Posted February 09, 2023
First of all, I think the game is a fun experience, so kudos to the devs. The visuals are great, and the gameplay has enough moving parts to provide a challenge that is intricate, without being overly complicated. Several of the mechanics also work well together, providing some satisfying combo possibilities and decision making. The music is also very nice, and I can safely say I like the game a lot.
The game does have some flaws, in my opinion (played it on normal):
1) The Hell's Maw spawning infinitely in certain battles pushes the players into some weird gameplay tactics, and can actually force a game over if the right conditions happen, not necessarily because of a mistake. I think you might have to consider a hard cap on the maximum number of these and/or a change to their tracking/moving behaviour. They are very polarizing too, since it's an all or nothing affair, and having 1 or 2 hell units makes the challenge mostly trivial unless the combat goes on for really long (and then you find yourself with a tunnel of maws long 5-8 tiles).
2) Danse Macabre is obtusely overpowered as a mechanic. The units should gain immunity from it if they already got it once during that turn, so that working to remove the effect is actually worthwhile. Usually, since it can be re-applied after removal and given how many AoE attacks skeletons have, it can be considered instant-damage, rather than something you can play around. The game is definitely beatable regardless, but it forces a rushdown against Death (which already forces this because of the maws and other design choices of the battle). It feels like there is no room to be tactical with him, which is a pity.
3) The floating bear head (sorry, can't remember the name), the cerberus, and units which can cause bleeding are really powerful as well (both for the player and the CPU). The game often forces you to pack your units, especially in the early turns, and large or huge AoE attacks with good range atttached to beefy bodies can end fights really quickly (bonus points for being able to fly and exploding when killed). Bleed kills Tiny Inkulinatis all on its own, almost. These are tricky to balance, though, so I am not sure I have a good suggestion (maybe limit the starting spawn to 1 at most for each of these types). The insta-kill (if there are flames) devil is also a significant pain, especially in maps with random flame spawns. I got it late in my run, so I couldn't test it as a player, but I figure that one is bound to be really good.
4) The tower which wakes up your creatures when hit is a problem in the map where you spawn at the center around it. While the AI can't make perfect use of it, if you have some ranged units on this map, you can get 3 or 4 times as many attacks as usual (in one turn). It's really cool, however, so maybe you want to leave it as is. XD
5) The AI might be a little too dumb in leaving its leader open for a deadly push. I can't complain too much about this, since it's probably hard to account for this in their behaviour, and also because if they guarded really well against pushes, the balance might go out of the window, but it's weird when they just serve me the win every now and then, despite being able to prevent it.
6) The final fight with the Master is a tad too easy after Death. If that's on purpose, then great, I like having one final victory lap and beating him to close the circle, but you can probably tweak it to give him some more health or something, if you want it to be tough.
7) The Elite battles might be the hardest fights in the game: they can vary wildly depending on the starting position, and frankly don't feel worth the effort past the first chapter. You can only field so many units, after all, and you'll have enough resources regardless so I deliberately avoid them, as I have an easier time this way.
8) You can exit the fight and try it again without any penalties. While I personally don't mind this (I forget often enough to rearrange my army before a fight, so being able to return to it freely is a blessing), you can also try it out and reset the fight until you have studied the best strategy without consuming a quill, and I don't know if that's intentional. Also, at least in one case, exiting to the menu at the start of a fight and going back actually changed the map, I don't know if that's a bug.
My final wishes for the game (I would understand if none of these made it in):I
'd like a carefully crafted campaign without the rogue-lite elements (something where you can afford to raise the difficulty, since players can retry a level as much as they want, and where boredom isn't a factor, so you just field the best army you can).
A level editor of some sorts could be cool.
Are there alternative win conditions for the duels? I haven't checked ,but perhaps that could be a way to add a new spin without requiring overbearing amounts of work.
I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. I had plenty of fun, though, and I might even buy the supporter pack, since this was a cool experience. :)
Edit: maybe some puzzle-like challenges like "kill all the enemies in one turn on this map" or "you can only kill by pushing the enemies off the edges" could be a cool addition, but of course, any of this stuff takes time.
