Codex Lost

As a person that plays the mage in every single game, this soulslike was made for me. The good: -every single spell is useful -the combat is good -the parry system is so sastisfying -the story is really interesting -the variety of spells and combinations are really good -the game overall is really pretty -the variety of enemies is also really good, from slimes, goblins and warriors, to angelic machines and BEHOLDERS that shoot laserrs at you -almost every part of the map is connected and is not very difficult to find your way The bad: -The damage feedback is not the best -poise is a super important mechanic, and we don't have a meter to know ours -the shorcut system for the spells could be better -the game doesn't allow you to change controls, or at least i didn't find a way to do it Overall, being an indie souls-like game in 3D, this could have been a disaster, instead is one of my new favourite games to play to pretend i'm a powerful wizard. And knowing the small team this had makes it's a bigger archievement. I recommend it, play it i tip my wizard hat to you, developers

I was very interested in a souls like with a magic focus. Unfortunately this game like many souls likes just fails to get the timing and tactile feedback of combat correct. Your character gets locked into long animations while attacking that have a lot of end lag your dodge is such a bland animation that its hard to tell when the I-frames kick in and the enemies attack animations are often overly fast with poor telegraphing. It is unfortunate that the combat is at best mediocre because the interconnected map design is actually really cool and from pure layout perspective I think it's better than most of From Softwares work.

I really wish I could give this game a positive rating, because it's got a lot of things going for it (the level design and enemy design is on par with FROM's) but there's fundamental issues with both the gameplay and interface that completely ruins the game feel and makes it hard to enjoy the good bits. If you thought DS1 was janky, turns out the rabbit hole can go even deeper. - Most importantly, lack of hit feedback. If something hits your shield, the animation simply plays out without particle effects, pushback, any sense of physicality. You can never tell if you blocked an attack or it whiffed while you coincidentally had your guard up, and this makes it almost impossible to learn timings and hitboxes. And importantly, this also means you can't tell if a block/whiff cost you any stamina, because... - the health/stamina/mana bars fading off into transparancy makes it hard to tell how much you have! And on top of this baffling design decision, they're also pretty small which excurberates the problem. - And just to top it all off, hit feedback is just as bad when you get hit when NOT blocking, and several times I died from being stunlocked by an enemy combo without even realizing I was taking damage before it was too late. (Not that realizing it would've helped, since there's no way out of a stunlock - being able to dodge while mid-stun as long as you had stamina left would fix a lot of unfair-feeling deaths) - Many other UI elements also have inconsistent sizes, often with a combination of too large visual graphics (e.g. equipment icons) matched with too small text that additionally is hard to read thanks to the stylish font. I think this could work for the Spellcrafting menu but the lack of consistency really hurts basic menu navigation. - Speaking of spellcrafting, the UX here is an utter pain because of the formatting of the ingredient list making it unclear which quantity is your held vs the required quantity, and I really wish things you are missing would be red so you can tell at a glance whether making a spell is possible. - It took me way too long to realize I had a bunch of consumables, because the inventory menu was so annoying to navigate (thanks, absolutely tiny text!) I just stopped checking new items assuming everything I found was a spelllcrafting ingredient. Having little icons or text color differences to differentiate ingredients from equipment and consumables would've been nice considering the sheer amount of random junk you stumble over each time you turn a corner. - Speaking of missing information, tooltips that tells you what the spells you choose during character creation DOES would be nice because even with the explanation for the magical schools, I'd still want to know if there's any quirks differentiating "arcane AOE" vs "electric AOE" instead of just going on what's my favorite icons. - The spellbook menu also has some issues: the hitbox for selecting a spell slot should be the entire scroll icon, not just the text below it. Locked slots should be grayed out so it's more clear which ones you can actually assign spells to. Clicking the tiny spell names is also a pain with a gamepad. - Speaking of spells, I held down spellcasting buttons to charge spells out of habit for a while before realizing it's not an option. It would be cool if it was, because standing still is super dangerous in this game and the long casting animations makes it hard to time ranged attacks properly, so being able to delay a bit to let enemies catch up and being rewarded with a little bit of extra damage would add a little more depth to the combat. - And an actual gripe again, there's a hotkey to cast your 4 first spells with the face buttons, but it doesn't show you WHICH spells are assigned to those buttons, only the button icons. How did this slip through...? - Blood and Water mushrooms dotted around the world to reduce your estus usage is nice in theory, but even at Lv.1 they restore such a pitiful amount it felt pointless to even bother picking them up (especially since the fading gauges issue made it hard to tell if I was full and would just waste them). You could probably triple the healing from these things with no effect on game balance, since anything that kills the player tends to take them out from full health in a couple seconds anyway. - Speaking of death, there being no easy way to return to the library and spending your hard-earned souls once you enter the first open world section really got on my nerves. At the start you'd merely have the hassle of going through a loading screen to get to the end of the village and then waiting for the elevator, but if you press on you'll die in a boss room and have your bloodstain stuck in there until you give up or beat the boss... and then right after that boss there's a point of no return drop (so if you drop down there thinking you'll at least get a bonfire, congratulations, now you're locked into the next major area until you mess up or clear THAT). Every checkpoint I found before giving up was just a Memory Font, or basically a Stake of Marika, and not having a single "real" checkpoint after getting four areas deep into the game felt downright excessive. And considering how easy it is to die without even realizing you're in danger, this turns the game incredibly frustrating with most of my time spent on runbacks trying to save that pile of 7 levels' worth of souls. - Enemy projectiles don't emit sound when they whizz by you, only when they impact the terrain, which draws your attention in the exact opposite direction of the threat... etc etc I could keep listing more issues I've got with the game, but these are the big ones. For every cool idea or surprisingly high-production-value setpiece there's a kineasthetics or menu flaw that actively makes the game harder to enjoy. And believe me, I really tried to enjoy it.

