Gastova: The Witches of Arkana

I was a Kickstarter backer for this project, and this simply is not the game I backed for. In brief, the game was pitched as a collection-focused platformer with a large, interconnected world, and the early access builds reflected this; however, game balance and quality assurance issues during development eventually led to the developer ripping out 80% of the game mechanics and their associated collectibles and tying what few upgrades remained to a linear progression based on grinding XP, with progress through the world instead gated by force fields which disppear after certain bosses are defeated. The trouble is, the world map wasn't actually redesigned to reflect this change in direction, so what's left is a mostly linear slog through a bland and weirdly empty world where you can still clearly see where the collectibles [i]would have been[/i] in earlier builds of the game. Heck, the 1.0 release didn't even update the former shopkeeper NPC's dialogue, so she's still just standing there inviting you to step into an upgrade shop that no longer exists. To top things off, the screenshots on the Steam store page at the time of this writing are taken from an early access build where the above-described features still existed (at a glance, at least two of them explicitly depict now-removed game mechanics), and many of the existing positive reviews also seem to be describing one of those early access versions, so the change in direction is not adequately disclosed to potential purchasers.

I love this game! The artwork reminds me of Stardew Valley and is super cute. There's a lot of content too despite it being an Indie title. Highly recommend

says it has full controller support but you cant rebind keys.

Edit: Rescinded my negative review and switched to positive, dev have finally released the endgame and enacted patches. Rough around the edges but very enjoyable

Feels like a Mega-Man like game but, not really as attack upgrades discarded the need to cycle through elements for the most part. Attack upgrades also made everything really easy after 3rd boss as most bosses die in about 30 - 45 sec.

Fun little platformer game that I can play on my Steamdeck. Highly recommend

I had a lot of fun playing this game, can't wait to play it on my Steam deck when I get it next week I have some suggestions, I just opened the game and i want to lower the volume because it's loud. However, I cant get to the settings page until I start a game. I hope I can access the settings in the beginning in the future

Cute little game reminds me of Mario on Gameboy! Fun combat as well!

https://youtu.be/VAcMO7LuQSM?si=L_Xn3GsEOSmMGHE8 建議看完這個OP就好，我當初就是被這首歌給深深吸引才想來玩 我真的無法推薦本體 demo版我只玩過最初的版本(快5年前)，再來就是這正式版了 整體非常多bug，而且大概一半是能輕易復現的，真的很好奇製作團隊有沒有做play test，或是完整的玩過 唯一能慶幸的是只有遇過一次惡性bug被卡住動不了就被打死了 整體太多設計意義不明 敵人出招很隨意，完全不考慮玩家能不能對應 正式版前大改遊戲系統，從商店升級改成升等 反正最後我是用外鄉打死全部boss了，正面打我受不了

Ребятки явно устали 4 года допиливать игру и решили просто остановиться и выкатить то, что есть. Та часть, что уже была в 2022м, всё еще хороша и приятно играется: портретики, озвучка, Гастововские подколы, боссы с кучей атак, арсенал палок и фамильяров на любой вкус. С балансом так и не справились: раньше магазин превращал все боссфайты в фейсролл, теперь ты просто перманентно бомж, циферки уровней растут, а статы за всю игру вырастают со стартовых 10/10 аж до 20/20, количество хп, маны и книжек (тоже что-то типа маны) не меняется. Есть разнообразная крутая магия, на которую тратятся книжки, но использовать будешь за редкими исключениями только хил, потому что мобы ушатывают за 2 тычки, а книжки восстанавливаются только с дропа (и приходится перед боссами ходить их фармить). Последние уровни - лютая душня, а диалоги скатываются в сплошное уныние. Раздражающая механика стихий: постоянная угадайка, кого надо бить огнем, кого водой, кого ветром. Боссраш из 12 боссов - отдельная песня... В общем, рекомендую первую половину и не рекомендую вторую.