Recent reviews by lori

Satisfying-feeling title that seems to take inspiration from Mega Man ZX, of all games, but refines the multi-form approach to a sheen with a great focus on mobility and scoring, not unlike Azure Striker Gunvolt. The gameplay loop is crunchy and snappy feeling, and the level design gets surprisingly challenging, asking you to swap between your forms on the fly and tear through enemies with efficiency. I love the act of going through the levels, and I think it's the real star of the show; the bosses, meanwhile, I'm saddened to say they were pretty uninteresting. Not poorly designed at all, just not particularly fun or memorable, visually or mechanically. For lack of a better word they feel more like an afterthought, and the levels are the main course. To me though, that's fine!

The different forms feel well-balanced for the most part, though the linear design means not all levels equally incentivize using all the forms once you've gotten them all. I was hoping the EX levels with that in mind would basically be the regular levels but with more routes added, but they're closer to the bonus stages in stuff like Sonic Colors and Forces. Most of the levels have secret paths that require the use of a later power, but in the end the ones I've found aren't actually detours or alternate routes so much as secrets, meaning once you've obtained the secret they arent quite as appealing so even on replays some forms won't see a lot of use. Felt like a teensy bit of a let down, but the act of going through the levels is otherwise always a fun time.

The actual spritework for the characters feels a little on the awkward side; some elements feel like they clash and some animations look a little uncanny (Dizzy's idle) or like they're unfinished, but the overall art direction and designs are nice and fun and gives off the feeling of a lost DS title. The saturday morning cartoon vibe is nailed perfectly here, Berserk Boy would genuinely make for a great looking show.

Compared to other games though, I feel like for as tight as the core gameplay is there's a pretty notable unpolishedness in the presentation, ranging from small quirks to questionable decisions. These things aren't all horrible, but they do kind of add up to something that makes me feel like the developers didn't give it all enough thought. To quickly run over issues or quirks I've seen:

- Kei's voice clips and attack callouts play so often that a Freedom Planet fan would blush, and in general at times feel too long for what you're actually doing. Expect to hear "LIGHTNING JUSTICE!" 5 times in a row while in a combat room
- Retro mode includes a life system but perplexingly lives don't refill in between levels, not unlike a similar issue found in Mega Man Zero 1 (a little too much influence, huh?). This means if you finish a level with 1 life, you'll have to start the next level with 1 life unless you kill yourself first to get it all back at 3.
- Volume of the voice clips that accompany the dialogue boxes is too low, and is often drowned out by the music
- Some music seems to just straight up not loop properly; the boss theme has a distinct pause between the music stopping and starting again
- Kei feels sensitive to touching things like walls; there's been several times where I hit springs and dash, but instead of flying straight he'll clip into something, destroying my momentum
- The script overall is mostly fine, but there's some typos and strange words that give me the impression English may not be developer's first language
- This is a lot more opinion-based but I think the combo counter drains way too fast; I feel like given the appeal of the gameplay, a skilled player should be rewarded with being able to keep their combo up through the entire level, which is virtually impossible as the counter drains while you're transitioning screens and zapping tagged enemies and there aren't enough orbs in between to keep it up. I feel like a more Gunvolt-style "you keep your combo up as long as you don't get hit" approach would work way better, or at least if the timer was greatly extended to make it so people still couldn't slack off, but were forgiven for not having the fine control to basically teleport from room to room

I think overall though there is an unfortunate feeling that even the game's core is a bit halfway baked. Outside of the inclusion of specific form gimmicks, the levels tend to be somewhat samey and blend together outside of visual themes and music. For as short as the game is I was hoping there would actually be more dialogue and writing to have more fun with the cast. The aforementioned average bosses are especially disappointing because I feel like a game like this should have some truly exciting battles. There's a shop to buy skills for your forms but it doesn't feel like it adds anything outside of a loose progression system alongside the obvious. Your last form is introduced alongside a set of specific gimmicks that are completely trivialized by the form you get before it, making large chunks of the final levels irrelevant in terms of challenge. It's technically a complete experience, but I can't help but feel like it only taps into about 50% of what it really could be.

As is, with those feelings aside, it's a strong little title that manages to get the right appeals from its inspirations and play in a unique and enjoyable way. While I hope the dev will look into the things I've mentioned, I think it's a worthy recommend, even if it isn't quite the huge favorite I was hoping it would be.

I've said my praises for Last Epoch but something I hate is how most of the armor and items in the game are transparently designed to look bland as ♥♥♥♥ to nudge you into buying cosmetics from the shop, something else that it unfortunately borrows from PoE.

