Defeat the monsters of Southeast-Asian folklore as you pick up the mantle of a Ghost Hunter in order to keep the balance and lid on the spiritual world in this ARPG Hack and Slash that takes inspiration from notable gems.




Wearing its influence on its sleeve, Ghostlore uses it to its strength at representing them well. From its inspiration to classics of the genre, Diablo 2, Titan Quest and to an extent of how it plays, Path of Exile. As a fan and player of the last one, it reminds me of POE in terms of its massive love for loot and typical problem of deciding which items to keep and which to dispose of.


Another influence it does justice in terms of representation is Southeast-Asian (SEA) folklore. Coming from that region, there aren’t many games that cover the folklore of the region, with notable mentions being Pamali, DreadOut and Home Sweet Home, it is nice to see a game of a different genre that covers it.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2797616440


As the developers hail from Singapore, there’s a heavy influence of Singaporean culture and other SEA cultures. From the architecture of your home base where you launch missions from, to the food, to the mannerism of the way some character speaks, it’s down to a tee in accuracy that it is a nice touch.


There are 6 different classes to choose from depending on your playstyle, The Adept, The Exorcist, The Feral, The Geomancer, The Hashashin and The Sentinel. One does not have to worry about which class to pick as as you progress through the game, at a certain level threshold, you can combine a new class together with your current class, with up to 3 classes to master. With each class having their own active and passive abilities, mixing and matching them to synergize makes it feel unique on top of each base class.


There are 6 weapon types you can use to fight the ghosts/monsters from ranged weapons The Bow and Talismans to melee weapons, Kris, Parangs, Spear and Kukri. Again with some weapons culturally specific to the region. Each weapon changes the style of play based on their speed, range and movement. Items and equipment have rarity ratings to them from common to legendaries, the latter being more perks to them typically.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2815505996


To supplement the weapons you have, equipment such as shield, scarf, hat and amulet can be equipped to your character to bring in more perks and bonuses. To enhance these perks and bonuses even further are the Glyphs which you will get to equip more of the more you level up. With certain special Glyphs adding bonuses such as multipliers to the Glyphs you’re using, depending on its arrangement in the Glyph slots. If that’s not enough, during missions you can gather ingredients throughout the map to make a variety of food at the home base which will boost your stats as well.


Akin to other games in the genre, this is a stat and loot heavy game where you’re always comparing each weapon you stumble upon, there’s a stat page detailing all the numbers and information you’d want to see as a summary for all the items and weapons you have equipped.


Missions are fixed as you progress which gives it an air of progression of the story. However the map for those missions are randomly generated, giving it an air or difference between players. With the amount of monsters within the game, the variety of them for each stage does not feel monotonous. With the monsters having different characteristics, movements, attack patterns to them, adding in Elites into the mix helps spice things up every now and then.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2815505275


Other important points to note is that with the game being procedurally generated, there will be times where the map is either very open and sprawling so you tend to not know where to go. Other times the map can get too crowded with trees that will block your vision on where you can move through or where your shots will be blocked from if you and the monsters are behind trees.


On the topic of crowdedness, the graphics tend to make one think that way with the environments, characters and everything else having lots of detail, it does look messy when a lot is happening and appearing on the screen. So all that detail will tend to look unclear with hard edges between the environments or assets/sprites that it’s hard to know what you’re looking at. Something to note if you’re playing on a bigger screen, as this might be less noticeable on smaller screens.

