New games can no longer be uploaded to Kongregate so we're stuck with the same games until they ever change that. I don't think that'll ever happen at this point.
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This is a great game. I think the learning curve is about right. I had only planned to try it out for a bit, and ended up spending an hour and a half until I beat the boss at the end. One thing I am wondering about is the viability of different strategies. The game gives off the impression that the different set bonuses and skill choices should all be viable, given different playstyles, and that may be true. I wonder how balanced it really is though. Getting a 3-piece fire set early gives STR a real boost, and the 2-piece wind set + berserk makes getting through the later stages quite manageable. I also ended up using hail and reflect, and this, along with decent item RNG, got me through the final boss the first time I reached them. It was a lot of fun and maybe I'll be back to try some other strategies another day. Maybe an INT based build using Execute plus a Sword skill would work... Great game!
Thanks for the detailed feedback :) One paradigm I employed was instead of worrying about total balance, I just wanted some things to feel stronger than others in certain phases of the game. For example the earth set is built on survivability, and lets you push far early on when things are still a big threat. Similarly, the stats waver in usefulness as well, depending on what builds are open to you at the time. I purposely kept max INT as a great end game strategy as a cherry on top if you made it that far and could figure it out. So you are correct in your observations! The balance is not totally around playstyles, but also/mostly around what phase of the game you're in. I personally enjoy that sort of dynamic vs say, picking a stealth playstyle because I like stealth and just sticking with it the whole game.
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Wow. I kept getting totally walled at some of the later stages till I started going back to do more. I also totally underestimated the wind set till it became almost necessary to buff agility when i was rushing. Im sure you can definitely beat in in a more timely manner, but i beat the final boss with like 7 HP and 29 seconds. First time encountering it with just insane loot rng after tons of luck potions
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i reset my save and it was just as much fun the second time. Even after i got all the upgrades it was still fun to try insane combos like 100% uptime on skills.
Wow! That's a really great question and it's cool to be asked that. This is maybe a more niche/difficult game but I had a lot of fun both making and playing this game https://peachtreeoath.itch.io/bust-a-loop. I play fighting games but am frustrated with how poor of an effort devs make to create single player experiences. So this was my attempt at that.
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Managed to completely bypass the final boss by using advanced judgment on the second to last zone. Great incremental RPG that manages to get you to think fast and plan ahead - and hate those stupid bombs.
Thanks a lot :) I threw the bombs in to give some of the skills more room to shine by blocking or deleting the enemy. There are many times I hated them as well though...
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Hey Peachtreeoath, thank you for your reply! And I actually went on to break that time again. I don't know if you'd consider it at all at this point, but I actually have a little recommendation for your game: add a few sounds and possibly some music. I think that on two different occasions before I saw this game and began playing it but got bored after a minute. This is the first time I actually tried very much at it, but if you just put in a few sound effects I think it would bump the quality up a lot, since I guess you're still paying attention to who's playing. Anyway I thought I'd just make that little comment.
That's a fair suggestion for sure. The main reason I left it out was because I wanted to get this prototype out as soon as I could, so the focus was more on gameplay/art. If I ever did a full version of this, audio is something I would very much like to tackle too.
Awesome you picked up on that, I really wanted to make the whole experience fairly dynamic. Even if some skills are weak early on, they might have some use in late game or along a different path.
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Honestly passed this game up a couple times, but decided to check it out this time and I'm glad I did. I'm having a lot of fun seeing myself slowly get further into the map each time, and actually feeling stronger as I go. There's a lot to say about good balancing here. You designed this well. Congrats and good job! 5/5
Glad you stopped by and I appreciate the insight. Getting into the player's head is always a challenge so I always like feedback on the overall gamefeel.
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Unsure how I managed it, but I used advanced judgement on the second last fight, and skipped the boss :') I had -4 stage skip on wisdom? Either way, glad to be done with this badge hahaha, took a good 90 mins or so to beat
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I get it. You unlock some things and become stronger every run. That concept is cool. The execution of it is absolute garbage though. Horrible graphics and animations. No sound effects or music at all. It just feels so empty. At no point do I feel joy when playing this game. This is truly a game where a let's play by a popular YouTuber is more fun than playing it yourself even though the game is free, so saving money isn't a reason to watch vs play.
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I think its crazy you still respond to comments on this game,
On another note, getting 200 Wisdom gives you 100% cooldown reduction. spam the axe to get 1 strength and that's GG, Got to 600 strength before I got bored and finished.
Heh I appreciate that :) I'm not a huge dev or anything yet, so I still have plenty of time to check in and mingle with the community that's been so good to me.
Oh man, that was deep enough lore it took me a while to remember. The lore for the game was supposed to be a knight who is cursed by a wizard such that he can only leave the castle for x amount of time (your reset timer). Only by saving the princess can you remove the curse. The lock was just the symbol that gets carved on him because of the curse :)
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What a lovely game, good to see a wonderful game can be made without resorting to freemium service, love it. It definitely makes me want to play again and try other strategies, using different spells and trying to build my character differently. Looks like a good game to try and speedrun too
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short but sweet game, like the design a lot. also for anyone struggling (and the developer in case this is a bug), once you have an advanced skill slot plus another slot, just pick advanced shield + berserk and enjoying winning. When you use berserk while it's already running the timer resets but the buff doesnt if you can keep resetting the cooldown with the shield, your agility will just ramp up and up forever, intelligence of course makes this easier to maintain. and once you get another advanced skill slot and make berserk give endurance well... you pretty much cant lose
Nope no bug~ That's a great strategy and I left a bit of wiggle room in the skills for some really strong builds if you can figure them out, which you definitely did!
There won't be updates to this game as it was basically a prototype. I do have plans to make a full version/sequel eventually, but not until I wrap up other projects I'm working on first.
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It grows with replaying, slowly. I like how it reveals itself, but it's a cumbersome click counter click counter. learning curve. Nice discovery path, figuring out how all the parts of the game work.
I appreciate the feedback. It was challenging to figure out the best way to implement some things, but I certainly learned a lot since then through all the comments :)
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I completed a run in 1m 54s which seems rather good. This game is awesome since I revisit it every now and then and find myself replaying it all over again because it's fun to be POWERFUL. Good stuff. :D
Under a minute is definitely very good! Glad you still enjoy the game. I did indeed try to make the game change in playstyle as you get stronger so that there's variety in play. Thanks for playing (and replaying)!
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Very fun! Getting up to 200 Int gives your skills 0 cooldown time, which is broken with the Fortress skill. Also, Advanced Fortress resets your other cooldowns, which can allow you to keep Berserk up indefinitely with a little Int. Having your agility/endurance constantly growing from the start of a run also makes things much easier.
High int builds are definitely where some zaniness kicks in. I wanted to have that in there so that the game had distinct phases. As such, the end game is (probably) dominated by people who can come up with good skill synergies.
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This is an awesome game, I´ve enjoyed a lot. You should make more like this one, XD. But next time, longer, much looonger... I neeed more! Moooore!
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Hey! I played the heck out of this game last year, it's fantastic. Just wanted to say I was checking in, and noticed how active you are in responding to comments. I respect that a ton. Good work, dev :D