Cendric

There are a couple things to like about the game, but there are a few things that I really did not like. Overall, I did not find the first ninety-minutes enjoyable. Truly, the quality here does not feel like a $10 RPG, with no voice acting, limited music loops, poor dialogue writing, and unfortunate level design challenges. The game is a mix of platformer with not-great floaty-jump controls, and an RPG with dialogue that is terribly cliche. The designers wrote their own game engine, which - yeah - that's great, but it maybe took away from the rest of the effort. This is obviously a passion project for some young game developers, who used their chat-aliases in the game credits, so I feel awful poo-poo'ing their efforts. I just feel compelled to say that there are some exceptional $10 RPGs on steam, and Cendric does not compel me to play it over the other titles gathering dust in my library. I tried Cendric with an old ubuntu linux computer with radeon mesa graphic drivers. Cendric had a lightning-fast load time, for one thing, but I had a lot of problems with the gamepad controller.

So here's my take on Cendric after my first playthrough. Short Version: Overall 8.5/10 Playthrough about 10 hours. Up to 20 if you go for all side Quests, Books , ect. Pro - No gamebreaking bugs on my playthrough - good variety of puzzles - magic system with upgradable spells - Lot of diffrent music tracks - some fun refrences - Variety of Swissgerman dialects is amazing (only counts if you play it on swiss german) Cons - Some puzzles need to be reseted (if you broke wrong blocks) - Autotargeting can be annoying at times ( you could turn it off) Text Version: So Cendric presented itself as a solid Platformer. There are a lot of diffrent puzzles and there is a fluid story through the game. There is a Questmarker system altough not needed if you read the Questtexts (you can turn it off). It's a metroidvania style game. There are enough Teleports so you don't waste much times on backtracking. At the start I destroyed some blocks that would have been needed to solve a puzzle, it took me some time to realize that I actually failed it already. Since you can press "b" and go back to checkpoint it's not that bad, but took me some time to figure out. There is a nice System with upgradable Spells, Buffs , Armor , Trinkets. They all have a nice flavour text and a lot of diffrent stats. It's not really needed to equip the best gear possible, but it's quite nice to tank some firerat shoots with fireresistance armor. There are some puzzles where I had to think quit a bit , wich is a positive for me. The music helped a lot with atmosphere, especially on bossifghts. I especially had a blast playing it on swiss german with all diffrent dialects, for that alone I would rate it 10/10 (for Swiss People ;)) since you most likely won't find another game like this. Final Advice (if you wanna buy the game) : - Use f5 frequently to quicksave - Use f9 to Quickload - Use B if you failed a puzzle to easy get back to checkpoint - Jumping Scales with how hard you press the Spacebar - If you are done with a level you can ESC and Leave Level

Edit: I beat it in 17 hours. That was doing every single quest I found. Everything I said below is still true, but be aware that some sections of this game are extremely tough (especially [spoiler]tower 3 & 4[/spoiler]). I think those parts are a little too unforgiving with the slightly clunky keyboard controls. Those sections took many tries and many near-ragequits as I learned the exact pixel to jump from or the precise moment to start running past a swinging blade. Something that may help is to [spoiler] use xpadder and a controller for the towers, since magic is disabled anyway. It's all running, jumping and the occasional melee swing[/spoiler]. The ending boss fight is somewhat convoluted and has some annoying elements to it, but was fairly easy once you figure it all out. ----------- I've been playing for about 3 hours so far and it is quite fun. The jumping is floaty and the combat a bit clunky, but I have a high tolerance for clunk if the game is otherwise good. You walk around on a top-down world map and enter side-view dungeons for the action parts. You can save anywhere (only quick save in dungeons, apparently) and there are many teleport pads to make travel a lot faster, so the tedium of repeating content and walking around are minimized. The magic is a bit unusual. You have to find spells that you then insert in to weapons. For example, with a staff that has one elemental slot, you can put a cold spell in to that slot and the staff will shoot ice. You can also add gems to the weapons like duration, count or range that upgrade it to shot 2 balls of ice, shoot faster, or shoot farther. Some weapons have more that one spell slot so you can switch between spells by pressing a number key. Some weapons have multiple gem slots so you can make it shoot 2 faster balls of ice, for example. The melee range of the weapons I've found so far is very short, so it is difficult to melee without getting hit but healing items are plentiful. There are many areas that are blocked off by ice or other barriers that you need a certain spell to get past, so it's almost a bit metroidvania-ish in that respect. I don't think you can craft anything yourself, but there are NPC crafters that will make items for you if you bring them the correct ingredients. There are 7 gear slots. It does not support controller but does have full key remapping. Overall, it's an interesting, fun indie game and is worth the price to me.

i like it . smart platformer jump

Excellent rpg/platformer with great music. Very reasonably priced too. For the short time ive tried it I agree with other reviewers that it's a fun game and worth picking up (if you havent already done so). My only hope is that they introduce controller support because for me, I find the keyboard a bit cumbersome. Especially in the platforming area's with jumping. Overall a great purchase. If you like retro style rpg/platform type games this could be up your alley!

