the original open-source game, kind of like the ADOM situation. In fact the original game has already had a new release as a beta launch pad for the commercial version.
There's something deeply ironic about how, although the remake's graphics look a bit worse than the original's IMO, it's still a visual step up from JH's avant-garde Doom 3-at-a-birds-eye-view-cum-indistinguishable-silhouettes approach. It's very bizarre how this franchise(?) has turned out. I was completely blindsided by this news after all the weird and often fundamental failings JH had.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Currently playing Undernauts Labyrinth of Yomi as per Ghegs recommandation in his tier list from some time ago.
Very pleased with the game, its setting, required strategies, and QoL stuffs like fast and auto travel, ability to fully respec every character almost anytime you like.
Pro player question : is there any way to see foes' HP precisely during combats ? All the game shows me with the Eagle Eye skill is a rough bar indicating their HP, but I cant see it at any time and it has no number on it while the damages I deal are numbered.
Very pleased with the game, its setting, required strategies, and QoL stuffs like fast and auto travel, ability to fully respec every character almost anytime you like.
Pro player question : is there any way to see foes' HP precisely during combats ? All the game shows me with the Eagle Eye skill is a rough bar indicating their HP, but I cant see it at any time and it has no number on it while the damages I deal are numbered.
Bravo jolie Ln, tu as trouvé : l'armée de l'air c'est là où on peut te tenir par la main.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
I just rolled the cleared of Undernauts Labyrinth of Yomi ; not sure yet I'll dive again for the post game stuff.
All in all it was a good experience (see what I did there ?), very solid dungeon crawl game with lots of QoL stuff that make sometimes tedious things way easier.
One gripe I have though : difficulty progression is quite weird here. Either you win fights super easy, or you get destroyed immediatly. When the latter happens just take a little time (like 30 minutes) to grind any stuff and levels, come back, and you'll win the fight super easy.
I found this happens even with the boss fights, but again note that I havent tried the post game content yet.
Still find it bad though, "grind anything to overcome next fight" is not as good as "think a little to overcome next fight".
All in all it was a good experience (see what I did there ?), very solid dungeon crawl game with lots of QoL stuff that make sometimes tedious things way easier.
One gripe I have though : difficulty progression is quite weird here. Either you win fights super easy, or you get destroyed immediatly. When the latter happens just take a little time (like 30 minutes) to grind any stuff and levels, come back, and you'll win the fight super easy.
I found this happens even with the boss fights, but again note that I havent tried the post game content yet.
Still find it bad though, "grind anything to overcome next fight" is not as good as "think a little to overcome next fight".
Bravo jolie Ln, tu as trouvé : l'armée de l'air c'est là où on peut te tenir par la main.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Guess I'm now done with Undernauts Labyrinth of Yomi.
Cleared main game and "post" game that consists in getting strong enough to defeat Kaori Sandra and her clones and not much more ?
As always in those kind of games I did a little grind, and ended up overpowered. K.Sandra and clones take 3 turns to kill consistently, no strategy required.
The gripe mentionned earlier is still there : no thinking is actually required to beat the game, just grind and get strong enough to Over/Dura/Neuro everything. The enormous amount of weapons does not help either : no need to focus and improve a weapon like your beloved one ; just need to wait for next fight to drop a better weapon that the one you have.
Still a good game for the setting and QoL things, but dont play it like i did, maybe even put some limitations like no Bulwark in team (once you get Protect Squad, the Bulwark basically absorbs all damages, OP), or no Healer in team (this would be harder I fear !).
Next one on the DRPG radar may be Potato Flower when price drops a little more, or the Metro Quester weirdness appealing me.
Cleared main game and "post" game that consists in getting strong enough to defeat Kaori Sandra and her clones and not much more ?
As always in those kind of games I did a little grind, and ended up overpowered. K.Sandra and clones take 3 turns to kill consistently, no strategy required.
The gripe mentionned earlier is still there : no thinking is actually required to beat the game, just grind and get strong enough to Over/Dura/Neuro everything. The enormous amount of weapons does not help either : no need to focus and improve a weapon like your beloved one ; just need to wait for next fight to drop a better weapon that the one you have.
Still a good game for the setting and QoL things, but dont play it like i did, maybe even put some limitations like no Bulwark in team (once you get Protect Squad, the Bulwark basically absorbs all damages, OP), or no Healer in team (this would be harder I fear !).
