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Support developers who care and, best of all, actually good games.

This game turboslaps.

To be brutally honest? I'm not even remotely familiar with any of the people this game is so lovingly made out of appreciation for. I haven't jumped on the hype train for Vtubers, not out of distaste but just out of it never really interesting me outside of the streamers I watch on my own time (I'm a Jerma enjoyer, myself).

So imagine my surprise when I tried this out on a whim, only to see that it is just clean, well animated, well designed fun, with energetic and upbeat music and a very enjoyable tilt on the Vampire Survivors gameplay formula. Loads of unlockable characters with different gimmicks that set them apart enough to be worth unlocking, which are unlocked through gacha mechanics that give you all the serotonin rush of getting new shinies to play with, without any of the predatory microtransactions to ruin you with guilt and subject your wallet to death by a thousand cuts.

What a lovely game, and what lovely developers for going as far as they have with it. It's still getting updates as of this review - check this gem out!

There is a reason a multitude of AAA game developers, including people from Blizzard rather notably, criticized Baldur's Gate 3 for prompting us to raise our collective standards when it comes to what RPGs should be capable of nowadays.

This is what an RPG made by people who actually play RPGs looks like. This is what a CRPG made by people who are desperate for more good CRPGs in the world looks like. This is what a game made by people who genuinely love their product and want you to have a blast with their product looks like.

Support developers who don't find a thousand excuses to put out games that could easily have been made in 2010 that release in 2023. Support developers who care. Support developers who don't actively despise you for wanting some semblance of growth beyond graphics alone after well over 20 years of games. Support developers who deserve it.

The best Swords and Sandals has ever been. For the hundreds of hours I poured over the course of the years I spent feverishly playing the series while it was still a free Flash game series, the developer has earned it.

That, and they've outdone themselves with this most recent iteration. It's an evolution of everything they've learned thus far, and it shows. They've absolutely learned, and I've never felt happier to see something I'm so nostalgic for actually standing the test of time thanks to new installments like this one.

To be brutally honest about something, the negative reviews are so often just a generic "not as good as X version of game I played when I was a kid. Nostalgia's not at all making me biased, it's just worse, and no I won't specify how!", or the age-old classic, "I died and it's the game's fault that I lost, I never lose games so it's the only explanation!"

Legit good! This is one of those games where the base gameplay loop is really easy to grasp, but you have reasons to keep moving forward, checking out new areas, and if you're so inclined, farm mobs for a while to unlock skills, upgrades, passives, gear, etc. that you really want in between making progress.

You can turn into a wyvern, it has major classic Final Fantasy overworld vibes, its music is very easy on the ears, and it's got a lot of charm - give this a shot if the premise of the game even remotely interests you! Can tell this is made with quite a bit of love.

What can I say? Age of Fear is simply one of my favorite indie projects of all time - it's practically bursting at the seams with a genuine love and care that shines through despite its lack of a AAA game budget.

I initially got into this series thanks to the first game, Undead King, which was one of the best PROPER necromancer gameplay experiences I'd ever had in all my years gaming, and still is to this day! I've been following it ever since, and had already purchased the majority of the series' available content by the time Total came out. I've marked this as "received this product for free" because I happened to win a contest to be one of the first 5 players to defeat the Sandworm superboss and provide evidence that I had done so. I've supported this series plenty on my own, by my own decision, so trust me, I'm not letting the fact I won that contest decide whether or not I like Total! Without any further ado, I'll get started!

Let's talk content!

The games all tell a drastically different tale from even more drastically different perspectives, just check out these options! (Note that I'm keeping it vague for the sake of their stories. The writing improves with each subsequent game in the series, especially from 3 onwards!)

- An apprentice necromancer ascending into lichdom
- A knight of the kingdom safeguarding it from the orcs
- An orc chieftain gathering members of his warband
- A succubus rebelling against her demonic master and striking out on her own
- A dryad escaping a cruel arena to return to the forests
- A dwarf warrior building his legend and entourage of mercenaries and fellow dwarfs
- A vampire hunter seeking work befitting her skills
- A newly established village of Sea Folk building their reputation and forces
- A black knight, now out of service after his dark master was slain, seeking new ventures
- A civilization of ratmen living beneath one of the human cities deciding it's time for them to make their mark on the world

This is all the content of the base games of each game in the series currently available, PLUS ALL THE DLCs, and all content forevermore released for the Age of Fear series. The DLCs each add questlines and extra excuses to get out there and build your forces, beef up your main hero, gather gear, etc.

