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So I took a look at the Game a few days ago and I must say I really like the gameplay and the thought that went into. Especially the token system coupled with the souls I like a lot and makes it fun to hoard power like a fantasy villain only to unleash it unto puny creatures, daring to face you.

But the illusion is a bit shattered by (and I hate to say this) bad balancing. I like, that in combat your units attack at last ... it forces the player to think how to prepare himself for even the weak encounters, as the damage done by any can rack up over the time.

Sadly at the same time it makes a lot of things useless, what you could do as player. Especially in your "limited" choice of units to pick. If you look at the summoning spells in the earth spell tree, I actually found not a single unit I could reliable use. Most die without anything done, at most soaking up just a bit of damage, but only to leave you with no mana left. It's a bit of shame, as you have (particular in the beginning) no real chance to support your own expensive units.  Or the offensive fire spells, that do more or less all the same ... just some slower, some weaker ... or overkill? Actually I never found  an enemy with more than 12 health ... so incinerate dealing 20 is a bit much ... sure there could be shield on the units, but so limit the game is right now, you are probably dead anyway, should NPCs have this much over you.

On the other hand a couple of spells/units are so good (*cough* gryphon) you can not lose with them ... and as I saw you are already aware you can run the game unlimited at the end if you get to a certain point. 

Therefor the choice of archetype isn't really relevant ... you just do the same with anybody and have the same result. Which really is a shame, I totally like the ideas of the possible classes ... first favorite was the battle-mage after having the weak lich at the start ... but the huge emphasis on health and mana gain through game overshadowed all the other classes after wards, that where more of a gimmick than actual helpful. Sadly even that didn't matter in the end. 

Some things come to my mind you could try out:

- Give more control over Unit position|Make 3 battle lines|Rework damage dealer position: That's actually big point right of the bat as most units are the bread and butter of any play-through. One problem is that units intended as meat shield can't really do their work, as most damage dealer are in the front row as well and the RNG will screw with you, that's for sure. Why having a unit that gets stronger with each attack ... when you just lose it anyway after one or two fights?

- nerf "counter" damage from weaker enemies|give high level units damage reduction like the undead/dragon: This really took me hard when i realized that a couple of peasants with sticks could topple my demons ... not only can a bunch of weak units whittle down a boss character, units that attack multiple enemies like demon and golem get hit by every single "counter" unit they attacked ... it hurts ... it really does.

- give zombies an single use reborn ability per fight: There is only one way to get zombies I think, but even this one is a bit ... weak, but fine as you get more. But if you add a more generic way to get zombies as the player they should have an ability to come back once after beaten in a battle. Just so they can do their work as meat shield.

- Give the Keelut counter ability: It should be a meat shield and it does, bot honestly it can't do much else ... even if the counter would do 1 dmg it would already be more useful.

- reduce cost of Kigatilik | give it damage reduction like undead: Actually in my first game i was so happy to summon this guy ... only to realized I lost. xD Sorry but like the game is right now, not even 20 HP would be enough for the huge cost ... well maybe ... but no.

- add ambush to (some) fire spells: Should you do something yourself, you want to do it right ... but as player you have honestly little choice at what to do with the enemy back-row ... where most damage dealer sit, like the mage that attacks the full row. Sure you could use sleep, or poison to get rid of one ... but what when there are two or three other units?

- let the player use inns more often when notoriety isn't to high: The real problem at the start is, that you can't heal your units so easily or better to say not to often before you run out of options.

- get gold for battles won: Money isn't too useful except for healing and buying artifacts/spells, but it can be hard to come by at the start. Going for farms early on and racking up notoriety through slaves isn't really an option if you want to get through the game.

- add potions | reusable items | add shops you can use multiple times if notoriety isn't too high: Just a small gold sink, maybe add some potions for all types of mana and of course health.

- let settlements rebel if put under slavery | let undead reign when you destroy settlements: Just a small tweak for longer game-play

- don't stop with raid parties: Not sure but at some level of notoriety you never encounter any raid parties. This is a shame as this works well to put pressure on the player. I don't mind the scaling it's actually okay if you know the game a bit. But for long game, maybe you could add raids with multiple waves to make it a bit more challenging. But this brings me to another problem ...

- buff enemy reinforcements: The funny thing is, if you play a bit and have some spells ready to buff your units ... you are happy when the enemy sends in another wave of souls for your bottle. Having the time of the first round to do your bidding is fine, but makes it much easier to beat new coming enemies than when you start from the first turn. Sadly I'm not 100% sure how to fix this ... if you give them the first shot it would be to strong ... just giving them armor would be weird.

- add some veteran-level to your units. Having a unit over the course of many battle should make them a bit stronger. Maybe rank them up/evolve them?

- pls don't let the pupil try to backstab you every single time: Really it hurts me all the time XD look, I beaten the whole island into submission and this puny guy tries to get me? When my group of monster is all around us? Shouldn't be so dumb.

- add some more artifacts | add incremental improvement to artifacts: Well just some  thought of what type of effects you could add - Mana cost reduced, increased number of units, artifacts with the ability of other archetypes (like how the battlemage gains mana by damage, because of his item, not from an ability). Scrolls that give spells - not in the spellbook. Also I could image it, that you find parts of the same item and with each piece the artifact gets stronger.

- add some attack, debuff, buff, summoning to every typ of mana. It's nice to have clear understanding what the spells do, just from the typ of mana you use, but it can also be unfair if you run out of specific mana, because you use this type of spell so much. Maybe you could rework the spellbook a bit? Like a table:



The x should showcase just some increments similar to what you have right now. The specification of every mana should stay the same, just open up more options.

Anyway I rant already way to much :) Hope you can take some inspiration from it. In the end I just want to thank you for this lovely piece of entertainment.

Glad you liked it! Thanks for the thoughtful write up. I really like some of your ideas, like villages rebelling being a great thematic element, and in general agree that the game would benefit for more "stuff" overall (especially consumable purchases, great idea!). I think some of your ideas are going against some core goals I had for the game, though. 

I like that player's units die a lot, for instance.  It plays into this image I have of the mage's dispassion towards his subjects and willingness to throw their subject's body between themselves and danger. I do want players to be able to run builds where you cultivate an army, but it's in general rare and really hard. You'll need to get a good selection of protecting spells, probably play a Battlemage so you can take some of the heat off your allies and aggressively get other allies to spread the damage out. Early in development, I found these strategies so prevalent that I started increasing how common "Counter" was to deal with it. It is mostly there to make sure that build still has risk associated with it.

I have experimented with more fire spells having ambush, but I think it makes that line a little overpowered. There are times when you end up with no good way to deal with the back row and it's a fun scramble. I like that! However, there are times when you end up unable to deal with the back row and it leads to long drawn out battles that you know  you'll eventually lose. And those suuuuuuuuuuuck. Not sure on how to keep the good and lose the bad.

One of the original goals I had was to make the archetypes play very differently early in the game but mostly similar towards the end. I tend to like this in roguelikes because I play through the beginning a lot but the end not as much (because, in general, I'm not very good at these games). So I want the variation to be great early on to allow players to jump into something else if it's getting same-y, but similar later so they can carry over experience between plays on the late-game regardless of class choice and go for a win. This has the unfortunate effect of making the other archetypes less interesting if you're really good at the game and can consistently get to the mid point. I tuned the difficulty for myself (who's mediocre at these kind of games generally) and I lose enough that it works for me, but I think there needs to be something like the paragon levels in Slay the Spire for better players to up the challenge on replays.

Thanks again for the detailed feedback!