|
Dungeons of AetherFrom the store page posted:Delve into Dungeons of Aether, a turn-based dungeon crawler set in the Rivals of Aether universe. Control four new heroes as they uncover the mysteries of the Julesvale Caverns in Story Mode or test your mettle in the grueling Challenge Dungeons. I have only played through the first (ie, tutorial) dungeon, but the pixel art is well done, the music is catchy, and the dialog is good. I find it a bit odd that the Rivals of Aether universe has had a platform fighter, a visual novel, and now a turn-based puzzle rpg ... Maybe the next game will be an FPS? Anyway, the combat is less of an rpg and more of a dice-based puzzle. Each round of combat a set of dice is rolled and then the player and the enemy draft individual dice to add to their stats (higher stats give you more attack, defense, speed, and attack options each turn). https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/256932876/movie480_vp9.webm There used to be a demo available, but it doesn't appear on the store page anymore (for me at least?). The user rating on Steam is Very Positive, with 70 reviews (81% being positive reviews).
|
# ? Mar 2, 2023 03:27 |
|
|
# ? May 23, 2024 08:41 |
|
Flipswitch posted:Phantom Brigade is out tomorrow and it feels like there is very little fanfare. The demo slapped. Where's your fanfare about it? The demo did slap although I have too many games to play right now but it's on my wishlist. Phantom Brigade quote:Phantom Brigade is a hybrid turn-based & real-time tactical RPG with an innovative timeline-based command system. See the future, predict enemy actions, and plot your counterattack on the timeline! Outnumbered and out-gunned, lead the Brigade's campaign to retake their war-torn homeland. https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/256932130/movie480_vp9.webm?t=1677606966 Star Survivor also looks cool, apparently it's a vampire survivors like except in space. quote:The last ship against the endless. Exterminate as many as you can, and gather points to upgrade your ship from a crafted deck of equipment and power-ups. Will your choices be enough to overcome the thousands hunting you? Survive the swarm in this rogue-lite + survivors + asteroids mashup. I'm waiting until it gets some gamepad support before I buy though, it looks like it'd be great on the steam deck.
|
# ? Mar 4, 2023 05:34 |
|
Anemoiapolis: Chapter 1quote:The most relaxing horror game you'll ever play. Anemoiapolis exists in the uncanny valley of American architecture -- endless carpeted floors and lonely malls. Escape for your life, and enjoy the scenery. 83% out of 84. 10% launch discount.
|
# ? Mar 4, 2023 20:06 |
|
I like the concept of Anemoiapolis, but that looks extremely low budget and undercooked.
|
# ? Mar 4, 2023 21:26 |
|
Oh boy, a game about the backrooms, how novel
|
# ? Mar 4, 2023 21:39 |
|
Tagichatn posted:Where's your fanfare about it? The demo did slap although I have too many games to play right now but it's on my wishlist. Have any goons tried this? I've seen a couple of streamers playing it and it seems to oscillate between really cool, and really frustrating.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2023 04:23 |
|
I've been really enjoying Phantom Brigade. It's very narrative light, partially in a build-your-own-narrative way, but also in a way that may make it seen a bit empty. Looting enemy mechs to build your own is pretty well implemented, and the range of weapons, mech parts, random perks and equippable modules makes for a pretty wide pool. If you spend a lot of time in one area, you will hit a wall of not upgrading your mechs until you go to a higher level area, meaning you'll be doing back-to-back battles with the same setup. It does feel like it's missing a layer or two of customisation or progression - the pilots themselves are pretty perfunctory, which gets in the way of build-your-own narrative when you are more attached to your guns than your people. Moment-to-moment gameplay is real fun - setting up and executing turns feels good, watching your sniper shots obliterate enemy machines is satisfying. The few caveats are that it's easy to fall into a rhythm and just do the same thing every fight and have it work - enemy ai and variety can have a hard tie giving you a challenge (this might change one i start stepping into stronger enemies - just hopefully not in the 'damage sponge' kind of way. Also, the turn replays don't show damage numbers (useful info) and it can only replay the previous turn - basically everyone wants full combat replays. Learning and using the hand systems is fun - once you start getting better gear and more customisation options, you can start doing some unfair stuff. Heavy machine guns are brutal but hard to set up a good turn with, and learning how to bulldoze smaller enemies with a heavy mech is a lightbulb moment that changes the way you play. Unfortunately, melee weapons are super finicky and the combat preview is bad at telling you the outcome of using them - the game need a training dummy mode for testing