Defend the Rook

I've echoed this sentiment time and time again in previous reviews of Goblinz Studio published games. But I'll say it again for consistency. Goblinz Studio has a great eye for identifying interesting games, they're not necessarily well-polished games, nor are they big budget games, but they have a certain charm that always draws me in. Defend the Rook is in line with those expectations as well. I found myself intrigued by the theme of a powerful magician commanding his forces from a floating castle in the sky. It's a turn-based setting that's evocative of a great many classic fantasy tropes. And I will always welcome more additions to the turn-based strategy genre; there's never enough contenders! The overall game length is short, which does help it to not overstay its welcome. I 100%ed the game in about 25 hours and spent a few more hours testing things for my guide. That said, the gameplay experience is a bit shallow and heavily dependent on RNG at times. Although, for better or worse, the lack of replayability does let us end our experience on a high note. If you're able to get Defend the Rook on sale, I would highly recommend that you pick it up. It's an enjoyable little puzzler for a few afternoons. Additionally, if you do buy the game, please feel free to check out my guide to further enrich your playthrough: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3389181146

A roguelite tactical rpg that's not very fun to play multiple times. The levels themes and bosses are the same every time, and layout barely varies. Towers hardly matter due to low health and random enemy spawn positions, they're good for one round and after that it's pure luck if they do anything at all. The variance in unit upgrades are extremely minor. You can only upgrade 1 unit per level with only 1 option for each unit. You are oppressively punished for taking any unit taking any damage at all because instead of an actual upgrade you'll be offered healing. Pregame options unlock extremely slowly and are often barely different or notably worse than the base loadout. It was ok for the first 2-3 games. I kept playing hoping it would get better but walked away disappointed.

This game is OK but not good enough for me to want to continue after about an hour or so. There's a few issues with this game that makes me already bored of it after an hour. First, the map is really small and never really has any variables. There's just some randomly placed stones you can place towers on and that's it. Even aesthetically, the levels all look the same. The difference between stages are strictly the enemies you will encounter. You can place towers on the rocks around the map but you don't know where the best place to put them is because enemies will spawn on random outer tiles. Sometimes they spawn all on two sides while other times they spawn everywhere. It makes placing towers early feel punishing even though it feels necessary. Furthermore, when you see where enemies will spawn, you have no idea what kind of enemies will spawn in each location. Some are much stronger than others so you can't adjust for the next wave accordingly. You can put characters near their spawn points but sometimes you have the wrong characters there because of what enemies spawn. There are three heroes and there are some others that you can unlock, they're always the same type, a warrior, rogue, and mage. You can't really mix and match characters like other tactics games to fit your play style, you're just always stuck feeling like you're doing the same thing over and over. There are some other really interesting tactics games and while this one isn't necessarily bad, I don't find it to be particularly good either.

This has been one of the most fun Rogue-Lites I've played in a very long time. For the price, the amount of content and hours of play is so worth it. Rare I leave reviews, but I want to support where I can for such a lovely game.

戰鬥和角色設計太簡單，沒有戰鬥策略性，只有農農農，不如玩Trash of Titans

This is one of those instances were I wish Steam had a middle ground between 'Yes' and 'No'. The first playthrough you do feels genuinely amazing and showcases a lot of different possibilities. The whole design of the game also feels like a very good case of low-poly retro-looking design. However, once you finish your first campaign, it falls. A lot. The subsequent runs feel incredibly repetitive and the variety it showcases in its character skills and variants falls real short when you have to replay the same 5 scenarios over and over again. There are some good things within this game and I really enjoyed my time with it, but I do feel the gameplay loop needs some hard work put into it to really be able to recommend it.

**edit** Recommending again. *sigh* It's complicated... If you get lucky with ability draws and spell combinations to start a run with, it's pretty fun. Just don't be afraid to bail on doomed runs and roll again so to speak. Also, if something unexpected happens, you can save and quit and start your turn over, which has saved me from a few misclicks and misunderstandings. *edit* I no longer recommend this game as a whole. When it's on sale for a few dollars, it'd be worth picking up if you accept that the game isn't worth finishing. After a few times beating the game (unlocking harder versions) the experience has degraded a lot. The enemies get perks, which you can supposedly see when you inspect them. But I'm currently getting trashed by an enemy that seems to retaliate when attacked (something they can only do if they have that perk), even though it doesn't appear to have that perk. The game is failing to give me adequate information to strategize. I'm glad I got this one on sale, and I don't recommend getting it at full price. Most of my playtime at the point of this edit has been a decent amount of fun, but it's just frustrating now, and I may give up on 100%ing it. Disappointing that they would leave problems like this in a game that's so solid otherwise. [strike]One of my new favorite turn-based upgrade-everything games.[/strike] I like the different ways to upgrade your tools, and that each run you get a different combination of spells to choose from.

muito bom, não joguei muito mas recomendo... melhor ainda com desconto very good, I haven't played it much but I recommend it... even better with a discount

Un roguelike (que no roguelite, no hay mejoras permanentes, sólo desbloqueos) entretenido sin muchas pretensiones. Manejamos a 3 personajes (guerrero, pícaro, hechicera), y la torre que hemos de proteger, en un tablero de 9x9 casillas, en el cual van entrando enemigos por oleadas que hemos de derrotar hasta llegar al jefe. En cada oleada conseguimos una nueva habilidad para nuestros personajes, y tras derrotar al jefe podemos adquirir más mejoras. No tiene mucha complicación y no es muy difícil (aunque he muerto un par de veces) o largo. Se van desbloqueando nuevos niveles de Ascensión tras cada victoria que hacen el juego un poco más difícil (aunque mezclado con las cosas que se van desbloqueando, no ha sido el caso hasta donde he llegado). Como pega, el juego no te premia por probar cosas nuevas ni tiene la variedad suficiente de perks para evitar hacer siempre la misma build, por lo que si encuentras una que está bastante rota, es probable que la puedas usar constantemente (en mi última run, el jefe final se murió ANTES siquiera de que me llegase el turno, del combo tan roto que tenía preparado). Aun así, es un juego bonito y más o menos original que entretiene durante un rato. A lo mejor intento llegar al nivel máximo de ascensión, no estoy seguro aún...