Recent reviews by Alzorath

I would say the Sacred 2 Remaster is "fine" - it's not an earth shattering remaster or a remake, it is simply upscaling what was there and making sure the core functionality works on modern hardware (and with controllers). If you didn't like the original, you won't like this.

Sacred 2 leans much more towards the RPG side of aRPGs (more akin to Dungeon Siege, Divine Divinity, etc.) - so will be a slower paced experience than you get from more Action-side aRPGs (like Path of Exile, Last Epoch, etc.).

There are bugs, but nothing that destroyed my experience for several hours - though I have heard that 5000-series nVidia cards have problems (though wager this is due to a dropping of PhysX support on those cards more than anything).

I would basically put this as "slightly better remaster than the Fate Remaster" - it's got some bugs, it's got some remaster jank, but it does just work on the systems I've tested it on - and it works with controller too for when I don't feel like hunching over my keyboard. There's a lot of old features (and CM Patch features), I wouldn't mind seeing, but it's not worth the rage posting that a lot of people have been giving it - since it is "fine" - and let's be frank, is about as buggy as some AAA games over the past few years (stares at Borderlands 4, Battlefield... and well, any Bethesda game really lol).

Hopefully they're given the time to patch things up - and maybe get us access to some of the features they had to cut implementing due to resources and time? (for those curious how some remasters work - these aren't "cut", but rather "need to be made again to work with modern hardware and OS")

I saw "deckbuilder" on my demo feed and had to give it a try - absolutely loving the atmosphere and gameplay. Haven't gotten all the nests yet, but might do that in the near future.

Makes me happy to see a deckbuilder focused on story and progression, rather than being another roguelite, and I think this was fairly well done.

Really, the only things I'd change so far is:
- Audio balancing needs a little more work (menu audio was loud, game audio is usually extremely quiet, some random audio is really loud though)
- Make the fog of war animations a bit faster (right now I got worried I had crashed the game a few times because of them, but I hadn't)
- And this is a preference thing to make them feel more valuable: Enemy spirit cards should be exhaust imo, rather than vanishing when they leave hand (as it stands, they generally remain un used unless they're movement because I get them at the end of turn usually) - even if locked behind an upgrade, it would make it feel more like you are taking the spirits and using them.

But yea, those are minor nitpicks, loved the demo - looking forward to the release (I almost never review demos either - but this one was good enough to prompt it)

I really enjoyed this - while the chapter system makes it feel fairly linear for the first half the game, the amount of context and story most of the sidequests add really did help it a ton. The music and pixel art have a really solid charm, and frankly are better than the vast majority of indie rpgs I've played the past few years (yes, even better than a lot of the indie darlings you've heard about) - hell, it even has vocals.

I would say, even on normal, the game is fairly "easy" (in the sense of it's reasonably easy to beat the game, but your characters will die and need to be resurrected due to enemies hitting like trucks - so you'll stay engaged with the combat balancing this). Worth Noting, I love the mana system in this, strikes that lovely middle ground.

I did write a more detailed review - which you can find here:
https://youtu.be/wU48Ghoe6o8

Pros:
- Love the 2d art style (the 3d style is "fine")
- Music is very well done too
- Combat is easily understood, and the time slip mechanic, while not unique to this game, is done quite well.
- Combat balance is set to where they don't need "big numbers go vroom" or even "item spam"
- Story and atmosphere is very "chill" if you're looking for that, without feeling generic.
- Enemy design is a really nice "cthulu-cute" style
- Runs well on even mid-spec PCs

Cons:
- The Farming stuff feels a bit tacked on compared to the rest of the mechanics
- Does the "voice burp" thing (injects a small voice blurb at the beginning of characters speaking, personal pet peeve, but I know I'm not common on that)
- It is designed "Controller First" (not a problem for me, but I know it bothers some people)


Neutral:
- you can sequence break some stuff pretty easily, which can result in getting fights out of order and having a hard time, this will be important for speedrunning, but can confuse people inexperienced at jrpg style games.

Overall I enjoyed it - will it be on any of my "must play" lists? Not really - but definitely worth playing through if you enjoy the comic or like chill RPGs - and something I'll definitely be adding to the playlist for my niece and nephew to try after I've finished it.

Full First Impression video: https://youtu.be/Qtl-JYVupz4

A very cathartic take on the autobattler genre - very polished, and I'm looking forward to further development.

More Detailed first impressions here: https://youtu.be/mi0NKl1Z9fM

This is a middle of the road review - It's "good enough" for casual play, though as I got further down in the dungeon I did notice more and more bugs that were a bit jarring/odd. This is a 6/10 situation - Fit for Purpose, "it just works", and it hist the same catharsis points, but the original is better if you get it running stable as things stand.

If you're just looking for a way to replay the nostalgia without needing to jump through hoops with upscalers/wrappers for the original game on modern hardware - then this is a "good enough" way to play it.

There are some quality of life improvements, but also some oversights that impair original QoL features - the big plus is the inclusion of controller support (I'd give the controller interface a solid C - "functional, but not ideal").