Grim Dawn is not like this; many item sets already look nice/distinct and the Illusionist is worth using to get a certain "look", so Crate's lack of manipulation there makes me far more eager to buy packs like this and add onto my wardrobe. Just like with the previous Loyalist packs, these are ultimately well, for the loyal - they're probably best thought of as ways to donate to the devs and get a little bonus out of it, and with that in mind they've always been worth it to me. The Empyrion and Rattosh pieces look great on my Death Knight ❤️

Solid game with gorgeous spritework, buttery-smooth combat and progression, and overall excellent, addictive gameplay! The customizability of the characters and builds is immense, and the way fighting enemies and platforming feels is wonderful. I love the concept of the Zodiacs and how varied each of the bosses are- it's exciting to get to meet each one and learn their patterns and moves. The sense of decisionmaking is strong and you have a lot of control over how your runs unfold even with the randomness. The character designs, from the main cast to the 12 Zodiac bosses, are excellent and all super cool and full of personality. There's a surprising variation of rooms, items, enemies, and secret encounters to discover, and the devs plan on adding more which is beautiful. I love seeing developers who care about their game.

My only issue, which I would unfortunately say is a relatively big one, is the writing. It's less the actual contents of the writing; it's fundamentally not bad at all! I love how much there is to learn about both the main cast and the various NPCs, and you get some occasionally fun interactions and learn some pretty cool lore. I think a lot of my issue comes down more to the translation or localization. Much of the dialogue has a somewhat stilted, awkward feel to it, and coupled with the various typos and grammatical errors in the game's text, I'm lead to believe that English isn't the developers' first language. There's a lot of parts where the on-screen text doesn't match the actual voiceovers either, which I'm assuming is where the voice actors clean up the sloppier wording of the script through their deliver. I understand how errors are likely with this in mind, but it is nonetheless worth mentioning. The core ideas of the script are perfectly fine, but it just feels like much dialogue and text needed a second pass or a proofread from someone to touch it up and make it feel more natural. The game has just as much of an emphasis on dialogue as Hades, which is why this is so noticeable; characters just as often have (fully-voiced!) things to say, so it's a shame the actual writing doesn't reach the same level of organicness and polish. I find otherwise great ideas for lore and interactions are hampered greatly by the text feeling sort of... clunky, for lack of a better word, which bleeds into the (otherwise stellar!) voice cast at times being made to saying things that don't totally sound like a person would ever say them.

Another thing I notice is conversations sometimes feel like they end too early; your character may say something, then an NPC will say something in response, then you'd think your character would have something else to say to that (sort of like, again, Hades having Zagreus have a final comment just as you walk away from the person he's conversing with), but it just.. ends. I feel bad to tear up this part of the package because it's clear there's a lot of genuine love in it, and I myself even find it really charming and loved learning about the various Zodiacs and the circumstances behind the cast of four, from the hard-working Ayla to the showboating Kiran, but considering how unbelievably solid the rest of the package is, I'm left to single out basically the only thing I think is worth calling attention to in a negative way.

Otherwise do check it out if you love solid beat em ups with great customization and flashy battles, and the elements found in games like Hades appeal to you.

Dungeon Drafters is a great card-based roguelite with a lot of polish and plenty to do, if you're willing to put up with the initial rough start. It's actually a lot more intensive than I was really looking for, but it's a good time in the end.

Though it's a roguelite, you keep a persistent collection of cards between runs, which definitely satisfies the collection/progression itch for someone like me. The near-complete info for everything like enemy patterns gives it a surprising "traditional board game" feel, which is cool. The learning curve is steep ♥♥♥♥, though - between accounting for the movement+attack patterns of your enemies, the arena, and what to do with your selection of cards, it can really create some Analysis Paralysis not unlike some of the more intensive tboard games i've played. I was expecting something a bit more rapid-fire, but even when I know what my deck is capable of, the pace and the way I have to rack my brain to figure out how to blow someone up without taking needless damage feels like a small step above the earlygame in something like Final Fantasy Tactics... this isn't a bad thing, but it very much strikes me as one of those games you will either play for an hour and drop, or it'll click with you and you'll dump 10+ hours into it without even noticing.

