As I rate Steamworrld Heist and Dig very highly I was excited for this game. I enjoy card based games and absolutely love turn based strategies. Knowing what the devs have produced previously Gilgamech sounded like a dream come true. Unfortunately I havee to saay I am disappointed. Despite enjoying the hand drawn aesthetic the production values seem non existent. Movement is clunky. Combat is sooo slow you're forced to fast forward moves which takes out any appreciation for the effects. You will have very little of that though as the animations for combat are recycled and extremely basic. I definitely think things began to pickup in act 2. Exploration was very boring at the beginning but this improves somewhat in the new environment. One thing I dislike is when you come across new characters their skills are quite limited and I've found (particularly with the twins) that right around when you find them is when youre old characters unlock their best cards/equipment. As you only level up the characters you use this really limits experimentation which is a huge shame. One positive is I'm playing on legendary and the challenge is just right. You have to play your cards right ti survive some of the tougher battles. Overall I would say don't come in with high expectations. As disappointing as it is to say I can't see me finishing this one it's just too much of a slog to get through.
Children of Zodiarcs (CoZ) has really fulfilled my taste for a good turn based strategy game. I need to be challenged by a game to get hooked and in that sense CoZ is a success without being unfair. I, like many others found Xcom 2 to be an amazing game but the jaw dropping effect of having a 90% chance of shooting something in the face while you are standing next to it... and missing definitely took away from the experience for me. CoZ has absolutely overcome this in a novel way. The use of rolling actual dice is a much more pleasurable way of dealing with random chance and CoZ allows you to re-roll to gain certain attributes. You can play around with movements and undo right up to the point of actually rolling the dice so core mechanics are easy to understand and play with. Analysing your deck and switching out cards to meet a particular challenge will actually work which tells me that despite having random elements at play, the outcome of a battle is very far from random. Story wise I'm not far enough into it to comment but it seems fairly run of the mill. Graphics are pleasing and a surprisingly amusing ragdoll effect is a welcome addition. The main shortcoming I see is attack animations are just, well, boring. Spells look the same (the biggest disappointment), swords swing the same and guns shoot the same. There is some basic variation but I feel it is a wasted opportunity. Overall great game which I am looking forward to diving deeper into and will play to completion. Thank you!
