Drova - Forsaken Kin

The game tries really hard to imitate the classic Gothic formula - but completely misses what actually made those games work. At some point in Act 4, you give me a map with a clearly marked shrine I’m supposed to reach… and then block every possible path with random roots and logs. No warning, no feedback, no indication that this area is locked behind story progression. So instead of playing the game, I spent an hour wandering around badly designed forests, trying to figure out whether I’m missing something or if the game is just broken. Turns out the path does open later - but only if you follow the main quest in a very specific order. Which would’ve been fine, if the game didn’t already tell me to go there and then completely fail to communicate that I actually can’t. That’s not difficulty. That’s not exploration. That’s just wasting the player’s time. I ended up looking up a walkthrough after an hour of pointless running - and at that point the game was already dead for me. You’ve had 20+ years of examples from Piranha Bytes games to learn from. It’s honestly impressive how you managed to copy the surface-level mechanics while completely ignoring the basics of player guidance.

Selten so viel Freude gehabt die Welt von Drova zu erkunden. In dem Spiel gibt es einige Anlehnungen an die Gothic Spiele, was mir beim Spielen und erkunden viel Freude gemacht hat. Ab einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt hatte ich den Eindruck ich spiele Gothic in 2D :D

Идеально для любителей Готики + пикселей. Еще идеальнее, если играть на Стимдеке

Немного семян ненависти на жернова мировой войны. A few seeds of hatred on the millstones of world war. Ein paar Samen des Hasses auf den Mühlsteinen des Weltkriegs. Quelques graines de haine sur les meules de la guerre mondiale. 世界大战的磨盘上埋下了仇恨的种子。 세계 대전이라는 맷돌 위에 뿌려진 몇 개의 증오의 씨앗. Unas cuantas semillas de odio en las piedras de molino de la guerra mundial. 世界大戰的磨盤上埋下了仇恨的種子。 Kilka ziaren nienawiści na kamieniach młyńskich wojny światowej.

We gotta address the elephant in the room and pretty much talk about Gothic. There's a (unrelated franchise) Umamusume fan comic strip in which Grass Wonder loses a race and her trainer tries to soothe her aching heart by saying that is a shame, but it just happened that the other racers had a better race... Grass Wonder stops him, with some tears on her eyes, halfway through this attempt and says "You're cruel. For this time talk about myself. Blame only myself. Think only about myself." It plays on a sort of "jealously" she has when it comes to other girls. Drova, pretty much like this seemingly unrelated story I've mentioned, would like you to only speak about it, but as I said before, Gothic is there, and that's pretty much what inspired it. Hell, there's even a picture of the nameless hero in his naked glory that you can find in game. Did you play Gothic? Then I highly recommend you this game if you're looking for something with that vibe, it does an amazing job of replicating the tried and true Pyranha Bytes formula, but with actual combat and pixel-based graphics. Pretty much 0 handholding, no quest markers as the instructions are given to you via text and dialogues with the characters. A world that feels alive, with different NPCs having set routines. Join a faction and work your way up. Get killed by the first enemy you meet. No cheesy voice acting, though. You're gonna lose some points for that. Kudos on keeping magic as a late-game option as well. I can't really recall the exact details, but I reckon this was the case with the original Gothic too... In fact, the earliest 'magic' you can have there would be available in the Old Camp, by drawing your weapon and doing the good ole NPC aggro bug (running into the inner area behind Thorus while he tells you to put your weapon away), and this would get you a one-time use scroll, but without that, you'd have to actually join the Old Camp, via completing quests and getting to level 5. Nowadays, kids playing the new Gothic Remake can get a Rune (!!!!) and the first circle of magic by doing a quest for Torrez right after arriving in the Old Camp. This was never the spirit of magic in these games. So it's curious that Drova got it right and the seemingly faithful remake of the game that kickstarted the series (and inspired Drova) didn't. How crazy is that? I don't know. What I know is that I'm Bromor and these are my girls. I like my girls. And if you like them too, you'll pay. 50 gold pieces.

Good game - engaging story, rewarding exploration, and satisfying power progression. Some criticism: -Quests were a mixed bag. Some were great but were in between an abundance of fetch quests. Finding quest locations/characters was also super tedious at times -Magic was introduced too late. Totally on board for the plot reasons and apparently a patch was introduced to address this complaint... but I found only one spell and it was situational at best -In a similar vein, would have liked to see more weapon skills -Would have used a 'Learning Point' reset potion but did not want to go through the tedium of having to find all of the different teachers again -Factions and their respective goals were not explored in enough detail. I joined Nemeton and did not know the Remnants goals until the last few sequences of the game.