I found this game to be quite quaint and enjoyable. For what it is, I give it an 8.5/10. Before you read this review further, know that this is a keyboard/mouse platformer, but I went through the whole game using a complex Joy2Key profile allowing me to use a 360 controller for most common actions. Pros: -Fun RPG elements, lots of customization for your character's gear and ability -Platforming proved solid and enjoyable -Puzzles proved solid and satisfying to solve -Bosses are enjoyable -Decent music -Lots of map markers for warping -Difficulty ramps smoothly, with just a few spikes that take some real practice/figuring it out -Most levels have enjoyable designs, and you always have a map for the level Neutral: -No experience/leveling up, just better equipment/magic -Combat isn't bad, but there isn't much depth to what tactics you can use -Too many items and consumables (see incoming con) -Quests are fine but sometimes not clear what the next step in the quest is -Story is serviceable but doesn't really have much depth Cons: -Switching your characters attributes (equipped gear, magic, consumables) does not pause game -Saving your game only saves to last checkpoint -Hit detection from traps/spikes can be frustrating -Cut screens are sparse and poor --Pros-- Fun platforming and puzzles in general. You have a decent amount of RPG aspects; choosing weapons, armor, equipped magic, consumables, and shopping at multiple vendors. The protagonist has plenty of character stats you modify via equipment and consumables. The music is nice but it does get a little old. The level designs get more complex as you go and you always have a map to help you out. There is a little bit of backtracking for items that isn't painful because of how many map markers there are. Solid choice by the developers. The core platforming (with a map for each level) make this game good. --Neutral-- Combat is fine, but there really isn't much tactic. You either spam attacks/magic while healing yourself or attack from afar with magic if the enemy is too tough. There are way too many items and equipment and you always end up using only the best equipment you have and general stock-piled health-ups. You have two quick-use consumable slots which is fine. But you can't pause the game and go in to your inventory to use a special consumable, so you might be in the middle of a messy boss and wanna try that special consumable... not happening unless you already put it in a quick-use slot. Accessing the inventory doesn't pause the action. This is kind of odd for a platforming game with such a deep inventory/equipment/stats component. But it doesn't ruin the platforming aspect. --Cons-- As said above, not pausing the game when accessing your characters inventory hurts. It really made me care little about the 20 different consumables I might have when I can only access 2 of them quickly. I actually went through the whole game using only one consumable that happens stock pile in your inventory. So the deeper RPG aspects really get shoved aside because of this. I still list the RPG aspect as a pro as some people may focus more attention on the time it takes to try lots of different combinations of items and weapons. I wanted to, but it didn't mesh well with the core platforming for me with how it is done. The hit detection can be a little iffy, but not game breaking. It's a little annoying as the character movement is a little slippy. There are a few cut screens using digitally hand-drawn assets that feel amateur. I'd rather just see more in-game dialog or nothing at all. tl;dr: Good game but with some odd and sometimes poor choices on how to mesh a platformer with RPG aspects. I think it is worth the price tag.

TL;DR: Solid game, interesting puzzles. Took about 10 hours with light sidequesting. Movement could be better and some sections can be very frustrating due to instant deaths. Still, some interesting mechanics and lots to see. --- Cendric is a puzzle-platformer at heart with some light combat mechanics thrown in. The spells in the game give it a Metroidvania-like progression system as you get ones that will slow platforms, move blocks, reverse your gravity, and more. There is a heavy focus on narrative though so you'll be talking to citizens and doing lots of jobs instead of freely exploring. The game discourages going off on your own as most areas require spells you don't have yet or the only thing they're useful for is to finish a quest. Completing quests requires paying attention to the dialogue and reading the associated documents because they contain vital information. Sometimes though it's a process of trial and error. If you're into puzzles, you'll enjoy this game. There are several mechanics to utilize and there are plenty of multi-step clever puzzles. Resetting the room is as easy as pressing B to teleport to the last checkpoint, although this also respawns most enemies. Overall, I enjoyed my time with Cendric.

Die Story ist interessant und entwickelt sich mit hohem Tempo. Die verspielten Nebenquests sind kurzweilig und unterstreichen die korrupte Welt im Fantasy-Mittelalter-Setting. In einer gelungenen Balance fügen sich humorvolle Referenzen in die Dialoge ein. Nicht zu vergessen die schweizerdeutsche Sprache! Das Kampfsystem ist fair und hat einen guten Schwierigkeitsgrad. Neue Mechaniken werden gut eingeführt und fühlen sich richtig an. Nur das Springen war zu Beginn etwas ungewohnt und die Nahkampfmöglichkeiten sind begrenzt. Die Rätsel sind überraschend abwechslungsreich und profitieren vom schnellen Vorschritt des Spiels. Verfolgt man aufmerksam die Dialoge und liest die Hinweise kommt man im Normalfall auch zu den Lösungen. Es gibt einige Knackpunkte. Ich bin begeistert.