Maddmike Steam Curator

https://youtu.be/96gtp2DQ0gQ

The ink is finally dry now that Inkbound is entering 1.0, and having sprinkled in a few hours throughout early access and about 20 more this past week; I’m confident that Inkbound is an acquired taste.

There is a deep strategy roguelite here, but you do have to wade through some tedium when it tries to wear other hats. I did eventually grow to accept and love its unique flavor but that onboarding was weird–especially because of how unique it is.

Inkbound is a run based strategy game with a strong emphasis on build crafting. Though not a card game itself, it does inherit a lot of deckbuilding principles owed to this being developed by the same folks who made Monster Train. Start a run, pick synergistic abilities and enhancements after combat rounds, and hopefully make it to the final boss so you can do it all over again.

But Inkbound is also a long term progression game. Massive cross-run quest chains, a persistent avatar, and annoyingly required story stuff are the scaffolding that support those runs: and they’re not always a positive inclusion.

A lot of Inkbound makes more sense when you recall its early access launched with a battlepass and in-game cosmetic shop. Somewhere along the way the team did respond to all that anti-microtransaction pressure and removed them, but what’s a little harder to remove are the gameplay systems that were designed around their presence.

Your rogue home base is an online hub where your little dude can walk around and gawk at other avatars. That visible and movable character is a design ethos outside of the hub too: even though the game follows a fairly standard “pick one of three lanes” roguey path system, you actually walk those paths instead of picking them from a menu—which also means there’s lots of little doodads you gotta click on as you travel the short but completely superfluous walkways.

But where these systems go from headscratchingly weird to actively detrimental is long, grindy quest chains whose long grindiness feel like they were designed for the game that Inkbound used to be—not the one that it is.

Some are passive kill quests you’ll accumulate in the background of regular play, some are cool incentives to try a build you may not have otherwise, but the bad ones are corny RP quests and mandatory story deviations.

I once bottlenecked my progression because I didn’t realize a main story quest demanded that I play a particular class, go to a particular zone, then use an emoji.

Other quests force suboptimal runs by having you spend one of your path choices on talking to someone and getting a random boon rather than piloting your run the correct way: and the story just is not interesting enough to warrant forcing you away from a perfect build.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3217360650

I frontload all of this criticism because I do love Inkbound, but it’s despite and not because of its whole. It’s got a serious case of Marvel Midnight Suns Syndrome where a superb core gameplay system gets its attention diluted by a story and subsystems that are boring at best and bad at worst.

When the game isn’t getting in its own way, you get a fast paced turn based battler with a strong building emphasis. Think of a roguelite version of the second Mario and Rabbids game and you’re on the right track: you get free, gridless movement where locations and movement points ‘lock’ into place after you attack, rather than treating movement as its own discrete action.

It feels great: you get the strategic benefits of turn based but when it's time to start hitting things, the rules and animations allow you to quickly navigate and spam attacks. Your opponents all resolve their turns concurrently so you’re only ever not in control for a few seconds at most, and when you’re in control you’ve got a bit to think about.

Whichever class you pick comes standard with three starting moves and a starting passive bonus, which you can accent with two additional moves and seven additional passives via items unlocked mid run.

Those hard limits are where Inkbound gains a lot of texture compared to some of its peers. Whereas many rogues will treat the acquisition of a new passive as a permanent and uncontroversial addition to your power, Inkbound forces you to make trades and lateral moves on your way to a great build.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3217360111

A small sprinkling of autobattler inspiration exists here in the form of numerical set bonuses, where reaching certain threshold of like passives will give all of them a boost. They’re both an incentive to chase on your road to power and they also fold into the limited slot strategy: one of the most powerful boons you come across on your journey are ways to free up item slots but retain the set bonuses of that item, which takes some of the sting out of all the swapping and dropping you’ll have to do.

The late-run encounters always give a great feeling of a build coming together, and that feeling is exacerbated by how tangible the combat is.

There’s also a lot of interesting class design here. There are loose approximations of archetypal warriors, rogues, and mages but also a spear wielding gladiator and a brawling fisticuffer and more. They vary in their damage patterns and mobility, but they’re all flexible enough to take advantage of any build and item that may drop.

The added layer here is that they can also interact with each other: maybe the one benefit of Inkbound’s weird online priorities are that it gave us a half decent co-op system with its own stat tracking and progression.

The trickster area damage class is fun on its own but get someone to compliment it with the relocation focused “Weaver” to suck all the foes together and you’ll really see its potential. Relying on matchmaking for a party can be kind of a bummer though, as there’s no protections against people leaving you mid run—I was really dying for a way to convert a half finished run into a solo when the random I was playing with disconnected.


Inkbound is all over the place.

You don’t need to look at old reviews or read articles to learn about how its vision changed during development; it’s manifest in the text itself through lack of focus and vestigial systems that supported something closer to a live-service than the final game ended up being. At times it feels like a better combat system than it does a game.

Despite that inelegance, the rogue core is great fun with tactical yet fast paced combat and the thrills of stitching together a powerful build. It’s created an interesting middle-ground between a pure action roguelite and a turn based strategic one; even if it spills too much ink on everything else.

Follow our Curator page, Summit Reviews, to see more high quality reviews regularly.

