#which game has the best balance and use of their dungeon items…

[mamaclownhunter]

Ngl- while this has a few specific fics in mind- the biggest influence that planted this seed was “Little wolf” from Epic.

It is so SY and Binghe Coded.

Which I think is what I am also kinda basing the power system Shen Yuan can access.

Like for balance Binghe has most of the power and freewill (like a pokemon Shen Yuan won’t say), he is the only one who can accept quests (SY won’t know they are quests until they are “accepted” by Binghe) and Shen Yuan doesn’t get information unless he figures it out or Binghe interacts with it.

For the most part Shen Yuan can “attack” and “move” Binghe - as well as monitor his health, skills and Qi levels. He can spend “experience” on higher health, attacks, speed, stamina, new skills and access certain items with points as well as have some knowledge or idea of things around with a map. While there is an Automode time moves a bit slower for Shen yuan before attacks. So he is able to react much faster than Binghe. So he is able to almost force Binghe to move or attack.

For the most part because of consent and respecting boundaries he is more or less playing a turn base game and calling out attacks and moves.

As well only in special instances he can be the protagonist’s halo. Like if he is unconscious or like the skinner incident tied up with immortal binding cables. He can protect Binghe by causing a mishap. Downside is it takes a lot out of him. The more he uses it the less access he has until he can rest.

He also is constantly regulating Binghe’s energy levels “stabilizing” him. He has some influences or acts as a warning system for potential Qi deviations.

He also has access to some like- dialogue options but he only looks at those if Binghe is stuck. He is otherwise happy to just hear what Binghe has to say.

He spends his “fade to black” time working through points, inventory, lore and his own side quests he needs to flesh out the world for more points.

His own goal: give Binghe a happy ending

But to do that they need to get out of the Abyss.

SY can only give him so much and is unsure what is going to happen once Binghe gets Xin Mo.

So he is fluffing up and powering up Binghe so he is ready for Xin Mo and the next half of his adventure.

Que- thank you ace- dungeon run esque abyss adventure! With merchants! Artifacts! Lore! Monsters!- there are women but SY is not around for it. Which is small Victories for Binghe at first then they start to bother him when his little green companion isn’t around.

Maybe like in off there are or is some demons that can see or are able to address SY. Meng Mo probably can and they have a strange back and forth regarding Binghe’s health and training.

Unlike Meng Mo- bc of the skills Shen Yuan has access to spiritual cultivation and able to teach and train Binghe in ways that help him. As well as an ability to watch both his Qi.

Maybe there is a trickster type or merchant who also can address and talk to SY- SY is like needing out and telling Binghe this is an important person (the meta characters have the best info and loot or can be the most dangerous) and Binghe is just seething with jealousy.

Sadly for him, SQH can also see SY if I decide to let SY leave the abyss with Binghe.

Shen Yuan also having access to information even if he can’t immediately share it with Binghe is much like when you play a game and know you have to trust a character you know is going to betray you. You have to play the advents.

The first few times Shen Yuan couldn’t warn Binghe enough for LBH to recognize SY knew it was going to happen it was,,, messy. But once SY had his round about way of explaining it wasn’t intentional and he doesn’t have control on what he is and isn’t allowed- they find little ways around it. Binghe- smart and too analytical- will start to notice when SY takes a particular focus on certain people. They have little signs to keep SY safe but to at least get Binghe’s attention. SY will wander around certain people, he will be silent when people talk, make little comments.

It is part of what makes Binghe so OP. He seems to know things others don’t, he is a prodigy, he has artifacts to spare, information he shouldn’t have- then all him is all personality. (He will never admit he loves hearing SY mumble about how ‘of course they are going to love Binghe��)

He isn’t alone either. He has Meng Mo and SY bickering about his health and training. He has Meng Mo who does have a weird demonic soft spot for him- and Shen Yuan.

Strange, strange Shen Yuan in his strange bottoms that show off his legs and a single layer over his torso. (I like to think at some point SY realizes he can change his appearance and absolutely decks himself out in Wuxia gear/Hanfus and makes himself look like a cultivator- he looks uncomfortably like SQQ at first. Then he turns and beams at LBH arms wide asking how he looks and Binghe can’t stop the sincere “you look nice” which SY gets all proud and floats off. No one can see him but the canonically most beautiful man in the world complimented him and so he is having fun)

I read a few but I am kinda soft for the idea of System!SY but like a player in a Video game.

Specifically I am thinking of the game Off! Where the player is their own entity the character it kinda aware of.

So SY dies and wakes up when Binghe lands in the abyss. He is given the objective to help Binghe out of the Abyss and steer him towards the best ending!!!

SY is excited because he!!! Gets to help Binghe!!

Binghe is pissed his seal came off and now he is being ordered around by some green spirit. His powers are still sealed and slowly being released by said kinda annoying ghost.

The worst part other then the Ghost being overly excited to be in Hell and seemed to be too elated about one of the worst fucking moments of his life-

The Ghost is actually fucking helpful. ‘Shen Yuan’ (what a fucking joke to give him a ‘Shen’ as a guide) knows more about monsters and their weaknesses, has an idea on what is edible what isn’t, he knows what plants to avoid, what areas are safe- and he also seems to genuinely want to keep him safe.

SY has a the video game advantage of either knowing when attacks are coming or knowing how heavy an attack will be. He also knows what Binghe can do at anytime/is controlling the attacks to some extent- either pokemon style or like the game OFF! Where is auto attacks or manual where Binghe can’t attack unless SY! Chooses.

For the first little bit Binghe resists or does the opposite where SY directs him only to- shockingly- get hit.

So I feel like for the longest time they were just at odds and bickering before SY puts it on auto and just plays it like a turn based game. Like for him sometimes time is slower except for Binghe, so he has faster reactions and honestly is more in canon with the “protagonist halo”. Where he can spend points and has his own little influence if things are dire otherwise he is more or less following his favorite protagonist through the story.

And Being such a big Binghe fan he is more than happy to just Let Binghe have the power only taking control when things look dire. He is the biggest hype man, offering information and support, offering insight or knowledge only him as a strange green figment that only Binghe can see.

He vanishes when Binghe flirts with women though. He goes off and explores or watches monsters, he hated this aspect of the book and if Binghe wants then he should- he only gets protective and sticks around if he feels like Binghe is getting taken advantage of- (though the first few times Binghe snapped at him and told him to scram- so he did in his own pissy fit) they go right back to Bickering but fuck SY still cares and he kinda likes how he can see this part of Binghe’s story.

They can’t go far from each other (I am thinking about as far as camera can scroll out) but SY can turn off audio and stuff on his side.

Though eventually Binghe just starts to trust SY. If SY says right he is moving right, if SY says between the eyes his sword is inbetween their eyes, if SY says run and hide he vanishes from the field. Because for all the bitching, raging and ranting- Binghe does notice a lot is on his sake.

And you know…. In the Abyss he isn’t alone. He isn’t figuring this shit out by himself he has someone who floats next to him asking what he wants to improve. Attack? Speed? Health? He has someone that he can mentally connect with and they just both viciously attack low IQ villian and plots where only they can hear.

The angst that the only person to interact with SY is Binghe. Who he can’t hold when Binghe has nightmares, who he can only heal if he has the resources and to produce medicine/fast heal, but is also the only person who sees and hears SY. So if he is ignoring SY- SY is alone- and I think deep down he is a social person. Binghe is subjected to a flood of questions SY wants to ask.

And Binghe has one person who cares about him and is always at his side (even forced SY never implies he feels forced in fact he seems always excited to be next to Binghe)- and Binghe can’t touch him, can’t feed him (‘I would love to try your food- but I can’t.’), can’t cherish him.

