+catgirls
+an interesting world and story beyond "cosmic horror aaaaaaa"
+hard but not as miserably unfair
+you party isn't traumatized to uselessness after 1 battle
+no tired religious caricatures that have to whip themselves in a church before they'll fight again
+less agonizing micromanagement in general
+your party randomly dying isn't as harsh as it is in DD because they don't level
it's just completely better lmao
A much worse version of Darkest Dungeon and I say that as someone who doesn't even really like Darkest Dungeon. Though my reasons for not liking Darkest Dungeon have more to do with it's grindiness, my issues with this game are all almost completely different.
First and foremost, I have to take off a point because the game advises you of the 'weight' of some items you carry, but not 'all' of them. Usable items, for example, do not have a weight listed, but clearly have weight.
Second I take off a point for the confusing map layouts. If you play enough, you'll find the pattern. But Darkest Dungeon just makes it completely clear by letting you just choose. This game is a shot in the dark until you 'learn' how it works. Bad design.
Third, I take off a point because the game wants a story, but it's just bog standard crap. I don't like the main character and want to disband her. I don't like most of the characters. It's all standard trope crap. It annoys me that I have to have this character in my party at all times. I'd rather disband her and just have randoms. Speaking of, there doesn't seem to be any loyalty toward your randoms. It's a very 'if they die they die' attitude and you feel like you can just toss them out at any time. What's the point of telling me their name and giving me flavor if I'm just gonna toss them whenever I want someone else?
Fourth, I take off another point due to sound design. Well no, I take off a point due to 'lack of' sound design. The music is good and fitting, but the sound real estate is EXTREMELY LACKING. I swear they use some really generic door opening sounds and it just irks me so hard. As someone who is a game dev and works very hard to get sound design right, I REALLY notice when it's off or bad. It's bad here.
I would tack back on a point for the atmosphere which is pretty good, but because of all the bad forced story I'm not going to. Great premise that pulled me in, awful, terrible execution. The elves couldn't save it.
Super repetitive. Has an interesting concept, but not well executed. Became board with the game before the main character could achieve any of the points needed to level up the characters traits. Played the game for around 3 hours and don't think I'll go back to it.
I honestly don't remember why this was in my library but, after finally completing a 600+ hour epic RPG, I needed a bit of a palate-cleanser and decided to give it a try.
I must have read a positive review somewhere that promised "Darkest Dungeon but with more story", yet this largely falls short on both counts. The combat and customization are shallow, the story and dialogue are just kind of "there", and the lore is all explained in a very "tell, don't show" method via notebook pages that are scattered throughout the game like so many breadcrumbs. The UI is clunky and has zero tooltips, requiring that you jump back and forth through menus to remind yourself what your special abilities do, what your current conditions mean, and even what your precise hit point are. There's a nod to "replayability" given that there are good/neutral/evil endings, but the paths to them are completely obscured and determined by arbitrary dialogue choices made during the game.
The art is probably the one positive and--given all the feminine "assets" on display--was obviously what the devs cared most about (to be fair, there's a tiny bit of masculine cheesecake as well). Along those lines, there is an entire wardrobe of collectible outfits for the main character which, again, attempt to artificially pad the game's replayability by making it impossible to collect them all in one run.
I almost quit after the first couple of chapters, which is saying a lot given that I'm kind of an OCD completionist. Thanks to my commitment to the Sunk Cost Fallacy, I soldiered on for the full 20 hours but was uncharacteristically blase about the plot-point choices. In the end, I kind of wish I had followed my original instincts and put it down early. If the game were a little more difficult and/or a little bit longer, I might be seriously angry at myself for wasting my time. As it is I'm just annoyed and disappointed enough to have opinions I need to inflict on other people.
