AdventureQuest 8-Bit: Dungeons & DoomKnights

The last thing I expected this morning was an Adventure Quest inspired by 8-bit Zelda and Simon's Quest, and for context, I have not touched anything from the developer in about 10 years (apparently it came out on NES a few years ago). I have some history with the series, I would play those games religiously back when Flash was around, many good laughs from just pure randomness in the narrative, and many nights of mindless grinding as well - as I understand you can still play them using their launcher, which I didn't even know was a thing until recently. I have this wonderful memory of finding some undead armor in the store and it wanted me to kill some things in the swamp, I don't remember exactly how long it took me but nobody else had it for like at least a month. That and I always loved running into new Zard species, the way it works, take a Zard, pick a random object like cheese, combine them, and you have a new enemy type. I want to emphasize that this is a very basic and faithful retro game, it's not very modern or complex, you will be smashing things with 1 button, occasionally using a power-up like deflection or dog launcher. It's very much like the original Zelda, with the exception of platforming sections that reminded me of the early Castlevania gameplay. At first, the game may seem somewhat linear, but after about 90 minutes you will realize it has a limited open world, with a metroid-like progression. The story can be completed in 6 to 7 hours, give or take, it's not a very difficult game, but you can occasionally get lost if you not paying attention, and sometimes it's just not clear what you should do. Essentially you have this small open-world and you have to collect 13 power-ups, if I am not mistaken all of them had a dedicated area and a boss associated with them, or most of them at least. Overall the gameplay can get pretty stale which is expected with a retro-themed game, even though you get a bunch of power-ups, most of them will not change how you approach the combat, I pretty much only used the deflection and healing. Aside from the main story, there are a bunch of hidden rooms for health/capacity upgrades, as well as chests that give some gold. The gold itself only has very limited purpose, and the game does not have that signature loot collection for which Adventure Quest is known. Obviously, the biggest thing here is the Adventure Quest jokes, and if you are a fan there are a lot of silly references which I enjoyed, however, I felt like a lot of the narrative was recycled from the other games, and it does not hit as hard without the flash animation. I did get some laughs out of the "bonus material", I love how the game comes with the manual book and the Pretendo Empower magazine. [h1] Pros: [/h1] (+) For the most part, I got this game for that Adventure Quest humor, and I got some laughs out of it, especially from the Manual and the Magazine. There are a lot of enjoyable references if you are familiar with the world, although the narrative felt too recycled, and it didn't bring much originality. (+) After the first 90 minutes, the game becomes more of a metroidvania which I liked, and it can be somewhat thought-provoking with backtracking and figuring out where to go. The main problem I have is that most of the secrets were not very exciting, and I wish finding secrets was more rewarding than just getting more health or capacity. (+) Other than that, I thought the game played decently and it had a good variety of biomes, as well as just recreating some of the familiar zones in 8-bit which I thought was hilarious. [h1] Feedback: [/h1] [u] Possible Improvements [/u] - you may want to put a checkpoint at the second pyramid before the double rocks, that is the only part of the game where I felt a bit frustrated with RNG on the insta kills. I felt like the hitbox for the destructible rocks was weird, sometimes you just can't hit them for some reason. You may want to highlight the dark caves and doors a bit better, maybe with a unique tile under them, I got stuck several times because I thought the path looked like a black background. The game was freezing for me after exiting the magazine pages, showing I was stuck in the pause, and could not click anything. The Start did not work for me on the controller by default, and it would not work consistently in the game menu. Adding achievements would probably improve the exploration aspect. [u] Some nitpick I have with overall experience [/u] - even though the game had a lot of hidden rooms and such, they were not rewarding because the gold had very niche purpose, and other secrets were health or capacity. Adventure Quest is known for loot, and you didn't give us much loot or different weapons if that makes sense, even if the game is simple, at least a few other melee weapons with unique range or speed would have improved it. I get it's a simple game and it's fine to keep bosses primitive, but even the last boss was pretty limited, so I wish you gave them at least one more attack to force you to move. [b] Overall Thoughts: 7/10 [/b] It's not bad or anything, just a hard sell at $18, I personally have so many good memories associated with the series, I still got some enjoyment out of the references, and hey no tokens! As a faithful retro game it was solid, but not super impressive at the same time, it got a little stale in my opinion. I am a little surprised that the developer didn't put much effort into promoting the Steam version*, I would think that $18 release would justify a bit more energy. Hopefully they will make this version more appealing for those returning players so they have a reason to get it again. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]

[table] [tr] [th][h1] My Playthrough [/h1][/th] [th][url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTZKn1hLlcQPsU4cQrtxs7Qcb0YiOJndp] Youtube Playlist [/url][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td][h1]The Review[/h1][/td] [td]This is a nes zelda inspired game that was ported to PC. The problem is this really bad PC port. When you first start the game you would expect a settings option on the main menu. You would be wrong as you have to start a new save and then pause with the esc key as the start button on the controller does nothing and then you can change game setting. The hit detection on objects and enemies don't seem to work most of the time. Their are a few monsters that can summon other monsters that constantly lags the game. I also find that I sometimes get stuck on corners and thin pathways. The game does not even have credits, all it has is a website that you have to visit to see the actual credits! This game even crashed on me during one of the boss fights! The only positives I can think of are that the characters and monsters are well designed and the music is good. All in all this is not a good PC game and I would expect better from Artix Entertainment as they have been developing PC games for 21 years.[/td] [/tr] [/table]

This is a pretty rad zelda-ey metroidvania steeped in humor as well as nods to Artix Entertainment's Adventure Quest games. Yes, this genuinely is an NES game available on a carriage, with an instruction manual, and even a parody of Nintendo Power (all included here digitally). Make sure to expect all the limitations that come with the NES Highly recommend to any retro fans interested in new projects for the NES, and especially so if you are also a fan of Artix Entertainment and/or their Adventure Quest games. This is certainly the most convenient way to play it, data is saved to the cloud, and there are even romhacks that are only available digitally. 8/10 quite a good NES game, a bit pricey considering this is the purely digital version, and damn is it charming. FYI: I backed the kick-starter and I've been playing the game long before the digital steam release, thusly my steam playtime does not reflect my actual playtime.