However, there's more to it than that! Total has an open world map version of each of the factions (although Sea Folk were already an open world faction even in the base game for AoF 4), so if you enjoy their gameplay but don't want to fuss with their relevant storylines, you don't have to! Not only that, but these open world map versions of each faction will allow you to choose your hero (main character), as in what their unit type is going to be. Basically, if you played, say, the demon faction, in story mode your main character is GOING to be the rebellious succubus, complete with her own voice lines.

However, if you play the demons in the open world mode, you'll instead be able to choose from multiple options for your main character, such as a demon summoner, or various different demon types that vary from being a strong caster to quick-but-squishy to a slow moving bruiser! Imagine this, but applied to all of the factions. Now stack on top that you can hire mercenaries from other races that allow you to access their units, if you so desire, and you'll probably understand what I'm saying by now - It's a LOT of options for you to enjoy!

This is only further cemented by the fact that Total gives you access to various unique open world experiences using experimental, strange, or powerful-by-design, such as playing ronin from the east, ancient giants, various elementals, pirates, modern marines stranded in this fantasy land, or the dreaded sandworm!

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So, let's just briefly summarize what I can list off the top of my head for mechanics in combat!

Gameplay mechanics in battles range through things like...

Line of sight for ranged units
Friendly fire if you can't aim your fireballs/explosives/etc. properly
Pushing/pulling units with various abilities
A morale system that causes units to flee if frightened enough
Temporary mind control and permanent enemy unit enslavement
All manner of debuffs - poison, freezing, burning, fear, binding/paralyzing, bleeding, and more!
All manner of buffs, a list much like the above - heals, shielding, debuff-clearing, and more!
A PLETHORA of themes and options for casters - tribal, holy, unholy, nature, sea, and more!
Body-blocking enemy movement with your own units
Weaponize passive units on each map like roaming giants and man-eating plants
Frighten enemy units into fleeing via killing their fellows or casting spells that do so
Slow-moving artillery units that deal immense single target damage or do big fat AoEs
All manner of mechanics unique to each faction, such as necromancer raising enemy units
Effects that function differently depending on if the target is living, undead, a construct, etc.
Even more beyond what I've listed!

THIS ISN'T EVERYTHING, THERE'S JUST A LOT TO UTILIZE!

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Atop EVERYTHING ELSE I've already listed, there's a plethora of options that you can toggle on/off depending on your tastes, and all manner of quality of life, such as looting all battlefield loot automatically whenever you complete the battle, etc.!

If there's a mechanic you don't enjoy, there's probably an option for it!

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This series is lovingly crafted despite what first impressions may tell you. If you're a strategy games enthusiast and love the idea of a game with a whole lotta options added to your belt, and aren't only interested in games with maximized budget sizes and perfectly polished graphics, etc., GIVE THIS SERIES A SHOT!

You can, if you aren't sure, give Age of Fear: The Free World a try to see if you enjoy this series. If you enjoy the gameplay there, trust me, Age of Fear: Total is a supremely polished and upgraded experience in comparison, and worth every last penny you'd spend (and ultimately save, vs. buying the series separately!) on getting, if you want sheer replay value above all else.

This is a series developed with genuine love for the genre, and even more love for variety! SUPPORT DEVELOPERS WHO CARE!

I'M PUTTING THIS AT THE TOP OF MY REVIEW SINCE I'VE SEEN SO MANY PEOPLE SOMEHOW MISS THIS DESPITE THE TUTORIAL LITERALLY EXPLAINING IT IN THE FIRST MINUTE

IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE CHARACTERS LOOKING UP AT YOU AS THEY AWAIT THEIR ORDERS, YOU CAN TURN IT OFF.

Even ignoring that topic, I find the majority of the negative reviews at my time of writing this reek of "this isn't a Slay the Spire clone so it's bad", or "I picked one really niche thing to be weirdly hung up on", etc. Specifically in relevance to the state of negative reviews at the time of writing this review, I'm going to be blunt with you - you can ignore most, though not all, of them, if you aren't seeking just Slay the Spire except with a different coat of paint, in which case you'll be disappointed, I guess. Anyway!