tl;dr: a game about retrieving books that is both more and less aggravating than reclaiming books from friends you've lent them to from your personal library. The Soulsbornekiroringcorerdtree genre has split into multiple paths. 1. [i]Demon's Souls[/i]-[i]Dark Souls[/i]-[i]Dark Souls 2[/i]-[i]Bloodborne[/i]-[i]Dark Souls 3[/i] - the Soulsoulsoulsbornesouls-like, with a focus on RPG mechanics, deliberate combat, and methodical dungeon crawling. 2. [i]Ninja Blade[/i]-[i]Sekiro[/i] - the Bladekiro-like, with an emphasis on faster QTE-based combat, relying on memorization of which button to press at the right time. 3. [i]Elden Ring[/i]-[i]Armored Core 6[/i]-[i]Shadow of the Erdtree[/i] - the Ringcorerdtree-like, with a focus on delayed attack animations and screen-obscuring particle effects. [i]Codex Lost[/i] falls squarely into #1. [h1]Early & Mid Game[/h1] This game is best in the early and middle parts. The dungeon crawling is fun and areas are full of secrets. The combat is decently challenging, and you get enough spells right at the beginning to take on most encounters. The balance also feels pretty appropriate. The challenge comes more from traversing areas than from memorizing enemy attack patterns. Enemy placements are more important than enemy attack animations. There is also a good variety of locations with distinct visual styles. The game has a sense of art direction. Character progression also feels good in the early game. Adding 20 health or 1% more damage results in noticeable improvements to survivability. [h1]Late Game[/h1] By the late game, a lot more problems become apparent. Progression is slower, where 20 more health is nearly meaningless and 1% more damage might as well be nonexistent. Later game areas incorporate more puzzles and platforming, which can be very difficult to figure out, especially when dealing with large numbers of enemies. It also seems like enemies inflict more status ailments in the late game, and these statuses last a [u]very[/u] long time. There are items to heal them, but status effects last too long in general. Finally, some late game areas seem to rely too much on a lack of visual clarity, with heavy fog or darkness effects. [h1]Bosses & Difficulty[/h1] This game, being more in line with DS1/DS2, has some bosses on the easy side. Most bosses took me 2-6 times before defeating them. I died a lot more times trying to get through areas, but this rarely felt unfair (some late game areas excepted). The difficulty model in the game is almost the exact opposite of [i]Lies of P[/i], which usually had fairly easy, linear, short levels and then hours-long bosses. [i]Codex Lost[/i] has fairly challenging, nonlinear, large areas and then an easy boss. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Even though some late game areas made me rage and almost put the game down, I pushed through and found the experience overall very rewarding and fun. There are a lot of indie Soulslikes that are terrible and this is much better than it has any right to be. It also has a distinct art style, not relying on dark fantasy. It is much closer to high fantasy, although there are some dark areas. There are numerous areas directly inspired by DS/BB/ER areas. The magic-focused combat puts the game somewhere between a DS game and the [i]Remnant[/i] series, allowing it to occupy its own space. Adjusting to the combat style is also very easy. [b]Bottom Line:[/b] this is a very good dungeon crawler with Soulslike combat elements. It feels like a spiritual successor to the [i]Heretic[/i] and [i]Hexen[/i] games just as much as it feels like a Soulslike.