weapons. Very fun, can be frustrating before you get the hang of it (and get better equipment, like the thruster jets), could potentially get samey if you let it. Some additional thoughts: The looting system can be a bit too safe - you can carefully take out a pilot with concussion damage and leave the mech intact, letting you salvage it for cheap. Or, you can melt it into slag with an Ultraheavy Machine Gun and still loot every part of, it will just take more of your salvage budget. Parts being destroyed might be bad gamefeel though, especially since you have to salvage your own damaged parts. Early game can be extra tough because you have a hard time dealing with enemies, allowing reinforcements to arrive, which becomes insurmountable. Coupled with missiles being hard to deal with early (before you have jumpjets, are good at using them, and are good at managing heat while using them) you can feel a bit stuck. "Not getting samey' doesn't necessarily mean changing your loadout constantly, you just need to go out of your comfort zone a bit. I got a special mission that sent me into a zone stronger than I was currently, and while I was there I raided some enemy convoys and got some real sweet equipment, then hightailed it back into safer waters - tense and rewarding. The building destruction physics look real nice, and play well with the gameplay too. You can duck behind a house to dodge an AR or shotgun, but heavier weapons which mulch right through it - a bigger building will last longer, though. Towers fall down real nice when the lower part is destroyed, too. I have hit some bugs - I'm not sure if any of them are caused my continuing my save from the demo. There are battles where you're supposed to join in with the Home Guard vs enemies, but every one I've joined I've had a single NPC ally tank as the only Home Guard unit. The Supercharge weapon module increases weapon damage and reduces its firing time - very strong. Supercharge II increases damage by ~15%, but Supercharge I increased damage by 70% - I think there's an extra 0 in there. I have had some crashes but I think that is due to me being greedy and running Chrome at the same time and it runs out of memory on my midrange PC. pray for my aunt fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Mar 6, 2023 |
# ? Mar 6, 2023 07:29 |
|
pray for my aunt posted:I've been really enjoying Phantom Brigade. It's very narrative light, partially in a build-your-own-narrative way, but also in a way that may make it seen a bit empty. Once you start hitting "experimental" enemies things start getting weirder in terms of enemy tactics. I've had one patrol just keep trying to stand off and pummel me with plasma balls outside of half of my squad's range, then hit a patrol that was 1 mech and 7 tanks that all rushed me with shotguns and auto railguns. Which made my sniper a bit harder to use. But yes I absolutely could recommend it. Being able to slide actions around on a timeline to see when something is most useful is pretty rad. Also the game doesn't do very well to mention friendly fire, which is a thing you will absolutely do a few times before you start really paying attention. I've shot my own machine gun off before crossing in front of my assault mech. I really wish they let you pick which mech starts were on each mission. Seems like 7/10 times my sniper and ML platform start in front.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2023 16:05 |
|
PotatoManJack posted:Have any goons tried this? I've seen a couple of streamers playing it and it seems to oscillate between really cool, and really frustrating. I went in expecting XCOM, and was frustrated with the movement and how unclear it is how much damage will be done in a turn. It's surely stuff you get used to though, but it was hard to get a feel on how you should move and when you should wait in the first few hours. I'll give it a proper chance once I'm done with some other games. The point of my story is, it's not XCOM. It does its own thing and looks pretty flashy doing so. Attack on Princess fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Mar 6, 2023 |
# ? Mar 6, 2023 17:23 |
|
Yeah if you go in expecting xcom it can be very confusing, but once the interface clicks it works really well and is very satisfying. In addition to friendly fire being something that you'll learn about by doing, there's also firing launchers in wooded areas. That one took me a while before I realised why my mech lobbing long range missiles was getting so beat up.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2023 17:37 |
|
Another light bulb moment is recognizing which weapons can be blocked by buildings and which weapons laugh at buildings
|
# ? Mar 6, 2023 19:48 |
|
Is the "timeline" element of the game similar to Broken Lines? If so, does it feel like it adds anything that a turn-based system wouldn't cover? I liked Broken Lines but didn't think the... real time with pause and rewind?.. action system really added anything that was worth learning to use it. That said, I'm curious how other games may implement it.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2023 19:52 |