As of writing this - there's a mix of cosmetic and functional bugs that do need fixing though, and I'm sure I'll find more as I get through the rest of the 4 games included. Here is the bug list from what I ran into while beating the first game:

- [major] Hitboxes are not very well translated, resulting in sometimes hitting swarms of enemies, while other times unable to attack even if on top of enemies.
- [major] Enemy ai breaks locking into "flee" mode, this also goes to pathfinding with enemies wandering in circles in the middle of fights.
- [major] Pet/Minion HP will sometimes overflow, resulting in low life values - inconsistent bug, happens with both minor and major group heal.
- [major] Pet interactions are mostly unavailable, with the exception of equipping gear, selling items, and feeding them fish.
- [moderate] Quest allocation is starting a level lower than it should (resulting in getting quests that just can't be done)
- [moderate] Fishing chances/speed/etc. are drastically worse than in the original game.
- [moderate] Scroll books do not function properly at times (Town Portal especially being broken and using multiple portals at once)
- [minor] Audio Levels are inconsistent at lower levels, and don't always "lock in" (if you use system level audio adjustment, you won't notice this)
- [minor] Enemy sprites will sometimes "overscale" at deeper levels, resulting in comically sized weapons (Hammers especially).


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Edited to add:
Went ahead and made a "First Impression" video on it after 11 hours of gameplay (beat the first game), will probably do a further followup after I finish all 4 games

https://youtu.be/09nE8uVDeEU

While I don't see myself spending 10,000 hours in this or anything, it really does do most of the things I want to see in a mono-tower style Tower Defense with roguelite elements. Worth picking up if you want something chill, but with just enough strategy to keep you engaged (which is the Tower Defense Sweet spot imo).

The only real nitpicks I can come up with is that I wish there was a bit more deck thinning and I wish the towers were a bit more "unique" feeling (Talb and Blndr are the most 'distinct' feeling for me)

More in-depth/full review can be found here: https://youtu.be/pGBcXPBb_2g

Sentry is a pretty solid entry in the combat-focused Turret Defense (in a similar vein to Sanctum, Orcs Must Die, etc.) - with a splash of FTL navigation involved (though it doesn't feel quite as open, it is functional)

Pros -
- The Aesthetic is easy to read 99% of the time (if you leave too much currency on the ground, it can get a bit visually cluttered)
- The Gun play feels really quite good, haven't found a weapon I disliked using (though the SMG is still my favorite)
- Decent Variety in tools, weapons, and enemies, even though we're only at the start of early access.
- The little green aliens are like video game bubble wrap.
- Levels are a good, short, length, while the campaign currently takes 45-90 minutes (though the autosave system lets you drop out and pick back up easily)


Cons -
- Still pretty short, though the patch notes say they are going to try to extend the campaign and even produce an endless mode (so if length is a deal breaker, you might want to wait til then)
- Unlocking more stuff, makes your start more chaotic, since you can't pick your loadout except by spending resources you want to save for upgrades.
- No real level persistence outside of the damage the zone takes by enemies getting by (all zones are reset to stock when you revisit them)
- 2 enemy levels auto-destroy a sector of your ship while you fight one of them, while beating a level without any leaks, only gets you 2/3 the cost to repair it (fine for the shorter 2 sector campaign length, but will quickly be a problem in longer campaigns)
- Split paths can be a pain for a solo player, difficulty settings could help with this, but this won't be a problem for multiplayer (since you could each take a path)

Bonus Pro - Dev Team seems to be actively listening, so I'm looking forward to the first major update.

Want to watch the active gameplay, with slightly more detailed commentary - the video is available here: https://youtu.be/a0rqhi-cgqE

This is a pretty interesting concept of a game - definitely an improvement over the original, just wish it was less grindy... though it's fine for the asking price, since you can play for several hours before you hit the grind wall.

Pros-
- Every unit is a custom unit (there's sets you can make for specific bonuses, and get gold for finding them)
- Tons of unit parts though, so you can get a lot of combinations for some great stuff (fear my giant laser cyclops w/ harpy wings - or fairy with thicc lizard legs)
- relaxing to actually play, can play incrementally or actively.
- Spells actually feel impactful, at least in the first 2 worlds.

Cons-
- Way too grindy, mostly because of difficulty spikes between levels combined with extremely high scaling on metaprogression.
- Enemy "titans" are too strong for their own good, even heavily upgraded towers get chopped down in a couple seconds by them if they get too close (and they destroy your titans in the blink of an eye if you're not manually controlling them)

Want to see the game in action? Here's the video review: https://youtu.be/J1flJpQ1dOI

A pretty fun boss-rush style deckbuilder, with some decent quality of life improvements, and no grind (outside of unlocking extra lore). Though, you may be hit or miss on its value per dollar.

Pros:
- Good run length (had runs as short as 30 minutes, but for most people wager it'll be closer to an hour, or maybe at most 2 if you're distracted while playing)
- If you do have to go away, it has a good continue system in place.
- Each of the 'bosses' (which is all the enemies) have distinct and interesting behaviours. (some of the best boss design in a deckbuilder imo)
- Challenge run mode (necessary for 100% achievements as well)
- I like the art style, the enemies have really interesting designs.

Neutral:
- No meta progression can be a problem for some people, since each run is fairly self-contained, and the only unlocks are lore and achievements. this means replayability is almost strictly 'challenge based' (especially after you've beaten it with all 3 factions)
- limited deck size, and no way to extend runs beyond the length of one conquest. So you won't ever have a 'crazy broken' setup.
- Blue feels noticeably easier than the other factions, though that may just be my playstyle

Cons:
- You can get rng boned a bit, especially if you get a tough boss early before you've had card setup. But it is pretty rare.
- burden system is a bit weird, doesn't really cause any big issues, and feels a bit tacked on.


Special note: if you are designing a deckbuilder with boss rush mechanics - you absolutely want to give this game a playthough or a watch - there's some really good ideas in the enemy designs, and a lot of them are harder to beat through brute force than through more 'puzzle' style methods.

Want these points in more detail with gameplay footage? Well, I got something for you: https://youtu.be/MdLKIqbdaNo