[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/31028489-Maddmike/]Maddmike Steam Curator[/url] https://youtu.be/96gtp2DQ0gQ The ink is finally dry now that Inkbound is entering 1.0, and having sprinkled in a few hours throughout early access and about 20 more this past week; I’m confident that Inkbound is an acquired taste. There is a deep strategy roguelite here, but you do have to wade through some tedium when it tries to wear other hats. I did eventually grow to accept and love its unique flavor but that onboarding was weird–especially because of how unique it is. Inkbound is a run based strategy game with a strong emphasis on build crafting. Though not a card game itself, it does inherit a lot of deckbuilding principles owed to this being developed by the same folks who made Monster Train. Start a run, pick synergistic abilities and enhancements after combat rounds, and hopefully make it to the final boss so you can do it all over again. But Inkbound is also a long term progression game. Massive cross-run quest chains, a persistent avatar, and annoyingly required story stuff are the scaffolding that support those runs: and they’re not always a positive inclusion. A lot of Inkbound makes more sense when you recall its early access launched with a battlepass and in-game cosmetic shop. Somewhere along the way the team did respond to all that anti-microtransaction pressure and removed them, but what’s a little harder to remove are the gameplay systems that were designed around their presence. Your rogue home base is an online hub where your little dude can walk around and gawk at other avatars. That visible and movable character is a design ethos outside of the hub too: even though the game follows a fairly standard “pick one of three lanes” roguey path system, you actually walk those paths instead of picking them from a menu—which also means there’s lots of little doodads you gotta click on as you travel the short but completely superfluous walkways. But where these systems go from headscratchingly weird to actively detrimental is long, grindy quest chains whose long grindiness feel like they were designed for the game that Inkbound used to be—not the one that it is. Some are passive kill quests you’ll accumulate in the background of regular play, some are cool incentives to try a build you may not have otherwise, but the bad ones are corny RP quests and mandatory story deviations. I once bottlenecked my progression because I didn’t realize a main story quest demanded that I play a particular class, go to a particular zone, then use an emoji. Other quests force suboptimal runs by having you spend one of your path choices on talking to someone and getting a random boon rather than piloting your run the correct way: and the story just is not interesting enough to warrant forcing you away from a perfect build. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3217360650 I frontload all of this criticism because I do love Inkbound, but it’s despite and not because of its whole. It’s got a serious case of Marvel Midnight Suns Syndrome where a superb core gameplay system gets its attention diluted by a story and subsystems that are boring at best and bad at worst. When the game isn’t getting in its own way, you get a fast paced turn based battler with a strong building emphasis. Think of a roguelite version of the second Mario and Rabbids game and you’re on the right track: you get free, gridless movement where locations and movement points ‘lock’ into place after you attack, rather than treating movement as its own discrete action. It feels great: you get the strategic benefits of turn based but when it's time to start hitting things, the rules and animations allow you to quickly navigate and spam attacks. Your opponents all resolve their turns concurrently so you’re only ever not in control for a few seconds at most, and when you’re in control you’ve got a bit to think about. Whichever class you pick comes standard with three starting moves and a starting passive bonus, which you can accent with two additional moves and seven additional passives via items unlocked mid run. Those hard limits are where Inkbound gains a lot of texture compared to some of its peers. Whereas many rogues will treat the acquisition of a new passive as a permanent and uncontroversial addition to your power, Inkbound forces you to make trades and lateral moves on your way to a great build. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3217360111 A small sprinkling of autobattler inspiration exists here in the form of numerical set bonuses, where reaching certain threshold of like passives will give all of them a boost. They’re both an incentive to chase on your road to power and they also fold into the limited slot strategy: one of the most powerful boons you come across on your journey are ways to free up item slots but retain the set bonuses of that item, which takes some of the sting out of all the swapping and dropping you’ll have to do. The late-run encounters always give a great feeling of a build coming together, and that feeling is exacerbated by how tangible the combat is. There’s also a lot of interesting class design here. There are loose approximations of archetypal warriors, rogues, and mages but also a spear wielding gladiator and a brawling fisticuffer and more. They vary in their damage patterns and mobility, but they’re all flexible enough to take advantage of any build and item that may drop. The added layer here is that they can also interact with each other: maybe the one benefit of Inkbound’s weird online priorities are that it gave us a half decent co-op system with its own stat tracking and progression. The trickster area damage class is fun on its own but get someone to compliment it with the relocation focused “Weaver” to suck all the foes together and you’ll really see its potential. Relying on matchmaking for a party can be kind of a bummer though, as there’s no protections against people leaving you mid run—I was really dying for a way to convert a half finished run into a solo when the random I was playing with disconnected. [h2] In Conclusion [/h2] Inkbound is all over the place. You don’t need to look at old reviews or read articles to learn about how its vision changed during development; it’s manifest in the text itself through lack of focus and vestigial systems that supported something closer to a live-service than the final game ended up being. At times it feels like a better combat system than it does a game. Despite that inelegance, the rogue core is great fun with tactical yet fast paced combat and the thrills of stitching together a powerful build. It’s created an interesting middle-ground between a pure action roguelite and a turn based strategic one; even if it spills too much ink on everything else. [quote]Follow our Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41449676/]Summit Reviews[/url], to see more high quality reviews regularly.[/quote]