There's clearly a lot of depth - there's four (five?) archetypes, not unlike the way Colors work in Magic the Gathering, each embodying a certain playstyle - you can mix and match cards of different archetypes, but what types you can include and how strong the cards you can include are is based on the customizable "rune arrangement" of your deck. Of course, cards can do anything from summoning minions, to shooting fireballs, to creating reflective mirrors to heal - if you're familiar with any battling card game ever, this runs the gamut of varied TCG effects and abilities - the possibilities for synergies are immense, and you can expect to start brainstorming a bit the moment you open your first few boosters.

The spritework and visual style are definitely gorgeous and worth mentioning too, and the whole game's presentation evokes this vibe I can only describe as "hidden gem for the Nintendo DS i found in the games section at FYE". Some typos here and there, and I had some issues with the game's visual scaling (something about its resolution/screen options is a bit buggy), but overall it's been a pretty polished experience.

Me, personally, one of the big draws aside from the above elements is that it's a modern game, released in the year of our lord 2023, that actually captures a lot of the appeal of CCGs, without hiding behind pay walls! Modern card video games come in two types basically. They are either 1. live-service titles meant to wring your money as you get the cards you want, or 2. games like Slay the Spire where all the deckbuilding is improv'd over the course of a run. It seems like the days of standalone card-collecting adventures where all the collecting is done in an OFFLINE product rather than as part of a predatory service are completely gone. So wtih that in mind, this was so so refreshing to find. You'll feel great as you build up your collection of cards, gaining new options to swap out your deck over the course of your time playing. It's satisfying to find boosters through a dungeon run, and then take them back home and open em up. Even if you already have all the cards, you can collect for foils too! The rare decision was made to commit to the collectable aspects of CCGs rather than going the pure roguelike draft-deck approach, and actually charge a single, static price for it. That alone is what drew me to it in the first place, and I'm glad to say the gameplay didn't disappoint either.

All in all, try the demo, see if you like it, and if so, jump right in! It might take a minute to get acquainted but it's a rewarding experience for those it pulls in.

I feel like it's honestly a little short for the price, like startlingly so - I cleared the new story dungeons and fights in about an hour and a half - but the content is well-made enough and enjoyable enough, on top of just being more Cassette Beasts - that I don't really mind! I love all the new monster designs, as was expected (Hauntome my cherished), and there's a few new bossfights that are a solid treat for the battle-hungry. The dungeons are also fun little endeavors that give you a chance to acquire the new species and make you work a bit. Cassette Beasts was always more about the world and ideas than the actual beat-by-beat storytelling and I think this DLC nicely continues that trend. Without spoiling, this new scenario adds more than a little bit to the existing lore, expanding on concepts that both the main game and postgame have covered. I love the universe that Raw Fury has created as its ode to human creativity, and I'm all for anything that delves further into it.

It does seem clear that it wasn't designed around you playing it at the end game, since your movement skills can easily be used to trivialize a lot of it for you, depending on what you have. In the same vein, many of your broken strats will still work here, as the devs have made a point that they don't want to nerf fun singleplayer ideas, so there's just kind of a hope that you'll put your crazier ideas away and engage with the new content on an even level. This does not bother me, but I know some people want the challenge to be more strongly enforced on them, for one reason or another, and may feel let down by paying for content that they can snap in half just as easily as the main game. In addition, you can't rematch a lot of the new content, unfortunately. Maybe most painfully, there are a few great new tracks but none of them have a vocal mix! :(

I think all in all it's a great time, and for me it was totally worth it just for more to do in the game and more critters to record, but it's probably best recommended to the fans who really loved the base game and want to get a little more out of it, while supporting the developers in their future endeavors.

Gravity Circuit is a beautiful, strong, wholly memorable action platformer that wears its inspiration VERY LOUDLY yet has a flavor all its own. It feels like it started with someone asking "what if Mega Man Zero 2's Chain Rod was actually functional?" and then ran for the hills from there.

While it carries over some core ideas from its inspirations, the way it meshes them together is the interesting part. The presentation from the get-go has 8 themed bosses with a (Name) (Title) designation. The small sprites, use of a slide, and focus on tight platforming segments is not unlike OG Mega Man. Vertical mobility, the grappling rod, and the high emphasis on melee combat, meanwhile, is a lot more adjacent to Mega Man X and Mega Man Zero. To my great surprise, however, a friend pointed out to me that its flow is also quite Kirby-esque - the use of a sprint over a dash, the way enemies go tumbling after you smash them, the Smash Bros-esque directional attacks, and the flow of grabbing enemies and throwing them at other enemies very much resembles the platformer with the pink guy. If you're a fan of Inti Creates' Gunvolt series, it seems to even have a bit of their overall sense of style and over-the-top fun in its DNA, with the main character being given a meter to equip and pull off powerful named techniques, and cool boss battles where the bosses do the same thing when they get desperate. All these things add up to make platforming a flexible, fluid, and fun endeavor, as you tear through enemies with your melee attacks, throw bodies around, grab ledges, and grapple from place to place. Despite the array of moves, it doesn't feel directionless or disjointed - very much the opposite.

