Recent reviews by Lord Buttermilk

Great game, just sucks that the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ client and the god-awful Square Enix account system basically makes this game not worth the trouble if you ever plan to travel damn near anywhere. I literally can't renew my subscription because I am in another country and using VPN. Just take my damn money and let me play the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game. Buying this game through Steam adds another layer of complexity. I now have the feeling that I should've taken the other reviews more seriously when they mentioned account issues.

Wish there was a Meh review button. The gameplay is sooo good, but having no savepoints is brutal with a combat system that looks like you gave Gang Beasts swords and hammers. I so desperately want to play the game, but it's such a bad feeling starting a run, knowing that I can spend hours just to slip on some brink and have the enemy land a lucky pipe hit on my a$$.

In many ways, the decision making process this game requires is very reminiscent of Into the Breach, where you are required to mind your movement just about as much as your attacks, while your attacks are also a occasionally a form of movement. The game, as well as the roguelike game-play loop it presents, is extremely enjoyable, and for this price it's more than worth it.

While I recommend this game, I do so only because it occasionally provides engaging and incredibly fun gameplay. I've been playing this game off and on for a bit, casually installing and uninstalling the game as I get bored. Every time it starts up as the most entertaining thing to look forward to after work, and just as quickly becomes a slog.

The game is incredibly shallow, and the developers don't seem to provide much extra content except bug fixed and QOL changes that don't really affect anyone's QOL. Every game is the same - you build up your clan, gather recruits and work towards building an army. At this stage, the game feels deep - you're faced with (initially) tough combat, money is difficult, and enemies have larger armies. As you build up your army and maybe join or make your own kingdom, the games starts falling apart at the seams.

The AI is stupid (really stupid), makes awful decisions in kingdom politics and in waging war. The gameplay reveals itself to be very shallow as well. When they say this is an army management simulator, they really mean it, because this is all that it is. This game is for waging war only, and specifically focused on combat (even though this part itself also isn't perfect). The kingdom politics are bare bones. Dialogue and interactions with NPCs are meaningless. Just as an example, it took me 5 minutes to get a wife, and she virtually had no effect on my gameplay, I literally can't interact with her in any way besides shoving her into my army, or asking her how the city she is governing is doing. Once you figure out war, money is no longer an issue. In fact, that's the only way money ever becomes a non-issue, as all other options (such as caravans and workshops) bring in too little and are always at risk with how rampant war is. Which brings me to the reason I always become bored and uninstall the game.

There is no peace, ever. AI literally just can't leave you alone. They always wage war, on all fronts. This leads to gameplay where you have no breathing room, always need to run to the other side of the map, kill a ton of people, and go back to recruit troops. If the predecessor, M&B Warband, had issues with sometimes being stuck with infinite peacetimes, this issue is for sure fixed here, as there is no peace. AI wages war even when they are spread too thin. This is like if every lord was as angry as the Doomguy and refused to find a therapist.

Mindless slaughter is fun, but it does not provide lasting gameplay. This game is fun every now and then, but only in small doses. Once you become tired of repeatedly bashing armies with other kingdoms (often times with little variation) you become bored. I understand that a game like this takes time and money to make, but if this is the end product, is $50 a fair price?

Really fun! It's like Slay the Spire, but you get your ass beat much more frequently.

I was really drawn to this game even from before I actually acquired it. It looked like a fantastic game and had all the promises of exactly the kind of RPG I wanted it to be. Exploration without hand-holding, challenging gameplay, even co-op for the occasional visit from a friend. So I decided to bite the bullet and buy the game despite the amount of reviews telling me that the difficulty is insane.

There is almost no staggering, the AI has more health even if you fight another human with basic armor, just like you. The AI takes every opportunity to hit you once you swing, so you rarely get the chance to hit them without sacrificing health. Can't swing twice, cause that's guaranteed death. You have to play by the "careful" rules, while the AI goes ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on you, swinging combos because it can afford to do so with it's health bar.