SY who is nice, who is considerate, compassionate, he cursed like he lives in a brothel and rages like a demon- but he also scolds Binghe for ignoring people, he snaps when Binghe doesn’t actually help- just takes what he wants and leaves, he believes Binghe is so much better for the world if he only got over himself and stopped thinking with his rage and anger. He thinks Binghe is smart, he thinks Binghe is strong, he thinks even half demon- Binghe is meant to be good.

What a kick in the stomach.

They can’t touch but Shen Yuan is trying his fucking best to get Binghe through hell. He apologizes for bad calls, he gets better himself, he takes his hands off the reigns but I think there are times he can’t help it. They fight, they talk, they are together.

Shen Yuan always loves Binghe and maybe he still ends up a little blackened but Binghe is quietly determined to make SY corporal. Pull him from that control panel and somewhere Binghe can hold him close. Maybe tuck him away in a nice little cottage where there is a little farm and greenhouse with all the plants SY can tend to, bookshelves filled to the brim with books and stories, in a place where SY can see all sorts of creatures to his hearts content.

The “Video Game” character being protective of their “player”

SY being a rage gamer also is so funny to me, Binghe is the only one he hears the absolute filth and insults SY throws at their enemies and frankly he either repeats it or relents that he isn’t as creative.

Binghe maybe not aware of his protagonist halo but aware of the little green ghost who can just barely manipulate the world if Binghe is in enough trouble. Shen Yuan being the only one who gets quests and updates of things Binghe needs to do and being limited on what he can tell Binghe.

The soft apologies when SY can’t control where they go or what happens can only help Binghe respond.

This is long and I am still pulling thoughts but I am slowly getting brain rot

[solargeist]

letting me ramble abt my favourite media is dangerous bc if u change the subject I Will use “Yeah, but uh-“ to bring it back around don’t Even girl we’re in it now hold my hand

[rupeenotruby]

I see all this discussion of who should pair up but may I suggest who should not pair up. (continued below)

Sure Hyrule has done dungeons but his puzzle solving techniques are:

kill thing(s)

push block

get key

bomb wall

walk through wall

maybe set something on fire???

Like there are a few unique puzzles (like the one with food) but in general... Yeah. And don't get me started on dungeon items. Very few of the items in loz1+2 are even necessary for completing the dungeon you get them in. (this is especially pronounced in aol as only the handy glove is used to complete a palace?? (I think??) The other ones just let you get to the next palace.)

Thus Hyrule would not be the best Link to pair with the one who's never done a dungeon. All he really brings is knowledge of dungeon monsters and the ability to kill them but I think Wars has the killing part covered. Might be a funny though...

Personally the most interesting Link to pair with Hyrule would probably be Wild as Wild doesn't have much traditional dungeon experience (and even less with dungeon monsters) but he does do a lot of unique puzzle solving. They balance each other out with Hyrule being able to kill things and navigate and Wild being able to better solve the puzzles. I mean Hyrule isn't stupid (or has at least 6ish years of Triforce of Wisdom radiation in him) and could probably solve a new-fangled puzzle but they are a team for a reason! Also Wild has infinite bombs. Which is very important.

Frankly the I'd like to see paired up the least are Warriors (for above reasons) and Legend. LOOK!! here me out. I like the downfall duo as much as the next guy. It's just when it comes to dungeons Legend outclasses Hyrule in every aspect. There's no puzzle Hyrule's done that Legend hasn't and there is no item Hyrule has that Legend doesn't (or doesn't have an equivalent to. Ladder my beloved). I feel like Hyrule wouldn't really have anything to do? Legend is just to op in this scenario. I mean if they do end up together I trust jojo to make it work. But right now... I think there are better options.

I also think that Sky and Twilight would work well with Hyrule (though I want to see Sky go with Time) as from my impressions of the games (still working on SkSw though) is that their dungeon items are used really well in the dungeons (I've heard that SkSw does it better though) which would contrast nicely with Hyrule. Plus Twi owes him one.

I don't think I'd mind Wind or Four either I just don't know much about their games and thus their dungeons.

(Also not the best text art I've done. This was supposed to be quick. Still took me two days. (lol))

Back to our regularly scheduled stuff after this!

[dailyadventureprompts]

The Mechanics of Baldur's Gate 3

As someone who's constantly tinkering with the mechanics of my favourite RPG, I LOVE a lot of what Larian has done with D&D; not only accurately translating the base system but improving upon in ways I never thought of.

Playing BG3 feels good, and I want to see how much of their work I can adapt for my own table. As such, here's a breakdown of a bunch of little tweaks they've made to 5e (taken from the bg3 wiki) and whether or not I think they're a good fit for regular pencil and paper d&d.

Shove is not a part of the attack action. It is a bonus action available to all characters. Shove only pushes the target back an amount that depends on the shover's strength and the target's weight. It normally does not knock them prone unless they are shoved off a high ledge.

This might be THE best design Larian implemented and is instantly going in my games. Bonus action shoving is such a natural addition to combat, gives so many more tactical options. My one protest is that I am NOT calculating the weight of every creature and object ( mainly because I'm terrible at guessing weights for things) so I'd go with the distance calculation based on the creature's size and con score.

Gaining inspiration based on backgrounds

Gee, a mechanical reward for roleplaying your character, one that's way more straight forward than the DM arbitrated "ideals, bonds, flaws," system. From now on I'm going to give each of my players an upfront " You gain inspiration when you ______" note on their character sheet based on their backgrounds.

The party is limited to two short rests per long rest. Short rests restore each ally's hit points by an amount equal to half their maximum HP (rounded down). There is no hit die rolling. Long rests require camp supplies, which are food items that must be looted or purchased. In towns you will be able to rest at an inn.

This is a mixed bag for me only because I like hitdie as a mechanical abstract and I don't want to see them removed. Tbh I wish more mechanics interacted with them and they were called something abstract like "stamina" or something. That said I ADORE the camp supplies idea because it not only gives you something minor to reward exploration with besides GP. On the otherhand tracking all those supplies without the game's inventory management would be tedious as hell so it'd need to be highly simplified.

I especially like the idea of limited short rests/supplies in larger survival based adventures where time isn't at a premium like it is inside a dungeon.

If you hide while not in a creature's sight cone, you automatically succeed. If you try to hide while in a creature's sight cone, you automatically fail. If you are hidden and enter a creature's sight cone, you must roll stealth against the creature's passive perception. This may be a straight roll, advantage, or disadvantage, based on the creature's senses and the level of lighting. Some creatures with different senses such as blindsight may follow different rules

Congrats on fixing stealth rolls Larian. No notes.

LOTS more opinions under the cut.

When a creature is at least 10 ft above their target and makes a ranged attack, they receive a +2 bonus to the attack roll due to high ground. When a creature is at least 10 ft below their target and makes a ranged attack, they receive a -2 penalty to the attack roll due to low ground.

This is fine, and quite inline with a lot of fixes I've seen for flanking rules. I'm fine with a little extra battlefield math in order to make moments of advantage (spending inspiration, reckless attacking etc) shine.

The game does not stop a character from casting a leveled spell with both an action and a bonus action

Mixed on this, on one hand I've played enough clerics to know how much it sucks to have to use your bonus action to do a necessary spell and then be stuck with a so-so cantrip or melee attack for standard. On the other hand there's some design balance issues at play here.

Help is an Action. This ability allows characters to aid an ally in combat and remove negative Conditions. Using the help action on a downed ally brings them back to 1 hit point and leaves them prone.

Love the idea of help doing multiple things AND being a solution to minor status conditions. and giving everyone the ability to help means I can be a lot more aggressive when it comes to knocking character to 0. if I had to further patch this, I'd say that this also allows for a medicine check to allow a creature to spend a hitdie when they're downed, or allows the helping character to make a "SNAP OUT OF IT, WE'RE YOUR FRIENDS" charisma roll for charmed allies.

