Vambrace: Cold Soul

It is NOT as simple as it looks! I can understand why some people do not like the combat, since it is quite simple (not too many choices), but there are still a lot of choices which matter! Party composition, items equipped, and also items taken with you (you can't take too much with you else you can't loot stuff, because of the weight limit) do count quite a bit! There are 10 different classes (+ your main character) every one is slightly different, and this does not only affect combat, but it affects the whole dungeon run! You do not need to find a tactic which lets you win a combat, but which lets you survive the whole dungeon run! The problem is never a single combat, but the damage you accumulate over several fights. Do you use your special attack with the character yet for a good effect, or will it be more effective in the next fight, but will take longer to be useable again? Do I equip the perception increasing item to the one which already has the best perception to be sure to find all traps, or do I want it on another character to disarm traps with them (and getting more super attacks from that character). Should I carry an extra item with me to equip before the main boss, or is it not worth the extra weight used. Should I have a height sleight character with me to get more loot and be able to get material to craft new items, or should I have a merchant with me to buy better stuff from the merchant instead? All in all there are many "small" decisions, which add up and decide if you can conquer the dungeon or not and this makes it interesting for me. **Fazit:** I like this game ebtter than darkest dungeon, since it It looks better, has more story to it and it is just more of my taste (especially after the patches!) You do not need to kill your company.

I really want to give this game a decent rating, but I can't. I bought it at an 85% discount. For that price, it's not terrible -- so far -- but it is still needlessly annoying. There is NO excuse for any modern game not providing adequate in-game documentation and feedback, such as: (a) info about the game basics, features, menus, icons, etc. There is a "tutorial" of sorts that pops up ONE TIME, By the time you need that info, and don't quite remember which cryptic symbol represents what, YOU CAN'T RE-ACCESS the tutorial data. Ridiculous. (b) Tooltips! Seriously, folks -- this is the PATCHED game, apparently with many IMPROVEMENTS, and it's clear the devs have been hearing about this from day 1. Sorry guys, but you cannot get even a neutral 3-star rating when your interface doesn't even show what a skill will do when you hover over it, or what a cryptic icon I guess we're all supposed to have memorized after one glance at a tutorial page means. This game feels like it could be pretty good. It could be worth a good bit MORE than $4.25 I paid for it. But if the devs haven't been willing, after more than enough feedback, to provide basic quality-of-life features the player has every right to expect, even from indie games ... sorry. The game currently gets a POOR rating. I might not ask for my $4.25 back. I'm going to give it a couple more hours investment and see if the overall experience can overcome the sheer thoughtlessness of the interface. It seriously wouldn't have taken a lot of effort on the developer's part for the game to feel worth the investment at twice the price or even more. But as it stands ... I feel like I probably overpaid. As I said, the experience seems like it COULD be so much better.

Note: This review is for 1.10b, please note that some reviews are for older builds, and lots of things have been addressed since launch. On to the main review! One thing first: Vambrace is a party-based adventure RPG, not a roguelike. While it borrows the side-scrolling dungeons similar to Darkest Dungeon, the flow of the game is that of a linear RPG. There is permadeath for your companions, but not for your main character. If you wipe in a dungeon, you lose your companions and their equipment, but you don't have to start completely over from scratch. The story is fairly straighforward, but the writing and wolrd-building are solid. For those interested, there are dozens of lore pages throughout the city. Additionally, Lyric can make a few decisions in the course of the game that lead to different outcomes and 3 endings. The game is separated into chapters, most of which have you exploring the frozen city. You choose 3 companions to take along from 10 classes, 2 from each of 5 races. Each class has a specialty, be it defense, healing, ranged attacks, or dungeon-navigating abilities. Part of the fun of the game for me was experimenting with various party compositions to see what works best. Relics allow you to further customize your team. Combat is turn-based. Each character can use an ability or defend. Some abilities build energy, and some cost it. Positioning in the line is important for targeting; you need a mix of melee and ranged characters. It's pretty basic, but I found it a lot of fun. Dungeons also have events that might help or hinder your party. Most of these let you opt out or take a chance for a reward, though there are a few that force you to choose something with no way of knowing the right answer. I never found these annoying, but it might bug some players. Overall, I had a great time with Vambrace. If you approach it as a classic turn-based RPG, I think you'll enjoy what it has to offer.

As has been pointed out, the menuing is incredibly badly laid out and cumbersome. Worse, you need to rely on this a LOT. Want to avoid traps? Your best spotter needs to be at the front of the party (rather than being assumed to be scouting for traps). Now they're not your best strength character, so you come across a chest, you move your fighter to the front to open it. Done.. Time to move, click, click, click, move your observer character to the front (Minimum three key presses and a mouse click, so no, you can't do one or the other, it takes _both_). If you like micromanaging, this will be a delight. I may soldier on with it later, just to check out storyline, but it's an unnecessary struggle that gets in the way of having fun. Working out where you are is also troublesome, with lots of 'side rooms' that magically take you way out of the way, only to wrap around to where you came from.. It's a rats' nest. Map checking every room is not fun (more menu time, click, click).

Vambrace CS is basically Darkest Dungeon if you gave it anime artwork, more story and broke the gameplay into a thousand useless pieces. The interface is criminally poorly designed, to the point of making me want to tear my hair out, as even very simple things are cumbersome to accomplish and important information is hard to access, obscured, or entirely missing. This is the state of the game in December 2020, after many improvements. I shudder to think how bad the game has been early in it's run. The turn based combat system is slow and clunky and I don't really think the different classes make intuitive sense. They have a seemingly randomly designed assembly of skills that are hard to remember and don't lead to much in terms of tactical synergies. I was winning most battles by using basic attacks. Many non-basic abilities aren't attacks and can't be used more than once in a while. Often I didn't even want to use them, as it's usually better to just outright kill the enemies and worrying about healing later. That might change deeper into the campaign. There are also no interesting ways to modify or upgrade your team. No leveling up, no skill gains, no modifying anything except through equipping 1 solitary "relic" on every character, that will just modify a few stats a bit. Big whoop. Basically, if you don't find the basic actions you see early in the game super fun to use, you're out of luck, because that's what you get for the entire game. The game really, really feels like it needs some more tactical depth and just something more interesting to fiddle around with. The whole fun of RPG's and strategy games is to fiddle around with stuff, so what's the point in making a game like this that makes you explore and play battles constantly, but which also does nothing interesting at all with this? The story is also bad and the layered, interconnected rooms are super confusing to navigate unless you constantly check your map.