I want to write a more favorable review, because this game, while flawed and unfinished, is quite hauntingly brilliant in its concept. It's one of those games you wish you could buy the rights to so you can have it worked on by somebody who wants to finish it. For its low price, I am inclined to recommend trying it out simply because it's so cool, and so fun. Your time with the game will most likely end in frustration, and it is not easy to tell when the game seems insurmountably, impossibly difficult because you're approaching a problem the wrong way or because you messed up your whole run days or weeks ago and just don't know it yet, or because you've run afoul of some broken balance issues the developer intended to fix before becoming unable to work on the game. They have indicated they're open to making more updates in the future, but I have yet to ever see an indie developer actually patch an abandoned game. If it weren't broken, I would probably recommend this game at at least $39.99 because what's there is really magnificent.
The story can change genre depending on your plot choices, and the scaling forces death on you if your levels of power aren't to scale with the choices you've made, plot-wise. As far as I can tell, the threat levels you face increase with time and by the day regardless of how you decide to play it, so when you find yourself coasting instead of advancing the main quest, you can expect to get sieged to death in a week or two.
So far, my best run was almost six weeks in and was actively saving and shopping for the game's most expensive and high impact upgrades. Her castle had several levels infused with fire that damages allies and enemies, guarded by ultra expensive fire-resistant dragons who were well equipped. I was selling poisoned bread to heroes for the extra damage, but allowing them to sleep undisturbed at the tavern so they would finance my constantly escalating war budget.
On day 1, your protagonist is teleported without her consent through a portal that has been closed for an eternity on the highest of authorities. Her powerful magic is attracting hordes bent on killing her, and word of her presence spreads to the king in a matter of days. So even on easy mode, a general will show up with a sword and mow you down sometime around day 13 if you aren't strong enough. Difficulty mostly only impacts money and not combat, but money is a huge deal in this game. When you are successful, you'll emerge victorious from particularly difficult fights, and be presented with a new goal. If you ignore that goal for even a few weeks to strengthen your defenses, you will get mobbed by scores or hundreds of enemies as powerful as the boss you fought for half a day, who killed multiple allies that will cost you tens of thousands of dollars to replace.
It's an instant game over if you run out of money, so it's possible to narrowly win a major battle only to get wiped by your payroll a few hours later. Permadeath doesn't prevent loading your save, but as you make it a little farther, it eventually becomes evident how you could have planned something better, so you start over from day 1.
I can't remember the last time I was so captivated by an unfinished game. I gave it a positive rating in hopes that it will bring a little needed attention to the concept. Sure, you could call it "tower defense," but the game's blend of combat, RTS, economics and gameplay/story integration is a really unique flavor. The characters are also elegantly written. Some of the English can be imperfect, but the dialog is lean, heartfelt, suspenseful and clearly leads the gameplay.
Understand that you'll be playing a broken game, and this game has already been worth more than $10 even as I'm just getting started with it. I recommend playing on Easy mode since you'll do plenty of dying while you figure the game out regardless. If you want to make the game's economics a lot harder in order to put more pressure on yourself, then there are harder difficulties for that. That I am aware, guides do not exist for this game and neither even do summaries of what the items do. So one starter quest that posed a challenge merely required producing a healing variation of a food item using a supply store, a kitchen and a plant lab. You can make all of 4 different herbs for most of the early game, but it's not clear which will create the dish that clears the quest objective. Once you know which one, though, this quest can be cleared quickly for needed capital, and this ends up financing unlocking some of those feature I mentioned. Quest objective to grow an herb--> money--> make a kitchen --> quest objective to make a food item --> more money --> potion lab --> quest objective to make a potion --> more money, and now you have the utilities to make potions and foods you'll need imminently. The game rewards knowing your way around, but that requires trial and humbling error.
The most challenges allies to recruit aren't the ones you hire, but the ones you wear down, probably intoxicate, then recruit. Virtually any enemy, including bosses, can be recruited, but they need to be really near death and you need to be ready to cloud their minds and recruit them. Raising the resources for that was occupying my time when my castle full of fire dragons guarding flaming rooms got sieged into bankruptcy by parties of adequate power to overpower any available defenses. Next playthrough, I'm debating playing my questline a little slower or a different one faster. Not sure. The developer has told people who can't beat the end boss that they're intended to be impossible with traditional combat, and basically to fight dirtier. Besides supplying the ingridients to in various ways harm invading heroes en route to your castle, you need to figure out effective delivery mechanisms. They can be poisoned or injured if you sell them tainted bread, which costs more to produce but still generates revenue. Running a tavern will generate capital it's hard to survive without, but well-rested heroes are tougher - so you'll want to set aside even more capital to poison, harass or even kill them there. However, the fatal poisons require hundreds of thousands of currency (a lot) of investment to discover, and a few thousand to actually manufacture, and that's just ONE mechanism for hero sabotage. And without that kind of advantage, the game's most powerful enemy cannot be defeated, and if their arrival is too long delayed you'll eventually wipe out against unlimited boss waves.
It's a good game that deserved to be finished.