Jumping is a bonus action which consumes 10 ft of movement speed. With a Strength score of 10 or below, a creature can jump 15 ft, and this increases by 5 ft for every two points in strength above 10. At 20 Str a creature may spend 10 ft of movement speed and a bonus action to jump, and can travel 35 ft effectively increasing the creature's movement speed by up to 25 feet.

This, combined with the prone rules (see below) is JUICY, as it allows for risk-reward battlefield mobility . That said I'd add some caveats/clarifications: The jump always succeeds in moving you, but if you're taking damage, jumping up or down more than 10ft, or into rough terrain you need to make an acrobatics check not to beef it and fall prone (ending your turn). Your jump is likewise a buffer for how far you can willingly fall before taking damage, but if you fall after your jump, you always land prone.

Weapon actions, 'nough said.

It's more complexity than I'd give to first time players but HOT DAMN if it isn't a great idea to give the martial characters some options instead of just making the same attacks over and over again. I've actually been sockpiling 3rd party versions of this for a while now and I can't wait to add them in.

All The conditions are great:

Blinded: In addition to the other effects, ranged attacks are limited to 15 ft range. Blinded creatures can also make opportunity attacks.

Frightened: Creatures which are frightened are unable to move at all (rather than being unable to move toward the source of their fear), unless the effect instead makes them "fearful" which gives them the frightened effect as well as making them flee.

Prone: Being prone gives disadvantage on Strength and Dexteritysaving throws, attacks against a prone creature have advantage out to a range of 10 ft rather than 5 ft, and ranged attacks against a prone creature do not have disadvantage. Your character cannot do anything while prone. Starting the turn while prone will cause you to automatically use half your movement to stand up. Becoming prone during your turn automatically ends your turn.

Wet: This is a new condition that prevents the character from burning (e.g. from Searing Smite) and grants resistance to fire damage, but also makes the creature vulnerable to lightning and cold damage

[greatwyrmgold]

Power Is Power

Thinking about two very similar lines from two very different fantasy series.

First, we have Cersei Lannister's "Power is power."

Littlefinger crudely alludes to a certain secret that could ruin the Lannisters and says "Knowledge is power". Cersei responds by ordering her guards to (nearly) kill Littlefinger, then do a series of pointless orders. She follows this up by dropping the line "Power is power" and giving Littlefinger an order.

The message here is simple. To Cersei, power is the power to make others follow your commands, and in particular to threaten or inflict violence on others. She says this to deny that Littlefinger's knowledge could have any power, which is odd when you consider that she had Eddard Stark imprisoned to prevent people from learning that very knowledge.

Yeah, this is one of those scenes where David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (aka D&D) had two of their great actors monologue at each other to fill time and generate pseudo-philosophical quotes that sound good out of context.

To their credit, the nature of power is a running theme in Game of Thrones and its source material, and even if the show doesn't seem to realize Cersei is wrong, she's wrong in an in-character way. Sometimes, D&D do two wrongs that make a right.

Speaking of D&D, though, there's a Dungeons and Dragons webcomic which has a very similar line, under very different circumstances. I am, of course, talking about The Order of the Stick and one of Xykon's best monologues.

You seem to have an interest in power, so let me educate you a little while I search for you. It's sort of this thing I like to do sometimes, especially for learned wizards such as yourself. Power, it isn't something that you put on or take off like a jacket. It's something you just ARE. [...] I used to think spells equaled power, too, back when I was alive. I've learned a lot since then. You know what does equal power? Power. Power equals power. Crazy, huh? But the type of power? Doesn't matter as much as you'd think. It turns out, everything is oddly balanced. Weird, but true. For example: Right now, power takes the form of a +8 racial bonus to Listen skill checks.

The biggest difference between the two scenes is that it's hard to discuss this one without spoiling stuff; Rich Burlew puts these character-thesis-statement monologues at plot-critical junctures, you see. But the next-biggest is that it makes sense in context.

Xykon isn't a master manipulator, and he isn't being written by someone who thinks he is; he's a drama king (complete with crown), bragging about his victory to a wizard who arrogantly thought they could beat him.

Said wizard showed up to Xykon's castle with "a big pile of spells"—somewhere around twice what Xykon had, and with access to a greater variety of spells. In terms of pure, violent firepower, the wizard should have won. But they didn't, because firepower isn't the only kind of power. Sometimes power is listening to your allies' advice. Sometimes power is thinking to prepare magic traps or items ahead of time. Sometimes power is a +8 racial bonus to Listen checks.

(That's Perception for you 5e whippersnappers. Back in my day, there were different skills for hearing invisible wizards and spotting silenced rogues.)

I'd say that's the biggest difference between these two scenes. Cersei has overwhelming violence, rejects all other forms of power, and keeps failing upward until rocks fall on her. The wizard tried to do the same thing, using their overwhelming violence to overpower their enemies, only to be defeated after two pages due to a mixture of their hubris and Xykon's unexpected power.

Cersei believes that authority and violence are the only power that matter. Xykon knows power comes in all forms.

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

Hi question: Is Fear and Hunger supposed to be this hard? I've played for almost 7 hours and feel like I've made like, no progress. Am I missing something? Q-Q You really seem to love the game so there's gotta be more to it than my experience of infinite leg breaking

dasfdsfn no yea funger. IS super hard. sometimes to the point of unfairness, since it heavily relies on RNG. consider that, despite making no progress in the story, you're learning more and more stuff about the mechanics of the game, where to go and which enemies to avoid. even now, sometimes i have "hopeless" runs, where i force myself to continue not because i feel like i can win, but because pushing a little more means i get to understand a little more how the game works.

buuuuuuut if i may give a little hints, going as spoiler-free as possible:

for an easy start, pick mercenary, be a burglar and rush into the dungeon. that's by far the easiest way to play the game

go left

avoid enemies at all costs as long as you're alone

the bed next to the statue is a one time free save.

every bed become free saves as long as theres no enemy left alive in that floor. if you fail the coin flip just leave the area and return in here

guard can stop every coin flip attack, and enemies always use a specific pattern. learn their rhythm

O LORD, GIVE, WHITE ANGEL*

experiment with the talk option, because sometimes it can save you from very difficult battles*

don't go directly for the head, it has too much evasion as long as the enemy's balance is stable

learn which part of the body does which attack

fire and poison on enemies is OP to the point to be broken

talk just once to the man in the library

know where to pray to which god*

boss souls can be taken by soul stones, and some are much more valuable than others*

protecting your arms is much more important than protecting your legs

infection is such a bitch of a status. get rid of it as fast as possible*

red vials can be used against enemies

dont use blue herbs unless you have no other choice. if you find the right books you can turn them into mix of red and blue or blue vials, which give you way more HP

if the crow enters the room, simply changing screen despawns him

let the girl throw rocks

the mines have a one time free full hunger area, the courtyard one where you can regain all health. all the other times you'll have to coin flip

:)

...and since some are very cryptic, under read more more explainations on the ones with the *. i go a lot more in details, but read it only if youre, like. very desperate

if you find an empty scroll and a feather, use the scroll and write O LORD in the first menu, GIVE in the second, WHITE ANGEL in the third, in all caps. it's a very powerful late-game accessory that allows you to have two turn

very important examples for talk options: in the mines, Moonless can become a party member if you talk to her and give her rotten meat twice; the hounds will get distracted if you talk and throw a stick; you can sell people to Trortur if you talk to him; the yellow mages may give you a good item; corpses won't attack you if you tell them PREPARE TO DIE

out of every God, Alll-mer can unlock very cool stuff. Pray to him in one of the circles on the ground, sacrifice the crucified man in the torture chamber (kill the priests around him, they give you access to the level up room) and pray to him at the big statue in the courtyard where you find Ragnvaldr and the Butterfly. If you have a Soul Stone "charged" with an enemy's soul, this should be enough to unlock Teleport in the hexen circles

by far the best bosses to Soul Stone(tm) are the Salmonsnake and the White Angel's. the Black Witch and the Old Guardian are quite good too, but if you have to pick two go for the former

infection is a status that insta-kills you after 7 screen change. Fix it as fast as possible either with green herbs or by cutting off the infected limb. Having no shield is much better than restarting the whole game