Next one on the DRPG radar may be Potato Flower when price drops a little more, or the Metro Quester weirdness appealing me.
Bravo jolie Ln, tu as trouvé : l'armée de l'air c'est là où on peut te tenir par la main.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
I thought of this thread a while ago, and was curious if anyone has managed to play Metro Quester long enough to understand how the fuck to play it.
The next dungeon crawler I'll play... Well, if Caves of Qud counts, I've been thinking of getting back into that game.
The next dungeon crawler I'll play... Well, if Caves of Qud counts, I've been thinking of getting back into that game.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
I'll be sure to update this thread with thoughts on Metro Quester if I ever manage to grab it at a fair price, and get past the 1st fight !
Bravo jolie Ln, tu as trouvé : l'armée de l'air c'est là où on peut te tenir par la main.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
I had been playing both stonekeep and anvil of dawn a few months ago, and while I absolutely love this kind of game, I had to stop it because carpal tunnel issues don't let me enjoy games with mouse anymore. Tried some custom mappings for gamepad but it was just too cumbersome.
I don't enjoy japanese games as much as western games in this sub genre. They're so much grindier and less atmospheric. The VGA graphics and sound blaster era music are really my jam.
What I really wanted is legend of grimrock 3 announced.
I don't enjoy japanese games as much as western games in this sub genre. They're so much grindier and less atmospheric. The VGA graphics and sound blaster era music are really my jam.
What I really wanted is legend of grimrock 3 announced.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Ghegs wrote: ↑Tue Jul 23, 2024 6:40 pmThe thing is, the game's a simplified version of Etrian Odyssey. I'm guessing the publisher/developer didn't want to create a hardcore-DRPG, more of something on the simple side so it's more appealing as a licensed game to fans of the anime.
Imagine Etrian Odyssey, but everything's just a step or two more basic. There's no creating your own characters, for a good while at the start you only have the three starting characters at your disposal.
This is a reason licensed games are a red flag for me. But being based on a webnovel that finished 20 years ago isn't a great feature either: yeah, tell me the same story you've already told me before, but worse. It's like all the Invincible memes that went viral: ok I'm happy you normos know this exists now. Let me know when you learn about other bangers like I Love Lucy or The Lord of the Rings, those are sure to feel fresh and new...
There's a Madoka Magica game on the PSP that's a first person pseudo-roguelike (I'm assuming the random elements are weak or non-existent?) dungeon crawler that looks cool. You guys know how much I love combat systems that don't waste the player's time with long animations, you press a button, you perform an action, you get on with your life.
But I know there's just a ton of problems I'll have with it: nothing new on the story front, an easy game, no follow-up sequels to look forward to. If there was a franchise kind of like it with Magical Girls/Henshin Warriors/Furry Suit Fighters (I think these are all the same thing fundamentally - chuuni dress-up people) going into a grimdark hell, I'd be all over it.
guigui's points about wanting to rub some neurons against each other is something I sympathize with. I love dumb incremental/ASMR games where I can chill out and think about other things, but sometimes it's nice to have to try and work at something. But I guess the public loathes failing, which is necessary for there to be something to overcome in the first place. Games like ArKnights are special because they really are the black sheep in the market, normos just don't have the masochism inside of them to enjoy being punched in the face.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
I think it's interesting you say this, because dungeon crawlers have traditionally been extremely punishing and obtuse. From the Wizardry, Ultima and Rogue origins all the way into the middle era (Wizardry 8, Might and Magic 7) and then even in the modern era (stranger of sword city, etrian series) there have been numerous examples of some very difficult dungeon crawlers. Often the most mainstream ones have still retained a high difficulty.BryanM wrote: ↑Thu Oct 31, 2024 11:08 pm
guigui's points about wanting to rub some neurons against each other is something I sympathize with. I love dumb incremental/ASMR games where I can chill out and think about other things, but sometimes it's nice to have to try and work at something. But I guess the public loathes failing, which is necessary for there to be something to overcome in the first place. Games like ArKnights are special because they really are the black sheep in the market, normos just don't have the masochism inside of them to enjoy being punched in the face.
If DRPGs (darpigs?) are getting easier, it seems to me that's only happening in the very recent era of the last decade at most. DRPGs are definitely not a genre that the fanbase pick up if they're concerned about failing. Class of Heroes had a re-release only recently and is anything but a cakewalk, as Ghegs' megapost illustrates.
