New to EF Games -- Need some insight

[ZeroAffex]

I just bought EB:RF + 1 about an hour ago as I was perusing through idle/clicker games on steam. What instantly drew my attention was the unique aesthetics and art style. Can't place my finger on it but I get this 1990's attempting 1970's D&D roleplaying vibe or something like this..Regardless, I was powerless from buying it. lol

Anyways! I booted it up just now and got to say, I freaking LOVE the look and feel this game has. After completing the tutorial I had to see if there were more games in this series and to my surprise there is! At least 2-3 iirc. Maybe more. I was both stoked yet nervous by this discovery. Which brings me here.

How much of a factor does the lore in the EF Universe games play in this game? Can you play it as I have, from scratch for the first time in the series without any knowledge? Or should I start with an earlier game instead?

I am officially broke now until the next few weeks so if it's best I play the previous games before jumping into this one, I'll have to sit it out. Even still, please let me know which games I should try first :) Always welcome the insight.

Just came to me. Another idea I have is maybe I can read up on a 'wiki' or something. If you have some useful information like that lying around, definitely throw it my way. Would really appreciate it.

So yea. Just fell in love with the style and feel this game has but am a little nervous I may struggle to follow whats going on in terms of lore. Crossing my fingers it's not the case ahaaha. Ideally, you can buy this game, play it without any prior knowledge of the EF universe and as you play become accustomed to it but who knows! I am rambling now though so I'll call it good.

Thanks and have a great week! Cheers.

[TreatCS]

There is a story line, but only the books (the series is titled Ellen's Friends, the first one is named Forlorn Dimension, and they're available on Amazon and Steam) and the original Majula Frontier have story elements in them. Majula Frontier: The Offense is technically a sequel but it's much more of a side adventure. It doesn't really advance the story at all.

This game and Reclaiming the World are spin offs. They have some references to the story and events but they don't actually contain any story themselves. Reading the books and playing Majula Frontier will definitely add some depth to this game (most/all of the characters and monsters that you see in this game appear in the books and are either playable characters, NPCs, or enemies in Majula Frontier) but it's not required to understand anything that's happening.

In short, you can jump right into this game and you won't miss anything.

[archmag]

As was already mentioned by developer there are a total of 4 games in the series:
1. Majula Frontier - an rpg, where you develop a town and send a team of 4 heroes on missions where you have to clear ~6 enemies to complete them. Battles are turn based in FF style but there are some bonus effects from skills depending on previous skills used, being attacked, status effects, other things (very complicated). There is a stamina mechanics in play where the more you are damaged or the more potent skills you use the more damage you get until you return to the town. There is a ton of upgrade option.

2. EF Universe: Reclaiming the World - an idle game where you progress through different areas. You need to create a chain of cards (items, characters, monsters, locations) which defines your stats, the better chain you make (very complicated) that contains a lot of active links and good characters the further you will progress. There is a ton of upgrade option.

3. Majula Frontier: The Offense - and rpg again, you develop your town, send a team of 11 cards (location+10 heroes/monsters) to a mission where you need to kill 6 enemy team. The game suffers from a lot of lags, every action you make between battles takes 1-2 seconds to resolve (send someone to a workshop - 2 seconds, crafted an item - 2 seconds, etc). It becomes annoying eventually. Battles are realtime, you can choose the target for any of your 11 characters but you don't have any info about your targets so essentially it results in just a) focus enemy boss first so that it can't activate rechargable abilities, b) focus one enemy at a time. Your main card can activate some boosts when they are recharged (heal, strength, defense, etc). There is a ton of upgrade options again.

4. Endless Battle: Return of Hero +1 (this game) - an idle game, but it progresses so much faster than other idle games and has so many different synergies that affect each other. I just love it. It is not very large - it is 7 days after release and I think I am going to unlock the final layer today. After that maybe several more days to grind out all milestones to get everything and complete the game. It is not like other idle games where it may take you several years to get to the final stage (and then it gets updated and final goal is moved away from you for some more years). Plus it gets faster the further you get instead of slowing down as in other idle games. And again there is a ton of upgrade options.

There is a DLC for the first game which contains 5 books related to this universe. I bought it a long time ago because I was also fascinated with the characters design (and many unique monsters that are just stuff from nightmares, not your usual orks and goblins) which I first met when I played the 2nd game on Kongregate, but the games are really overwhelming with all those upgrade options so I never progressed far in them. But with this game it reignited the interest in all those previous games so I am trying them again with a goal to finally untie and understand all those upgrade mechanics. I also started to read the first book yesterday, it seems interesting (finished chapted 6 only). It certainly puts the backstory for each character card in place and I start to recognize them and differentiate one from another. Until that they were all the same to me.

[TreatCS]

The stuff I make does get kind of wild and crazy and overwhelming. The reason for that is I need a challenge, otherwise I get bored and lose interest. If I ever had to make a "standard" game, I don't know if I'd ever finish it. For this game, my challenge was to create as many unique layers as I could while still adhering to the theme.

[archmag]

Originally posted by shs:

The stuff I make does get kind of wild and crazy. The reason for that is I need a challenge, otherwise I get bored and lose interest. If I ever had to make a "standard" game, I don't know if I'd ever finish it. For this game, my challenge was to create as many unique layers as I could while still adhering to the theme.

And this is great. It is one of the unique features of these game that they have many complex mechanics that interact with each other. There are too many "standard" games out there already. The thing that I stopped playing them because I was overwhelmed is not a problem with a game it was my own problem. I still remember about them and always wanted to try them again.

[archmag]

Originally posted by archmag:

It is not very large - it is 7 days after release and I think I am going to unlock the final layer today. After that maybe several more days to grind out all milestones to get everything and complete the game. It is not like other idle games where it may take you several years to get to the final stage (and then it gets updated and final goal is moved away from you for some more years).

Guessed it almost correctly. Just finished the game with 100% achievements.
1. First part to get to the last layer - 7 days with active gameplay (10 minutes every hour),
2. Complete "End 1A" and "End 1B" achievements - 1 more day with active gameplay (10 minutes every hour),
3. Complete all milestones except "Power Gems" - 4 more days with active gameplay (10 minutes every hour),
4. Complete "Power Gems" milestones - 5 more days with just running a single mission and not doing anything else. I think this milestone should have ended at tier 25 with around 4M power gems (I was at 23/35 when I completed everything else).

Anyway, thanks for the interesting game.

[TreatCS]

I hope you enjoyed it.

There are games that go on for months or years or forever, but I'm not a fan of those. I prefer games (both for playing and developing) that have a well defined ending and once you reach that ending you can stop and move on to new things.

[archmag]

Originally posted by shs:

I hope you enjoyed it.

There are games that go on for months or years or forever, but I'm not a fan of those. I prefer games (both for playing and developing) that have a well defined ending and once you reach that ending you can stop and move on to new things.

Yes, I did enjoy it. It had a really good pace of unlocking new features which interact with each other. Reading the books now (2/5 complete), they are very interesting too and really put characters to all those faces on the cards.