Grand Battle

This is a fun game, kind of like Torchlight and Dungeon Siege. It has a few bugs, but they've been updating daily. It could use a targeting assist system for the archer, quest assist system, and the camera can use some tweaking, but there's no big flaws. The graphics and soundtrack are great, and the AI for the NPC's is pretty good. I've been enjoying it, and feel the game and DLC are totally worth the $25 spent. I've not regretted this purchase whatsoever, and feel it's way better than most of the games I've bought on Steam. EDIT:

Grand Battle is a fun fantasy RPG with many good elements and a fun story. Although it can be slow at parts it’s definitely worth a try. It still has room for improvement but I think there's potential. 6/10 Review: https://youtu.be/kFy1aiP_U5w NOTE: Although I recommend this game, I DO NOT recommend it at the full price, there are a few issues and until such issues are fixed, this game isn't worth the full price tag.

[h1]Must buy if you like RPGs![/h1] It's nice to see a solid, well presented and very playable game of this type appear without the usual hype and fanfare, and get plenty of attention for its gameplay rather than its sexy heroine or Hollywood guest stars. These game has made it work. I can tell this is going to be extremely replayable. There is 10 heroes and you make a party of 4 at any one time. You also choose a starting hero and your first partner varies depending on who you choose. [table] [tr] [td]Gameplay[/td] [td]8/10[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Graphics[/td] [td]8/10[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Replayability[/td] [td]10/10[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Audio[/td] [td]8/10[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Difficulty[/td] [td]It has difficulty settings. Pick the right one for you.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Game Length[/td] [td]Long![/td] [/tr] [/table] I am currently on act 4 and enjoying the heck out of it! What really amazes me is the lack of problems this game has. It just works. I have not run into one issue yet. What is really amazing is how well this supports both controller and keyboard mouse. Everything moves so super smooth and switching between heroes was amazing! I played through both with a controller (Xbox One) and the keyboard and mouse. I did have to rebind some of my keyboard controls to my liking, but after that i had a great time. I tried Co-op and we had some great shananigans, it's great that there is support for 4 players at once on the same couch. Visually, Grand Battle is a tour de force. The cartoony presentation is carried across with sublime attention to detail. Graphically speaking, this game is awash with awesome animation, all of which is highly detailed and brings the characters to life effortlessly. It's a testament to the graphical prowress of that hot new graphics card you bought for an exhorbitant amount when its in the hands of the experienced team at Indie. The 3D world of Grand Battle comes to life in a cartoony way, which is a nice change from all those brown washed out depressing games.The visuals represent the objects they represent well. [u]If you like RPGs this is a must buy.[/u] TLDR: [b]You need it!, It is a great game.[/b]

The game takes a little adjusting to but honestly is really enjoyable and reminiscent of a classic old school RPG. You can stat up characters, use equipment slots and seems like there are a lot of abilities just like you would expect. Not a huge story game but seems like a fun hack and slash.

