Longtime fan, thoughts after playing the demo

[Your New Best Friend]

Hi all! Seeing this demo pop up was a huge treat, as I'm a big fan of Shiny Shoe and especially the original Monster Train. I got Inkbound as soon as it dropped as well, and it was sad to see that one go the way it did. Either way, Monster Train 2 is coming and I couldn't be more excited. I wanted to give my impressions, and wish the developers well!

First off, Jordan Chin is an incredible composer, and I'm so happy to hear more of his work. The Monster Train 1 ost is legendary, and one of Inkbound's biggest issues was there wasn't more music in it! Some of the new tracks in the demo are already memorable, and there's an obvious change in tone from previous works. Not to mention reduxes of old tracks. Overall, the new music is exciting, but might take some getting used to. I saw another user on the forum talking about how the original game's ost captured the "train" feeling, and I think that's a great point. The new ost didn't seem to do that so much from what I've heard so far. Still good, but not locking in as much as the old one. Special mention goes to the Cherub theme, instantly standing out amongst the other tracks.

Moving on to the game itself, I really like the new clans we get to play with. The dragons and the angels both are unique and feel immensely powerful compared to the original's clans. Pyregel is easy to understand and take advantage of, and valor is a great ramping mechanic. I'm honestly concerned about the other clans, because these two are so intuitive and strong that I feel if the other's aren't as fine tuned they could seem really weak. And they make the original's clans look fragile in comparison, I feel like a few basic angels could wreck my fine tuned Wax floors that carried me through difficulty after difficulty!

Speaking of the original's clans, I'd love to see them represented in this game as well. Reduxes and redesigns of old units could be really fun. The events in MT2 have used the old characters, maybe we could see some of our old champions show up in those?

Moving on to the new content

Rooms - A good new addition, but not as groundbreaking as it seemed. The original game had rooms too, just in a more simple and loose way. We would set our units up to take advantage of compound effects, and if you used the Umbra faction you could modify floors as well. It's nice to have cards that are specifically designed to cater to this and offer new things the original systems couldn't. A good change, hopefully expanded upon!

Equipment - Great new change! Can't wait to see the variety these can bring.

Dragon's Hoard - I feel this is the best new mechanic, and it's inclusion could indicate some exciting changes. It's the only mechanic I've seen that you can interact with outside of encounters! MT 1 had nothing like this, every clan was only different in the battles themselves. The idea of clans having benefits, bonuses and effects that can change how you progress through the world itself lends itself to a lot of expression. Personally, I hope the other clans have mechanics like this as well.

Enemies - Admittedly, I need to play a bit more to make sure I grasp everything. My few runs so far have practically been steamrolls (outside of the final boss), so the enemies haven't stuck out for me as much. They seem pretty standard fare so far. The standout encounter of the demo is the Cherub boss. I hope to see some more themed enemy variety in the full release. Don't forget how much a well crafted theme can lend itself to natural storytelling! MT had some great tracks that came certain encounters, and that really helped the visual aspects of the enemies stand out more.

Stewards - I really like the new steward units. Great idea in giving us two specialized stewards instead of the old guy. Poor old guy, these new ones are so strong they'd wipe the floor with him.

I think that pretty much covers it. The only other thing I wanted to bring up was it took me a bit to get used to traveling up instead of down, haha. That's just a silly thing though. Thanks Shiny Shoe, and best of luck moving forward in developing this. I can't wait to get my hands on the full release!

[MrSmiley]

Originally posted by The Winged Warrior:

I think that pretty much covers it. The only other thing I wanted to bring up was it took me a bit to get used to traveling up instead of down, haha.

This bothered me more than it should have lmao. It's fine of course, but its funny how noticeable it is for many people who played the first