Children of Morta

I was looking for a game to play with gamepad. I gave this one a go. And it plays perfectly.

Great graphics, but the writing is unbearable, the pompous talk shouldn't be confused with atmosphere, but the staging apparently aims exactly at that. More action, less jabbering would have worked much better for me.

Children of Morta is a dungeon-crawling roguelite, featuring the 6 playable members of the Bergson family, each with their own weapon and skill set. I don't play many roguelites, so it's hard to compare to other games, but the combination of 30ish minute runs usually followed by a small narrative cutscene felt satisfying. Combat is the main course, and it's surprisingly fun. I don't usually enjoy melee characters, but John's shield, Mark's martial arts and Kevin's evasive dps all felt different and satisfying. I couldn't really get into Joey. I enjoyed Linda's bow the most, and Lily's magic. Ranged characters felt more powerful, even though the melee characters are more durable. It's worth playing all of the 6 characters, however, since each one grants family-wide passives as you invest more skill points in them. All the characters feel personable and sufficiently different in their playstyles. The game also features passive progression, unlocking more upgrades as the game progresses. All of it is passive bonuses to damage/avoidance/gold or experience gain etc., and is there as a catch-up mechanic if the game becomes too difficult, which it isn't meant to be. The devs also recently published a Hard Mode. Some describe it as story-driven, but I'd say it's more atmosphere-driven. There isn't much of a story, but it does its job and even surprised me a little. The stronger part, however, is the tiny character- and world-building cutscenes, and how the overworld develops as the corruption grows. The atmosphere is further improved by a good soundtrack. A few small complaints. Sometimes textures overlap awkwardly, which can hide traps under other textures. The screen tears when zooming (needlessly) in cutscenes. The color scheme is a bit dark. Overall the graphics are quite charming. Sound effects are a bit bland, and sometimes evoke the wrong reaction. So if you're looking for an atmospheric, not too difficult roguelite game, this is definitely a good pick.

I love the story elements intertwined after the dungeon runs, the narrator really brings the story to life for me. Gameplay is varied by taking a different family member on a run, this is a good thing as each character has a skill tree you can advance as you play. Gameplay is balanced when playing solo, havent tried co-op, though I'd love to have a friend to play this with :'( Art is pretty, if you on the fence but like Rogue-Lites and pixel graphics, JUST DO IT :)

Nice game, that runs well on Linux :)