Eslabong

Hoping the developers read this review (especially the end where I discuss bugs), as I have a lot to say. First of all, Eslabong is a slam dunk in the gladiator/ auto battler genre. For early release, this is already knocking most other indie games out of the park, despite a few bugs. This game is so addictive, I binged until the sixth season, but I'll be retiring this game now for reasons I will mention. Despite being well done, there is room for improvement, like most games. What works: - Amazing character recruitment system that, despite utilizing some RNG, actually tracks an in-game economy and can be played accordingly. It's very faintly reminiscent of Mount and Blade in that way, but distinct. - The game innovates with a character trading system between factions, enabling late game team building (which becomes necessary when the economy dries up - I will touch on this later). - Every unique character (of which there are many) follows its own skill tree logic, and not in a cookie cutter fashion. This allows for completely distinct builds, outcomes and synergies, adding a ton to the content. This is complemented further by an extensive relic market. - It's somewhat too easy, but otherwise I would say balancing is pretty good here. What's underwhelming: - What's very typical for this genre is half baked storytelling and world building. And don't get me wrong, having a solid gameplay loop is exactly what drives me to play these, but all I'm saying is that it could be better. - After level 20 or so, character growth plateaus and there is significantly less options when upgrading. I understand there's probably a reason for that, but those upgrades help to reduce the repetition of the combat (honestly, 1.5x seems too slow), and this compounds with more severe issues which I'll get to later in this review. - The soundtrack is uninspired, the character designs are overly basic and rudimentary, and the environments are dull. - Most of the game is spent in combat watching your team kill a different faction's team, which will eventually lose people's interest. The "gate" is a bit different, but it's not enough content diversity to count for much (and speaking of the gate, level 8 seems borderline unachievable). - Factions consistently buy characters sold at above market prices, for seemingly no reason, meaning setting the price even moderately below maximum just loses you money. What's broken (bugs and fundamental flaws): - There is a bug which stopped me from being able to "list" my relics after a certain point, despite taking my money. At first I was under the impression the demand was low, that was until I realized each said "listed for 0 weeks". - Scouting for a champion was completely broken in my run. I'm not sure if it just "looks", and if one isn't available then you just lose money, but paying for scouting never introduced a new champion. - The economy becomes barren after a few seasons, and the rest of the mechanics suffer from entropy. Progression becomes "borrowed" instead of "earned", as you can no longer generate experience that scales with the PvE factions. This essentially means you must trade with factions to progress, and as a result you're no longer in control of their skill trees, you can only inherit whatever the NPCs set them to. Likewise champions stop showing up for recruitment, and even if they did you're only really incentivized to train and sell them because their starting levels are consistently at around level 8 or so. This also applies to relics, where many of them do not scale in late game because of using fixed values. - Minor lag started occurring in late game. Possible new additions: - A reputation system that influences willingness to trade. - "Surprise" visits from people, adding content variety and the possibility for a developing storyline. - Relationship management for your characters. Keep them happy so they stay on your side and don't betray you or the captain. Maybe they could have disputes or bonding amongst each other or with the player. Maybe this could also lead to unique buffs or penalties. - Dismantle the UI-based menu, add a small home base to explore. - Add roguelike game modes or mini games so the player can have some agency besides watching combat. Anyways, that summarizes my review. Hope things develop nicely, the current state is not perfect but it is still great.