After over 8 hours on this game i would like to give my review of it because i see many bad reviews from people who barely played it or complained about having to "restart many times" on a roguelite lol. First of all i'd like to point out that this game has two main aspect : combat/dungeon and ressources managment+leveling up skill tree,crafting better relics,etc It is very fun to play the combat aspect but it is also very fun to just chill at base and grind/farm for better gear and level up. However i must point out that it does take time yes so i wouldn't recommend for those who just want action (even though you also get many ressources from dungeon runs alone so probably possible to finish the game while focusing mainly on dungeons). Personally i've always loved games like Animal Crossing and Palworld and i like diversity in games. So i'm having a very good time so far honestly. What is the combat like? I've seen people compare it to Dead Cells, Hollow Knight and even Silksong but i haven't played those games myself so i will explain differently. You have basic physical attacks with a sword and you can do 3 hits combos but you also unlock Magical attacks later on consumming Mana (which you refill by attacking ennemies with basic attacks). You get more and more powers/magical atatcks the further you go in the game and you have blessings and Tomes giving you bonus/buffs like in Megabonk and other roguelites. You also unlock invulnerability dodges like cuphead with the shadow smoke bomb but you also unlock the Air Dash around 1 or 2 hours in. The Air Dash is similar to Cuphead and Celeste mechanics. Not only that but you also have status effects you can inflict to ennemies so you can create builds where you inflict fire, poison, freeze,etc There is a small but fun portion of Mario Odyssey/Crash Mind Over Mutant mechanics where you can take control off powerful fallen ennemies. (not many of them sadly. One per level/world it seems so far) You will need to K.O the ennemy before you can take control of him and then you can switch between your witch form and the monster form at will afterward and recall the body with a fast command. Note that you can exit the bodies mid air for an extra jump like the Yoshi sacrifice jumps lol. You get a SEPARATE health bar as the monster so you cannot "die" while farming damage with it but if your monster HP reaches zero then it will despawn and you will have to find another one on the map and continue just as the witch in the meantime. You cannot give health back to the monster/mutant. Only to your main character (which i find kind of annoying but i understand why they did it. Some of them are super strong and it would make fighting the bosses with your main character useless). Also you cannot find health on the map. You can only find Heart relics that increase your max HP (think of the empty hearts in Vampire Survivors) and then you can heal with perks/blessing builds. There is ONE healing item that you can refill at each safe point between stages. Make sure to heal and refill it before starting next stage. So what about the chill/village aspect? After each run you spawn back at the church which is your main hub. You have 4 worlds gates for the dungeons but also an option to go to the village. The village is basically where you level up your skills and gears while also customizing your world. During every runs you create builds with the blessings but like Megabonk, VS and other roguelites it disappears after the run. The buffs in the village are permanent. Damage buffs, Damage (received) reduction, Health increase,etc I wish there was an easy way to farm mob drops but maybe it's later on. The hub/village is empty when you start and you have to carft the stations and skill trees like in Minecraft , Animal Crossing and Palworld. You can also place down blocks and create houses (or what looks like houses if you have my lack of skill in building lol) to earn construction points. Those construction points will fill another meter that gives you additionnal bonus for damages, health and more. Besides the skill trees you have a merchant/inventor where you can buy new unlockables such as spells (the power/magical perks i talked about earlier) and tools, you can grow food as well to make recipes that will give you a bonus for the next run (keep in mind you can only have one food bonus active at a time for next level so if yo ueat another one it will replace it and disappear after next level completion), you have a cauldron to craft new items with combined food and items, you have a chest where yo ucan sell ressources to earn extra money,etc. I could go on for a while, i'm not that good at writting reviews, but all of this to say : give this game a chance. It is brand new, about 260+ people only have reviewed it and many people left an early bad review after barely playing. Roguelites take time to finish. They come in different forms but the mechanics are similar. A part of me believes that some early bad reviews are posted by some people who just don't want the game to succeed due to the devs/edition, because honestly i don't see what they are complaining about. The game is good, i'm 8 hours in, i play other games on the side in the meantime as well and i'm just chilling. There were complaints about the game difficulty and the grinding being too high and the devs changed it already. THE DEVS READ THE REVIEWS AND ADJUSTED THE GAME ACCORDINGLY AFTER LESS THAN A WEEK. I write it like this because many people might not realise how rare it is and how pleasant it is to have devs who actually care and listen to their community. So Frontside180, Pocketpair, respect and thank you for listening to the community and making sure the game stays enjoyable for all. <3 I don't really know what else to say, except that i grew up with a PS2 and a DS and i always loved games like Crash Bandicoot (especially Mind Over Mutant, which was invented way before Mario Odyssey), Mario and other platform games. It is a simple concept but very fun. Here they combine platform games (a bit more like Celeste) with dungeon grinding, combat games and Minecraft on the side lol. I also have 160 hours in Megabonk and 120 hours in Vampire Survivors so i love roguelites and the Blessings/tomes are a nice touch. The only thing that they could add to make me even happier is a fishing mechanic or mini game at the village lol because i like farming ressources there as much as i like fighting but you have less things to do here than in Minecraft or animal crossings. So far my farm only has 1 frog and 3 chickens lol. If you read all of this, thank you very much for your time and patience, i hope my monologue was useful to you. I really hope this game gets the love it deserves, it has great potential and is very fun. Have a good one. Kuddos.
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