|
There is no pause and there's no rewind in this game. You are blocking out the actions for the next 5 seconds in advance. You basically have two tracks, one is movement or not movement, the other one is gun and shield. Some actions use both tracks. You can slide elements along the track to find the most efficient spot to use.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2023 19:56 |
|
Sorry, I may have misworded that. "Pause" I think refers to the planning period between action phases and "rewind" is the ability to see where units will be at specific points in the timeline. I probably should have just said "preview" or "simulate" or something. The systems sound similar from what you described, though Broken Lines uses more of an action point/time unit system in which there is a general pool of points from which both movement and attack actions are drawn each period.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2023 20:21 |
|
Yeah - I'm quite enjoying PB but it's absolutely not 1.0 ready. There's whole swathes of unfinished item descriptions or some basic QOL stuff that's missing. However it is extremely fun and I'm curious to see where modders take the game too. I'm surprised by how few chassis designs there are and how non existent pilot customisation is.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2023 21:31 |
|
I'd say it's 1.0 ready given the scale these days. Melee being broken is probably the biggest systemic issue I've seen.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2023 21:37 |
|
I think they had planned on doing pilot level ups and stuff but it looks like that got scrapped completely.
|
# ? Mar 6, 2023 21:37 |
|
Contraband Police is basically 3D Papers Please with additional stuff like chasing down fleeing guys in a police car and FPS segments. Right now, it only has a 30 day mode but apparently there is a endless mode planned. $17 on release sale. Also has a demo -- I played the demo and enjoyed it, haven't tried the full game yet.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2023 03:57 |
|
Boneraiser Minionsquote:Amass an army of deamonic undead to fight endless waves of heroes intent to end your boneraising ways! In this gothic-horror auto-battle roguelite, use the bones of slain heroes to raise your minions, collect powerful relics and spells, and unlock meta upgrades, all to survive King Gigald's crusade! 96% out of ~2050. 20% launch discount. Totally not Vampire Survivors you guys.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2023 16:08 |
|
StarkRavingMad posted:Contraband Police is basically 3D Papers Please with additional stuff like chasing down fleeing guys in a police car and FPS segments. Bought this and last night I arrested a guy for trying to smuggle in cocaine. His buddies tried to ambush me when I was driving him to the work camp. I gunned down all of his dumb buddies, stole the ammo from their guns, and left their bodies on the side of the road and dropped off their friend at a work camp. 10/10 would Eastern European border guard again.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2023 17:15 |
|
How is that game structured? Is there a story or missions or anything. Or is it just infinite border guarding
|
# ? Mar 9, 2023 17:23 |
|
ultrafilter posted:Boneraiser Minions I've been playing this a bit for the last week and it's totally not Vampire Survivors, and pretty fun. You have no direct attacks, only minions, and they move and do their own thing, so you have to prioritize between avoiding enemies, moving with your minions for protection, and going after loot. At the point where I've kind of mastered the first level, so will see how it ramps up in the later ones. My favorite Vampire Survivors clone so far is Spirit Hunters, if anyone hasn't tried that give it a shot. Like VS, it doesn't need the mouse for gameplay, which is great since some days I just can't deal with one.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2023 17:33 |
|
Prophet of Nixon posted:I've been playing this a bit for the last week and it's totally not Vampire Survivors, and pretty fun. You have no direct attacks, only minions, and they move and do their own thing, so you have to prioritize between avoiding enemies, moving with your minions for protection, and going after loot. At the point where I've kind of mastered the first level, so will see how it ramps up in the later ones. The dev for Boneraisers, Caiysware, is also super prolific and makes a lot of really interesting small games. Spirits Abyss is probably my favorite, but they've also done stuff like Skelly Selest and Straimium Immortaly. Their games tend to be pretty weird, stylized, and opaque, but also really fun if you take the time to dive into them.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2023 17:43 |
|
