Aethermancer

This game had been appearing in my queue, it was on sale, reviews were decent. I looked at it and thought "Oh, so it's like Wizard of Legend + creature collecting? I can dig that." Besides I hadn't found anything else during the last steam sale that I was really into, and just wanted to come away from it with something. Maybe I should've just let the sale slide and kept my $20. The problems with this game can be tied to one key word: Progression. Interestingly, I mean this in three ways: gameplay progression, plot progression, and political progression. Gameplay: I did binge-play this game for a few days, I will give it that much. I did have to crank up the combat speed in settings to offset how slow it felt, but otherwise in many ways I enjoyed the tactical RPG system, which was sort of a combo of various other systems I'd seen implemented, between its emphasis on buffs/debuffs, breaking mechanics, and points-based skill usage. That being said, a lot of battles end up turning into a grind when you just don't have the means to quickly or efficiently stagger foes. Against bosses, staggering feels especially unrewarding. The concepts are all there, I think, they just lack proper execution. Perhaps in time, since this is still early access, the devs will do something to make each encounter more diverse and fast-paced. Right now though, it feels very grind-y. And the bosses (the two that I have been able to encounter, anyway) are way too strong and have ironically godlike mechanics. Plot: Wait, what? There's a plot to this game? I never would've guessed. There's just no background, no proper exposition, no context; characters reference other characters and you just have NO CLUE who or what they are talking about. It's like you went out to lunch with your new friend and your friend's childhood friend, and the two of them practically share their own unique language and you are left on the sidelines. Political: Okay seriously, even to many people on the left, this game has WAAAAY too many they/them pronouns. Forget the political statement you're trying to make or the worldview you are attempting to represent; this is just really bad for storytelling. Again with the plot problems. I reached my limit of -trying- to comprehend what was going on when this old aethermancer ghost appeared and started chatting with the protagonist after I got WIPED by that beetle boss guy, and there is just NO WAY to piece sense together from their conversation. Also my limit for playing the game in its current state, for all of the above reasons. I do want to like this game. I like roguelikes and I like creature collecting, and in theory I like them both together. This game just needs some work done. I do hope the developers pay attention to everything players are saying about the early access version.

Overall an ok game, but pretty repetitive and very slow with adding new content. There are spots of dialogue that are extremely awkward shoehorned in politics that really make me question the judgement of the devs.

Fun game ruined by the dialogue; it's like they wanted to fuse Buddhism, postmodernism, and hyper-progressivism altogether into this profound and thought provoking narrative, but it's just obnoxious word slop that's bereft of reasoning. It starts off unnoticed or subtle but comes on overwhelmingly aggressive as time goes on. By midgame you're always getting lectured about the bigotry and ignorance of humans, who once enslaved the wonderful and diverse monsterkin, or about the need of people (humans) to set aside their privilege and see things through the experience of others before they judge, because seemingly the only truly bad act in life is intolerance (even when the game also tells you there is no good or bad/right or wrong in life because it all comes from the same essence). There are an unbearable amount of individual characters with 'they/them' pronouns, which by the way makes the script utterly confusing to anyone who speaks regular English... Honestly it feels like the dialogue was written by an undergraduate from Berkley with a degree in the negative effects of European colonialism on animal sexuality. I loved monster sanctuary and had high hopes for this game, but I'm just too put off by the script. You could just say, 'why not just skip the dialogue and only play the game?' Sure, and I may do that to get to the end out of nostalgia for monster sanctuary. But without the negative review I feel like that just incentivizes these types of people to continue ruining video games by forcing their nonsensical and anti-reality beliefs into literally everything. I'm old enough to remember what happened to the Dragon Age series, and if there is no pushback from the video game community, every game will be a Veilguard at this point.

2つ目の難易度までクリアしたので、そろそろレビューを書きます。 基本的なシステムについては他のレビューでも十分に解説されているため、ここでは少し違う観点からこのゲームの魅力を書きます。 このゲームを端的に表現するなら、 「ローグライク要素を追加し、ダイスを振らなくなった『Library Of Ruina』」 です。 最初のボスを倒すまでは、ほぼチュートリアルのようなものです。 最初に選んだモンスターを軸に、どのようにシナジーを組み立てるのか。その基礎を学びながら進めていきます。 ただし、登場する状態異常や専門用語の数はカードゲーム並みです。 この時点で、説明を読まずに感覚だけで遊びたい人には、あまり向いていないゲームだと思います。 逆に、説明文を読み、効果を理解し、組み合わせを考えることが好きな人は、とてつもなくハマる可能性があります。 このゲームの最大の魅力は、複雑で自由度の高いシナジーシステムです。 強力な組み合わせも数多く存在しますが、継続的にバランス調整も行われています。 冒険を始めたばかりのころは微妙だったパーティが、冒険の終盤には複雑怪奇なピタゴラ装置へと変貌します。 攻撃するたびに、 Aが発動 → Bが誘発 → 状態異常を付与 → 状態異常を条件に別の効果が発動 → 新たな状態異常を付与 → さらに別の効果が誘発 → シナジーやコンボが途切れるまで連鎖 といった具合に、敵も味方もピタゴラスイッチのように動き始めます。 最終的には、単純に強い攻撃を選ぶゲームではなく、 「自分が作った複雑な装置のスイッチを押し、連鎖反応を眺めるゲーム」 になっていきます。 システムを理解するまでのハードルは高めですが、そのハードルを越えた先には、他のゲームではなかなか味わえないデッキ構築とシナジー構築の快感があります。 説明を読むことが苦にならず、複雑な効果を組み合わせて壊れたコンボを作ることが好きな人には、かなりおすすめです。