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Edit: I'm editing this in a fair while after I'd initially reviewed this game. My feelings have not changed, 25+ hours in, but I just want to bring attention to the fact that the developer went above and beyond to address a broken achievement trigger. This achievement - a rather tough one for someone of my skills - not only has already had its trigger fixed, but the developer, rather than just dismissing my efforts with "lol just do it again. if you did it once you can get it again right?" after the fix, EDITED MY CLOUD SAVE TO GET THE UNLOCK PROPERLY ACHIEVED, ALONG WITH ITS ATTACHED POWERFUL CARD, FOR MY GAME! This is a developer who truly cares!

Anyway, everything below this spot is my review before this edit

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I already love this game so, so much. In a slew of card games desperate to be the next Slay the Spire, this one's a great reminder of the passion indie developers/studios can put into their products, producing a labor of love that feels just plain fun. No overly grand, feature-creep decimated roadmap that's far beyond the grasp of their budget, no half-hearted copycatting of whatever their chosen genre's current hot button topic game is, just a fun, clearly passion-driven game, made by developers who actually care. If you want a fun deck-builder with an incredibly earnest flavor of fantasy goodness and a tone that's neither too serious nor too silly nor too reliant on forced pop culture references, I beg of you, give this game a shot.

- Earnest and just lovely, clean, simple fantasy tone that's a good example of the joy in simplicity, depending on the product!

- An above-and-beyond, absolute sweetheart of a developer who is VERY open to feedback and very active within the community they're fostering, more than happy to answer questions, and much, much more is planned for this game, years of support, in fact!

- Most importantly, just flat-out fun gameplay that neither holds your hand nor throws you into the ocean with raw steaks attached to your limbs and tells you to start swimming. The system is complex enough to make you actually think, yet not so bloated with options in the early stages that you can't work out strategies without having prior experience with other card games like Slay the Spire, Monster Train, etc. Someone completely new to this genre could get into this game because its beginning is simple enough to give you time to acclimate, while the challenge ramps up enough to retain interest if you aren't severely jaded!

- LOTS of unlocks, playable characters all with different styles and card decks available to them, a slurry of status effects, crowd control, environmental effects like throwing someone into a wall of spikes/thorns or making them pass over a flame jet trap. Plenty to work towards and work with!

- VERY HIGH REPLAY VALUE, my single most important thing to consider in a game, with very few exceptions to this rule in my gaming catalogue. It isn't just fun to play more than once, it gives you all sorts of excuses to do so and goals in the form of things to work towards unlocking that certain characters will make infinitely easier to accomplish than others, and they, themselves, may require you to unlock them via playing for a while! It's a really fun system of goals.

Give this game a chance, you absolutely won't regret it if you're intrigued by anything I've mentioned here. If you're unsure, check out the demo, and while playing the demo, take a look at the progression log and other characters you can unlock to play as, their starting cards and decks, etc. to give you an idea of what you're gonna be treated to if you get the full game.

It's been worth every penny. SUPPORT PASSIONATE DEVELOPERS!

(My very low playtime, at least at the moment I'm posting this review, is a result of my experience with Cassette Beasts being almost completely through my partner as I watch them play through the game. I've been present and watching practically since the moment they took their first step in New Wirral. They are now in post-game and have completed the game's equivalent to a Pokedex. I've seen more than enough, trust me.)

I completely lost my spark for Pokemon and anything akin to it, despite being obsessed with monster taming, summoners, pet classes, anything like that in games since I had the fixation instilled in me by Chaos Legion, when I was very, very, very young. Pokemon's, even after all these years, drowning in lack of QoL features and things that would skyrocket the games' replay value like randomization/nuzlocke/difficulty customization, and their resting on their laurels had convinced me that I just didn't have that passion for this particular genre anymore.

I no longer bothered naming or getting attached to my Pokemon; I just brute forced playthroughs with a couple Pokemon and refused to level any more. The list of things I swore I loved yet couldn't bring myself to do is longer than that, but suffice to say, it prevented me from having the energy to dive into Cassette Beasts proper, before I watched my partner do so in my stead. I've always BOUGHT games like this to support them and give the genre another try, but always struggled to get the ball rolling again, so watching her playthrough has been the natural course for me.