DeadFatDuckFat posted:How is that game structured? Is there a story or missions or anything. Or is it just infinite border guarding I only played for a bit but it looked like there was a storyline developing. Outside of the tutorial, you don't always get specific missions but you get led to doing certain tasks because for example your holding cell can only hold 3 prisoners so if you fill it you'll want to deliver them to the work camp, or maybe you'll need some supplies so you might want to deliver prisoners while you're out doing that anyway. It was like a simpler management game in that respect. You can also barter goods with customers and vendors too to attempt to make a profit and then you can upgrade parts of the border so it's also a simple economic game as well. Most importantly, it was all quite fun and amusing.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2023 17:46 |
|
InfiniteZero posted:I only played for a bit but it looked like there was a storyline developing. Outside of the tutorial, you don't always get specific missions but you get led to doing certain tasks because for example your holding cell can only hold 3 prisoners so if you fill it you'll want to deliver them to the work camp, or maybe you'll need some supplies so you might want to deliver prisoners while you're out doing that anyway. It was like a simpler management game in that respect. You can also barter goods with customers and vendors too to attempt to make a profit and then you can upgrade parts of the border so it's also a simple economic game as well. Right now apparently it's a timed story mode but the developer says there is a endless mode coming: https://steamcommunity.com/app/756800/discussions/0/3787002916503380734/
|
# ? Mar 9, 2023 19:28 |
|
Here's a couple I'm looking at: The Last Spell: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1105670/The_Last_Spell/ quote:In a desperate move to end all wars that have been rampaging the world for decades, the mages provoked The Cataclysm. Massive balls of pure magic obliterated nearly everything. A strange purple mist propagated everywhere, with hordes of bloodthirsty mutants coming at night. And just saw this on RPS: Clash Artifacts of Chaos: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1430680/Clash_Artifacts_of_Chaos/ quote:You play as Pseudo, a master of martial arts who lives as a recluse in the strange land of Zenozoik. When you cross paths with the Boy, a small creature whose mysterious powers have attracted the attention of Gemini, the Mistress of the Artifacts, you decide to protect him, unaware that much greater forces are involved.
|
# ? Mar 9, 2023 20:47 |
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1466060/Tainted_Grail_The_Fall_of_Avalon/https://store.steampowered.com/app/1466060/Tainted_Grail_The_Fall_of_Avalon/ There's a free demo up! I didn't play the whole demo yet, but it seems fun so far. Kinda your basic first person melee combat, but there's room for it to be good; in addition to ye olde attack, heavy attack, and block, there's a dodge and a parry mechanic. Also, magic takes up your offhand slot and replaces your block. Seems like it could either be trying to hard and boring, or janky but nonetheless charming. https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/256934044/movie480_vp9.webm?t=1678093970 Full (early access?) release is on the 30th.
|
|
# ? Mar 10, 2023 20:24 |
ultrachrist posted:And just saw this on RPS: Clash Artifacts of Chaos: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1430680/Clash_Artifacts_of_Chaos/ I completely forgot this was coming up. I loved Zeno Clash, and I had this on my wishlist for a while.
|
|
# ? Mar 10, 2023 20:25 |
|
ultrachrist posted:Here's a couple I'm looking at: I played a buttload of The Last Spell early in its Early Access and it's a great game with a lot to unlock, lots of choices, and very satisfying to win. They've added a ton since other games pulled me away and I need to go back and see what's new.
|
# ? Mar 11, 2023 14:52 |
|
Lozareth posted:I played a buttload of The Last Spell early in its Early Access and it's a great game with a lot to unlock, lots of choices, and very satisfying to win. They've added a ton since other games pulled me away and I need to go back and see what's new. I picked it up and it immediately sucked me in for hours. Wonderful mash up of genres I really like, the character/town building is surprisingly deep and the art/music are great. I got to the boss on my first run and then beat it on my 2nd (though there’s other towns and increasing difficulty modifiers to apply) and the balance felt right so I’m assuming they fixed the EA issues people complained about in the reviews w/r/t the game requiring you to grind metaprogression. Runs are LONG, game said my winning run on the first level was over 2.5 hours. One big thing I appreciate is that usually in the ‘hold the line vs a horde’ style of game you’re dominating until everything goes to hell and then you’re screwed. Here I’ve thought I was screwed 3 nights in a row but hung on by the skin of my teeth right up to the middle of my city. And now on my first attempt of the 2nd level, one of my heroes died 3 nights in but I recruited another and am still chugging along.
