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(+1)


Overall notes:

Overall it's pretty fun! It feels like there's a lot to discover and mess with, which seems like it should be the main focus in this kind of game. I especially liked the variety in the spells, that's something I always look for in old RPGs and Roguelikes. The progression was nice, and outside of a lull halfway through, it felt like I was getting new toys to play with often enough. I also like the aesthetic and tone quite a bit, but I have a soft spot for retro graphics and stuff like King's Field, so I'm biased towards it.

However, the combat overall wasn't that engaging. It seemed like I fought most enemies in the same ways, holding "S" was too strong, I very rarely had to deal with multiple enemies at once, and didn't have to make those fast, hard decisions you do in something like a souls game. "Whether or not to dodge/parry" isn't a very tough decision. I'd suggest looking more at the Souls games, King's Field, or even something like Doom, really. Combat doesn't have to be super hard or engaging, and can instead lean on RPG elements, but:

The dungeon traversal wasn't super engaging either. Again I never really felt like I was forced into tough decisions about which item to take, or whether I'm strong enough to risk doing something with a nice payoff, whether I need to use my long-term resources to survive this fight or not. For this I'd suggest looking at the old school roguelikes like Nethack, I think it's done perfectly there. (Giving you lots of one-time use scrolls, unidentified potions/scrolls/weapons, rings doubling your hunger rate, some enemies having unique+dangerous effects like petrification on touch, etc.) The combining system and stuff like Fools Gold is a great step in this direction, I want more stuff like that.

Also, I wish the enemies were 3d models. I know that's easier said than done, but especially when timing dodges/parries is important, it was kind of rough. The sprites rotating helped immensely, but I'm not sure it's enough. It was especially hard to tell different attacks apart, like lunges. I think it would help the feel, presentation, and even gameplay immensely if the enemies were low-poly  3d instead of sprites. I guess that could be planned, since the bosses were 3d...

Random notes/bugs:

Ranged weapons and magic seemed maybe a little too strong? Not having to worry about timing the dodge or spending shield durability is really good, and the drawbacks didn't seem to matter enough. This could tie into me not liking the combat very much, I think I ended up pretty OP and kept getting good enough ranged weapons to carry me.

I don't really get how returning to town works, it seemed like I was supposed to have enough gold to get some of the more expensive stuff there? Maybe that's just for classes that start with more gold though... Having some way to return to town temporarily during a run could be really cool.

When I started my chaos run, it seems like I kept my... boons? Passives? The cannibalism and revive were carried into it, that seems like a bug.

I didn't see the combine section of the inventory for a while, which left me a little confused.

I think my first dungeon didn't have an exit and I was just stuck, I had to quit out.

Cannibalism felt pretty jank, like it was random how fast corpses got eaten and where I had to stand.

The attack and kick animations could use a bit of work, basically just speeding up the "acceleration" parts to give them more impact. To keep the timing the same for gameplay, you could start the animation with pulling the weapon/foot back, before a quick snap forward. The animations in the game overall feel kind of slow and watery, but I guess they did in the King's Field games too, heh. The "keyframes" for the enemy sprites are fine, though, if you're sticking with sprites. You could also try messing with scale somewhat to improve the feel of animations. (Y axis shrinking and X axis growing to emphasize an enemy crouching down to lunge forward, stuff like that.) If you exaggerate it too much, it'll look cartoony and screw with the tone, but there's probably a good middle ground you could find.

And this is just personal preference, but I think some more effects when dealing damage could really pump the "feel" up. A frame or two of color flashing, hitstop, hitstop-shake, screen shake. I know some devs really don't like these kinds of things, though.


Again, overall I liked it, and definitely see some potential. I can't think of any other 3D games that really feel like traditional roguelikes in this way.

(+1)

Thanks a lot for the in-depth review, and the long, fun video!

Overall, I agree with pretty much all your points, and will tinker the game to go more in those directions. You might feel the dread of traditional roguelikes more when playing on hard, as everything you do and choose to spend has a huge impact on your success. Enemies also pose a much bigger treat. Speaking of them, full animations are indeed coming for the enemies, so most of your issues with them should be gone by then.

Ranged weapons are a bit strong, but also considerably weaker, and also require more skill with aiming than most other games. You played so masterfully that this drawback was pretty much nullified, though.

You don't return to town at all after the beginning, as I wanted to sell that feeling of going deeper and deeper into the dark and away from people and the outside world. The hooded merchants are there to take your gold still!

Yeah, keeping your stones when you started a new run was a bug I'll get fixed, but that dungeon floor you thought was broken actually had a hidden wall you could see in the minimap, or if you noticed one of the walls had no decorations at all.

Also, all the player's animations scale with his stats, so a character with low STR will have a slow swing, while one with low AGI will have a slower windup, etc. Some combinations can look really off, but at least they're directly tied to your own power, and really make you feel the difference.

Also, can I share the video on twitter?

sure thing