Cassette Beasts reignited my passion for this genre in the first night, seeing her get past the point where I'd stopped. It was the realization of how the sticker system is just the moves system but better, more customizable, and far more built for longevity and preventing repetition/tedium. The type system has been taken further than merely 'fire hurts plant types 1.4x as much", adding on with a gloriously varied list of debuffs and buffs and general effects (such as shifting the enemy's type from Plastic to Poison if struck with a Fire move, since melting plastic creates poisonous fumes!), and tying your Beast's level to YOUR level, since all your Beasts are you taking on their form rather than summoning them yourself. This means that if you absolutely love one of the earliest, weakest Beasts in the game, you can customize their moveset to your heart's content to better fit your playstyle AND their level being directly attached to yours means that they can't possibly fall behind you just because you haven't used the form in a while.

I'm not explaining this very well, but, I suppose what I'm trying to say is, Cassette Beasts rekindled my burning passion for monster taming when I thought the last spark had died years ago. It has difficulty customization, good developers, long-term support (and further content additions) planned, rules for Nuzlocke-esque runs (such as your Beast dying permanently if that form is defeated, that sort of thing), rules for randomization of both your starters and the available pools of monsters within each of the general areas on the overworld map... the list goes on.

This game also is dripping with genuine effort, passion, and charm. It's sorta kinda got some Shin Megami Tensei vibes, just not so dark and serious. The characters are likeable without overstaying their welcome, the dialogue is cute, the music is lovely, and the replay value is off the charts thanks to the randomization mode unloked after finishing a single normal playthrough (or with a cheat code provided by the developers, if you prefer).

Please give this game a shot. Overwhelmingly Positive is well deserved for this absolute treasure of a game. Take it from the guy who thought monster tamers were lost as a genre to him, and found himself excitedly helping his partner buildcraft and cheering at the various fusions of beasts available in this game as we discovered them.

Oh yeah, did I mention that? There's fusions. Like, a LOT of them. Every single Beast can fuse into a bigger one that has both Beasts' moves and combines their sprites in really fun ways. BUY THIS GAME!

If you're looking for one of the most lovingly made Freelancer-likes on the market today, if not THE most, then look no further.

Give this game a shot - it's worth every penny, and every second spent!

EDIT 1: DISREGARD THE NEGATIVE REVIEW BY FOXY FERN - it's built upon falsified information. Final Profit is objectively not a 'glorified clicker/idle game', they think it is because they played exceedingly little of the game and accrued no worthwhile upgrades to their shop, managing to never even make it past the tutorial shop.

They admitted in the comments of their review (which are now newly disabled) that they had actually not been reading the dialogue of the game, which lead to them becoming confused on what to do next, which they then blamed on the game.

When given proof that they had consciously ignored all information they required to have an extremely easy time with the first hour of the game (which is all they played), AS WELL AS corrections from the developer on multiple of their points such as a lack of key rebinding (objectively false, the game allows this), they disabled comments to save face and have edited their review since then to pretend as though they hadn't confessed what they had, as well as swapping their narrative from "I'm confused so it's bad" to "it's just bad".

EDIT 2: Help I can't stop - BUY THIS GAME AND SUPPORT THIS DEV!

EDIT 3: My partner encountered an extremely specific bug that halted story progress for her. I went to the game's discord, got in contact with the dev, and NOT ONLY did they respond within seconds with an instant, temporary solution that allowed her to continue while they worked on a permanent fix, but they put out said solution (along with a bunch of other things) out in a patch on the VERY SAME NIGHT.

I'm not yet done, still have SO MUCH left to do, but this game is a passion project and it shines through early and only gets stronger as time goes on. You unlock so many different things to manage, so many avenues to get materials you need, so many ways to maintain your shop.

If you've been lost in the desert of Steam's shop sims market, seeking salvation, this game is an oasis. A crisp, refreshing, lovingly maintained oasis.

Please support this game. I'll update if my thoughts change after getting further, but if it hasn't been updated, assume I'm just as happy about playing this when you read this as I was when I wrote it!

SUPPORT DEVELOPERS WHO ACTUALLY CARE!