The level design is challenging, engaging, but fair - largely in part bc it does away with a few brutal conventions of its predecessors. A life system is nonexistent, spikes and pits just hurt you a little instead of instantly killing you, and you can heal at checkpoints (for a fee!). These add up to a significantly less punishing experience that lets the player learn the game's tougher segments at their own pace. Each level is well-thought out, each highly visually distinct and bringing their own unique gimmicks and ideas to the table - all of them fun to learn and figure out. The 8 main stages each lead into a bossfight with one of the 8 "Rebel Circuits" - just as remarkable as the levels themselves, each of the Circuits feel like engagements designed after Mega Man's best, with clear and comprehensible yet challenging attack patterns to memorize and master, punctuated by a catchy battle theme which smartly incorporates the leitmotifs of the chosen opponents. The bosses at the end of the game, especially, are delightfully challenging and exciting, escalating the stakes meaningfully. In particular, the game's version of the classic MM boss rush is absolutely worth commending.

The flexibility of the gameplay is further enhanced by "Burst Techniques" - a set of four equippable techniques (out of 20!!), which let you expend your Burst Meter for a variety of abilities. These range from a powerful energy blast with massive recoil, to an omnidirectional damaging airdash, to a move that lets you enter a counter stance and retaliate with an uppercut. These can be used to help with level navigation, or to pummel a particularly tough boss. They aren't all made equal, of course, but the variety they allow is nonetheless present - and they're plenty fun to use.

The music is done by Dominic Ninmark, who is also composing for the in-development Mega Man X: Corrupted, and oh boy does he deliver. The tunes for each stage are distinctive and memorable - Medley's stage has an energetic, club-like groove suitable for a perky performer while Bit's stage gives the speed demon an appropriate Initial D-esque eurobeat inspired tune. The real highlights to me were the themes of the final stages, which combine beautiful instrument work with motivating, heroic melodies, perfectly fitting as you brave the game's toughest challenges unsure of what exactly lies at the end. I would go as far as to say the soundtrack is as iconic and strong as the best of its inspirations - a treat to listen to all the way through.

While story/writing isn't usually a focus in games like these, there's a lot to love here too. The almost Medabots-esque designs of the robots in this game nicely set it apart from its inspirations, with the characters having simple monocolor eyes and thin peg-like feet. Kai is a war hero who unexpectedly resurfaces to stop the Virus Army, and his former friends, who turned rebellious. Unfortunately, he's got a nasty case of amnesia, so you learn about the situation along with Kai, in a manner not unlike Mega Man Zero. Flavorful and fun dialogue from the NPCs throughout the hero's base serve to more meaningfully flesh out the world and shed some light on your circumstances. Before each stage, you're given a serious briefing from your commander, Kernel, which serves to provide more insight on what exactly you're supposed to be doing - and in the same exchange, Kernel will often provide a humorous, deescalating remark showing his jovial side and skewed sense of priorities. Each Circuit has something to say to the amnesiac Kai when you enter their room and when you defeat them, though unfortunately Kai is only left to gleam what he can, as he no longer remembers the relationships he had with them. A cute touch is that after each stage, you can talk to the technique master and he will provide short yet meaningful insight on the Circuit you recently defeated. The story surprisingly has a few great twists and turns near the end and if you're familiar with its inspirations you might be able to figure some of them out, but it's superbly executed for its simplicity and genuinely made me fall in love with the game's world- such that I would love if it were explored further, even if it was in another medium like a comic.

All in all, Gravity Circuit is an excellent game that embraces its inspirations wholly while bringing its own brand of solid, polished action gameplay to the platformer genre. An easy recommend.