[flagboi-whotookit]

Reviewlike #1

Fortune Favors the Fortunate (Dicey Dungeon) 1. The set-up This is a very innovative roguelike... In setting at least, we'll get to the rest later. You play as one of six people who entered a competition run by Lady Luck herself, where if you win, you get your heart's greatest desire. Said people are promptly transformed into dice and forced to traverse a dungeon. The cast is just as colorful as the setting, some of the best include; A workaholic playing to remove his need for sleep, the cut-throat and competitive type vying to win a billion dollars, and a curious inventor here by accident because she was interested in the bus headed to the show. Still having said that, we still have... 2. A glaring problem Yeah... I know I was hyping the setting up, but the gameplay falls flat compared to the rest. Which is a shame since that's the part you really have to nail to make a good roguelike. But, why? Why is Dicey Dungeon so bad? Well... it's too luck based. Wait, wait, put the pitchforks down. I don't mean it has luck in it, I'm not someone reviewing Shotgun King on Steam. Most good roguelikes have luck in them. I mean that it is ALL. LUCK. This game has next to no skill involved. The majority of this game is combat, and how do you fight in this game? Roll dice. Wait, that's it? Sadly, yes. Sure, you can reroll dice, or add a pip (the little dots on dice) to one. You can also choose how to spend the ones you do get. But a lot of the weapons/tools need specific, or a specific range, of numbers. Pretty much every item in the game either has a max number cap, meaning it just won't accept higher dice, or mandates you use an even or odd die. I understand this was in an attempt to balance the game, but the fact you're beholden to a Yahtzee cup is balance enough. The amount of times I've got a bunch of useless dice, or my opponent got a perfect set that I had no way to counter, is unparallel. Even with all that, I still feel inclined to ask... 3. Is this salvageable?

Answering this question means we have to answer another first: Where does being salvaged end, and being scrapped start? Stay with me! I promise this is going somewhere. If the dice aesthetic stays, it would have to be *purely* aesthetic for the gameplay to work. Which would make it blend into the sea of dungeon crawler roguelikes. Instead, I offer a better solution: Broaden the scope from simply dice, to all luck based things. This way, they could keep Lady Luck, but kick the luck-dependent combat. The issue here is; is this too far from the original vision? I mean, it's called DICEY Dungeon, die are kinda it's thing. I can't answer this, I didn't make the game and don't know the people who did, so I don't know what their vision was. All I know is the final product.

So, where does this leave us? Well, wherever it's lead you. I don't care for conclusions, I won't tell you what to think about this. I'll just leave you with my take, feel free to add on, or tell me why you think I'm wrong. I'm all for discussion. Anyway, enjoy your day or night. If you aren't busy, get comfortable, grab a drink, throw on a podcast, and roguelike until your mouse dies. And once again, stay tunned, as long as there are roguelikes, there's my opinion. Is it a good opinion? That's for you to decide...

[youngerfrankenstein]

force you say something nice... how about game recommendations! Or just games you like?

You got me into ghost trick, psychonauts and to finish the great ace attorney! Currently go through the curious village again thanks to you as well!

You got great taste in games!

Oh! Interesting :D

(Which reminds me I really need to get back to Bug Fables it was really cute I’ve just been doing a lot of game-hopping recently 😅 Which is nice in its own way!)

Hmm. I’ll try to think of games a liiiittle less well known.

First off!

Shadow Hearts is a bit of a strange game in that it is both one of the most stereotypical JRPG’s ever made and one of the most distinctive (at least from what I’ve seen)

A lot of this comes from the setting; Europe shortly before WW1. Albeit in a world very different from the one we live in, since this one has quite a few more monsters. In fact it takes quite a bit from the horror genre, and a lot of its enemy encounters are pretty horrific. The whole game is a blend of creepy and silly, which could easily go bad but it balances them pretty well! The game also plays fast and loose with real historical events and people (one of your party members is technically Mata Hari. No really.) And you travel around fighting demons and trying to protect a young woman being pursued for unknown reasons. (Like I said, JRPG.)

The combat system is also pretty neat! Basically every character and ability hits based on button presses timed to a line swinging around a ring:

Closer to the edge gets you more damage but also if you wait too long you miss the hit. Sort of a risk/reward thing. There are also a bunch of debuffs and items that mess with the ring which can make things easier or harder for you. You also have to manage Sanity Points, which go down every turn and can be used on abilities, but if you run out that character becomes incapacitated.

That’s not even mentioning the music, which is… I’ve heard it described as a mix of Final Fantasy’s music and Silent Hill’s. Somehow both melodic and discordant, but definitely interesting. I may replay this in October actually, it’s a good spooky season game.

There’s definitely some humour that.. isn’t great as well. (Oh boy! I sure do love pervert jokes!)

It’s technically a follow-up to the game Koudelka, and a couple of characters from there show up here. But it’s its own thing and not necessary to play that one at all. I haven’t, though I may try someday. From what I gather it’s a surprisingly well-written and well-acted game with an ungodly mashup of turn-based combat and survival horror for gameplay. There are also two sequels. I’ve played the first which… I still mostly enjoyed. But while I know a lot of people like it better I was not particularly fond of how it went much farther into silly territory and less creepy (though the spider made of human fingers was a neat boss) and as much as I LOVE Joachim and find it funny to have Anastasia Romanov on the team the cast felt weaker. I have not played the third and I hear it is bad.

There is also a spiritual successor coming out… sometime (supposedly next year) called Penny Blood and I’m curious how that will turn out. But overall I really like this one!

Next!

…I am going to be honest, I still do not really understand a lot of the story with this one. It’s here on atmosphere alone.

You play as Ashley Riot, sent in to a dead town to take out a cult and what follows is… something of a hack-n-slash dungeon crawler, but a more slow and methodical one. Part of the game involves crafting your own weapons from the ones you find to best exploit enemy weaknesses and getting your timing right. It is not perhaps the most spectacular, but it can be satisfying.

But you really do play it for the atmosphere. The Shakespeare references, the melodramatic tone, the unsettling feel of the town.

It’s also technically set in Ivalice but that doesn’t really play into anything.

Next!

If I’m being honest, this is a really basic game. With basic gameplay. …But it has SO much charm! You play as a gang of Sky Pirates! Who find a mysterious girl and set off to find out why she had been captured. Again very much genre staples but dang if they ain’t being adhered to with joy. The characters are loveable, the palette colourful and the music lovely! It just feels like a nice world to be in.

You probably won’t be in for much of a surprise, but you’ll probably have fun.

I will say that personally I found the airship battles could get a little slow, but they are there to break things up a bit and, I mean, if you emulate it… (it’s uh. Expensive.) And at least on GameCube the skip button for specials is holding down “z” and you WILL be using it.

Also side note that the GameCube version has some stuff added, including most of the backstory for one of the game’s main villains. So maybe go for that one.

Also!

While I know you’re familiar with this one, still briefly bringing it up.

Don’t play this game while you’re depressed.

The gameplay is kind of neat in how it takes elements from shoot-em-ups in that you have to dodge waves of projectiles while hitting back (albeit much easier) but really this is a game carried by its main characters. The core group are just, really enjoyable to watch, even as worse and worse things happen to them and they do worse and worse things. You want to see them get through things even though this is very much a world where EVERYTHING FUCKING SUCKS. Also some very neat meta writing!