Of course, you're right that normies don't like failing when they play other genres of games. But darpigs and sarpigs are genres for a specific kind of masochist (like me) who enjoy having their shit wrecked, and I don't think that's really changed. There are easy sarpigs and darpigs out there, but fans of the subgenre do feel a certain kind of way about games that are "too easy." I know some people think Etrian Odyssey IV is less good because it's the easiest entry.
I'd argue Darpigs in general are a black sheep in the vidya gaems market. This whole genre is for weirdos like us who enjoy pain.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Yeah, that's common in genres that are about raw gameplay. Since after you've mastered the game there's nothing else to keep you engaged. No imaginary friends to hang out with or flowers to pick while watching the sunset.
I was surprised at Mary Skelter's default difficulty being... well, I've only played to the first boss so far, but first impressions say that it's trivial. I kind of assumed it would have been tuned more like Etrian Odyssey or Labyrinth of Refrain; guess that studio doesn't really tune their progression curves like that.
The games where they let you decide if you want to break the game in half with an alternative progression system are kind of interesting. Like in Disgaea, you can play it like a normal strat RPG. Diminishing returns from EXP makes it more efficient to grow several characters. Beating the lv.100 boss can be a challenge, at least in the first game. Or you could spend a few hours in the item world, boost one character up into a shonen god, and unga-bunga everything in the story maps. It's two completely different games.
Dragon Quest Monster's fusion system can be similarly game-breaking, but not to the same degree, requires more knowledge about the game to chain fuse up to something high ranking early on, and of course requires more time. These alternative progression systems are more interesting than simple mashing the attack button on random monsters - incremental games tend to like to make tons of different systems to make the numbers go up.
As for tactical battles in the Wizardry battle system, I've been convinced they're pretty limited. Space and time are essential knobs the set-up doesn't have. Every turn being high impact like in Pokemon is the best execution I've seen; as soon as you've got a system where you're undo'ing your opponent's turn constantly with healing, you've got an incremental game imo.
... even the literal idle RPG games make it so healing through damage is impossible. God help us, Figure Fantasy is more of a tactical puzzle game than the average jRPG.
I was surprised at Mary Skelter's default difficulty being... well, I've only played to the first boss so far, but first impressions say that it's trivial. I kind of assumed it would have been tuned more like Etrian Odyssey or Labyrinth of Refrain; guess that studio doesn't really tune their progression curves like that.
The games where they let you decide if you want to break the game in half with an alternative progression system are kind of interesting. Like in Disgaea, you can play it like a normal strat RPG. Diminishing returns from EXP makes it more efficient to grow several characters. Beating the lv.100 boss can be a challenge, at least in the first game. Or you could spend a few hours in the item world, boost one character up into a shonen god, and unga-bunga everything in the story maps. It's two completely different games.
Dragon Quest Monster's fusion system can be similarly game-breaking, but not to the same degree, requires more knowledge about the game to chain fuse up to something high ranking early on, and of course requires more time. These alternative progression systems are more interesting than simple mashing the attack button on random monsters - incremental games tend to like to make tons of different systems to make the numbers go up.
As for tactical battles in the Wizardry battle system, I've been convinced they're pretty limited. Space and time are essential knobs the set-up doesn't have. Every turn being high impact like in Pokemon is the best execution I've seen; as soon as you've got a system where you're undo'ing your opponent's turn constantly with healing, you've got an incremental game imo.
... even the literal idle RPG games make it so healing through damage is impossible. God help us, Figure Fantasy is more of a tactical puzzle game than the average jRPG.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Play Mary Skelter (the entire series) on Fear unless you're playing the shitty remake of the first game. Don't play that on Fear unless you truly hate yourself or just like dying to everything in one hit. Even Normal is super unbalanced on the remake.BryanM wrote: ↑Fri Nov 01, 2024 8:53 pm I was surprised at Mary Skelter's default difficulty being... well, I've only played to the first boss so far, but first impressions say that it's trivial. I kind of assumed it would have been tuned more like Etrian Odyssey or Labyrinth of Refrain; guess that studio doesn't really tune their progression curves like that.
