The game is so shallow

[mie001]

Just bought this game
Why this game is so shallow, all the enemy are meatbag you can punch or ghost you have to flip it a bird to kill it. And all those "horror story" are basically dungeon with no loot but pure exp to grind up your character, who can sleep 3 days when investigating the horror story but will only take 1 shower before going to the next case.
I really love the art style, sadly the game loop is just not there

[DankWestern]

Perhaps it's just not for you, my dude?

[tmb48]

I like the game, but I have to agree: the game's roguelite format doesn't really mesh that well with the mysteries' plots. Most infamously, Ramen can have you apparently getting repeatedly attacked while waiting on a queue.

[The Troll King]

Its not for you, some of us are big fans of "Junji Ito" or others that I'm too lazy to dig up.

This game is in my opinion, made to make you feel like you're in one of those stories. If you're an outsider to Horror Manga, yeah I can see why its disappointing.

[This user has no known aliases]

On the surface, I agree. I also am a bit disappointed by the incoherent story telling due to events during investigation and the narrative of the "main case" after investigation. It often makes absolutely no sense and merely is a deck of clumsily curated cards. And Mr. Dentist has a dedicated story writer on his staff roll.

But regarding combat: The menu is a bit confusing at first and therefore it is, in my opinion, hard to appreciate the possible depth it actually offers (and is unnecessary in lower difficulty settings). You can for example apparently banish ghosts if you clap and bow correctly; you can use certain items to ease the combat; use companions (that are all terrible except for the neighbour, afaik); use special abilities of your characters; and probably much more I don't know about.

I think it is a bit frustrating because the atmosphere of this game is SO DENSE, and the music (and I normally dislike bit-music) so effective, on top of the art style and writing in general that it is one of the reasons I started to write prose. But honestly, it deserves much better.

[cyberpunk]

this game is unlike any other game out there, and so i can understand why someone might hate it if they're expecting something else. like, if you're expecting a jRPG, or a point and click adventure, or strong narrative driven story, it's not really any of that, though it looks like it would be.
it's really a roguelike with lots of randomization and chance, and you constantly have to make choices to minimize your damage and all the other bad stuff that'll happen to you. the core gameplay loop is really doing runs over and over until you remember which choices will give you which outcomes. so then a really pro player can go into a run and strategize what order they're gonna do things, what kind of build they'll go for, make all the small decisions that will keep them alive in the long run.
in my opinion, it's a very satisfying gameplay loop, but it's so far off from anything else i've ever played.
i'd say the meta goals are to unlock everything, be able to beat a run on the highest difficulty, and be able to last a really long time in endless mode.
to be fair, there is a lot of jank and weird design choices. the combat is really janky and weird, but i like it for some reason.

[Arizona Ranger]

It is basically a digital version of Arkham Horror with a Junji Ito DLC. You roll some dice, get some random events, take some health/sanity damage and move the doom tracker while closing gates (solving cases in this case) to prevent the big bad from awakening.

Yeah, it is basic but I think it works mostly. I don't think the game is groundbreaking or a GOTY contender but it is fine for what it is.

[Lucius Caesar]

Originally posted by Mcz:

It is basically a digital version of Arkham Horror with a Junji Ito DLC. You roll some dice, get some random events, take some health/sanity damage and move the doom tracker while closing gates (solving cases in this case) to prevent the big bad from awakening.

Yeah, it is basic but I think it works mostly. I don't think the game is groundbreaking or a GOTY contender but it is fine for what it is.

yeah pretty much this. If you enjoy Arkham Horror, its easy to picture this as a single player tabletop game and enjoy it like that. But if you're expecting something a bit more traditionally 'video gamey' you might be disappointed. and honestly that's fine. Its not for everyone

[tiavals]

Agreed. After finishing 3 runs, the game is indeed shallow and abstract. There is no narrative. Only snippets of unconnected stories. Not to mention the fact that nothing you do matters, only the starting campaign has any sort of contextual gameplay, and the choices you make in the game are disregarded. I just slew Oetaru, a 90hp gigabeast by using spells and the game decided that I had run instead, mentioning how I was a coward and the monster was left to ravage the local area unhindered. Why bother having endings if you're not gonna have them matter? The sub-quests are super meaningless too, it seems. For the Oetaru thing, I got some herz numbers, which I input in some speakers. What did that do? No clue, game doesn't tell me. Probably nothing, I'm guessing.