It’s odd because I normally hate things like this. Really bleak tones just lead to me not caring and if characters drop like flies why should I invest in them? …And yet.

But mostly I wanted to bring it up because I’m like 80% convinced that Papa Nier and Monkey from Enslaved: Odyssey to the West have the same character model. That one is a game which I’ll only really recommend to people who want to see Ninja Theory’s earlier work but it’s alright.

Lastly YES! The game propaganda is working >:D (I’m really flattered you think my taste in games is good!!!)

Edit: GRANDIA!

Honestly similar comments to Skies of Arcadia it’s just very fun and colourful!

[blubberquark]

Self-Synergy, Anti-Synergy, Pools

In a roguelike-like game with skills and pick-ups you need to choose between, such as The Binding of Isaac or Nuclear Throne, or in a drafting and deck-building game, such as Slay The Spire or the "arena" and "dungeon run" modes in Hearthstone, there is the possibility of self-synergy.

Self-synergy is the opposite of balancing a game for one-off units, or one-off cards (sometimes called "one-of" tech cards because you only need one of them in your deck at most, even if you could have more; I do not know if that is a malaproprism). Let's start with some hypothetical examples: Say you have a buff that makes healing cheaper, and then you level up again and encounter a choice where one option is to pick more spell damage, and one choice is to make healing more effective. If you already have cheaper healing, there is synergy between cheaper healing and stronger healing. But why stop there? If you have one buff to healing power already, picking a second copy of that buff to healing power has the same potential for synergy. If you get any healing spells, they will be better. Maybe they will be better by roughly the same amount. Another example: You are playing a (hypothetical) drafting card game. You have a card that lets you draw a card when you play it in beast mode. You don't have any beast mode activating cards yet. If you pick another card that has an extra effect when in beast mode, it will make your first card that activates beast mode that much better. Another example: You are playing a role-playing game with random loot. You are wearing an amulet of fire damage, a ring of ice damage, and a crown of poison damage. If you find a ring of fire damage. Obviously having +2 to fire damage is better than having +1 to fire damage and +1 to ice damage, unless your ice spells are levelled up already. You would rather use the best spell all the time, unless fire and ice have cooldowns.

If picking the same thing again multiple times is a good move, even if you have nothing that enables the synergy yet, it's self-synergy. If a thing just has a synergy with itself, like a murloc that gives +1 to other murclocs, and would thus give +1 to another copy of itself, that is just regular synergy.

The clearest example of self-synergy in an actually existing game is Risk of Rain (at least the first one). There are so many items which can stack, and which you should pick multiples of when you can, to enable synergies that much harder. Faster attacks stack, and enable items that have a chance to cause an effect on attack more often.

On the other hand, many games have upgrades, skills, or items with mechanics with a mutual anti-synergy. Let's call the anti-synergy version of self-synergy anti-self-synergy. Anything that casts from hit points has anti-synergy with other things that cast from hit points, including itself, because casting from hit points too much runs the risk of running out of hit points.

Games often prevent self-synergy effects by having upgrades drawn without replacement from small pool (Nuclear Throne) or limit it by making it risky to pick a card purely speculatively (Slay the Spire) or prevent it by making effects not stack. Some games have the potential for self-synergy, but in the Hearthstone arena mode, it's never the right choice to pick a second Murloc just because you already have one Murloc, even though the upside could be amazing. Some types of pick-ups like "tears up" items in The Binding of Isaac have strong self-synergy, making subsequent tear effects that much more effective, while "damage up" items are not really synergistic, but just good, individually, and their effects add up in a linear fashion. In Diablo and derived games, there is no game design pressure for these kinds of things, because you can keep around set pieces, synergy enablers, and combo items in your chest or inventory on the off chance they might become useful later. It's less of a "speculative pick" and more of a "don't sell, yet" situation.

Self-synergy is often a "win more" thing. You don't need more of one thing when enabling a synergy even once would win you the game or at least give you a competitive edge.

In FTL: Faster Than Light there is anti-synergy between picking multiple missile weapons (because missiles are a scarce resource) or between using multiple beam weapons (because beams can't take down shields for other beams), and for most species there is no benefit to picking a second crew member of that species over picking a different species - with one exception. Every subsequent Mantis crew member increases the viability of buying a transporter and switching from a ship weapons play style to a boarding party play style. Having two Mantis makes it really tempting to pick a third, even if you don't have a transporter yet. Having three Mantis will make reconstitutive teleport that much better with a transporter.

Imagine you are designing additional content for Slay the Spire, FTL or Hearthstone. Adding underpowered cards to Hearthstone will probably not change the meta-game in the "constructed" format. They would just never be played. Adding underpowered and individually weak cards that enable synergies on the other hand might change the metagame in the "constructed" format, but not "arena". Card pools in Hearthstone are rather big, so players can't count on finding a card that completes a combo during their draft. Adding weak cards with potentially strong synergies widens the gap between arena and constructed. Adding unequivocally strong cards just breaks the game and leads to power creep.

Contrast this with Binding of Isaac, where adding a strong item to the shop pool is Isaac makes shops stronger, creates incentives for saving 15¢ and spending a key on a shop door, but adding a weak item to the boss or treasure room pool just makes the game harder. Synergies are too random to plan ahead.

In FTL, pools for weapons, crew, systems, and augmentations are rather small. The only pools that are big are events. You can't count on getting a beam weapon or cloaking when you need them, but you usually get something. You can easily add more events to FTL, but you can't add more species, or more weapon types, without completely changing the balance of the game. In the same vein, adding more cards to Slay the Spire would trash the existing potential for synergy or self-synergy. One way to keep the potential for synergy would be to add the existing synergies to the new cards or items, but this could easily result in power creep or overly complex card text.

Just adding more stuff to a game would cause the difficulty/power levels of random decks/builds, drafted decks/builds, and constructed decks/builds to diverge drastically. This can be counteracted by changing around certain pools, making certain items/cards a guaranteed find, increasing the size (shelf space) of shops, and so on, but all those game design tweaks have knock-on effects.

The existence of random items, speculative picks, self-synergy, synergy, item pools, item rarity tiers, and randomly populated shops creates a dynamic where there is an optimal size of certain pools, an optimal amount of content for certain game modes, and adding or removing content will affect different game modes differently.

Most games that have multiple game modes, like Hearthstone with "arena" (draft) and standard (constructed) mode, or The Binding Of Isaac with a normal mode and "greed mode", are struggling to keep the power levels of items/cards and the size and shape of pools consistent. Adding more stuff and changing pool sizes pushes different modes in different directions, and requires counter-balance patches to cards or enemies that affect different modes differently, but in the other direction.

There is an optimum amount of stuff in a game design, and it's often less than 20. Whenever you add more stuff to your game, you should ask yourself: Am I adding a card? Am I adding a skill? Am I adding a sword or gun? Or am I adding a random encounter with flavour text?

[justaboutdead]

Why Escape the Dark Castle is pretty cool

Escape the Dark Castle is a 2017 1-4 player board game published by Themeborne, and its damn good. First shoutout goes to the artist, Alex Crispin, who did an amazing job. The art is all very reminiscent of old school rpgs or choose your own adventure books, and im here for it.

The art isn't the only thing that's inspired by old school rpgs. Everything about the game, from the campy dark fantasy writing, to the gameplay itself feels like an interesting take on the osr, and honestly works best when you treat it as such.

The mechanics are simple (its successor, Escape the Dark Sector is a better fit for people who want more complexity), but there's actually quite a bit of depth. Basically, you slowly reveal scenarios on cards that have been randomly set aside before the game, read them aloud and then roll dice to resolve actions. You loose health if you do bad, and if anyone in the group dies you all fail.