But yes, it's Compile Heart, one of the most inept game developers around. This series is still the best thing that they have ever made by far, which probably doesn't say much because they're still putting out poorly designed 30 FPS games with recycled PS3 assets on PS5, but it's still got some really bad balance problems that never got fully fixed for the entire duration of the series, which is now dead. It's better off dead than turning out like what happened to their increasingly terrible Neptune garbage or Disney Star Wars... not sure which of those two things is worse BTW.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Mary Skelter isn't very good. If you want to know what Mary Skelter would be like if it was good, check out Dungeon Travelers.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Hmm, I've been a little curious about To Heart, it's kind of in the same bracket as Muv Luv. (Which of course... always brings up the question of 'why the hell didn't Konami do these kinds of spin-offs and gaidens with Tokimeki or Love Plus?') I think I'll even get around to giving its anime a try within the next year.
Dungeon Travelers is something I completely forgot existed... probably because I don't like fighting waifus as monsters. I prefer the cuteness to be isolated to party members and for the monsters to be monstrous..
But with your recommendation, I'll keep it in mind and toss it on the pile. Just... so many other things to fill time with these days.
I always have a soft spot in my heart for bottom feeders like them. They kind of have a plucky ineptitude I can really empathize with: only very few franchises get really big, and the rest of us are losers just trying to survive. Maybe it's an intentional decision to have easy games: their selling point is obviously not the gameplay. They're almost a hentai mill, after all.
Sometimes I think they have some cool ideas, too. Like the premise of Trillion where it's basically kind of like Monster Rancher, but you're training up to fight a huge boss that's gonna wreck everything...
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
There's always Tokimeki Memorial Taisen Puzzle-dama, but behind its cute, harmless appearance is a game that is more vicious and sadistic than Tatsujin Ou. Super awesome game despite that, of course.
Compile Heart is like the weirdest developer ever. They seem to have good ideas but lack the aptitude to deliver a lot of the promise and every game of theirs that I've played is an unbalanced mess. Like they make a thing about anthropomorphized game consoles as their big thing and that seems promising enough, but it never really goes anywhere interesting with the concept.BryanM wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2024 2:17 amI always have a soft spot in my heart for bottom feeders like them. They kind of have a plucky ineptitude I can really empathize with: only very few franchises get really big, and the rest of us are losers just trying to survive. Maybe it's an intentional decision to have easy games: their selling point is obviously not the gameplay. They're almost a hentai mill, after all.
Sometimes I think they have some cool ideas, too. Like the premise of Trillion where it's basically kind of like Monster Rancher, but you're training up to fight a huge boss that's gonna wreck everything...
They are currently making an STG together with M2, and if there is anyone who can save an STG from Compile Heart's undesign, it's M2.
Still, I can't really hate Compile Heart because they are probably trying harder and putting more love into their games than companies like EA or Activision or Ubisoft... and I'd probably rather play Compile Heart games than pretty much anything from Activision, EA, or Ubishit if I'm being 100% honest.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Only DT1 is related to ToHeart. 2 and 2-2 are about original Dungeon Travelers characters. I too would prefer that the enemies included more badass monsters and fewer waifus but they are good games if you can look past that.BryanM wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2024 2:17 amHmm, I've been a little curious about To Heart, it's kind of in the same bracket as Muv Luv. (Which of course... always brings up the question of 'why the hell didn't Konami do these kinds of spin-offs and gaidens with Tokimeki or Love Plus?') I think I'll even get around to giving its anime a try within the next year.
Dungeon Travelers is something I completely forgot existed... probably because I don't like fighting waifus as monsters. I prefer the cuteness to be isolated to party members and for the monsters to be monstrous..
But with your recommendation, I'll keep it in mind and toss it on the pile. Just... so many other things to fill time with these days.
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
Wizardry Mobile launched. I'd love to be able to share my opinion on it, but they... they really don't make it easy. Android 11, and the only emulator I hear that it currently works on is some version of Bluestacks I can't use with the renderer set to Vulkan. There's talk about a planned Steam release, but of course that's just as useless. What happened to putting a stupid download link on your website, it's like that's AIDs to developers now or something...
Grumble grumble.
I do like how grungy the playstation 2 style graphics are. It's a nice breath of fresh air compared to all the colorful cell-shaded anime stuff out there. (Sometimes that fluff really feels like they're trying to tell their audience to not kill themselves!)
It's refreshing that the SSR princess lady is just some lady with a crown and a cape. Very understated; in the vein of how I talk about Tactics Ogre's fantasy art being only one degree exaggerated from real life.