Though I've only completed the first few missions, I can already tell this is something great. Though I was expecting a game similar to it, I was kind of surprised to see just how much it borrowed wholesale from Final Fantasy Tactics on a mechanical level. Ultimately, this isn't a problem at all, as if anything it seems like it knew exactly what to borrow from it and iterate on for the better. The missions all scratch that ballbusting highly customizable tactical itch in exactly the same way, with changes to the way party deaths and JP accumulation work allowing for a still-challenging yet far less punishing experience. The aesthetic is for the most part nice, with some cute, customizable spritework (albeit with animations on the simpler side) and some wonderfully done handdrawn maps. My major point of contention is the portraits - they often appear low resolution and in general their more realistic renderings feel slightly awkward looking, especially when contrasted with the more cartoonish sprites. The game probably isn't going to win any awards in the visuals category, but it more than gets the job done for the most part. The story is not something as deep as its inspiration either, but is just interesting enough to keep you going. The real selling point of the game is the strategic battles, which are thankfully extremely refined and deep feeling, and will resonate with any fan of FFT or Tactics Ogre or similar titles.

An unassuming and straightforward yet solidly-designed and well-baked looter shooter experience.

I love a good cyberpunk, and I love Y2K abstractions of the internet, so this already felt right up my alley. Black Ice has a very straightforward sandbox structure - almost deceptively so, to the point where when you first start you might be wondering "is that it?" Go find a server, hack it, kill all the enemies in it, take your loot, and then hack the next server. The loop is exactly that straightforward - but it's made fun through the plethora of systems to engage with and loot to find. It isn't long after playing that you'll find different enemy types - harder servers will introduce different kinds of hacks that make the process more challenging - and you'll find yourself in new environments that may require more physical finesse out of you, maybe dealing with the security of multiple servers at once. Random events and opportunities such as server defense calls and data escort missions nicely mix up the flow of things, but in the end you're sprinting and leaping around enemies and destroying them with colorful weapons, and the game at least makes sure that while you do this, you're constantly busy with new challenges to take on and things to find.

The RPG and customization elements are surprisingly strong and engaging, too. You can easily tweak your character's stats with a variety of perks and upgrades, and the cyberdeck allows for a startling amount of build and gameplay flexibility - You have 10 slots for weapons, passives, movement abilities, or anything in between, allowing you to adjust everything to suit your preferred playstyle. When playing with a friend, I arranged my deck based around the use of sniping weapons - Slot 1 was for my rifle, while Slot 2 contained a separate "scope" item which enabled the zoom and increased my damage while zoomed. I had another slot for an EMP that shoved enemies away in case they got too close while I did my thing, another for an ice grenade in a pinch, and then the rest were passive mods to buff the damage of my shots. My friend, on the other hand, chose a "spellcaster" oriented build, allocating stat points into his RAM to ensure he could keep the firepower going, and loading his deck with powerful abilities that target enemies for a variety of effects, known as Executables. In another run, I decided to focus on heavy artillery and explosives - a machinegun in one slot, a shotgun in the other, and plenty of mines and grenades to fill the space in between. Those are just some of the many combinations and ways to play that you can try while working through the game. The loot is of course, randomized, and always fun to find and play around with - gunplay is tight, satisfying, and energetic, and that's really the most important thing in a game like this. The variety in the stat modifiers on the various loot can completely change the way a weapon functions, so the way your runner will play is unlikely to be like that of anyone else. Experimentation and working towards your ideal is at its most fun in games like these, where the systems are designed to encourage such a thing, and I'm grateful for that.

The aesthetic and presentation I think are well done. The visuals have a nice, immediately striking style that is very simple and geometrical but also perfectly suits the vibe it's going for - my only personal issue is I think the placement of various text and the fonts used can occasionally feel somewhat out of place with the visual style of the buildings - "tacky" for lack of a better word, but it's otherwise very coherent and fun. I love the events behind the emails - it isn't anything super deep, but I enjoy the flavor of needing to bring down a corporation or help a client play a prank. In one email, helpfully designated to me as spam, I was invited to join a raid and hack a server for a reward. Once I did, I got a follow-up email revealing this was bait to pull unsuspecting console cowboys like me in, and I had all my credits stolen upon completion. I should've heeded the warning...

The feel of being a cyberspace hacker in a cyberpunk world is further enhanced by the use of computer terminology as flavoring, in the same cheeky yet loving manner that I love out of similar games like Mega Man Battle Network and Tron 2.0. It's not a "spell", it's an "executable". It's not "energy", it's "RAM". There's a perk called "Gigahurtz". Enemies have some lovely and delightful names such as "Webcrawler", "Arachnet", and my favorite, "Ghost in the Shellfish". And of course, the term "Black Ice" and the use of "icebreaker" for your hacking tools, which were born from the works of William Gibson. Fun stuff that better sells this kind of world, and I'm willing to bet the creator is a fan of similar media.