There's actually quite a bit of depth to the system, each character has different traits on their dice, which mean they are good at different things. Before you flip over each scenario You choose a player to flip it. That player is you for the duration of the scenario, and any effects that specify You affect that person. Encounters can award players with items that they can use and pass around to other players between combat. All of this results in a lot of micro decisions across the course of the game.

Combat consists of rolling dice, trying to match the dice the monster has. If you match them you can roll dice. Monsters attack every player after the players attack. If you roll a double, you block and take no damage. Additionally, you can place one character at a time, on rest, restoring 1 HP each round, but taking them out of combat.

While all of these factors individually don't account for much strategy, together they make a huge difference. The odds are stacked against you in Escape the Dark Castle, so every little difference count. In fact ive found that good planning and careful strategy can lead to fairly consistent victories even against some of the harder challenges we've attempted. The game also balances itself for more or less players, giving you less health and the enemies more the more players you have.

Here's the example they give of a monster in the rulebook. The bottom left shows the health of the monster, thevplayer simble meaning to roll s number of dice equal to the player and add that to the monster's HP.

The most important part of Escape the Dark Castle, however, is the mood. The game is all about mood, it even has an official soundtrack (here's it on spotify: https://spotify.link/MVbjH3GkZDb ). This is perfect for setting the mood, and I'd highly recommend it.

The game is packed with flavor text and lore. Every card has a flavorful description of what's happening, which are best read aloud in your best dark fantasy voice. There's also the lore book, which has 2-3 page descriptions of every boss and character, aswell as the Death book, which has unique death descriptions for every card in the game (that can kill you). This is all written with the tone you'd expect from the game's setting.

Due to the nature of the game, they've also been able to publish 3 similarly well designed expansions for the game. Also, if you feel overconfident after a clean victory, you can add more cards (or even more bosses) to your deck and play a longer run.

The game acomplishes a lot for its simplicity, and part of my love for it probably comes from my love for old school revival rpgs. It ultimatley offers a fast, pretty simple but satsfying, definitley quite tense gaming experience that does a lot with its simplicity. Randomizing the control of a dungeon crawl to a deck of cards isn't exactly a new idea but it is executed very well.

(Note: i kept bolding escape the dark castle bc thats how i say it in my head: w all the bravado of a mortal combat announcer)

[ceardaw]

How To Use Quality Diablo 4 Unique Items

Items are an integral component of Diablo 4 that can significantly increase your character's stats, from normal, magical, rare and legendary options.

Masterworking items is also an effective way of unlocking powerful affixes for players. There are five systems for masterworking items: Legendary Aspects, Greater Affixes and Rerolling an Affix.

Mythic Uniques

fMythic Unique items are extremely powerful gear pieces that can significantly change existing setups. Although not as build-defining as Set diablo 4 items, Mythic Unique pieces still make an impactful statement about who owns what. While rare Tormented bosses will drop these gems on occasion, Mythic Uniques may also be crafted.

Diablo 4 offers five systems for customizing your gear. While regular items have one modifier, magic items have two. Magic items are sometimes overlooked due to having only a limited selection of affixes; however, these diablo 4 items can often be salvaged to earn Reusable Parts that can help improve other parts.

Rare equipment offers several random stat modifiers and is an upgrade over magical gear. Rare pieces can even be disenchanted to create Legendary Aspects which add additional enhancements beyond their base Item Power rating.

Legendary Uniques

Uniques are among the most powerful pieces of gear in the game, providing class-specific powers as well as often providing powerful secondary effects. Diablo 4 unique items   have the potential to become Best-in-Slot items when equipped - though with lower drop rates than Legendaries they tend to become harder to obtain.

Uniques do not possess the capability of being extracted and imprinted onto other gear at an Occultist, making it much harder to find that ideal Unique you have been eyeing off. Change would help balance out and maintain an exciting hunt experience!

For maximum chances at finding rare items, MMOGAH suggests engaging in high-level endgame content like high-level dungeons and boss encounters such as those found in Helltides. Furthermore, Foil Uniques are available through certain supporter packs and Reliquary Keys that may allow you to reroll modifiers for improved results.

Nomal Uniques

Season 3 saw the introduction of several diablo 4 unique items designed to offer generic effects across classes and are class-independent, meant as an way of bringing back popular seasonal content into the game.

These uniques resemble those previously offered under Uber Unique's former system and typically have very low drop chances and are extremely rare. Most have only a single socket that cannot be upgraded through Occultist Enchanting or Tempering techniques.

These uniques have predetermined names and properties (with possible roll ranges). Many include special abilities not found elsewhere in the game such as Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike, Open Wounds, Ignore Target Defense, Freeze duration or +Fire Skills which is indicated with an asterisk on their property sheets.

Sacred Uniques

Sacred and Ancestral Unique items are among the highest-grade gear in the game. While sacred uniques offer extra item power that can boost stats, Ancestral uniques come equipped with a Greater Affix that adds one of four Legendary Aspects that make their gear truly remarkable.Discover all the details about diablo 4 items for sale xbox by clicking here or visiting our website.

At present, these powerful diablo 4 items can only be obtained by completing Nightmare Dungeons or opening Tortured Gifts during Helltide events. No matter how players acquire them, these powerful pieces are invaluable and will significantly bolster any build.

Diablo 4's item system has undergone significant revision in its latest update, so that you can better understand its various categories and loot acquisition methods here at MMOGAH. Our friendly customer support is here to assist in building up strong characters no matter which class they play!

Ancestral Uniques

Diablo 4's latest installment introduces new diablo 4 items that can drastically change a character's gameplay, from weapons and jewelry to armor and resistances. These innovative additions provide various effects ranging from offensive stats for weapons, defensive stats for armor, and resistances for accessories.

Unique equipment differs from its Legendary and Rare counterparts in that its stat affixes are fixed while it also boasts special abilities, enabling game-defining builds.

Purchase of Diablo 4 items can save players both time and money while giving them an advantage in PvP and Dungeons. MMOGAH as a reliable G2G marketplace to purchase Diablo 4 items, offering safe delivery at quick speeds as well as multiple payment methods for customers.

[gameinfoxtbr]

AFK Arena Latest Update and News

In AFK Arena Latest Update and News Article we emerge new updates from Lilith Games with diverse designs of heroes and refreshing gameplay options. As a seasoned player or a newcomer to the game understanding the newest additions will improve your involvement in Esperia. We will examine the recent updates and news for AFK Arena while showcasing the new content and enhancements that make playing the game enjoyable. Let’s dive in! 🎮 About AFK Arena In AFK Arena mobile RPGs players form teams of heroes featuring unique skills and personalities. You can collect rewards offline with this game mechanic and it remains open to both casual users and serious gamers. It combines tactical challenges with impressive illustrations and engaging stories. To understand the game mechanics in depth and strategies well take a look at the AFK Arena Game Guide.

GameInfoX

Latest Update

The Abyssal Expedition Vault of Time official Season is Opening!

Event Time: 10/08 00:00-10/29 23:59 (UTC)

Rankings and Militia Feats are available this season.

Adjusted the amount of health the Final Boss "Ossivorous Spore" has for each of its lives. Please refer to the game for specifics.

The number of resource cities on land has been expanded to include the Rainforest, Tribal Ruins, Crystal Lake, and more.