The game does have some flaws, in my opinion (played it on normal):
1) The Hell's Maw spawning infinitely in certain battles pushes the players into some weird gameplay tactics, and can actually force a game over if the right conditions happen, not necessarily because of a mistake. I think you might have to consider a hard cap on the maximum number of these and/or a change to their tracking/moving behaviour. They are very polarizing too, since it's an all or nothing affair, and having 1 or 2 hell units makes the challenge mostly trivial unless the combat goes on for really long (and then you find yourself with a tunnel of maws long 5-8 tiles).
2) Danse Macabre is obtusely overpowered as a mechanic. The units should gain immunity from it if they already got it once during that turn, so that working to remove the effect is actually worthwhile. Usually, since it can be re-applied after removal and given how many AoE attacks skeletons have, it can be considered instant-damage, rather than something you can play around. The game is definitely beatable regardless, but it forces a rushdown against Death (which already forces this because of the maws and other design choices of the battle). It feels like there is no room to be tactical with him, which is a pity.
3) The floating bear head (sorry, can't remember the name), the cerberus, and units which can cause bleeding are really powerful as well (both for the player and the CPU). The game often forces you to pack your units, especially in the early turns, and large or huge AoE attacks with good range atttached to beefy bodies can end fights really quickly (bonus points for being able to fly and exploding when killed). Bleed kills Tiny Inkulinatis all on its own, almost. These are tricky to balance, though, so I am not sure I have a good suggestion (maybe limit the starting spawn to 1 at most for each of these types). The insta-kill (if there are flames) devil is also a significant pain, especially in maps with random flame spawns. I got it late in my run, so I couldn't test it as a player, but I figure that one is bound to be really good.
4) The tower which wakes up your creatures when hit is a problem in the map where you spawn at the center around it. While the AI can't make perfect use of it, if you have some ranged units on this map, you can get 3 or 4 times as many attacks as usual (in one turn). It's really cool, however, so maybe you want to leave it as is. XD
5) The AI might be a little too dumb in leaving its leader open for a deadly push. I can't complain too much about this, since it's probably hard to account for this in their behaviour, and also because if they guarded really well against pushes, the balance might go out of the window, but it's weird when they just serve me the win every now and then, despite being able to prevent it.
6) The final fight with the Master is a tad too easy after Death. If that's on purpose, then great, I like having one final victory lap and beating him to close the circle, but you can probably tweak it to give him some more health or something, if you want it to be tough.
7) The Elite battles might be the hardest fights in the game: they can vary wildly depending on the starting position, and frankly don't feel worth the effort past the first chapter. You can only field so many units, after all, and you'll have enough resources regardless so I deliberately avoid them, as I have an easier time this way.
8) You can exit the fight and try it again without any penalties. While I personally don't mind this (I forget often enough to rearrange my army before a fight, so being able to return to it freely is a blessing), you can also try it out and reset the fight until you have studied the best strategy without consuming a quill, and I don't know if that's intentional. Also, at least in one case, exiting to the menu at the start of a fight and going back actually changed the map, I don't know if that's a bug.
My final wishes for the game (I would understand if none of these made it in):I
'd like a carefully crafted campaign without the rogue-lite elements (something where you can afford to raise the difficulty, since players can retry a level as much as they want, and where boredom isn't a factor, so you just field the best army you can).
A level editor of some sorts could be cool.
Are there alternative win conditions for the duels? I haven't checked ,but perhaps that could be a way to add a new spin without requiring overbearing amounts of work.
I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. I had plenty of fun, though, and I might even buy the supporter pack, since this was a cool experience. :)
Edit: maybe some puzzle-like challenges like "kill all the enemies in one turn on this map" or "you can only kill by pushing the enemies off the edges" could be a cool addition, but of course, any of this stuff takes time.
Post edited February 10, 2023 by mdqp