|
# ? Mar 11, 2023 15:50 |
|
I got sucked way more deeply into Marvel's Midnight Suns than I anticipated, but also got sick of it crashing all the time. Would The Last Spell be up my alley?
|
# ? Mar 12, 2023 06:36 |
|
istewart posted:I got sucked way more deeply into Marvel's Midnight Suns than I anticipated, but also got sick of it crashing all the time. Would The Last Spell be up my alley? You can disable denuvo. That did the trick for me.
|
# ? Mar 12, 2023 07:45 |
|
cant cook creole bream posted:You can disable denuvo. That did the trick for me. You uh, might mean the 2K Launcher, you can't just disable Denuvo.
|
# ? Mar 12, 2023 09:21 |
|
Decon posted:Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1466060/Tainted_Grail_The_Fall_of_Avalon/https://store.steampowered.com/app/1466060/Tainted_Grail_The_Fall_of_Avalon/ I am confused. I played a demo of Fall of Avalon a couple of years ago and it was an entirely different game. Still an RPG, but built around the mechanics of the digital card game Tainted Grail: Conquest - they were originally part of the same project but Fall of Avalon was split off. It definitely wasn't an FPRPG. Still, having bought TG: Conquest before November 2020 I already have Fall of Avalon in my library.
|
# ? Mar 12, 2023 10:18 |
|
This came out on the first, but haven't heard of it until I saw a Splattercat video on it. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1803600/Gone_Rogue/ Stealth/burglary game Enemies will notice things missing and get alarmed to search, using a crowbar has a sound radius and other things you might expect. Looks decent enough and only $12.50 Heres some gameplay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dULIUy0Jfdc&t=436s
|
# ? Mar 12, 2023 23:15 |
|
kirbysuperstar posted:You uh, might mean the 2K Launcher, you can't just disable Denuvo. Sure. Of course I meant that. Totally. Genuine mistake.
|
# ? Mar 13, 2023 10:34 |
Jedit posted:I am confused. I played a demo of Fall of Avalon a couple of years ago and it was an entirely different game. Still an RPG, but built around the mechanics of the digital card game Tainted Grail: Conquest - they were originally part of the same project but Fall of Avalon was split off. It definitely wasn't an FPRPG. Weird. I wasn't aware of this one till it was already an FPRPG. I mean I knew about the tabletop and Conquest, but this one I only knew about as this. Also, having played the demo, it's got potential if you like FPRPGs. It has a bit more depth than Skyrim (low bar I know); timed blocks are parries, and you can dodge. Also, interestingly, magic takes up your offhand slot and replaces blocking. The enemies will need to be more interesting than what I saw for it to be a good game, and it could use more overall polish.
|
|
# ? Mar 13, 2023 18:02 |
|
istewart posted:I got sucked way more deeply into Marvel's Midnight Suns than I anticipated, but also got sick of it crashing all the time. Would The Last Spell be up my alley? It helps that the band that did the OST "The Algorithm" is one of my top 10 favorite bands, but I had it wishlisted before that. I can see myself playing it on some sort of challenge mode once I unlock everything beat it and learn how to do things even more optimally.
|
# ? Mar 13, 2023 21:10 |
|
I never played Midnight Suns either (it's on my list) but if you're remotely a fan of similar genres, The Last Spell is great. The only caveat is that games are insanely long and need to be spread over multiple sessions... more like starting a civ game than a slay the spire or hades run. I lost on the boss of the 2nd level (which is TWELVE days, not seven like the first one) and my timer was just shy of 7 hours. For the later waves, between production and battle phases I was spending 45min-hour on just one day/night. I just needed 1 more goddamn turn to win too. The boss's final phase spawned outside of melee range and of course my sole melee trucker was the one closest. The game has a ton of weapons and they all have different movesets so there's a lot of learning what works, which for me means going out of my comfort zone and learning new moves instead of making half or more of my team use the shortbow. I've learned how good spear, powerstaff and to some extent 1h sword (finnicky) are, but scepter seemed like crap.
|
# ? Mar 13, 2023 23:20 |
|
|
# ? May 23, 2024 08:41 |
|
7 hrs wtf Rethinking my purchase for last spell. I have a hard enough time fitting Against the storm sessions in right now and those clock at like 2 hrs with max speed
|
# ? Mar 14, 2023 00:52 |