Didn't like the portrait mode, but it does give it a claustrophobic feel and I concede it does help make it feel like you're witnessing things from your zombie jesus's avatar's POV. Your peripheral vision in real life is mostly dogshit, after all. Forcing landscape mode doesn't look great, with how empty everything to the sides is.
It's cute how staying in the stables will cause your team mates to get dirty, which will cause them to whine about it and attract monsters from further away.
Reception has been surprisingly pretty good, considering. Only a few people in the Wizardry reddit hate it. I wanted to try it sooner than later since you don't know when these things are gonna die, but with an unexpectedly high revenue of over $7 million in its first two months, it might stick around a few years.
And I think they self-published, which gives it a bit more of a chance at longevity. Niche games like Guardian Tales and Langrisser Mobile are able to persist on very low revenue, from not spreading the income across too many hands.
Ah, and the permadeath is something you have to do intentionally. The mechanic mainly requires you to wait in real time to be able to resurrect someone, if they've died too many times. I think perma was one factor that really helped kill the Wizardry MMO, besides these games really being oriented to solo play.
... that reminded me of those multiplayer roguelikes that lots of people tried to make back in the 90's. Multiplayer Nethack, Angband, etc. Think I'll do some research on what the scene's come up with in the past 30 years...
Case in point of having too many distractions, when Steve mentioned this I literally thought 'oh, that sounds like a game I can try with only needing to spare an hour or two spread across a few days, that sounds perfect!' then promptly completely forgot it existed.
Grumble grumble.
I do like how grungy the playstation 2 style graphics are. It's a nice breath of fresh air compared to all the colorful cell-shaded anime stuff out there. (Sometimes that fluff really feels like they're trying to tell their audience to not kill themselves!)
It's refreshing that the SSR princess lady is just some lady with a crown and a cape. Very understated; in the vein of how I talk about Tactics Ogre's fantasy art being only one degree exaggerated from real life.
Didn't like the portrait mode, but it does give it a claustrophobic feel and I concede it does help make it feel like you're witnessing things from your zombie jesus's avatar's POV. Your peripheral vision in real life is mostly dogshit, after all. Forcing landscape mode doesn't look great, with how empty everything to the sides is.
It's cute how staying in the stables will cause your team mates to get dirty, which will cause them to whine about it and attract monsters from further away.
Reception has been surprisingly pretty good, considering. Only a few people in the Wizardry reddit hate it. I wanted to try it sooner than later since you don't know when these things are gonna die, but with an unexpectedly high revenue of over $7 million in its first two months, it might stick around a few years.
And I think they self-published, which gives it a bit more of a chance at longevity. Niche games like Guardian Tales and Langrisser Mobile are able to persist on very low revenue, from not spreading the income across too many hands.
Ah, and the permadeath is something you have to do intentionally. The mechanic mainly requires you to wait in real time to be able to resurrect someone, if they've died too many times. I think perma was one factor that really helped kill the Wizardry MMO, besides these games really being oriented to solo play.
... that reminded me of those multiplayer roguelikes that lots of people tried to make back in the 90's. Multiplayer Nethack, Angband, etc. Think I'll do some research on what the scene's come up with in the past 30 years...
Case in point of having too many distractions, when Steve mentioned this I literally thought 'oh, that sounds like a game I can try with only needing to spare an hour or two spread across a few days, that sounds perfect!' then promptly completely forgot it existed.
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cj iwakura
- Posts: 1798
- Joined: Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:28 am
- Location: Coral Springs, FL
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
As much as I despise Compile Heart/Idea Factory(very), I've heard Mary Skelter is at very least their least bad game, if not their best, and it's not bad so far, especially for them.
I do love that they renamed themselves to avoid their vile reputation, though.
I do love that they renamed themselves to avoid their vile reputation, though.
heli wrote:Why is milestone director in prison ?, are his game to difficult ?
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BareKnuckleRoo
- Posts: 6649
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- Location: Southern Ontario
Re: Dungeon crawler recomendations
I've had fun with MAngband in the past, but the current game I've been playing that's heavily influenced by a mix of Gauntlet and other roguelikes such as Angband and Nethack is Crossfire: https://crossfire.real-time.com
It's been around for a while, maps are player made, the combat's pretty fun particularly if you get into spells, and there's a recent client that's been made that works well for newer servers: https://crossfire.real-time.com/clients ... lient.html