Such nonsense.

[Zenchi]

Originally posted by tiavals:

Agreed. After finishing 3 runs, the game is indeed shallow and abstract. There is no narrative. Only snippets of unconnected stories. Not to mention the fact that nothing you do matters, only the starting campaign has any sort of contextual gameplay, and the choices you make in the game are disregarded. I just slew Oetaru, a 90hp gigabeast by using spells and the game decided that I had run instead, mentioning how I was a coward and the monster was left to ravage the local area unhindered. Why bother having endings if you're not gonna have them matter? The sub-quests are super meaningless too, it seems. For the Oetaru thing, I got some herz numbers, which I input in some speakers. What did that do? No clue, game doesn't tell me. Probably nothing, I'm guessing.

Such nonsense.

Just to answer your question about what did the herz numbers do:
If you don't put those in you don't get to fight that boss and instead get a different ending.

[Hyperversum]

Originally posted by tiavals:

Agreed. After finishing 3 runs, the game is indeed shallow and abstract. There is no narrative. Only snippets of unconnected stories. Not to mention the fact that nothing you do matters, only the starting campaign has any sort of contextual gameplay, and the choices you make in the game are disregarded. I just slew Oetaru, a 90hp gigabeast by using spells and the game decided that I had run instead, mentioning how I was a coward and the monster was left to ravage the local area unhindered. Why bother having endings if you're not gonna have them matter? The sub-quests are super meaningless too, it seems. For the Oetaru thing, I got some herz numbers, which I input in some speakers. What did that do? No clue, game doesn't tell me. Probably nothing, I'm guessing.

Such nonsense.

Because the game is heavily based on Arkham/Eldritch Horror tabletop games where "events" and "mysteries" are a series of challenges for the players to challenge through decision making and luck with dices, being an abstract experience of TTRPG logic.

You live in the age of information, buy a niche game on a whim, and then ♥♥♥♥♥ about what it is and it isn't

[The Troll King]

Look the game is telling a story about how Eldricht Horrors cannot die, but only be stopped. I understand this phenomenon because I can stop time in a constant 5 meter radius. That's why my eggs are always fresh, and I sleep cuddling a loaf of bread every night. As long as its in my arms, it can't mold.

[mie001]

Originally posted by Hyperversum:

Originally posted by tiavals:

Agreed. After finishing 3 runs, the game is indeed shallow and abstract. There is no narrative. Only snippets of unconnected stories. Not to mention the fact that nothing you do matters, only the starting campaign has any sort of contextual gameplay, and the choices you make in the game are disregarded. I just slew Oetaru, a 90hp gigabeast by using spells and the game decided that I had run instead, mentioning how I was a coward and the monster was left to ravage the local area unhindered. Why bother having endings if you're not gonna have them matter? The sub-quests are super meaningless too, it seems. For the Oetaru thing, I got some herz numbers, which I input in some speakers. What did that do? No clue, game doesn't tell me. Probably nothing, I'm guessing.

Such nonsense.

Because the game is heavily based on Arkham/Eldritch Horror tabletop games where "events" and "mysteries" are a series of challenges for the players to challenge through decision making and luck with dices, being an abstract experience of TTRPG logic.

