Key provided by the developer through curator TURN-BASED TACTICS | Click to follow and receive updates for similar reviews

More info below....

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3394540820

🟩 The all to familiar fantasy SETTING is given twist with the inclusion of undead. First rate IMMERSION is provided by an interesting STORY full of intrigue that perfectly feeds into the roguelite format. WRITING is succinct and revealed in bitesize chunks through conversations at base camp and during the journey. Collectables also help fill in the backstory between runs.

🟩 A broad and rich tapestry of [META] PROGRESSION make completing runs and levelling characters very impactful on gameplay. Levelling, weapon enchantments and organic stat growth happens within a run. Class promotions, completing challenges and relationships between party members provide permanent upgrades or changes between.

🟩 Grid-based TBT COMBAT uses melee, ranged and magic based combatants. Alternate weapon sets and cooldown tempered skills are the foundation of tactical flexibility. When in full flow it can feel hypnotic, yet somewhat repetitive. Layers of mechanics such as positional bonuses add to tactical diversity.

Environmental variables aid tactics and the MAGIC SYSTEM by adding another layer to strategy. Dynamics such as new objectives or waves of enemy reinforcements keep the player engarde to situational changes. With no MORALE SYSTEM enemies never flee. Early projectile skills and spells are curtailed by range. Rescuing villagers can be over before these quest starts.

🟩 The superb UNDO SYSTEM provides a welcome amount of forgiveness to recover from mistakes. Choose to replay one action, one turn or the whole encounter. Starting with x4 per encounter, more can be obtained as permanent upgrades, rewards or purchased from the trader.

🟩 PRODUCTION is overall great. No glaring issues were encountered. POLISH & QOL is on a par with a finished game. STABILITY was flawless. OPTIMISATION suffers with basic specs, forcing play at 30 FPS so the GPU fan did not come on too often.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3393529508

🟨 ADVENTURING is a linear journey over a nodal map of encounters ending with a boss fight at act finale. Each node provides an choice of event or battle from over a dozen options. Some provide rewards or NPC interaction. A trader to buy relics or other strategic items. Can recruit temporary NPC allies.

🟨 PARTY CUSTOMISATION works an initial x5 active characters. Recruiting new PARTY MEMBERS is slow and takes several runs. A recruiting system tracks other recruits across runs, is both innovative and immersive. Recruitable TEMPORARY COMPANIONS are useful, but leave after a few choice battles.

🟨 ENEMIES come in a number of races, but humans are encountered most. Basic replicas of the main classes. The inclusion of undead brings a nice twist, but still behave just like the living. Creatures at least are quite novel. More enemy types need to be included. Having larger foes with rotating weak points suited to attacks by particular weapons are a great addition.

🟨 The AI is a mixed bag with stock behaviour for groups. It can be brutal and look to put down isolated targets in a turn. Sometimes they use the environment to their benefit. Others times they do not. Neutral groups and even foes seek temporary truces to deal with greater threats.

🟨 RNG plays a large part through the encounters that spawn, to the next battle faced, to the skills offered when levelling up or the weapons to be enchanted and trader item availability. These determine how enjoyable or frustrating a run will be. RE-ROLLS for relics rewards or skill upgrades provide some respite when options are bad.

🟨 A few ENVIRONMENTAL BATTLEFIELD ELEMENTS such as poison fog, rivers, ballista, summon totems, reward chests and NPCs to save, help provide a dynamic change in battles.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3394561676

🟥 ENCOUNTERS seem predetermined at each step and look procedurally generated from templates. A combination of dynamic factors including: enemy selection, battlefield environment, interactable furniture and other are used to vary the experience. More are needed to help diversify the experience.

🟥 DIFFICULTY will feel very UNBALANCED through the first few runs. Some are downright unfair, especially boss fights. Dying and starting a fresh is embedded into the design or at least to stall progression until more content is added. Being offered the choice of retreating or fighting to the death in some encounters is a neat touch. Eventually permanent upgrades will noticeably ease the curve.