A somehwat hesitant recommendation. I backed the NES back when it got out and had loads of fun with it. It has many little secrets and alternate paths and feel very true to Adventure Quest. But this port for the pc plays very clunky.. Both the sounds and the game itself lags out half the time, making precision jumping and avoiding enemies problematic. I hope it is just my pc that, for some reason, can't live up to these modest spec requirements. Would have loved to see the settings and controls in the menu, rather than inside the game itself, but a minor nitpicking. Bonus points for the retro settings.

I greatly enjoy the game

I waited 5 years for this game holy crap. But fun as hell. Edit: My favourite game mode is when you play the entire game as an invincible dog that one shots everything

没有真的中文翻译，游戏里还是英文的！

[h2]雖然稱不上是優秀，但懷舊感十足的優質佳作[/h2] 這是一款為GBA愛好者而生的遊戲，操作除了基本的方向鍵之外僅有A、B鍵與SELECT鍵，並且還有各種復古屏幕與8bit風格音樂的渲染，讓整款遊戲的韻味堪稱經典。 不過它就像是大部分致敬復古遊戲一樣，多少都有點瑕疵，而這款遊戲的瑕疵是難以形容的多 (並不是BUG)，即便是GBA時期的玩家也得做好足夠的心理準備。 [h3]※購買前需注意[/h3] ●遊戲僅有介面與暫停選單支援中文，遊戲內是不支援的。 ●遊戲結局講述並不齊全，你需要到線上遊戲「AdventureQuest 3D」裡才能閱讀遊戲後續的劇情，劇情向的玩家可能需要注意一下。 [h3]▼優點[/h3] +地圖廣大，且設有許多迷宮可供探索 +後期為非線性探索，讓冒險更為豐富 +驚心動魄的Boss戰 +優秀的8bit風格BGM與懷舊的像素風美術 +具有復古屏幕風格設定，整個懷舊感爆棚 +除了AdventureQuest以外，還有附加兩款小遊戲供玩家遊玩 [h3]▼缺點[/h3] -俯瞰視角與橫向視角的場景切換不明確 -受擊範圍較大，且受擊範圍不是比照實際俯瞰視角的判定，就算是復古遊戲的玩家也難以習慣 -地圖的物件障礙判定很嚴苛，時常在跑圖時會卡住 -部分路線的存檔點分配不合理 -斧頭摧毀障礙物的判定有瑕疵，總是難以擊破 -飛行功能切換的判定不明確，難以使用 -副武器炸彈完全沒有任何用途 [h3]■總結[/h3] 我是一位很喜歡斧頭的玩家，看著主人翁始終拿著斧頭戰鬥的模樣真的讓我很陶醉。 雖然很多設定都讓我感到很抓狂，但換作是其他的復古遊戲也會有相同的狀況，復古遊戲就是要讓人覺得抓狂那才叫做好玩啊。 即便故事沒有一個完美的結局，我還是很喜歡這款遊戲，Dungeons & Doomknights是我玩過最棒的復古遊戲之一。

Absolute Peak

[h1][b]地下城与魔王骑士[/b][/h1] [h1]前言[/h1] 这是一部有着浓浓复古风味的像素动作游戏，8bit的画风让人梦回红白机时代。 [h1]复古情怀[/h1] 时间并不能阻挡独立游戏爱好者们的脚步，2019年，曾开发了《AdventureQuest》系列的Artix工作室公布了一款名为《AdventureQuest 8-Bit: Dungeons & DoomKnights》的游戏，其登录的平台赫然为NES，随后在国外网站开启众筹。 多年过去，该众筹项目早已成功，Artix甚至为其发行了实体NES卡带，如今这部作品也被移植上了Steam。 游戏构造了一个充满了魅力的魔幻世界，飞龙、地牢、骷髅、法师、鬼魂、魔王，经典的美式魔幻RPG元素一个都没有落下。 [h1]游戏构造[/h1] 本作整体设计参考了《恶魔城》和《塞尔达传说》等在FC平台就大火的作品。 游戏的方式很简单，操控主角在一个开放世界中探索，流程大致可氛围击败怪物、获得新能力与升级、前往下个区域等。 游戏的地图设计应用了类银河恶魔城的能力锁构造，因此游戏过程中大多以探索和反复穿梭地图为主。 角色使用一把斧子进行攻击，整体手感很轻快，部分场景中关卡还会在经典的上帝俯视角和带有跳跃和重力的横板中来回切换。 [h1]游玩体验[/h1] 游戏拥有存档功能，因此比较复古的硬核难度也不会对玩家游玩造成多大阻碍。 真正影响游戏的是奇怪的体积碰撞，包括角色和敌人还具有一丝距离时就会判定掉血，走在各种拐弯的角落也很容易被卡住，如果这部分能优化好，会是部不错的作品。 [h1]结语[/h1] 虽然本作商店页面显示支持中文，但仅仅是启动器部分，实际游戏内全程英文显示。 本作更适合具有复古情怀能适应硬核难度的玩家，因此建议入手前先提前熟悉了解下游戏。 [quote]关注[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/36224058/]老实人鉴赏家 [/url] [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/laoshirenLSR]老实人评测[/url]：独立游戏爱好者聚集地，黄油绅士交流中心。 不错过游戏的亮点，不放过游戏的槽点，带给玩家最直观的测评感受。[/quote]