Like almost every other negative reviewer I will say that this game is super promising, but the combat ruins everything. If only the developers actually did something, like given an easier difficulty or actually made the AI play by the "correct" rules, this game could be such a popular RPG. But alas, I don't think they actually care, as these reviews have been here, unchanged, forever

I liked the game earlier when it released, but I came back to it and I can't recommend it anymore. There are simply not enough players for this to have fair matchmaking. The few lobbies that have players usually have a level 200 that stomps the other team by employing cheap moves and OP weapons. I have lately had barely any games where the winning side isn't decided in the first 5 minutes. In fact, some games were simply not finished quicker because the winning team decided to give the losers the point for a few minutes to earn some extra gold by slaughtering them a bit later.

The community is toxic and even if there would be a reporting system, I don't think it would work with these people. I've played just a day since a long break and have had to deal with casual and disgusting racism in the chat like its nothing.

This isn't anything a casual player would buy to enjoy. Being able to enjoy this game would mean putting in very good hours (full of pain and torture) to level with the community veterans who slaughter and teabag you on a whim.

I do have to say: its fun to play with people your level. Really cool idea, fairly nice mechanics. Dueling a friend on an abandoned duel server is really fun. However, the community and low player base make this game not enjoyable, at least to me. At this point, this isn't a game I will sink in hundreds of hours into, especially with the players that frequent it right now.

I wrote a review earlier where I was pissed and gave this game ♥♥♥♥ because I felt that the Random Number Generator is unfair and is heavily plays against the player. I decided to give this game another try because I absolutely love the concept and everything about this game, except the RNG.

I don't know all the mathematical details, but I can probably say that the RNG is fair. There, I said it, the RNG is fair, its not cheating you, (I think) its as random as it gets. There are times when you get lucky, there are times when the AI gets lucky.

But guess what? The fact that the RNG is fair does not make this game fun, for me at least.

First of all, it isn't fun to lose. If you're a fan of this game, you are most likely going to say: "BuT ItS a ChAlLeNgE, ChAlLenGes aRe FuN!". Well, yes, but being consistently frustrated is not fun. There are ways you can "git gud", but they are always going to be hampered by a thing called "bad luck". If your RNG is truly random, its just a fact that if you are unlucky, you can get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ quite often. I am unlucky very often. I have read all the tips, all the suggestions. Yes, I've tried pikes. Yes, I tried war dogs. Yes, I've tried better positioning and surrounding. I do notice when I successfully connect hits. The fact that my last battle ended with my bros missing 9/10 times (not even kidding) while the AI was lopping my head off consistently really drowned out any feeling of accomplishment. Why?

Because, second of all, any loss you take is felt dearly. Bros are expensive, food is expensive, weapons are expensive, everything is expensive, and money doesn't just appear easily. You lose a good bro with good stats, who is going to replace him? Most likely some guy with very bad stats, can't swing a sword at a tree. Lose a whole group of people and you basically start all over. There is also no progression besides what your bros have. Lose them - lose everything.

The community of Battle Brothers is, as expected, a bunch of people who think that being punished severely every other battle is a joy. Hell, this review will probably attract a drone of the community who will vehemently defend the droll of playing this game. They will tell me to: a) git gud; or b) "this game is fun and restarting every time is fun, being challenged is fun (even though being challenged in this game means being frustrated by constant loss every time)".

If you do not sound like the person above, you are most likely not going to enjoy this game for a very long time. The RNG doesn't have to be fair for the game to be fun. If anything, it should slightly back the player up to actually let them have their fun. And that's the problem I have with the game and the community: if you enjoy your punishment so much, why not let others play this game on a more lax setting than "Beginner", maybe with a nicer RNG, so they can enjoy this game as well? Well, its because otherwise, the people with hundreds of hours into this game won't feel a sense of superiority. How else would they feel better after spending so much time being punished and rewarded with unsatisfying wins? What else would help them feel good in life if they couldn't taunt players who don't enjoy often losing a huge chunk of their progress?