🟥 BOSS FIGHTS are limited to the same one per each act. Right now they are quite difficult and require permanent upgrades to match some of the. To the point that taking these down may necessitate the use of gamey tactics. Alternate bosses will only be added further into development. More alternatives would help with replay value.

🟥 HEALING is deliberately kept to a minimum in terms of availability as there are no consumables. Instead this vital capability is imbued within key skills, available as one off uses from the trader or at camps during the adventure. All are part of difficult decisions during each run. It is even unavailable at the end of each stage so the party cannot heal-up before they take on a boss fight.

🟥 There is no useable INVENTORY of items and other equipment. x30 RELICS affect gameplay in a strategic sense. Individual weapons can be upgraded through enchantments. Likely reduce micromanagement and help balance.

🟥 CAMPS provide the option to TRAIN or REST as a group. Training allows only one skill to be upgraded to a more powerful one. There is no auto-rest mechanic outside of this, even before boss fights.

Thank you for reading. | Click to follow my curator THE IRREGULAR GAMER.

Fire Emblem roguelite

It's not quite there yet, especially in pacing. This is the longest and most grindy "roguelite" I've ever played, and it's pretty feature complete and playable right now, minimal bugs and crash issues, solid RPG tactical in the vein of Xcom/Battle Brothers BUT:

1. You can take 2-3 hours for one run, and get completely hosed by RNG skill assigner with gimpy characters and draw an awful opponent group/map. Twice in a row and it really sucks the fun out of the game, plus many things are seeded RNG. so very few opportunities to "reroll" for a better outcome. RogueLIKE players will hate the fact that you can replay battles and undo actions, rogueLITE players will want fewer deterministic fights and encounter outcomes.

2. Puzzler! It's a battle-puzzler, with enemies spouting random weak-points you have to position around, by manipulating their facing, but the weak points are randomly weak to different weapons every turn, so you can't build a party around a particular strategy type, and the RNG skill assignment keeps you from doing that anyway. I would have appreciated classic skill trees like in Darkest Dungeons, the game this one most resembles. At least you don't have 1% miss rates like XCom, but it'll sometimes feel like you do as the random seed decides that "he guards, you don't crit, do 6 points damage, and die next turn sucker." Or "He's only weak to spear-spear-bow, and you just have one spearman, and your bowman just uses a bow as backup, so you are essentially unskilled in it. Again, do a paltry 50 damage to the 400 point monster and die next turn."

3. Early access, but there isn't alot of original content, you kind of see everything after two runs, and then you repeat the same maps and enemies--most all of which are just two groups of humanoids--and the same 3 bosses, over and over, in a pseudo random order.

4. The game is fond of springing new rules and setups on you in mid-battle, which I think is poor design, I guess that's what the replay fight button is for, but I hate that I think I've won something and the game decides to spawn two new groups of enemies around me. It's a cheap way to challenge a player, overwhelming them with fodder and surprising them with new win/loss conditions. I hate that. Skills and special attacks and conditions are minimally explained, very little in the game feels intuitive.

I think this will be a great game someday, and not even very far away, but it needs a rebalance and a hard look at the pacing, it's not extremely challenging, but it takes too long to win stage battles so the gameplay loop just drags. 5/10, will re-review at launch.

Go try the Demo!

god i have been craving a fire emblem style game for so long. pleasantly surprised by the characters/dialogue too

In Early Access it's stable and pretty fun. I'll update later if anything changes.

ok

Great so far. Looking forward to the final build. Major improvements to gameplay and quality of life compared to the base game(?- whatever Lost Eidolons is to this game)

I enjoy the game, but crashes constantly , was able to complete 3 boss and left very underwhelmed. hopefully there will be more game modes/ levels to the expedition, The first game was great, this seems more like a mobile version of that, would be nice to have a campaign with some sort of plot.

It plays like a simple roguelite fire emblem. Combat is a bit simplistic for the most part and enemy abilities aren't clearly displayed. Map designs are a bit limited in scope currently, but there's a nice degree of tension and varied objectives. The game can be a bit easy, especially with the ability to undo turns up to 7 times per map depending on upgrades. The characters have their own personalities and backstories that get explored as you play and there's a decent mix of move types. A lot of fun for an early access game.