Задумка прям хороша, но управление все еще кошмарное. Описание лжет нам в лицо - здесь нет никакого подобия открытого мира. Игра вообще не предназначена для геймпада - 4 хотбара против 10 на клавиатуре. В игре с почти-но-нет *сотней* заклинаний это прям важно. Нет возможности нормально целиться и стрелять во врагов - автотаргет работает крайне паршиво, любые твои projectiles по классике летят в углы и стены даже при небольшом перепаде высоты. Первый же лучник доведет вас до инфаркта. Раскладка управления ужасная (как быстро вы найдете инвентарь по enter?), ремапить ее нельзя. Тк спелы доступны для изучения в любом порядке, есть возможность сделать худший выбор и потом страдать до середины игры. Потратили все ресурсы на неправильный элемент - придется бить всех базовой магией долго и без удовольствия. Система чекпоинтов мертва в зародыше, они просто ничего не делает. Каждый раз беги из хаба. Иногда есть телепорт в одну сторону, но назад только пешком. Интерфейс бесполезный. Что в настройках, что в инвентаре -не отображается что сейчас выбрано. Можно до посинения перетыкивать опции или оружие. Скрол предметов не работает, много чего не работает. В некоторых меню отсыхает мозжечок в попытках осознать что это вообще. Магии на первый взгляд много, но по сути это 3 базовые формы заклинания, только разного элемента, и еще парочка утилитарных. Задача только угадывать кого чем бить, что кстати не очень удобно, тк типичный гуманоид внезапно может начать иметь резисты к 2-3 элементам без видимых на то причин. Геймплей за мага мы сможем ощутить хорошо если к середине игры, тк после нескольких полноценных боссов, мне все еще не хватает лута на крафт некоторых элементов. По факту бегаю с 2 самыми удобными спелами, не взирая на резисты мобов. Разраб уже официально заявил, что делает следующую игру, а на эту ему нaсрaть. Из позитива: Лвлдизайн разнообразный, враги тоже - тактики, мувсеты, элементы, повадки, очень хорошо сделаны. Подставы в стиле ДС в большом наличии. Оптимизация пропорциональна графону, 1080ti на ультре спокойно вывозит. Нынче это уже достижение.

Codex Lost is a very creative approach to the souls-like formula. As someone who grew up playing classic fantasy computer games, I felt a lot of nostalgia exploring the game's world. There was a bit of a learning curve to figure out the spell system and how the game wants the player to approach combat, but once mastered proved to be a lot of good fun. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game and recommend to anyone who is looking for a methodical adventure of wizardry.

Over all I have enjoyed the game and will continue to do so. considering the size of the game and scope of what was accomplished I can overlook some of the rough edges. One developer people.

Even though I recommend the game, I would wait for some updates, as it’s frustrating having no signs of taking damage. We need noise, haptic feedback, visual feedback/animation— something other than your health bar just lowering. Also the UI and character movement could be less janky overall. I have to press specific spots in the menus to select what you want, nor can you use the d-pad. I also cannot stand that when you pickup items it just shows text and there is no picture. You will have no idea that you have picked up a hat, charm, or other important item until you open up your inventory and view those categories. Other than these initial complaints, the exploration is awesome and it has the great bones of a soulslike. Combat is fun, even though it could have better hit detection, especially when the enemy is right next to you.

Codex Lost is a very solid game. Yes, there is some jank in there but I think the good vastly outweighs the bad with this one. There are a lot of areas to explore that have a lot going on with them for better and worse. I'd call Demon's Souls a good example of that kind of area (and checkpoint) layout. Puzzles ranging from small shortcut door unlocks and ones spanning the entire world are also a very nice addition to me.

I've been having a lot of fun trying out different combinations of spells and staves. This is an acceptionally well put together game for a solo dev!