This game does turn-based combat right. Enemies are challenging and each type is designed to have its own combat trick to be more than just a bag of XP. The characters have a variety of different abilities to handle different situations and trying to output max damage from every character is a good way to get your team wiped. It's possible to tackle enemies several levels above you if you're willing to make use of the consumable tools at your disposal and build a team with different specialties. I've seen reviews saying that the game is grindy, but after setting everything to Legendary difficulty, I didn't feel like I was bored. Unfortunately the benched team members don't share combat XP, so you're less and less incentivized to experiment with new characters as the game progresses. If you're not already familiar with the Battle Chasers story, you won't feel very attached to the characters as they're presented here. The voice acting is all very good, but the dialogue is pretty standard fair. The characters are all archetypes without much depth. Don't expect development or arcs. The ending is strangely abrupt and not very satisfying, but I enjoyed the dungeons I crawled through to get there. The world itself is well-designed with plenty of sidequests and hidden areas in the world map. Each dungeon after the first has its own gimmick and personality with random mini quests sprinkled throughout it. The art style is colorful and fun to look at and the battle animations feel very satisfying to watch. The crafting system is a bit odd; after running a dungeon on Legendary, I didn't feel it was necessary to spend time re-running it to get materials I needed for stuff that I felt was going to get replaced by drops in the next dungeon anyway. I only spent time on it in the end game; I do like the idea of putting in more items than you need to get an epic version of the equipment. The game also lets you stick custom enchantments on armor and weapons.
ToME is a fantastic roguelike with classes that really do play wildly different from each other. Many have their own system of resources and spending, as well as a myriad of abilities that do more than simply "subtract X HP from a monster X squares away from you" and an absurd amount of skill/weapon customization. It's an open world: wander off in any direction and you'll find something to do and lots of hidden bits of lore. It has the complexity of ASCII games, but with a UI that's much easier to pick up. Permadeath and "rogue lite" modes are both available. Elite enemies are modified from a long list of skills and buffs which sometimes randomly synergize to make monster that's effectively way above the area's level range. It sucks to be walking around the forest doing fine, only to have your character one-shotted by a lightning strike off-screen, but instances of this are pretty uncommon. Overall I found that the difficulty curves fairly well as long as you pay attention and know when to back off. Definitely recommended for any dungeon crawling enthusiast.
The premise is great: a five minute dungeon crawl where you try to control your dungeoneer's encounters to influence the adventure and claim victory. Each monster defeated gives you a choice of loot to add to your dungeoneer's hand, which are played as actions during battle. The card-battles are novel and simple, but at the cost of nuanced strategy. Many enemies, outside of minor traits, are very same-y within a dungeon, so I didn't really find myself considering which bad guys to place. Likewise the dungeons, which change thematically, are all very much the same mechanically. You'll find yourself playing with a similar strategy whether you're in the plains, jungles, or caverns. I would have loved to see a setup where each class type of physical, magical, and mixed had a chance to shine in the different areas, but once you unlock a higher tier of hero, there's no real reason to experiment. I do like how you can try and pick loot drops that start playing around a class's traits (e.g. get card-drawing equipment for a guy that deals damage based on his hand size) but treasure in tier 1 and about half of tier 2 (out of 3) almost all are not worth picking up when an item that gives health is in the mix, making it a non-choice. Health is EXTREMELY important for the first 2 battles, and in later dungeons you'll just find youself throwing dudes carelessly into the meat grinder until someone is lucky enough to survive to level 3 and have enough health to start picking more esoteric stuff. ***SPIOILER:*** The last level is disappointing. I thought I was on the second-to-last level and when the game suddenly ended, I felt like I had wound up for a pitch without throwing the ball. I would have loved to see a proper announcement and dialogue for the final boss of the game, just like the final bosses of the previous dungeons had. The concepts are really cool, but Guild just isn't able to get the right mix of difficulty, strategy, and novelty it's going for.
Not since Mark of Kri have I felt like such a stealthy badass. There are so many thrilling little moments and ways to approach the encounters in this game, it's amazing. The animation is beautiful, and the controls just feel so gloriously right, you'll find yourself flowing from enemy to enemy, dropping them like silent death. Of course, you can go entirely without killing either; a true master of stealth will be able to grapple from wall to wall or glide over unsuspecting guards' heads without arousing a hint of suspicion. A plethora of tools and costumes (each with its own abilities) can be unlocked, and each will dramatically change how you approach the game. I word of warning: play through the normal campaign WITHOUT the special edition weapons or character first. The special edition's tools and character are overpowered, and the bonus level you get is simply lackluster compared to the amazing majority of the game.