Defeat the monsters of Southeast-Asian folklore as you pick up the mantle of a Ghost Hunter in order to keep the balance and lid on the spiritual world in this ARPG Hack and Slash that takes inspiration from notable gems. [code]Check out & follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42401282/][u][b][i]IndieTention[/i][/b][/u][/url] for more indie game reviews. To view some Ghostlore gameplay & IndieTention episode click [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t_RCcLw3u0&list=PLKtg5u3Ncj3_k3sncZDHbpaNFb-V4GKiX&index=34&ab_channel=QaizherOnline][u][b][i] here[/i][/b][/u][/url][/code] [h1]From the Greats[/h1] Wearing its influence on its sleeve, Ghostlore uses it to its strength at representing them well. From its inspiration to classics of the genre, Diablo 2, Titan Quest and to an extent of how it plays, Path of Exile. As a fan and player of the last one, it reminds me of POE in terms of its massive love for loot and typical problem of deciding which items to keep and which to dispose of. [h1]Under Influence[/h1] Another influence it does justice in terms of representation is Southeast-Asian (SEA) folklore. Coming from that region, there aren’t many games that cover the folklore of the region, with notable mentions being Pamali, DreadOut and Home Sweet Home, it is nice to see a game of a different genre that covers it. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2797616440 [h1]Represent[/h1] As the developers hail from Singapore, there’s a heavy influence of Singaporean culture and other SEA cultures. From the architecture of your home base where you launch missions from, to the food, to the mannerism of the way some character speaks, it’s down to a tee in accuracy that it is a nice touch. [h1]Choose your Major[/h1] There are 6 different classes to choose from depending on your playstyle, The Adept, The Exorcist, The Feral, The Geomancer, The Hashashin and The Sentinel. One does not have to worry about which class to pick as as you progress through the game, at a certain level threshold, you can combine a new class together with your current class, with up to 3 classes to master. With each class having their own active and passive abilities, mixing and matching them to synergize makes it feel unique on top of each base class. [h1]Weapon of Choice[/h1] There are 6 weapon types you can use to fight the ghosts/monsters from ranged weapons The Bow and Talismans to melee weapons, Kris, Parangs, Spear and Kukri. Again with some weapons culturally specific to the region. Each weapon changes the style of play based on their speed, range and movement. Items and equipment have rarity ratings to them from common to legendaries, the latter being more perks to them typically. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2815505996 [h1]But Wait There’s More![/h1] To supplement the weapons you have, equipment such as shield, scarf, hat and amulet can be equipped to your character to bring in more perks and bonuses. To enhance these perks and bonuses even further are the Glyphs which you will get to equip more of the more you level up. With certain special Glyphs adding bonuses such as multipliers to the Glyphs you’re using, depending on its arrangement in the Glyph slots. If that’s not enough, during missions you can gather ingredients throughout the map to make a variety of food at the home base which will boost your stats as well. [h1]Information Overload[/h1] Akin to other games in the genre, this is a stat and loot heavy game where you’re always comparing each weapon you stumble upon, there’s a stat page detailing all the numbers and information you’d want to see as a summary for all the items and weapons you have equipped. [h1]What’s Next is a Mystery[/h1] Missions are fixed as you progress which gives it an air of progression of the story. However the map for those missions are randomly generated, giving it an air or difference between players. With the amount of monsters within the game, the variety of them for each stage does not feel monotonous. With the monsters having different characteristics, movements, attack patterns to them, adding in Elites into the mix helps spice things up every now and then. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2815505275 [h1]Let Me Through[/h1] Other important points to note is that with the game being procedurally generated, there will be times where the map is either very open and sprawling so you tend to not know where to go. Other times the map can get too crowded with trees that will block your vision on where you can move through or where your shots will be blocked from if you and the monsters are behind trees. [h1]What is that?[/h1] On the topic of crowdedness, the graphics tend to make one think that way with the environments, characters and everything else having lots of detail, it does look messy when a lot is happening and appearing on the screen. So all that detail will tend to look unclear with hard edges between the environments or assets/sprites that it’s hard to know what you’re looking at. Something to note if you’re playing on a bigger screen, as this might be less noticeable on smaller screens. [code][h1]On The Map[/h1] With much of the Early Access work left to be done is balancing and polishing, Ghostlore can only get better as all the foundations are in place. For a game in the specific genre, Ghostlore does well standing on its own two feet and helps fill the void fans of the genre might be experiencing. Using the folklore from the region to help garner interest in the culture it represents, be it from the story or architecture, as a person from the region, one cannot help but be proud of Ghostlore.[/code]