Of course, cyberpunk is not just the aesthetic, and is nothing without its central ideas - high tech, low life, corporate corruption, societal decay. The writing contained within the emails doesn't exactly add anything significant or fresh to these tried and true ideas, but still serves to sell the world - a lot of these corporations provide something for the world, and various people have various views on how they believe they contribute. You're inherently an underdog as a hacker against the megacorp security systems, collaborating with others (in multiplayer) and doing work for clients who either need the little things done or are looking to take down the Man. In a way due to its blunt-as-a-sledgehammer writing and presentation, it's definitely a caricature of cyberpunk themes, but not out of disrespect or misunderstanding - it just feels affectionate, with a camp lens - and more importantly it's clearly meant to serve all of what you do in the game. It does that well, and in a fun way!

All in all, a great time I can easily recommend for its low price. The creators seem to really care about and love their game and the work put into it, and I'm happy to be able to support and enjoy it.

An excellent roguelike that combines a lot of what I love into a thoroughly enjoyable package.

Barony is a 3D dungeon crawler that takes clear influence from old-school roguelikes, back when that actually meant "games like Rogue". This means there's a lot of picking up random ♥♥♥♥ and figuring out what it does - an element I always personally enjoy, though if that's not your cup of tea you're better off going elsewhere. With all the management of a more traditional roguelike, Barony really sells the feeling of a perilous dungeon crawl. You'll be dispatching enemies, avoiding traps, finding gear, flipping switches, and looking through your backpack for the thing to save your life. Just like in a game like Nethack, outside-the-box tactics are encouraged - various items have multiple uses or utilities which may or may not be obvious based on the environment you're in. Each class has their own stat distribution and starting items that can completely change the way you crawl. The shining point no doubt is the multiplayer - things made even more fun when working with allies to attack foes and solve problems, and it supports up to four people!

The developers have also been very good about making new content - my only issue with the game for the longest time was the rather ugly and drab, almost prototype-ish looking UI. An upcoming update (which can already be played through the beta branch) in fact revises the UI completely, and in turn makes the presentation of an already great game shine even brighter.

Though difficult, the crawl doesn't get more satisfying than in Barony. You can't go wrong!

A startlingly excellent roguelite experience that truly needs to be played to be believed.

I confess the visual style took me a bit to adjust to - though undeniably distinct, for the first 15 minutes I couldn't help but shake the feeling that I was being forced to play a regular game through one of those novelty post processing filters devs put in the options menu as an easter egg. However, it does become quickly clear that a lot of effort is put into the visuals and aesthetic and designing the game with it in mind. Everything that needs to be grasped is readable and striking, and it all adds up to a great, gritty atmosphere.

The satisfaction of the core gameplay is ultimately what a roguelike game lives and dies by, and thankfully that is where Mortal Sin absolutely excels. This is first-person melee combat done RIGHT. Each swing upon an enemy is crunchy and satisfying, thanks to great sound effects, use of hitstop, and other visuals. A dismemberment system means body parts go flying and you can smack people across the room! You have a number of maneuvers, ranging from a guard-breaking bash, to a kick to create distance, to a whirling swing. Defensive maneuvers exist too, in the form of an ever-reliable parry that rewards defensive play and allows you to create new openings. The combat is the kind where even when I'm putting the game down, I'm going through encounters in my head and playing back the satisfying crunch of tearing up enemies.

There's also a delicious variety of character classes that completely change up your core gameplay. The Monk can't equip weapons, and as a result doesn't do nearly as much damage per hit, but gains fast unarmed attack speed and a roundhouse kick, allowing you to dash through dungeons and tear up crowds with a flurry of blows and strikes. The Mage can only equip staves, which have a variety of spells, and starts with a magical mace that allows them to strike from long range. The sheer diversity of the base classes alone, combined with a solid and satisfying loot & stats system that lets you quickly upgrade your arsenal as you plow through the dungeons, makes for serious replayability. Easily a stand-out class to me is the Berserker - likely inspired by the iconic Guts from Berserk, you wield a fat two-handed broadsword, and it's probably one of the best implementations of such a weapon I've ever seen. The slow swing combined with the massive arc allows you to rotate your body as you swing it to catch multiple enemies in its midst. And once you charge up your swing for a whirlwind, you gain invincibility, allowing you to become a spinning thing of death as you move through the field.

Though it's in Early Access, the sheer polish it has and the overall replayability already gives me a very "complete" feeling, even though I am far from actually unlocking and doing everything yet. Asking only 20 USD is a steal. If you're itching for a new unforgiving yet engaging and satisfying new roguelike experience, you gotta pick this one up.