The mini-map now shows the location of the Final Boss"Ossivorous Spore". 🔥 New Heroes and Faction Expansions Introducing fresh heroes presents a key highlight during every AFK Arena Latest Update. Updates regularly add fresh figures to one of the game’s eight factions which broadens your strategic possibilities and promotes team diversity. Latest Hero Release: Alna 🌟 Alna the celestial fighter was recently introduced to the lineup. With her ability to manipulate time and immobilize foes, she enhances AFK Arena through powerful crowd management and defensive skills. - Abilities: In both PvP and PvE settings Alna decreased attack speed and immobilized enemies making her a great choice for all types of play. - Best Teams: When partnered with Celestials or Wilders Alna acts as a powerful shield for your group. The best place to find all the top heroes is in the AFK Arena Tier List ⚔️ New Game Mode: Temporal Rift A new mode named the Temporal Rift has been added to AFK Arena Latest Update. The dungeon crawl in this mode presents a challenging activity using time constraints to evaluate player strategy. - What is it? Within the Temporal Rift, players explore numerous floors while confronting tougher adversaries as they go further. As you advance in the game mode the better the prizes will be. - Rewards: By winning special time tokens players can swap them for valuable assets including hero scrolls diamonds and unique gear. Want advice on building a strategy for the Temporal Rift? Explore the AFK Arena Guide for valuable guidance and strategies. 🎁 Special Events and Free Rewards As a mark of recognition for the AFK Arena's Latest Update, AFK Arena organizes short-lived events for players to gain exclusive prizes. Playing events provides a method to gather useful resources like event heroes and diamonds. Current Events: - Summer Festival Event: This event provides rewards upon daily login along with bonus diamonds and event scrolls for rare heroes. - Voyage of Wonders: The Voyage of Wonders event has come back with unique challenges and generous incentives. Keep in mind to use Game codes to claim free rewards. With each update comes a pulse of Gift codes that give bonus diamonds and hero items. Remember to claim the free gifts! Check out the AFK Arena Game Codes resource for the Newest codes and increase your team's capability.

GameInfoX ⚙️ Balance Changes and Hero Adjustments With each major release, the team at AFK Arena implements necessary tweaks to secure fairness and invigorate the competitive context. Here are some key adjustments from the latest patch: - Brutus (Mauler): His Last Gasp feature has been strengthened to render him stronger in PvE and PvP gameplay. His ability to survive has improved significantly and switched back into a top-tier tank. - Talene (Celestial): Her ability to resurrect has gotten slight updates that increased its reliability in challenging encounters. - Saurus (Wilder): Tweaks occurred to his damage effectiveness during boss encounters so he functions better in both King's Tower and Guild Boss duels. Want to understand the effects these modifications have on the current meta. Consult the AFK Arena Tier List to find out the rank of your favorite characters post the most recent changes. 🏰 New Guild Features and Improvements The guild system benefits of new changes in this patch. To offer fairer matches and more profitable rewards for contestants in Guild Wars the feature has been reworked. - Guild War Season Rewards: Players with strong results in Guild Wars will get special rewards such as rare ascension materials and legendary equipment. - Guild Shop Update: The Guild Shop now includes new items that let players trade guild points for strong gear and artifacts. Planning to boost your guild performance? Find the top tactics in the AFK Arena Game Guide. 🏆 Latest AFK Arena Tier List Update As soon as a fresh hero shows up or important balance tweaks happen the AFK Arena Tier List obtains updates. Users can recognize the top heroes and refine their combinations. - Top PvP Heroes: Due to their strong single-target powers heroes including Zolrath and Athalia improved their position in the PvP leaderboards. - Top PvE Heroes: In their role for campaign development and dungeon challenges Ainz Ooal Gown along with Alna impress through their exceptional crowd management and substantial damage potential. View the complete AFK Arena Tier List to find which heroes you ought to be purchasing now!

GameInfoX 👨‍💻 AFK Arena Developer Insights The AFK Arena Latest Update available now was made by Developers at Lilith Games. Lilith Games receives acclaim for its continuous source of new features and its connection to the gaming audience. Through regular communication with the community and taking feedback seriously the team works toward boosting gaming quality. Would you like insights into the creators of the game that you enjoy the most? Check out the AFK Arena Developer site for details about their efforts and future developments. 🏅 Final Thoughts: What to Expect Next in AFK Arena In AFK Arena latest update and announcements we found numerous new additions to the game including characters like Alna and captivating game modes like the Temporal Rift. As updates roll in and skilled developers work hard on the game, everyone has something exciting to anticipate in Esperia. Whether you craft optimal teams or hunt new rewards in PvP AFK Arena maintains an enjoyable experience tailored for various kinds of gamers. Subscribe for more information concerning new features and come back here for the best updates on AFK Arena! Word Count: 1,050+ Read the full article

[linuxgamenews]

Backpack Hero: Crafting Your Way Through Roguelike Dungeons 

Backpack Hero 1.0 launches for the deck-building roguelike game on Linux, Steam Deck, Mac, and Windows PC. The imaginative and skillful efforts of developer Jaspel have brought this dynamic title to life. Available on Steam, GOG, and itch (with Steam key) plus 87% Very Positive reviews. Backpack Hero is a fresh take on the deck-building roguelike genre which now hits 1.0 on Linux and Steam Deck. Here's what makes it special, especially if you're into titles that require smart thinking and strategy. In this game, how you arrange your items in it is very important. The better you organize, the more powerful your items become. This is a unque twist since it's not just about what you carry but how you arrange it. You'll also explore various places like dungeons, caves, and swamps. Plus each area in Backpack Hero 1.0 is more unique and offers new challenges. As you journey, you'll meet interesting characters and face tough opponents. The game's world is full of surprises, so you need to be ready for anything. Don't worry if you feel lost at first; that's part of the adventure! One of the best parts of Backpack Hero 1.0 is rebuilding your hometown, Haversack Hill. You use the resources you find on your adventures to make the town better. This isn’t just about fighting and exploring; it's also about creating a nice place for people to live. You can buy and sell things, research new stuff, and unlock new heroes, challenges, and quests. By building the perfect village, you help save the world of Orderia and its animal inhabitants.

Backpack Hero 1.0 Launch Trailer

Backpack Hero 1.0 has really grown and changed. At the start, it had just Purse, but now it's got four more characters, with updates to two. There's a huge variety of over 800 items and 100+ enemies to encounter. The developers have added support for controllers, and it's compatible with Steam Deck. The best part? The community's involvement. Since their ideas and mods have been a big part of shaping it. The new Story Mode helps you progress even between play-throughs and makes it easier for new players to get the hang of things. This mode lets you explore at your own pace and discover the secrets of Haversack Hill. Designing the town layout is going to be a fun challenge! But there's more to come in Haversack Hill! After the 1.0 release, the developers will keep adding more stuff. This includes Kickstarter rewards, seasonal events, more items, NPCs, and quests in the town. They're also planning to add more music, improve mod support, and update holiday events. Plus, they're always fixing bugs and making balance tweaks. If you're just starting with Backpack Hero, welcome to 1.0! There's a lot to explore and enjoy. Check out the character guides, learn about Haversack Hill, and definitely join the Discord community to stay in the loop and also impact future developments.

Platform Support:

Play Anywhere: You can play this 1.0 launch of Backpack Hero on Linux, Steam Deck, Mac, and Windows PC. Plus it also works well with a controller. So you can enjoy it at home or on the go. Backpack Hero is a deck-building roguelike game that offers a lot of fun, strategy, and variety in the 1.0 launch. Whether you're battling through dungeons or building up your town, there's always something new and exciting to do. It's a great title for anyone who likes to think, plan, and see their clever ideas come to life in a vibrant, ever-changing world. Priced at $16.99 USD / £14.23 / 16,14€ with the 15% discount on Steam, GOG, and itch (with Steam key).

