Recent reviews by Owlbeardo

Cute and sexy, but the battling part is unpolished as heck. Makes the experience pretty meh when you have to wander through a gigantic map with no quick-travel enabled, slaying the same enemies over and over, and over again with weak-sauce attacks while the enemies keep walking towards you anyway. I am also not particularly into the big badoinkers which this game has loads of, so if you are -- you are in for a treat. The gender-bender feature also doesn't do much in terms of tickling the horny gland, mostly used for the puzzle elements and a little for the platforming. While it's a decent game and the concept on it's own is brilliant, I'd love to see this executed at least 40% better. A lot to work on still here.

Very fun. Brawlhalla and Smash meet Hades, Dead Cells (to the point of one of the bosses being literally, ahem, ommaged from the Giant) and Rogue Legacy (jumping-htting element of it at least). But has a charm of it's own, very much so. The visuals are nice, music is charming as the graphic style. The lore could've been expanded a bit and some interactions and combos finetuned, but it's already in a very good place.

One thing that I would've changed, however, is the shielded enemies and the interactions with them. While the enemies have shields the game is largely pushing you towards tanking their attacks and picking skills that help doing so, because going the ranged route and trying to pinch and pick at them from afar is way less fun. and less effective, while being much harder, as they turn the screen into a bullet-hell regardless. I think going into the direction of the enemies performing push-pull attacks and moving faster to raise the difficulty instead of them being poised all the time is a better idea? I don't mind the armor on minions that much (and the armor-break mechanic feels rewarding on them), but definitely not on bosses.

I think there is some tuning still left in the department of "not letting bosses be ragdolled around locked out of attacks" and "making the player feel like they are kicking a brick wall with their bare foot while being kicked in the crotched by the said wall". I mean, ragdolling the bosses with combos is fun and I think being able to do it should be the part of the experience and a reward for skillful combo-usage (genetics of Smash/BH are strong!), but I literally beat the game twice by stun-locking the Priestess with Gloves simply going up-down attack with 3 Crystals and Adamant attacks (I am poised). I dunno. Thanks for reading all that and have a lovely day. This game is worth buying. Good luck, Omenforged! :D

> Try solo missions
> Fighting big brute
> Shi11y archer player sneaks up on me and shoots me dead

And I just bought a cool Epic double-headed axe from goblin trader for the pretty much all of my money for it to be just gone. WTF. Nah, thanks.

I will say this: it's kinda fun, but very quickly becomes old. The most glaring problem is that no matter how good of a run you have, you will die to a bugged chest even on full health and full armor. Things like that need to be tested and wiped from a game like this. Last time I died on 120 island after cleaning a wave and I am not opening this game again until it's out of beta.

P.s. Changing my review to positive because the dev answering is goated and poggers. My standpoint of it being a little too repetitive without feeling like you achieve much stands. Just to draw the comparison: in the Risk of Rain you get parts of the story every time you finish the game, there's some exploration behind it. Most great rogue likes have it. Without the story shooting the AI becomes monotonous over time.

It's a fun turn-based strategy game pretty close to Into The Breach in it's spirit, but with a deck-building element to it. After sinking enough hours into it, I find, however, a lack of charm the other game I am comparing it with has. But... It has an "Endless" mode and that is awesome. Anyway, buy it, try it. It's pretty fun for the first 3 time you replay it.

Too complex to ever be balanced. Too difficult to master. It's not a bad game, but the fundamental principles of it make it a massive time sink. I spent way too much time in it and don't recommend other people do that. Don't repeat that mistake. It's pleasurable in the same way mas_turbation is or smoking -- short hits of dopamine and wasted years of your one and only life. Consider picking up a hobby or something else better than this stuff. It's place is in a museum, as it is a labor of love for many artists, but not on the market, as it's a failure of a game -- an overcomplicated rock-paper-scissors and there's not much you can do about it.

This is a better version of "Dicey Dungeons", that utilizes the same principle of dice-rolling and using them against enemies, but feels more balanced and engaging. It also has elements of "Peglin" in terms of building your deck of attack dice. I am very aware of the fact that the devs definetly put "Pachinko balls" and other references (Hollow Knight, for example) as their "game genetic material" and took inspiration there. The process is fast, engaging and I like the animations, design, music and the systems in place. The game looks to be made with love on mind and inspiration behind it. There are a few drawbacks, main of which I will put straight down: the lack of story. There is so much you can do with these characters and I can see that the story is being nodded to: "They are safe" and all that, but I am afraid this might become an example of a game, where story is severely underdeveloped and the characters aren't given proper motivations because the mechanics get all the attention. While I am a fan of "Slay the Spire", I always felt this game would've been so much better if the characters were given more story and attention. On the other side of the spectrum we have "Chlidren of Morta" where the story takes the central place and the game loop feels repetetive and dull, making me not want to replay it more than once, but I enjoyed the one time I got through the game to get the story. So, to end on the "STORY PLEASE!" part: look for the golden spot of "Decent story, rich characters, fun mechanics".

In the other department: would be nice to have more diverse soundtrack, while the ones in place with some resemblance to the classics of "Undertale" are very nice, it would make sense to have different soundtracks for different events, bosses, story bits. The music in games like that can make or break it, such as "Hades" that wouldn't have as much charm as it does without Darren Korb's wonderful work, or, again, the "Undertale"-"Deltarune" series.

I enjoyed the strategic puzzle element of the game: placing the dice to combine and synergize, different types and modifiers for the dice: hollow (OP, but in a fun way), glass (interesting element of strategy, especially with the items that allow to save them if there is leftover energy), grow property and different combos. I hope to see more of that in the future.

I was not a fan of getting graded for my deck at the end of the run. I am not a perfectionist and while I see the appeal and what can be good about having this info, I'd prefer it to be optional, for those who want to see it, rather then being told without me asking. I won and enjoyed the process, the grade really feels sour after that. I like how the "Enter the Gungeon" handled that: if the players die they are told what exactly killed them and shown their inventory, if not: "Nothing killed you, you did great!". But honestly, even that is not necessary, having a story-bound ending like in the "FTL" or "Into the Breach" or "Slay the Spire" -- actions of the player (through their choices along the way and quest fullfillment) affecting the ending and seeing the result of that.

A winding path of choices (battle vs story etc) would be nice to have to develop a better feel for the character and the world. UI could use some polish (for example, show the dice that will break, show the initiative order, totals of damage dealth and recieved, status effects need to be fleshed out a little more, they are hardly noticable in the background).

I am going to enjoy the game more when it comes out as having just 20 levels is obviously not enough.

It's ok. A bit repetetive (not in the best way), but I'd give it good 7/10.
Story is the best aspect of it, surprisingly.
Touching story.
Graphics are solid, not over-the-top, chill. Fun mechanics.

I will be honest: I played this game till the end and don't remember almost anything. Very incoherent story. But cool style. It feels like a distant dream now, many years since completion.

It deserves the "Game of the year" award and so many more. One thing though: I would love to have less than 6 crashes per an hour of gameplay and I am not talking sexy Astarion's bod or best girl Karlach...

10 Owlbears out of 10 from me, will hoot again.