Oh god this is so much worse than the first game (cultist simulator). I played for 4h now and got the basics of the gameplay loop. You play as the librarian of the mistery shrouded Hush House which lies on a remote island. Promising so far. Cultist Simulator had great lore and mystice that made the game so great. Book of hours promises this aswell (but fails to deliver in the first hours). This game tries to solve the gameplay problems Cultist Simulator had and improve the lore/sory idea. It faild on both sides (almost nothing intruging first 4 hours). GAMEPLAY JUST FEELS BAD + INTRIGUE TO PLAY IS LOW First of all when u actually play u will have to fight with the terrible UI/UX this game throws at you. This is a straight downgrade from cultist sim (which hadnt had the best interface but it was ok). Second your main gameplay loop is opening up the Mansion you play in and discover knowledge. This sounds very engaging and somthing I would love to do. But it is the worst busywork you could ever imagine. Not meditative busywork as you may would guess. The bad kind where you wait for the next day to put your daily weather card in a villager card (you have to get the villager first - and ofc its always the same) and then give them another item or card to make them unlock the next door. The problem is there is nothing usefull behind the door. Nothing to advance or change up stuff. Third: Being a librarian whithout a libary sucks. U dont clean up the mansion. U just stuff books anywhere where a (stupidly small) item slot is. There are many types of items in Book of Hours and most of them are very very useless as you cant open doors or gain new knowledge with it. you can use them to gain memories which barley help getting something done (bc they are super weak, weather gives 1-3 knowledge points, item memorys for whitch you work hard are always 1 point and you lose the item). ITS NOT FUN USING THE ITEMS AND YOU CANT ORGANIZE OR HOUSE OR YOUR (NON EXISTEN) LIBARY.
The games feels not like diablo because it flows much more. I write this fully knowing that diablo 2 is praised as the best of the best when it comes to gameplay. But nox flows and just plays differently. The vision system and the freeflow movement with great animations (I wont start talking about the beautiful art and level design) even for today makes nox unique. Thats why there is still a small comunity today who provides patches and so some multiplayer. I think nox will not click with anybody and for those who nox dont click it is a solid ARPG overshadowed and experimental with its light focus on rpg elements. But for those who nox clicks it clicks good. There are tons of secrets everywhere. loot is not randomised so you find unique and usually usefull gear. replayablity and diversity is hight between the 3 classes. The features are yoused smart and the sense of progression is great. the story is simple but engaing enought and the world is charming. The flow of the levels is (for most of it) especially great. Of course this review is biased by nostalgia, but nox as riped like fine wine and i play it once or twice a year to enjoy straigthforeward fun. And if you replay the game it only gets more fun, because you dont have to grind or get random drops for your dopamine, but you get it from the flow running throught the handcrafted beautiful levels using your spells and abilities at the right time, taking risks and honesrtly just vibing. For cheap you should try it out. Nox is a gem
Somewhat rough around the edges, but the core gamplay is really really nice! 8 character classes with 3 interesting skill trees each, solid story and greatsi-fi feeling. The crpg grid is used very well (you can move fast and have free look so its not as slow as other crpgs) and the replayability is high. I highly enjoyed the game. It took me around 35h to beat.
If you want to play a short, cute, funny and just plain good adventure platformer I cant recommend the wizard and the slug enough. I honestly belive never seen a game with so much heart. This game is so incredibly charming! Gameplay wise it plays really fine - responsive controlls and not to hard. It took me about 4:30h to beat. This is game is art and it really shows what indie videogames can be. @silkworm u better do a sequell or else ...
tl;dr great game, great foundation but "early acess feeleing" (rough around the edges, minor bugs, minor design flaws), 1 mayor bug encountered. IT IS WORTH 50 BUCKS, but yea just wait till the game is POLISHED and buy it for 30.
The Game feels bland and the design is uninspired. I couldnt play it more than an hour so I may be wrong but to be honest I just dont want to play more to see if the Island is beautiful enough to justify the bad combat and lifelessness of the game as far as I expirienced it
Finaly this game came to GOG! Grandia 2 is a classic JRPG with a good story and an amazing fight system. If you like RPGs or want to spend some time this gem will be worth your money!