[thetoxicgamer]

Dark and Darker update buffs Wizards and adds low level matchmaking

The 12th update for Ironmace's classic dungeon-crawling RPG game, Dark and Darker, has been released. Even though Dark and Darker is still unavailable on Steam at the time of writing, the extraction-style PvPvE game has developed a devoted following. We have the most recent set of Dark & Darker patch notes available for you as its most recent update rolls out for those of you who are still anxiously playing the early access build. This Dark and Darker patch changes the way low-level matchmaking works. Developer Ironmace says, “We have decided to try out a separate matching pool for players under level 15 to give them a little more time to learn and adjust to the game prior to engaging with the Trading Post.” In addition to this, it has adjusted the minimum level required to open the Trading Post feature from level 10 to 15 to fit the new system. Wizard balance continues to be an ongoing focus as well. Ironmace reflects, “We realized we may have gone too far with the recent nerfs to the Wizard spells and have slightly increased the duration of the Haste and Invisibility spells.” In addition to this, it promises that the previously teased bard rework and “more significant class balance changes” are still set to arrive in a future update. Finally, adjustments have been made to the way the Darkswarm circle closes, which should hopefully mean fewer instances where it ends in roughly the center of the map. Ironmace adds, “We hope this hotfix should expand the playstage a little bit. We are also working on adding more layouts with more variety of center modules in the near future.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq8JLJcdvzs Dark and Darker patch notes – early access hotfix 12 – Thursday September 14, 2023 Here are the Dark and Darker patch notes for early access hotfix 12, courtesy of developer Ironmace via the game’s official Discord server: - Fixed several issues that could cause server instability. - Characters level 14 and under will be placed in a separate matching pool. If any member of a party is level 15 or above, the entire party will be placed in the level 15+ matching pool. - The level requirement to sign up for the Trading Post has been increased from level 10 to level 15. - Fixed an issue where the Darkswarm circle would mostly end in the center region of the map. - Wizard’s Invisibility duration has been increased from 3 to 4 seconds. - Wizard’s Haste duration has been increased from 6 to 8 seconds. - Added an option to control whether items in the following utility slots are automatically placed in your hand after an item is used. - Improvements to Ironshield. If you can’t get enough of the tension of competing against other players, you’ll want to make sure not to miss any of the best multiplayer games you can play in 2023. You’ll also find plenty of thrilling fights for survival in the best battle royale games, so sharpen up those skills and prepare to drop in. Read the full article

[apsupmix]

Played Legend of Dragoon

After couple of decades, I’ve played and finished Legend of Dragoon. It’s been one of those games I played a bit back in PS1 days (think I borrowed it from friend), but never finished, or even got past disk 1. And now I finally got back to it and played through it all.

And in the end, it’s fine. It was actually lot better than I expected going in, it’s very functional and works well, but it doesn’t have anything outstanding that would make me recommend it to someone. I do want to praise it’s handling of basic jrpg core elements, things like rate of leveling, random encounter rate and pacing of fights, were really good in Legend of Dragoon.

Legend of Dragoon has few notable gimmicks in it’s battles. First one is timing based combos called additions, which occasionally frustrated me late game when they got long and fuck-up meant difference between doing 100pts of damage or 1000pts. But that’s also on me not being great at and not generally liking timing based mechanics. Also some attack items have you mash X to increase their power, which I just disliked and eventually made turbo go “brrrrr” to save my hand and controller.

Other big, maybe it’s biggest, gimmick is the dragoon transformations. Every character has their own super sentai form, that comes with power-up, magic and, most importantly, transformation sequence. Legend of Dragoon isn’t the best looking game, even considering it’s platform, but it knows how to be stylish on occasion and the dragoon transformations are a highlight, unique and fitting for every character. Sadly mechanically the whole thing is bit lacking. The magic is situationally useful and the extra defense is generally nice. But some boss fights contain anti-dragoon traps, for example early game boss put up a counter stance just after I had dragooned up my whole party and dragoons can only attack or magic, so in face of a counter stance, my only option was to die.

Thing I was afraid would frustrate me, but I ended up being fine with was Legend of Dragoons’ stingy item limit. I’m not a fan of tight resource management, but again Legend of Dragoon was surprisingly well tuned. Healing items being always good and the main source of in-dungeon healing and damage items being quite useful, especially in aoe-situations. So preparations for dungeons was balancing between healing and offense and situational utility like mp-restoration and anti-status ailment potions.

Legend of Dragoon also has story and characters, but I don’t think I have anything to say about those. And that’s not to be taken as negative, I honestly just don’t know what I would say. Surely there are people, smarter than me, who have analyzed and talked about those aspects in various ways. I just wanted to pour out my thoughts of the game’s mechanics and how much I got out of relatively simple game. Also maybe I was wrong, Legend of Dragoon is good game and people interested in jrpgs should consider checking it out.

[consolegamesin2023]

One Piece Odyssey is a truly remarkable JRPG for 2023

One Piece Odyssey is an exciting new Japanese role-playing game spinoff of the massively popular manga and anime franchise. While it has a difficult start, One Piece Odyssey isn't just a quick money-making venture based on intellectual property dynamism; it's a full-fledged JRPG that feels like it's pushing One Piece to new gaming heights thanks to its incredible design, storytelling, characters, and new twists.

Story One Piece Odyssey commences with Luffy and his crew sailing across the oceans, looking for adventure. Then, a storm strikes and causes havoc on the Thousand Sunny boat, and they also get washed up on an unknown island. When they meet a couple of the isle's population, it becomes clear that leaving this location is not an easy feat, particularly anytime their power is taken away. It's going to need the full team to come together to restore their particular property and set sail again. With regards to the tale, as it concerns The Straw Hat Crew, it's an interesting mix with a new, overarching, fresh narrative that's associated with a retelling of classic stories that are based on the manga. The latter involves the island as well as two brand new heroes created by Eiichiro Oda, delving into their valuable pasts and present problems. Meanwhile, the search for cubes that may reinstate the team's abilities will require the characters to go back to the past. This is a fair balance between the old and the new content, providing a solution for both returning supporters and newcomers. Best PS5 games are available to purchase here.

Combat No matter how good a game's story and characterization are, it will fall flat if the experience of playing does not generate. However, this isn't the situation with One Piece Odyssey. There's a very good balance between fighting and excitement, with a lot of investigating to do and even some fun puzzles to play with in the game's various rooms that resemble dungeons. In addition to the main story, you will discover an abundance of side content to concern yourself with. Concentrating solely on the key story will make you spend about 30 hours in the game. Clean up all the mess, and perhaps multiply that. Combat is a large part of the adventure. Combat is a turn-based game, with participants typically controlling four of the entire Straw Hat pirates on the battlefield at any given time. Each moment, you have the option of hitting enemies with your standard attack, making use of an item, or unleashing your most effective unique attack.

Roles Each character has their own unique and amazing aptitudes: Luffy, for example, has a body made of rubber, whereas Usopp is a sniper. Food items that boost status and food, as well as balls that reduce attributes that can be thrown at intractable foes, become increasingly important, as does the equipment strategy, which is essentially an area on which you must fit in differently designed objects that boost each character's specific statistics, become increasingly important. It's the first major discount we've seen on the cheap PS5 horror games.

Visuals at Acoustic Design Visually, Odyssey appears stunning. The attack animations are ripped straight from the source material, and the world is graphically enjoyable. Eiichiro Oda's distinctive hero style is in full bloom, with new beasts and roles designed specifically for recreation. This will keep in spirit with the source material through its goofy designs. The music and sound design are generally equally appealing, with bouncy, energetic songs that will be familiar to those who have viewed the show. The voice acting is as remarkable as it would be throughout the anime, with the original cast lending their particular voices once more. There is no Italian dub, but unless you're fluent in Japanese, you should be reading a lot!

Bottom Line One Piece Odyssey shines in every single part of an RPG and is true to its source. The combat is entertaining and easy to play, which is the base of the play. I'd recommend it to everyone who's never played a turn-based game before and is enthusiastic about discovering its possibilities of it. The islands people visit are unique while not being overly large. The story plot presents exactly what makes One Piece exceptional and remarkable. For the answer posed previously, One Piece Odyssey is both a good RPG and a great One Piece game title.