| paleface [sys=PC; cat=Adventure; reg=NA] |
| | | https://surt-r.itch.io/demon-lord
A free, super-streamlined Wizardry-like made for Dungeoncrawler GameJam 2023 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8TtFM8G0Y4 ) with a sepia-toned, blurry pixel filter. Uses (blurry, pixel-filtered) b&w version of the public domain character art made for Javardry (see entry 1638). Made I think by a single Japanese developer--could be wrong about that.
There's no Wizardry-style town; you start as a single character in the dungeon. No menu, no automap, just walk down hallways, random combats start, you can attack, defend, or run, then the usual turn-based Wizardry thing happens. Didn't get far before being killed (repeatedly; don't think I survived more than two combat rounds) so I'm not sure if there's any inventory, etc.
Enemies shake when hit but it's not bad. There's a pink, slow-ish screen flash when your character is hit.
Being remade into a maybe slightly less blurry, four-character party version called Demon Lord Reincarnation. Someone asked on that game's Steam forum https://steamcommunity.com/app/2395150/discussions/0/3845556684664106716/ if there would be an option to turn off the graphical filter, and the reply was no, "Demon Lord Reincarnation is designed to look like a cursed game that you'd play on an old system."
They're also saying Reincarnation will be a dozen or so hours of gameplay, so presumably there will be more to it, and much different balancing; this Jam version doesn't feel like something you're meant to survive for more than a minute or so. |
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| | | | Update: oh wait, there's a campfire you sit down at and get more party members? Okay I may have to give this a real try now hm. |
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| | | | (Note to self: skipping the text that pops up at the start of the dungeon that tells you about the campfire was dumb. ; D Four party members can definitely survive battles. They're at the fire fully made, introduce themselves, and you just accept them or skip to the next one. Doesn't appear to be inventory or anything. Looks like maybe you can go back to the fire to replace party members if need be. Hm this has possibilities.) |
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| | | Of the upcoming (July 20th) Reincarnation, the dev says:
- no resurrection (but can get new characters "roughly the power of the previous party"; also, dead characters have an "unrevealed" "purpose")
- "escape chance is always 100% to compensate for the high encounter difficulty, except for the final boss battles, which you can't escape"
- they're aiming for completion time of "roughly 10-15 hours"
- "featuring reworked combat, expanded dungeon, additional events, and more"
Reincarnation doesn't seem to have the screen flash on hit, but does have screen shake on hit. I asked on the Steam forum if there was an option to turn it off, and they said an option "will be added to the release version" https://steamcommunity.com/app/2395150/discussions/0/3808405578496851067/ . Monsters will still shake when hit. |
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| | | With no front/back rank organization, and Defend only working for the party leader, seems to be all about having high HP.
High HP classes: Dwarf, General, Executioner |
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| | | | Some of the developer's old stuff has Japanese characters next to it on the web, but also one of their music site profiles says Dnipro, Ukraine; and some of their old games have German titles. Also, their English is very good. They demonstrate familiarity with both western (arrow to the knee) and Japanese game stuff (Javardry artist). Maybe most likely to be European, I dunno. |
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Game Jam juror's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8TtFM8G0Y4
Dungeon Crawler Jam 2023 entry: https://itch.io/jam/dcjam2023/rate/2006696
Control: arrow keys, space bar.
Randomly generated characters join you at the campfire near the start point. Party of 4 face random monster encounters in 1-floor dungeon; stay near campfire until can crush them. Campfire heals. Outside of camp, your team only recovers HP by winning fights, which also raises their stats.
In battle, you pick Attack / Defend / Escape once per round for whole party, then watch the round play out. Attack uses random(?) skill. Run is 100% except can't run from bosses, and kinda can't run from eh well there's a spiral passage w/ a party of 6 goblins, and if you run they attack again in the next square, back at full strength.
In jam feedback, the dev acknowledged the goblin encounter "wasn't balanced that well" https://itch.io/post/7627275 and that Attack/Defend "only affect the party leader," "a quirk [...] that was too late to change." OH. https://itch.io/post/7607128
No inventory, town, or map.
After struggling for a while w/ thieves, archers, mages etc getting killed a lot--there's no traditional Wizardry front/back rank party formation--I finally took a party of 4 huge beefy dudes and spent about 30 mins grinding random encounters to raise their stats, to where they could crush the 1st gate-keeping encounter. Could probably get down to like 10 mins of spamming space bar. At that rate, the pink slow screen flash when taking a hit could get painful.
There's another fixed encounter after that, which didn't feel much harder. Then a boss fight that didn't feel much harder either; I didn't do any real grinding to speak of after I could take out the 1st gatekeeper easily.
Then there's a big twist, which kind of makes the whole thing pay off a bit. ^ _^ Then a final(?) twist, which I didn't survive because I didn't know how to prep a team for it:
(spoilers!): https://itch.io/post/7672157 (and reply). So that's what the tease about leading an army of monsters means. Now I want to try again!
The upcoming July 20th remake, Demon Lord Reincarnation -- https://store.steampowered.com/app/2395150/Demon_Lord_Reincarnation/ -- promises some progress will be retained even after a wipe. A trailer shows a treasure chest (a reason to have a thief in your party?) awarding a mystery potion (raised stat), per-character Attack/Defend commands, picking a skill to use (w/ SP values), and a Save option. The dev says they're aiming for 10-15 hours play time.
It replaces the jam version's slow pink screen flash on hit w/ screen shake, which they say will be made optional: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2395150/discussions/0/3808405578496851067/
This free game jam pre-Reincarnation thing is a super-stylish and atmospheric spacebar masher, only gameplay being deciding when to stop mashing near the campfire & mash to the endgame.
So there could be more meat to Reincarnation. But in its trailer, the non-meaty party member is still the one who dies.
I asked about the viability of non-meaty characters on the forum https://steamcommunity.com/app/2395150/discussions/0/3808406007546595071/ and the developer replied "hybrid characters and especially magic users are very brittle in the beginning and can be a liability until they grow a bit or learn an offensive skill or two to decimate enemies before they get a chance to act.
Since you have direct control over your characters in this version, you can put them on the defensive during harsh battles to greatly increase their chances of survival and run away if things get too risky."
Jam version definitely not balanced for non-meaty classes. For Reincarnation I suppose it'll come down to how effective their skills will be & how effective Defend will be. If under $10 it'll be worth it just to mess around with. Might actually be a game. I kinda like this meat masher though (gonna play it w/ arcade stick & Joy2Key). |
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| | | Download added: 31_4_executes.jpg (38377 bytes)
"4 Executioners ^ _^"
Played this time with the five controls (Spacebar, arrow keys) mapped to my arcade stick via Joy2Key, ready for button mash grinding! : D
The 17 minute grind--to the point where all four Executioners had at least 80 HP, and two had over 100 HP--turned out to be a bit excessive, but it didn't backfire after the twist, because it turns out power levels just continue to escalate from there--and you get to summon super powerful monsters you never saw before, to fight huge stacks of opponents!
(How high do the power levels go, anyway? = oo)
The number that replaces class names is the number of attacks they get per round, it looks like.
It's a fun play-through! ^ _^ Will be very interesting to see if the more clicky, less mashy remake will be as nakedly entertaining. |
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