刚开始玩的时候非常兴奋的。 优点很多： 包括怪物之间技能的联动爽感，通过运营做到一回合多动+主动技能的击溃，还有看到新怪物和异色（[b] 是的，这游戏有异色[/b]）的兴奋。每个怪物都有不错的攻击和技能动画 总体很不错的游戏 缺点则如下：： 1，制作组对地图的执念颇深，每一关都有例如隐藏金币等地图探索的要素。虽然事件等会在地图标注，但也意味着不把地图全角落跑一遍，就拿不全金币（对强迫症很不友好）。但地图又比较大，且还有高台设定，难免会有大量重复时间 2，延续第一点，因为每一关地图都比较大，加上每一关约有二三次的战斗，会让一局的时间大大延长。由于构筑会在中期就大致成型，后期的战斗台的战斗逻辑和套路就重复使用，让人很有疲倦感。其次，虽然战斗可以通过绕道避免，但不战斗就没有经验和金币，还是避无可避 总结起来就是：很有趣也很疲倦的游戏 看得出来，制作组对这款游戏非常上心。愿在后续更新能变得更好

These developers are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idiots. The end game boss (Chernobog) is the stupidest ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ encounter one could possibly make for this game. From start to this boss, you will have the SAME gameplay. You get to this boss? Its like playing an entirely different game - especially with the boss exploiting corruption - which you CAN NOT get rid of in the middle of a fight consistently. Summons with no health and need to have their poise broken to get rid of? Not introduced at all beforehand. From these summons: A non debuff condition that adds a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of corruption to your minions if they take an action? Not introduced prior at all. A creature that creates a damn near 1 to 1 replica of your monsters? Not introduced prior at all. Fire the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ moron who designed that boss. It has to be some of the most incompetent hamfisted trash tier out of place design I've seen to date in 30+ years of gaming. Completely ended my desire to continue playing. You have to tailor the run to deal with these bosses, with a constrictive party system that is a pain in the ass to swap out creatures. Especially the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that scraps their gear on swapping. The boss design means you have no build variety, which means there is no point in having a ton of monsters to capture. It went from enjoyable, being able to make the party I WANT and then adjust/play better/pay the price to keep going down that path....to now I have to tailor everything to get past the first end game boss. I could slug it out against enemies with mismatches and poor optimization (including against mini bosses) and still win. I might be a bit worse off, I might adjust a little bit - but I could still do it without issue and run the group I WANT TO RUN. Now every run I start is completely focused on the bosses, that isn't fun. That makes experimenting and off builds unviable. 5 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ years and this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ boss is the best you can come up with? I'd refund if I could.

It's been 6 days; I'm 40 hrs in.

Only complaint is lack of content but it's not a full release yet so that's not a real complaint.

This game is phenomenal. I’ve seen people make comparisons to Pokemon, and that truly does Aethermancer a disservice. Incredible amount of challenge and depth of strategy makes it so addicting. Subtle lore in the background that adds to the game without being bloated is a nice touch. Scratches the same itch that Slay the Spire or Darkest Dungeon does for me.

我只能說 超級好玩 但是也是有一些缺點 先說好的部分 1.裡面每一種怪獸有3個不一樣的特點 依照這些特點可以在局內構築3隻不同怪獸之間的特性 招式 這是主要的肉鴿部分 搭配非常多元 真的有超級多的流派可以玩 每個怪獸還有異化可以抓 局外升級之後又可以有更多的搭配 我現在過了4-5次感覺還有不少沒玩過 2.精神時光屋 一局大概落在40-60分鐘 如果想要殺時間的話蠻推薦的 3.畫風不錯 這種像素風格本來就有它自己的受眾群體 每個怪獸的動作都是獨一無二的 沒有一個動作套到底的問題 4.局外升級蠻多樣的 但就算沒有升多少也不會影響你過關 有升當然會更容易 但不升戰力的方面也還好 再來說說缺點 遊戲的流程其實頗為單調 但看得出製作組有想解決這方面的問題 除了有3個岔路可選之外 搜搜地圖內的金幣以太等等 還有一些事件可以觸發 還可以找牙齒(但牙齒只能裝飾家裡有點沒用) 是會稍微緩解你的疲倦感 但還是不夠 玩久了還是會流程疲勞 就是那種一玩就好幾個小時 然後就會丟在倉庫裡面生灰 過一段時間才會再拿出來