i was really impressed by this one. it’s a solo dev tactics game that’s in direct conversation with fft and larian but is very tightly paced, thoughtfully designed in every respect, and is the first game ive played in forever that’s done something genuinely fresh with the metroidvania format (but idk how to write about that last bit without overselling or spoiling it a little)
the battles are complex but the complexity is so well-considered that it feels simple, if that makes sense. a combination of good ux and cutting away other mental overhead (e.g. almost everyone moves the same distance in a turn, which i really learned to appreciate). i loved throwing down caltrops before triggering a fight to create my own chokepoints, or shoving an enemy off a tile where a healing spell was going to go off so i could take the healing for myself. skill lists are small and i loved how my assessment of every skill kept changing. there are no experience levels, which helped make my character progression feel earned. something analogous to fft class stat growths is here but it’s not just for sickos anymore…
had you played the previous rad codex games? people seem to really like them but I could never tell which entry point was worth it and this one looks grimmer than the others
Looks neat enough, but the visual design feels difficult to parse based on the screenshots. Particularly the spritework and lack of color contrast. Does it work better in game?
i haven’t, but i might. this one’s the nicest to look at and i already liked the composer and those both did a lot to sway me.
it’s slightly less grim than tactics ogre imo, though you can be Bioware Evil if you want. i did not do that.
i found things easy to parse in practice but ymmv. sometimes i had one of my mages carry a torch around, but that’s just responsible if you’re getting killed in a mine