[i]"Grand Battle offers players a casual, party-based RPG experience with a questing system that mimics that of typical MMOs quests (fetch and kill quests mainly), a somewhat random enhancement system for your equipment, and a hack-and-slash combat system which allows some degree of kiting. The game can be pretty fun if you're into that kind of thing, which I happened to be, but the game still has plenty of areas to improve on."[/i] Grand Battle does show some potential to provide a fun yet casual party-based RPG experience but it has quite a bit of flaws at the moment. For starters, the game doesn't start with a introduction, hence, you basically have no idea why you're there in the game in the first place... though eventually, [spoiler]by talking to the other heroes you can later recruit, it'll dawn on you that you're gathering some sort of strike team to take out the King[/spoiler]. The tutorial is quite lacking as well. There's no mention of using the Tab key to open up a menu, which contains crucial features like character stats, equipment, inventory, quest tracking, etc. Combat also seems a bit wonky because apparently arrows don't fly very far in this game - my main character is Blaiz, who's an archer, by the way. plus, if you switch over to any other characters in your team, you'll quickly notice that Blaiz (when controlled by the computer) will walk right up to an enemy and start shooting... instead of shooting from afar like archers should. I'm not sure if this is intentional but I've noticed that my characters and the enemy's health will automatically regenerate even during combat. So unless you're dealing more damage than the enemy (the boss especially) can recover, then you're literally ♥♥♥♥♥♥. There are plenty more stuff that I've noticed during my 3-hour long playthrough that I'm not a huge fan of, but despite all of that, the game does hold some charm. I really like the character models and how you can switch between characters in your team (or even those who aren't in your team via the Tome on the Pedestal), the gameplay reminds me a lot of old-school MMORPGs where the quests can be grindy but progression seems satisfying enough. The game's ability level-up system looks intriguing too. Your character's main abilities are fixed (each character has three abilities - keys 1 to 3), but he/she can acquire new abilities - abilities that are tied to the weapon used, and by slaying enemies, you can "level up" the weapon-linked ability. So far, most of these special abilities I've leveled are passive ones; but I still have no idea how to activate active weapon-linked abilities. [h1]Watch me play![/h1] Defeating the First Boss Solo (because I skipped a quest at the castle... lol) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_URpnCw7-0 Quick tip: For the first map, make sure you take all the quests available in the castle and recruit all 2 (yes, there are two) heroes to join your party before heading out to take on the first boss. I tried solo it and well, I won but it took me more than 20 minutes of kiting lol :P Taking on the Scorpion King and the Alpha Wolf (Second and Third Boss) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1iSQQfv8k4 So to sum everything up, here's the TL;DR version... [h1]the pros, the mehs and the cons[/h1] [b]Pros[/b] + A pretty fun, casual party-based RPG with quests and lots of monster-slaying + A nice variety of characters to recruit and play as (you can switch between them) + Cool character models + Nice sound effects and music + 5 difficulty levels, from Casual to World's Hero [b]Mehs[/b] +/- Pretty linear gameplay +/- Typical MMO-style quests - fetch and kill quests +/- No major glitches or bugs so far +/- Combat animations are pretty alright here. +/- Simple Item Enhancement system but appears to be rather random [b]Cons/Suggestions[/b] - The default graphics option in this game is terrible. It's just straining my eyes. I think it might be best if all the extra stuff are turned [u]off[/u] by default (You can keep the FXAA3 on though since I don't think it changes things a whole lot). Just take a look between these two screenshots Default settings: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1699833162 Changed settings: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1699833822 - Tutorial is missing a few important aspects, such as introducing the Tab key - make sure to add those in! - Loading screens - Please add in a loading indicator and replace the black screen with some graphics. - Boss fights is either too easy (like the Alpha Wolf fight), or it just ends up killing most of your team, leaving your main to solo the last part of the boss fight (like the Scorpion King fight). - Background story isn't very well-established at the beginning. A short text or cinematic to set the scene would be nice. - Poor default camera sensitivity settings - The default camera movement is too "loose". Sometimes, it'll just swing around erratically when rotated as though the thing holding it in place is loose. - Please remove the typewriter effect when announcing a boss fight. It's too slow and is frankly quite annoying. - Allow ranged characters to attack (and actually hit the enemy) from a further distance. - The AI for ranged characters can also be improved a bit. Currently, I think it's the same AI as the one controlling the melee characters and well, ranged characters aren't supposed to be played like a melee character. - Quitting the game takes a bit too long. Feels like the game's crashing [h1]Overall[/h1] It is these types of games that make me wish Steam would let us add a "but...." besides the Yes and No boxes under "Do you recommend this game?". Yes, I recommend this game mainly because it is the sort of RPG that appeals to my nostalgic and more "casual" side, and I do think that the game is worth buying (but probably not at its full price). However, the devs really need to fix some of the more pressing issues with the game such as removing the terrible default graphics settings (keep it simple), shoring up the storyline with a proper story background/ introduction, and fixing the default camera sensitivity issue. [h1]Side Note[/h1] If you like this review and would like to follow me for more, please feel free to drop by my curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33780629-The-Midcore-Gamer/

Well I got to say this game really surprised me. A really nice game with a beautiful art style and fun gameplay. The devs seem to be very dedicated and have been actively responding to players in the discussions. keep in mind that it is by an indie studio and the gameplay mechanics are work in progress with more updates and overhauls as well as additional content planned as the development progresses. they already have reworked first Act and daily improvements are coming. I got to say this seems worth it

Big fan. Only a few hours in, and having a blast. The world needs more games like this.

Revising my review for now to be less in-depth and picky, as this is an indie title, and supposedly a work in progress despite not using the early access program. The gameplay and lore are both areas that absolutely need heavy adjustments. That being said, there's a free demo so give it a shot. Maybe you'll like it, but in my opinion, the game currently is very far from an official release. I used to have low expectations from indie releases, but in 2019 releases like this just don't make the cut, because the fact is, the resources any indie dev needs to make quality games are available for either cheap or completely free, and as such, so many indie devs have stepped up their efforts. I can ignore if a game doesn't look good, but you play video games to have fun, so the gameplay experience needs to be fun, and a number of factors make Grand Battle not fun for me. Again, though, try the demo. It's free and a relatively small install.