Tea Party Crasher posted:

I've seen you recommend the first game a lot, and I've been wanting to get into it now that my accessibility options are expanding. Would you recommend somebody buy and start with the first one, or just skip to the second?

Tea Party Crasher posted:

I've seen you recommend the first game a lot, and I've been wanting to get into it now that my accessibility options are expanding. Would you recommend somebody buy and start with the first one, or just skip to the second?

Razakai posted:

First impressions of RW2 is that it's a lot harder. While you do fully regen between levels, potions are more scarce, you get less SP and levels in general seem tougher. The items even the playing field a bit but it's still rough compared to RW1.

quote:

Hunt through the wastelands for colossal Beasts in this roguelike deckbuilder. Beware! Beasts grow stronger during battle, allowing them to consume your creatures or counter your spells. Carve profane Gifts from these behemoths and grow stronger to serve your Patron! But serve them to what end?

Hunt the Beasts
Test your wits and your deck against titanic creatures called Beasts, who evolve as you fight them! Rush them down before they reach their potential, or bring large threats of your own to match their strength. Feel the tension of fighting a giant and the excitement of triumphing against the odds with each encounter!

Their Rage Builds
As you fight a Beast, their rage will grow and they will unlock new abilities! Beat the whimsical Gilded Grifter at his cup game to gain an advantage. Or, feed The Yearning Woods' Consume ability, which fills its health bar and its stomach... until eventually it bursts!

Cut Off their Limbs!
Fight back against the Beasts by infesting them with various swarms of insects, setting parts of them on fire, even cutting off limbs and depriving them of their abilities. Interaction with the Beasts lies at the heart of Acolyte of the Altar.

Gifts From Above... Or Below?
After slaying a Beast for the first time, you can offer their body to your Patron, who will carve a new Gift. At the start of a new area, your Patron will bless you with a choice of these gifts that can dramatically alter how you hunt. Take the Crumbling Monument's Skyscraper Sword and make your tallest creatures even bigger. Or capture the elusive Mini Jelly who will zap enemies when you cast spells! However, these profane gifts weigh down your spirit by varying amounts, so be careful with your choices!

Best of luck, Acolyte, and may your Patron bless you!

Razakai posted:

I don't even know how you're supposed to kill some bosses in RW2. Was doing pretty well until R20, then I encountered Jormungadr. 4k hp, summons 3 adds every turn, has a map spanning breath attack that "corrupts space" (aka summons random terrain, enemies and gates), plus gains resistances each time it takes damage. Guess I should have packed a Mega Annihilate.

ExiledTinkerer posted:

Deck Fest Thing will likely bring up heaps more, but among them Acolyte of the Altar now has a full on release + demo:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2288880/Acolyte_of_the_Altar/

Razakai posted:

I don't even know how you're supposed to kill some bosses in RW2. Was doing pretty well until R20, then I encountered Jormungadr. 4k hp, summons 3 adds every turn, has a map spanning breath attack that "corrupts space" (aka summons random terrain, enemies and gates), plus gains resistances each time it takes damage. Guess I should have packed a Mega Annihilate.

Pf. Hikikomoriarty posted:

Roguelikes: also i used a bag of spikes, this def helped deal with the extra snakes

Captain Foo posted:

Pf. Hikikomoriarty posted:

hell yeah beat rw2

lessons learned:

going through a portal now clears active enchantments

moot the hopple posted:

I finished the campaign and completed all the unlocks for The Last Spell and had a blast with it overall. I found it to be a fairly successful blend of roguelike, tower defense, and tactical RPG. While I wouldn't call it the peak example of any of its genre forebears, it does well enough at its individual elements to give a pretty singular and unique experience as a whole.

Fair warning, maps can take quite a long time to clear. My average was around a dozen hours per map which I would split up into several gaming sessions throughout a week. This has the unfortunate side effect of making the metaprogression feel a bit grindy, IMHO. While you can unlock things after a night clears, some bonuses won't be available until you start a fresh map. I'd even say you don't really get into the meat of character building until you've at least unlocked all the weapons and a few select gear sets in order to fully see what possibilities are at your fingertips -- and that alone can take some time depending on your play rate, prioritization of other meta unlocks, and chosen apocalypse level.