I don't usually like ARPG's, but this one was very fun. Combat is simple, yet can be challenging and enjoyable.

[h1]在这款像素风俯视角开放世界游戏中生存与战斗！[/h1] 作为一款俯视角像素风的开放世界RPG，《困兽之国》在初见时或许会让人觉得有些过时，但只要踏入了这片广袤的大地，就会发现其在复古像素风的外表下，有着令人沉浸其中的游戏性。在这里，玩法丰富且探索高自由。 [h2]开局定制[/h2] 玩家可以在开局对角色的身体特征（如体型、肤色、嗓音）和外貌（如发型、发色、装饰，胡须）进行自定义。同时，玩家也可以选择初始道具，对自己操作有自信的玩家可以选择不带初始道具，而求稳的玩家则能携带药包、生命戒指、钱包等物品，这在初期能有效缓解生存压力。 在难度设置上，本作提供了三种模式，分别为经典（官方推荐难度）、狂人（最高难度，适合硬核玩家）以及路人模式（难度简单，适合休闲玩家），极大地照顾了只想体验剧情的轻度玩家，也让硬核玩家能够挑战自我。另外，路人与经典模式在游戏过程中可以自由切换。 序幕能跳过的设计，让多周目玩家也有很好的体验。 [h2]理念交锋[/h2] 游戏的序章剧情比较抓人，我们本是偷偷跟踪村里的几个同伴行动，却莫名其妙地到了世界交汇的十字路口，被迫踏上了前往异世界的旅途。 而到了异世界后，存在两个阵营的理念交锋，一方怀揣着愿望，试图将这个世界改造成原先世界传说中所描绘的美好模样，而另一方则是想逃离这里。两大阵营的对立推动了主线的发展，让玩家在了解世界观和做任务时有比较强的沉浸感与代入感。 [h2]战斗系统[/h2] 本作的动作系统富有策略性。玩家需要按C键亮出武器进入战斗状态，通过鼠标左键攻击，空格键进行闪避。游戏提供了种类繁多的武器供玩家挑选，并且支持设置两套武器组合，按下R键即可切换，应对不同的战况。装备盾牌后则能进行格挡。不过要注意，格挡虽然能减少伤害，但会消耗耐力，影响进行其他操作。 值得一提的是敌人的“体势条”设定。在敌人的血量下方有一条黄色的体势条，只要通过攻击将其打破，就能对敌人造成一段时间的硬控。 [h2]危机四伏的世界[/h2] 《困兽之国》的地图比较大，元素很丰富。游戏巧妙地利用俯视角做出了一些玩法，比如长按右键可以透过障碍物和云雾观察到被遮挡的物体，脚印等特殊痕迹也会被高亮显示，这让探索解谜变得非常有趣。在日常探索中，玩家可以对物品进行互动或检查。 虽然地图广阔，但是要小心，这里比较危险，生存难度比较高。举个例子，我们可能会遭遇负面状态，例如不小心走进荆棘丛后就会有流血的DeBuff，在一段时间内持续掉血。再举个例子，哪怕可以查看地图，玩家也很容易迷路，然后一不小心就会碰见高强度敌人。因此，我会给新玩家一个建议，那就是多存档。 [h2]经济与成长体系[/h2] 在击败敌人后，我们可以搜刮道具。交易系统方面是以物易物，玩家在交易时拿出自己的物品和钱，与商人交换等价值的物品。 游戏每次升级能恢复全部血量，对于续航十分实用，还能获得学习点数来提升能力值和解锁新知识。这里要注意一下，知识和武器常常需要达到一定的属性值才能学习、装备，所以为了厉害的知识和武器尽力提升属性吧。 快捷栏的设计比较方便，消耗品放上去后按对应的快捷键就能使用，在战斗中可以利用这些道具战胜对手，赶路时这些道具比如回血道具也能让我们的游戏体验更加流畅。 [h2]最后想说的话[/h2] 《困兽之国》是一款好玩的像素RPG佳作，探索机制丰富和战斗手感不错都是优点。当然偶尔会碰见的强敌有时会带来失败感，但只要坚持下去，这款游戏能带来纯粹充实的体验。