You live in the age of information, buy a niche game on a whim, and then ♥♥♥♥♥ about what it is and it isn't

I have been playing COC for 5 years as keeper and I can tell you there's noting to do with "Eldritch Horror" when your game constantly throwing them to you. You don't give hordes of monster to your Players to fight because that's not how it works.
Players won't get scared if they can stab a monster to death with his pocket knife. They have to constantly thinking if they made the right choice, if they understand what they are dealing with, and do they actually have a chance against it. The most thing we fear is unknown,not "monster with 20HP but can put you down in 2 turns"
Stop claiming the game have anything to do with TTRPG

[mie001]

Originally posted by This user has no known aliases:

On the surface, I agree. I also am a bit disappointed by the incoherent story telling due to events during investigation and the narrative of the "main case" after investigation. It often makes absolutely no sense and merely is a deck of clumsily curated cards. And Mr. Dentist has a dedicated story writer on his staff roll.

But regarding combat: The menu is a bit confusing at first and therefore it is, in my opinion, hard to appreciate the possible depth it actually offers (and is unnecessary in lower difficulty settings). You can for example apparently banish ghosts if you clap and bow correctly; you can use certain items to ease the combat; use companions (that are all terrible except for the neighbour, afaik); use special abilities of your characters; and probably much more I don't know about.

I think it is a bit frustrating because the atmosphere of this game is SO DENSE, and the music (and I normally dislike bit-music) so effective, on top of the art style and writing in general that it is one of the reasons I started to write prose. But honestly, it deserves much better.

If the combat have more options then maybe, but from what I experience, there's no reason to choose any other option over attack. You can dodge or absorb some damage but that use up the precious time you need to attack and they don't always works
Besides, most monster have stat like "20HP,-2ALL". The ability to attack several times a turn is your only chance to defeat that

[mie001]

Originally posted by The Mighty Monarch:

Its not for you, some of us are big fans of "Junji Ito" or others that I'm too lazy to dig up.

This game is in my opinion, made to make you feel like you're in one of those stories. If you're an outsider to Horror Manga, yeah I can see why its disappointing.

I know who he is, even I didn't read the full manga I know how his story works. I don't think his manga have school girl using baseball bat to fight "Eldritch Horror", so being "outsider to Horror Manga" have nothing to do with feeling disappoint

[Saturmorn Carvilli]

Originally posted by mie001:

Originally posted by Hyperversum:

Because the game is heavily based on Arkham/Eldritch Horror tabletop games where "events" and "mysteries" are a series of challenges for the players to challenge through decision making and luck with dices, being an abstract experience of TTRPG logic.

You live in the age of information, buy a niche game on a whim, and then ♥♥♥♥♥ about what it is and it isn't

I have been playing COC for 5 years as keeper and I can tell you there's noting to do with "Eldritch Horror" when your game constantly throwing them to you. You don't give hordes of monster to your Players to fight because that's not how it works.
Players won't get scared if they can stab a monster to death with his pocket knife. They have to constantly thinking if they made the right choice, if they understand what they are dealing with, and do they actually have a chance against it. The most thing we fear is unknown,not "monster with 20HP but can put you down in 2 turns"
Stop claiming the game have anything to do with TTRPG

They aren't talking about the TTRPG of Call of Cthulhu. They are talking more about the Fantasy Flight board games Arkham Horror and Eldritch Horror.

Which World of Horror very much plays like a game of Arkham Horror as point-and-click adventure game through the lens of a 1980s horror manga. That's no bad thing for me. Just saving the time of not setting up the board to play Arkham Horror is worth the price of the game to me. Let alone the manga presentation, which is just a bow on top.

Yeah, the adventures are basically a series of random card draws that sometimes test character sheet stats with a dice roll with some light adventure game puzzles. But I'm all for it. World of Horror does all the bookkeeping of playing the Arkham Horror board game for me. And it's great.

But even Arkham Horror is a very Ameritrash board game. Players don't play it for fine tuned mechanics, that's why it's put into the Ameritrash board game category. It's played for the experience of how crazy the story unfolds. But it's a beast of a board game, even without adding in an expansion. Most board game groups only break it out once during the Halloween season every few years, since it is such a massive undertaking.

And for that reason, I'm glad World of Horror is what it is.