Speaking of character building, I have to say that was the aspect I enjoyed the most of the game. The fact that everything is randomized (including traits, what attributes you can select from at level up, and even your perk tree) helps keep things fresh and encourages you to experiment. I eventually settled on my ideal version of builds where I knew I would have a god-tier hero if they happened to hit all the right prerequisites. But more often than not a hero would be missing some keystone perk or just roll badly/unexpectedly when leveling up, and I'd have to pivot to something else. The most fun I've had is trying to salvage a hero and make the best out of a bad situation, like starting with a one armed hero who nonetheless managed to be a highly mobile fencer who could weave in and out between enemies and didn't let the fact that they couldn't bear two-handed weapons or a shield/offhand weapon hold them back. Weapons for the most part are decently balanced; some are clearly head and shoulders above others and there are a few that are suboptimal and may need more tuning, but there's a wide gamut of serviceable weapons that you could fit around a build or suits a certain niche like early game carry.

One complaint I'll bring up is that some maps can be a significant step up in difficulty in unexpected ways. Each map has its own unique challenge to mix up the standard gameplay of wave defense which may not be revealed until the boss battle. These can be a hard stop if you weren't prepared to overcome their gimmick, particularly the last two maps. Despite this, I still think you should go into them blind and not spoil them for yourself. I managed to beat the final maps on my first try, but I had optimized builds at that point and had several heroes on my team who happened to be tuned exactly to deal with the threat. I could see it being frustrating for a player who managed to survive to the end but then stalled out because they had no counter for this curveball thrown at you. I'm not going to grouse too much about this because it did make boss fights feel appropriately tense and grueling, and you'll only have the first time playing each map to be fully surprised by it.

All said and done, I put in over a hundred hours into the game and had fun with it. I'd definitely say I got my money's worth and would even return for more if a new DLC ever drops.

SKULL.GIF posted:

I understand why the first couple rifts only give 2 memory orbs now but boy it really constrains how much space you can operate with your builds early on.

Cerepol posted:

i bounced off RW1 because my dumb brain refused to let me use stuff, something about the distinct rifts breaks my ability to force consumable or die response.

RW2 seems mighty good for making that change.
I love that some RPGs have also moved that direction because you can then balance around that expectation. No more 500 elixirs after beating the game.

Pigbuster posted:

Horror actually can work pretty drat well now with the Worm god. You never have to cast the first spell since Horrorform keeps it down, so the corrosion show runs 24/7. It means you can be tremendously flexible - you can hide in cover to heal while whittling everyone down with corrosion and prayers, or get into an open area and blast everyone in sight with Asi Malak's range + a cleaving weapon, or find a tricksy spot in a tunnel where you can use your innumerable summons to lock every enemy in range of Gore Chant to annihilate them. Very satisfying to play such a versatile build for once rather than a one-note, hard-counter-able glass cannon.



The helmet, Shaakara, was vital for making my bleeds add doom that could do the big damage. The gloves and weapon should definitely be replaced with something better — I was a fool and didn't realize Agni Axe only does 200% astral to adjacent enemies, so it wasn't doing anything.

Wafflecopper posted:

I tried cargo culting this build and the obelisk boss one-shot me from full (2k+) HP. Should probably start putting more points into vigour. Was also touch-and-go getting it off the ground because it seems to rely heavily on its prestige class. I’m guessing at higher cycles you start with enough levels to pick one right away or very early? I’m thinking I might find the most foolproof build I can and grind out a few cycles because it seems like a lot of builds only really come online once you get the prestige class.

Captain Foo posted:

Yeah i would put this off until you get to a high enough cycle you can get to horror within a couple of maps

w00tmonger posted:

Ok, I just realized most of the spell upgrades in RW2 are actual cool upgrades instead of damage/range etc.

Great change. Tons of cool interaction changes vs how these spells were in RW1. Perfect way to mix things up

SKULL.GIF posted:

Yeah a lot of the damage/charges/range got baked into the baseline for these spells -- it's most obvious with stuff like Magic Missile. And all the various minor +damage bonuses that were almost always a trap in the first game are now trinkets.

A lot of the passive skills also got cranked way up, I was surprised to see Fire Lord is now +60% damage up from like +7 or whatever it was in the first game.