Judgement: Recommended
View review on Steam
Please follow United Critics for quality reviews
It is more of a basic puzzle game with RNG than a roguelike but I liked it. The puzzle elements are very basic as they all focus on fighting monsters. Fighting monsters is completely deterministic and you can tell what the results of any fight will be before you get into it because of the book you get at the start. When you point the mouse at your enemy you see how much damage you'll suffer so you just need to figure out what order is the best for fighting and avoiding enemies and what doors to open to get to the next level. Because of your stats and how you increase them and find new items some monsters will be able to kill you easily while others will deal 0 dmg to you. You also need to grind a little in this game as you should go back to levels you were before to kill monsters you did not earlier when you will be able to kill them without taking any dmg or even better idea is to wait and get lucky coin and vampire fang at the end of the game to get more coins and HP from fighting enemies that can’t hurt you anymore.
There is a good mechanic that gives you soul stones for killing bosses and you can use these stones to resurrect if you die or to buy items in your next runs to make them easier. Also the thing I liked is that there are 2 endings but the one that is a true ending can be achieved in two different ways.
The story is fun and good and story levels are well made even with RNG in place so you can be sure that there will always be items you need to finish the game each time you play on levels range they should be.
The main problem of the game is that you need walkthrough or at least hints to win as you need to know when to spend your coins and when not to spend them and also what to do with the 4th boss to be able to damage it as if you don’t do one specific thing he will be invincible.
The game is hard but also sometimes seems unfair. RNG will decide if you will have an easy way to get new weapon and shield and relic or hard or sometimes an impossible way. And yes you read that right – sometimes it is impossible to get to item as it is defended by the enemy you can’t kill without better weapon and shield and relic but that enemy is defending the weapon so you will never get enough damage to survive the fight or you will survive but the next enemy will kill you.
Maze levels are just bad. They have too much of RNG. Sometimes in Maze Mode Zone1 I spawned right next to exit and boss was not even blocking it so I could finish the level in seconds while at other times in other zones like Zone2 or Zone5 the enemies defending new weapon were unkillable without that weapon and that zone relic but the relic did not spawn because of RNG or the altar where you can spend your coins did not spawn and because of that there was nothing to spend all the coins on making the zone unwinnable because I had too little attack and could not rise it without spending coins.
There are also a few frustrating things in this game. There is no way to set instant fight or something like that so you have to wait or spam the mouse button or enter. Some enemies abilities and items have descriptions that don’t really tell you what they do until you try them and figure it out yourself. One relic that you get early lets you teleport between levels but that list of levels is broken and sometimes clicking it just moves the list up or down. Music is repetitive and after first few hours I had to mute the game and play some music on youtube to not quit the game.
It is an ok game mixing puzzles with RNG and require you to think all the time and plan ahead. Just be aware that it has some frustrating elements.
Overall score 6/10
Good things:
It is more of a basic puzzle game with RNG than a roguelike but I liked it. The puzzle elements are very basic as they all focus on fighting monsters. Fighting monsters is completely deterministic and you can tell what the results of any fight will be before you get into it because of the book you get at the start. When you point the mouse at your enemy you see how much damage you'll suffer so you just need to figure out what order is the best for fighting and avoiding enemies and what doors to open to get to the next level. Because of your stats and how you increase them and find new items some monsters will be able to kill you easily while others will deal 0 dmg to you. You also need to grind a little in this game as you should go back to levels you were before to kill monsters you did not earlier when you will be able to kill them without taking any dmg or even better idea is to wait and get lucky coin and vampire fang at the end of the game to get more coins and HP from fighting enemies that can’t hurt you anymore.
There is a good mechanic that gives you soul stones for killing bosses and you can use these stones to resurrect if you die or to buy items in your next runs to make them easier. Also the thing I liked is that there are 2 endings but the one that is a true ending can be achieved in two different ways.
The story is fun and good and story levels are well made even with RNG in place so you can be sure that there will always be items you need to finish the game each time you play on levels range they should be.
Bad things:
The main problem of the game is that you need walkthrough or at least hints to win as you need to know when to spend your coins and when not to spend them and also what to do with the 4th boss to be able to damage it as if you don’t do one specific thing he will be invincible.
The game is hard but also sometimes seems unfair. RNG will decide if you will have an easy way to get new weapon and shield and relic or hard or sometimes an impossible way. And yes you read that right – sometimes it is impossible to get to item as it is defended by the enemy you can’t kill without better weapon and shield and relic but that enemy is defending the weapon so you will never get enough damage to survive the fight or you will survive but the next enemy will kill you.
Maze levels are just bad. They have too much of RNG. Sometimes in Maze Mode Zone1 I spawned right next to exit and boss was not even blocking it so I could finish the level in seconds while at other times in other zones like Zone2 or Zone5 the enemies defending new weapon were unkillable without that weapon and that zone relic but the relic did not spawn because of RNG or the altar where you can spend your coins did not spawn and because of that there was nothing to spend all the coins on making the zone unwinnable because I had too little attack and could not rise it without spending coins.
There are also a few frustrating things in this game. There is no way to set instant fight or something like that so you have to wait or spam the mouse button or enter. Some enemies abilities and items have descriptions that don’t really tell you what they do until you try them and figure it out yourself. One relic that you get early lets you teleport between levels but that list of levels is broken and sometimes clicking it just moves the list up or down. Music is repetitive and after first few hours I had to mute the game and play some music on youtube to not quit the game.
Conclusion
It is an ok game mixing puzzles with RNG and require you to think all the time and plan ahead. Just be aware that it has some frustrating elements.
Overall score 6/10
Review posted on 30/12/2020, 08:51:00.