Vambrace: Cold Soul

1. Undoubtedly, the art is beautiful. 2. UX is meh. I think the developers of this game didn't really play it before publish. While it's good to have multiple alternative keys for each function, but it isn't enough to bring a good player experience at all. For instance, no one would ever want to walk entirely game. And if they have the run feature, it should be a toggle instead of a sticky key. Why can I not have a toggle to make MC run faster or speed up battles? Hold then release the shift key in such a long time really wearing me down. The game dialog also a bad UX as well. It doesn't have a log system for missing lines and doesn't have an option to fast forward (FF is really important when you do a replay). Here is a funny issue, to skip text animation by mouse, you have to click on the text. Yes, on the text otherwise it will not skip the animation. 3. Writing and character dialog content would need huge improvement. On one hand, the writing are too modern that kills off the median fantasy vibe. On the other hand, the dialogs between characters are cheap as well. Two races with a huge conflict can be easily convinced to work with each other just by 2 lines. Sth's like from "Why should we trust her?" to "Ok, because we are under attack blablabla I'll listen to her"... It feels so grudging. I was expected a strong point to convince them but no. This dialog remind me high school text book. Plain & boring 4. Gameplay is really bad. I don't know if this is bug or feature but the final boss in chapter 5 will suddenly defeat you after a certain time but there is no notice a head or any note about it. Game saving in ch5 is not good as it has some repeated animation which kind of annoying. As for general, the character classes also inbalance. Game items are pretty useless. The relic is easily lost so it isn't really tempted me to collect or even use it. 5. Various minor bugs even the dev has released some patches for it. Not recommend for paying though

Many actions that may be possible on a console are no longer available or at least explained how to do. For example you cannot seem to remove a relic other than to replace it with a new one even though this is an integral part of the game to remove and upgrade them.

I played for more than a few hours and I'm still early on in the story but theres much to critique already,. Even through the game isnt particularly bad it's also not particularly good, with exception for the art, mostly. The art is really good but the direction is sadly very generic. The main character looks more like a cosplaying stripper than a heroine, an issue shared by most female characters, male characters are mostly gruff generic dudes with big armor and big weapons, theres nothing wrong with this but there's also nothing particularly interesting setting this game apart from others, especially in it's genre. The sounds are hit or miss, most are ok but some feel out of place, like some gunner habilities sounding very techy and futuristic for a fantasy game. Also during the first boss encounter many sounds stopped playing completely. This allied to very serviceable animations makes for a somewhat unsatisfying combat. Sadly I can't say I enjoyed the music much either as it felt a bit repetitive. The story is the worst aspect of the game, it's completely generic, as are the characters and the missions so far feel extremelly uninspired. This is made worse due to a lack of voice acting, wich wouldnt really matter if the writing was good but since it's not it makes the story feel boring. Skill tooltips aren't available during combat, wich makes learning and using them a litle anoying, same thing for enemy types and buffs/debuffs. Combat screen and enemy spawn are the weirdest part to me. Other games I played in this genre like Darkest Dungeon and Iratus show the full combat screen with both factions on it, but Vambrace only shows either your characters or the enemies at any given point. It may have been a decision made to make the combat more dynamic but personally I think it had the oposite effect. I feel bad for having only bad things to say about the game, but most of the issue can be solved as the game is close to being pretty decent. GL for the devs.

Well, at the beginning it looks really good: you have some not bad story with promising development, nice atmosphere, and very polished artwork. Also, exploration is very like Darkest Dungeon with extra side quests, whats also add some value. Unfortunatelly, its all overshadowed by some major flaws that ruins whole effort in my opinion: Your companions are just an disposable assets, they dont any level up and if they die or get discarded ... well, there a bunch of other nameless assets to choose. Only way to improve their performance is to equip them with items (everyone has exacly one slot), and upgrading such requires a bunch of prematurely finished expediotions to get enough parts. That may be insuffient tho, since your brave warrior may be whacked durung single fight by hailstorm of crit strikes and multi-target hits, so your time is effectively wasted. Apparently damage dealing capacity is primary mean to progress. Every character can defend, do basic strike and use 2 additional abilities, that are as generic as possible. Theres no synergy between any of them nor any scaling up or down in effectiveness (some propably has, but I dont see any difference). Its just do damage, do more damage or do some minor buff/debuff. Its very convinient tho, because there no tooltips and popups with explanations or reminders outside character submenu. Everything here seems totally random. Crits, evades, hits or misses, those just happens. Debuff are irrrestiable, since there no resistance. During encounters, you just choose someone with no idea, if they skills are increasing chance to success or not at all. Armor or damage dedution is only effect of buffing. To wrap this up, think of Vambrace: Cold Soul as bland copy of Darkest Dungeon with nicely hand-drawn graphics. It might be quite late to rant over 5-years old game (6 even!), but thats a bright example, that even the cuttest, straight from wallpaper protagonist wont save game with poorly designed mechanics.

This is a copy of Darkest Dungeon with a slightly different setting. But it is missing a ton of the content Darkest Dungeon has. In example: you cannot levelup anything. You just select some random guys for the run and use your 2 attacks and push through the enemies or die because of bad luck. This game somehow relies more on luck then DD. I thought this is impossible but here we are. But okay, this is not DD so ... I liked the art. It was pretty cool and well done. The story also seems to be promising. Unluckily I did not get any achievements (I guess the game is just broken) although I already found multiple costumes, did side quests and finished the first boss. But still 0% achievements. Even the one which you get just right after getting into the town. I dislike the game because of missing content/features and an inconsistent art. While the levels are cool etc. the map is a nightmare. The character on the map is drawn in a kind of "chibi" style. It just does not fit into the flair of the game at all. There are also no names on the map so you never know where you are going to. Navigation is pretty bad. There is no shortcut to put all stuff into your chest. So you have to click a lot. You and your team do not heal automatically after entering the city ... you need to go to your room and sleep. But it is a very unnecessary step. Fights are somehow unfair in some cases. If your enemies randomly are all counters to your team: gg well played. Sometimes you run into several camps in a row (for healing etc.) and then in the final moments you don't and die although your inventory is full of healing potions. You cannot use any item until you are at a camp. There are more such inconsistencies. It just looks like it was not worked out to the end and then just published. And since nobody cares about it anymore, it is not patched. Etc. To be honest: I don't see any point/entertainment in playing this game. But the art and sound is good.