Recent reviews by BowShatter

So I decided a short break and left the game on the inventory screen.

Suddenly I heard constant meowing, which was weird since I wasn't doing anything in-game. Turns out the cats can start meowing to the music if you afk or take too long to make decisions in combat.

10/10 Car Game

Swordhaven feels like a mix between Atom RPG and Age of Decadence, so if you like both of those, you'll surely like this one.

Most unique aspect of Swordhaven is how in-depth the dialogues are. Depending on your background, you'll get a lot of unique dialogue options with NPCs. For example, if you start as a Priest, you can use your status to get commoners to trust you more easily or even actually preach to certain NPCs. There's also tons of Atrribute and Skill checks everywhere that only your player character can pass and it contributes a lot to experience points gained.

Combat is a mixed bag. It drops the Perk System from Atom RPG in exchange for a Ability Skill Tree for various weapon types. This opens more strategy in combat but also makes character builds feel less unique outside of min-maxing your Atrributes and Skills.

However, as of writing this, the 1.0 version feels extremely rushed. There are placeholder portraits, placeholder icons, missing NPCs, missing sound effects and endings are bugged. I highly recommend waiting for the 1.1 major patch before buying since by then many issues should have been fixed and new content will be dropped as well.

I've had my eye on this furry JRPG for a really long time and finally it has reached 1.0.
Completed the first chapter and I'm really liking it so far. Gives an old school RPG vibe.

Here are my thoughts:

- Story set up is pretty cool. Can't wait to uncover the dark mystery.

- Writing is top notch and localization is good. Dialogues are well-written.

- Artwork, especially character sprites, are amazing, even if a bit inconsistent in artstyle sometimes (for example, Goshe vs Misha differences in appearance despite being the same species).

- Soundtrack. Such banger tracks! Then there's how every battle track has calm and enrage variants too.

- Combat is turn-based and quick time events to dodge or block. Don't feel bad if you lower the difficulty as the battles are really brutal. I barely managed to kill Chapter 1 Boss.

- Meaningful decisions. Your choices in every event mean a lot in both short-term (avoid battle, difficult battle, more rewards) and long-term (karma meter that has story consequences and unlocking content).

- Branching story paths that are very different. Think of how in Witcher 2 choosing Iorveth or Roche completely changes how the story progresses.

So YES, please support this solo dev's work! It is PEAK, especially when compared to a lot of mediocre big game releases recently.

It is an okay turn-based tacticals game I guess. Not worth $40, but it might be worth it getting it on a sale, which currently is on till 23rd October 2025.

The Good:
- The 6 Classes feel distinct and serve different roles. Two skill paths that you can mix and match for the ideal build for that character.
- Character appearance customization options are pretty cool, like letting you make your alchemists look like Plague Doctors. You have to slowly unlock them through missions against certain factions though.
- Sound effects are great. Very satisfying sound effects for weapons, animals, fire, explosions, poison, siege weapons.
- Occult themes (that gets introduced in Chapter 2 and beyond) make the otherwise low fantasy medieval fantasy more interesting.
- Combat AI of enemies is surprisingly smart. For example, they will try to take ideal pathfinding routes, maximize their AoE effectiveness, target your squishy teammates and so on.

The Bad:
- Very poor performance and optimization. Getting high and spiking temps even on Medium. Got better after disabling certain settings via an Engine ini file.
- Bad voice acting. Apparently it was not voiced by AI, it really is just bad human voice actors or perhaps non-English speakers voicing the English lines.
- Story is kinda generic. Doesn't make sense sometimes.
- Your characters/heroes are all the same stat-wise outside of class and level. There's no unique quirks, special backgrounds, rare events that can influence their stats.
- Some balancing issues. Maces' damage are way too low. Some skills and abilities are clearly superior over others or are must-picks to make the character viable in combat.

SILKSONG TODAY!!! SHAW!!!
First tutorial boss and it is already so PEAK.

Wouldn't have bought this game on sale if it wasn't for oboeshoes' Dolmen videos.

After completing the game on a Strength build, I'd say that this game is not as bad as most people make it out to be, but has still a lot of bad things going for it which made it flop.

Positives:
- Decent graphics. I mean yes it is kinda generic but also not bad for the devs' first title.
- Decent build variety. Strength Greatswords and Greathamers, Skill Claws and Dual Swords, Pistols, Rifles and Shotguns.
- Some interesting and challenging bosses
- Boss re-fight mechanic

Negatives:
- Battery (Estus Flask) takes way too long to use
- Have to first use Battery to restore Energy, THEN press another button to heal HP using Energy. Why.
- Stamina Regen is extremely slow and there's no way to boost it
- Enemies lack proper telegraphing on many attacks, have hitbox timing + size issues and often have some cheap mechanic like spamming knockdown or guaranteed stun moves.
- Many mid to late game bosses have cheap attacks deliberately designed as one-shots
- Terrible loot and drops implementation. Most enemies share the same loot pool of the current area. There's no way to reliably farm certain rarer materials.

For a superior sci-fi soulslike, try Hellpoint instead. Dolmen still has its fun moments if you are willing to part with a $3 to $5 to try this game on a sale though.

It was a solid soulslike, both PvE and PvP wise, albeit janky, questionably designed in some areas and lack of enemy variety. After Elden Ring dumbed down multiplayer, I was glad to finally have a new souls game where solo invasions (and being able to be invaded solo) was a thing again.

However, the developers have pandered to the anti-invader crowd in a recent update by making them completely optional. Good luck finding ANY invasion activity now, considering the already small dwindling player base, limited invasion zones and poor matchmaking system.

Forget Nightreign slop. THIS is what you should spending that $40 on.

Solid scrolls-like open world RPG with souls-like elements. Yes, there's jank but it quickly clicks once you get used to the controls and find your preferred playstyle.

Objectively better than similar games like Oxygen Not Included.
Why? Because Rats.

If a game could be called charismatic, this would be it. Sure, it is only in early access but this game has so much charm to it, from the characters, enemies, interactive world, dialogue and so many ridiculous ways you can die in a run. Once most or all of the content is in, I'm sure this will be one of the best roguelikes or at least a very memorable one.