Ascendant

This game has the potential to be good, and the art style and sound design are beautiful. However, in it's current state it's not there. Some observations from my first few hours. I defeated 3 bosses on my first play through, making it to the 4th floor. This was mostly due to the ability to heal yourself mid battle feeling broken. I only died in the end because I got stuck in a corner. The boss fights themselves are also not enjoyable, I'm used to bosses In games like this having attack patterns that need to be figured out, that when mastered can lead to you beating the boss without taking damage. This isn't the case here, each boss has 1-3 attacks that it loops, so the gameplay becomes very repetitive very quickly. Second boss feels broken as it will continue to spawn enemies as fast/faster than you can defeat them. I ended up just ignoring the enemies and focusing on the bullet sponge boss. Third boss was a walk in the park comparatively and offered no threat at all. The level design (and enemy type) only changes every 2 floors, with little variation between enemies. After the 2nd floor there aren't any enemies with projectiles (so the parry becomes pretty useless), instead they're replaced with rushing/swarm type enemies, so the game loop just becomes move in circles and shoot until dead. More variety (and more space to properly dodge attacks) would be greatly appreciated. inventory management quickly becomes a chore. Requiring items to be picked up to be able to "release souls" coupled with the relatively small Imventory slots mean you end up constantly having to throw stuff away or sell (which annoyingly you can only do 1 item at a time). The option to scrap the items in each box would be welcomed. Also, if you alter the controls from the default (it's nice to be able to parry without releasing the right analogue stick using the bumper), the toggle to switch to crafting doesn't work, meaning I had to switch back to default controls every time I wanted to craft. Speaking of crafting, it's not clear which scrolls are compatible with which wand caps, they could do with more differentiation/explanation. Finally, there isn't much variety in attack type, these games are at their best when fun items are unlocked and are available in chests, there doesn't seem to be any of this in here, just 2 main modes of fire. Some variety in style, flashiness, and animations would be great.

For context, these are my opinions of the game after ~20 hours of playtime and multiple completed runs in both Elevated and Rush game modes. Mostly M&KB Current Rating - 9/10 This could increase to a 10/10 in a few patches. I’m still encountering some bugs but nothing that a restart/load hasn’t been able to fix. Highlights: ⁃ Rush mode, this has been my go to after completing the story mode. I enjoy the faster pacing. ⁃ Boss fights, some of the negative reviews mention the room to room combat being tedious but I just see it as the go between to gear up between boss fights. ⁃ An extremely responsive developer. I dropped a few suggestions in the discord and they popped up in the following day’s update. Might be a coincidence but I appreciated it none the less. Negatives: ⁃ Some of the late stage bosses seem to still have a really large health pool. The earlier stage bosses had their health reduced but these seem unaffected. Not sure if intentional or coming in a future update. ⁃ I wish the Meizer dropped more than just the items he stole from you when defeating him. It feels a bit unrewarding to just get my same items back and still lose the gold I staked. My understanding of the game in its current state: Fight your way room to room in typical roguelike fashion, get a reward when clearing a room, repeat until you find the boss room. It’s simple, but like I said, I’m here for the boss fights. The stand out “dodge” mechanic in this game is a parry that reflects the enemy’s damage back at itself. It’s solid for damage avoidance, but until you get to the later levels where enemies are dealing higher damage, it’s not incredibly useful as a “weapon”. I think a hat that multiplies this damage could be useful but maybe that’s already in the game and I just haven’t found it yet. The item system consists of a Hat Slot (Passive Ability), Amulet Slot (Active Ability), Robe Slot (Health Pool and Shield Pool), Wand Core Slot (Mana Pool and Passive Mana Regeneration). There are also 3 slots for Wand Caps which are essentially spells that you can switch between. You can also unlock an additional 4th slot if you find a “Dual Wand Core”. The 3 “Types” of wand caps are Shaping (Projectile), Manifesting (Healing and Speed), and Channeling (Laser Beam that goes through enemies). NPC Interactions: The Meizer - Can combine your wand caps but only if they are of the same type (Manifesting, Shaping, Channeling). You can offer him gold as a bribe to increase your chance of success which is locked between 5%-95%. If the combination fails you can choose to fight him and if you win you will recieve your wand caps back (still wish there was an additional reward). My only gripe with this system is that I can only set the gold amount and not the percent. I wish there was a way I could choose my percent directly and the gold would update accordingly. The Enchantress - Gives quests that give scrolls when completed. These scrolls can be added to wand caps to make them more powerful in various ways. The scrolls also appear in soul chests, so the incentive for quests isn’t huge, but the quests tend to be simple things you are already doing such as collecting gold. The Petch - A shop keeper where you can buy and sell. The only interesting interaction with this guy is a bag you can buy that gives you an item (similar to the mystery box in call of duty zombies). Overall the game is really fun, and I’ve really enjoyed playing it! Would definitely recommend!

Nice drawings, but there's almost no game. Everything is tedious as ♥♥♥♥. Why do I have to equip the thing that takes me to the next level? In the second room I managed to get a channeling wand cap which got stuck in "on" mode and trivialized the next two floors. Bugged as hell as well. The bosses have a single move each. Was this supposed to be early access?

For the first 50 minutes of the game, I ran into a total of 3 enemy types. The 2nd boss took me 10 minutes to kill because of how much of an hp sponge it is. There's not really any sense of danger because you can heal any damage you take easily. Just don't die to lack of I-frames and you could probably beat this in your first try

Was initially a bit hesitant to pick this one up after reading some of the negative reviews but I had a ton of fun! It seems like most of the pacing issues have been fixed. Doesn’t fit into the typical roguelike box but it does its own thing and does it well!

So far so good for an early access. The main structure is mostly in place for what could be a potentially absolute gem of a game assuming the dev keeps up current performance with updates and enacting their vision. I do recommend this game as its already a bit of fun, and I believe it will offer much more as updates roll out and the game is complete (if it is ever completed and doesn't become an ever-growing game, as the structure for NOITA level interaction is there.

Played this for the first time today and had a great time! Furthest I made it was to the 4th floor and it was great not knowing what type of enemies to expect entering a new floor, and then navigating their movesets etc. The art style is amazing and you can tell the dev realllly put a lot of effort in to the game. At the time of writing Its' super new out and I can already see a bunch of balancing and patches being applied too which is always a good sign. Very excited to see where this game goes!

literally cannot stop playing, a few bugs but i cant wait to see where this goes.

Overall score: 8/10 (Gamebreaking bugs) [SOLVED] I played for 5 hours so far. Game is amazing. I liked the idea of being able to upgrade items/combine them etc. However, so many bugs. I made the perfect run so far. Killed the boss. Achievement unlocked. However, boss is stuck in a weird phase where it does not die! Therefore, does not give you the item to progress to the next level. Relog? Does not solve. Go out and back in to the boss room? Does not solve...

I had a pleasure to try this game before it went on sale on Steam, and I really enjoyed it. So when I learned it's finally available on Steam — got it immediately. It's quite cozy. It reminds me of good old days even though I am not typically much into this genre — i just liked it and it made me feel good. Like having a good nostalgy dinner. Go get it.