Overall most helpful review

Posted on: February 13, 2015

istudedinre

Games: 361 Reviews: 5

A great experience (use a numpad)

Short version: The game is great if you like randomness and challenge and don't mind using keyboard input. This game is not so great if you don't have a full keyboard and numpad. First, let me say that I absolutely LOVE SanctuaryRPG, and it's Black release is just wonderful. The project started out free (as in beer) and has since moved to a paid (Black) version. The actual navigation of the game is basically non-existent. You have locations that you can choose to enter, but there is no "map" to speak of. The combat is interesting enough, but the real fun is in all of the randomness and volume of options. Everything is a die-roll in the background. Enter a location, die-roll determines the event / baddie. Kill a baddie, die-roll determines the loot. Perform crafting, die-roll determines the actual item. And on, and on, and on. And all along the way, you're presented with options that change your experience. Agree with this pamphlet you just found? Your alignment just changed slightly. Solved this puzzle? Here's a sidequest that might kills you. Killed a boss? Here's a subtle customization option. I've been playing SRPG for about 3 months now (free then Black), and I've only used one class. There's a HUGE amount of gameplay variation available. The graphics are actually very well thought out, and there is tongue-in-cheek commentary to be found in the ASCII art. You won't get a chill from seeing moonlight glinting off the water as the breeze blows through shoots of grass, but the graphical approach works well to pull off a consistent aesthetic and feel. Now here's the caveat: you really should play with a full keyboard plus numpad. The experience is clearly tailored for a left hand on A-S-D-F and a right hand on the numpad. With this setup, the game plays smooth and the design works. If you play with a laptop, though, the fun diminishes somewhat, and if you try a touchscreen keyboard, the fun disappears.

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Posted on: April 12, 2017

sarracht

Verified owner

Games: 48 Reviews: 1

Tedium Incarnate

This game has style: good music, plenty of goofy humor, and nice ASCII graphics. There is abominably little substance, however. The classes have exactly the same movesets and mechanics. They differ only in their passive abilities and in which stat their basic attack damage scales with. Combat is a basic cycle of pressing 1 2 3 3. The rest is juggling mechanics that exist solely for the purpose of forcing you to press other buttons sometimes. The main challenges are figuring out those mechanics, and then figuring out what to on the occasions where multiple mechanics trigger simultaneously, especially when the RNG gives you enemies that negate one or more of your avoidance/healing abilities. Outside of combat, there are a variety of things you can do to gain XP and/or get additional item drops. Press 1, 3, and 4 repeatedly to craft RNG items. Alternate between 2/3/4 to read books for XP, then 5 to restock the shelves at the library. Press 1 a dozen times to sell beer at the tavern, then 2 to restock. Dig up your lawn to find more items. Fight some additional enemies at the arena for extra crafting mats. Craft crafting mats from crafting mats in order to craft other crafting mats. There's some genuinely good writing but overall, the story is sparse, vague, and reaches no real conclusion. It's a fun little diversion for a while, but I recommend getting it on sale. It gets old fast.

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Posted on: June 15, 2017

jkwaser

Verified owner

Games: 181 Reviews: 2

Great Idea, Poor Execution

SanctuaryRPG does a lot of cool stuff. ASCII graphics, funny writing, and a bunch of different classes, all in an effort to merge roguelikes and RPGs into something amazing. The fundamental problem is that it doesn't really understand the core of either the RPG or roguelike experience. Roguelikes are great not because you sit around and grind, but because you have little choice but to continue on in dangerous scenarios and use whatever tools you can find to succeed. Roguelikes involve constant expenditures of varied resources to overcome differing challenges. Dying is fun because you're always succeeding by the skin of your teeth, and you learn how to overcome obstacles and think of ways to use resources better. The fun in an RPG, conversely, comes from the battle system being good and interesting. Many RPGs fail at this of course, but combat should feel tactical and thoughtful rather than algorithmic. SanctuaryRPG is a poor roguelike, because you have no disposable items, and only one tool for overcoming challenges (yourself). You never run out of anything, and the appropriate response to any challenge is simply to grind. There is no thought involved, no feeling of overcoming something through cleverness and skill. You win because you've spent enough time grinding. It's a poor RPG for similar reasons. The combat is algorithmic - perform actions, heal on occasion. Despite the plethora of enemy types and status effects, the one-on-one combat means there's no real tactical options beyond 'do X when Y happens'. Reposition when enemy charges. Heal when poisoned. Don't use ultimate on ultimate-immune enemies. Don't get me wrong, it's fun for an hour or two, but there's no depth beyond that.

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Posted on: March 13, 2015

tarotferret

Verified owner

Games: 697 Reviews: 4

Worth every penny...

Sanctuary RPG is an awesome retro RPG with charming ASCII graphics and a great retro style soundtrack. If you like Rogue-like games, classic RPG's, and massive amounts of randomized content, then you will love this game. There are plenty of things to do in the game. You can make a character from a wide variety of races/classes, craft random items, fight monsters/bosses, gain levels/skills, encounter random effects, fight your way up in Colosseum battles, talk to NPC's, take quests, and a while plethora of other things... I've played the game for hours now, have tried a couple race/class combinations and can honestly say the game will easily be able to keep you entertained for hours. This game also works on virtually any computer and has pretty low system requirements. It seems that the developers sacrificed graphics for a massive amount of content. The game (as of writing this) seems to be updated very often so bugs are being fixed all the time and improvements are made to keep the game fresh. Speaking of bugs, the game seems to have very few bugs and feels very polished and well made! :) Note: Mac and Linux users who are proficient with Wine should have no problem running this game, I run it on my Linux desktop flawlessly.

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Posted on: December 20, 2020

Teo_live

Verified owner

Games: 390 Reviews: 1

Original game suffers from grindwall

An addictive and interesting game that unfortunately has crippling flaws: - Many interesting races and abilities stuck behind a grindwall - Yet another forced ironman mode game, this wouldn't be so bad if the grindwall for race options didn't exist. - Tedious grinding such as "arenas" in the game. - Game punishes you for input mistakes, I died because I accidently pressed "enter" in combat (which translates to you waste a turn doing nothing while you get smacked in the face) - Forced funny/edgy/satire type game, honestly I would have enjoyed the game much more if it had a serious undertone rather than forced comedy.

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