Guardian's Oath

You get what you pay for. Guardian's Oath is a grindy, aesthetically ugly, simplistic action RPG with a completely nonsensical story...but it works. Quick Look: https://youtu.be/ngMhe2T3cnw

[b]My playtime:[/b] 20.4h (based on steam, 100% achievement + killing the last boss) [b]Grindy Achievement(s):[/b] No (you need to grind to finish the game though). [b]Optional Achievement(s):[/b] Yes (2 achievements). [b]Difficult Achievement(s):[/b] No. [h1]Intro[/h1] Guardian's Oath is an action RPG game where you have to grind to kill enemies and level up. There are 3 classes that you can choose although you can still use any weapon and skills despite of your classes. Pros: - Freedom to use any weapon and skills despite of the class - Freedom to decide what to do to level up - Optional bosses to kill - 5 different difficulties Cons: - Performance issues - It can be boring at some point - Minor bugs - Notification for bosses are hard to see [h1]Should you buy this game?[/h1] [b]Yes.[/b] [i]If you like to mindlessly do the same thing over and over, this is your game. It might be boring at some point but some things are enjoyable and the game is cheap enough to compensate for that boringness.[/i] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [h1]In-Depth Review[/h1] [h1]Graphics[/h1] The main menu doesn't look captivating to me at all; it's just there for the sake of the game. It looks better after you start playing the game though. The graphics are decent for the price tag although I find that one portal in the last area is hard to notice and some monsters look similar to each other. [h1]Story[/h1] The game doesn't have much story in it. You'll see some stories after you start the game and that's it. The game might have some main quests that you can take, but I don't see any correlation with the story at all except for the last part in one of the main quests. [h1]The game[/h1] [b]Exploration[/b] The game has two main areas: a base and a monster field. There are 2 bases in total where you can buy gears, start main quest, store items, and other things to prepare for your next hunt. Monster fields, as the name suggests, have monsters in it. You can travel between areas through a warp. [b]Classes[/b] As I said before, there are 3 classes in this game: Warrior, Archer, and Magician. Each class has different benefits although I don't seem to see any other function aside from that since you can equip any weapon and learn any skills no matter what class you choose. You also can change your classes by paying a certain amount of money. Changing your class will reset your skill and stat points too so you might want to think twice before doing that. [b]Skills[/b] There are 9 learnable skills in total. Some skills can only be used if you use a certain weapon. You also can buy some skills if you have used a certain amount of skill points in the learnable skill tree. There's also one skill that can be obtained as a drop from a monster. You can upgrade learnable skills by using skill points that can be obtained by leveling up or finishing a quest. Skills that can be bought can only be upgraded with Talisman, a drop from enemies, while skill that can be dropped from a monster can't be upgraded. Some enemies might also drop a book that has a chance to increase the skill point of a particular skill. Most skills are maxed at level 4. You can reset your learnable skills if you talk to one of the NPC in one of the bases. However, skill points that you learn from the book will be lost forever if you do this. [b]Stats[/b] You can increase your stat however you want by spending some stat points. You can have stat points by leveling up or finishing a quest. There's also a way to reset your stat by talking to an NPC. [b]Difficulty[/b] The game offers 5 different difficulties that you can choose at the start of the game. The harder the difficulty, the higher the exp and drop chance that you'll get from defeating enemies. I played in normal difficulty. Although the game might be difficult at some point, I didn't have much problem to finish the game. [b]Farming[/b] The game's main focus is to farm levels and equip better gear. The game might be boring when you play it in the first few minutes because of this. Somehow, I got hooked after I received a quest and meet difficult enemies though; I become more motivated to level up and finish them. I lost the motivation after I almost reached end-game because leveling is hard and there aren't any quests to do anymore. [b]Quests[/b] You can unlock some quests after you reach a certain level. Main quests will usually require you to kill some enemies in waves while optional quests are more varied. However, I find that some optional quests are difficult to understand; there is this quest that requires me to kill an enemy for 20 seconds. I tried to kill the enemy for less and more than 20 seconds and it didn't work. The quest somehow disappears after I load my save the next day though. The quests aren't distributed properly. There were some points where I had a lot of main quests at the same time and some points where I had none at all. I wish there are more of these quests because it makes the game to be not boring that way. [b]Map Scroll[/b] Aside from quests and killing enemies, the game also has an item called Map Scrolls. These scrolls allow you to go to an area and kill some monsters in waves if you meet the level requirement. I find a hard time to finish these at some point, but it's fun to play. [b]Bosses[/b] The game has a lot of bosses. Some bosses will randomly spawn after you stay in an area for some time, some bosses will automatically fight you after a notification show up, and there's also the final boss that you can only fight by using a scroll. The first bosses are more common. The second bosses are more annoying, especially if you're low-leveled. I was fighting a lot of enemies when the notification shows up and the timer in the notification run out before I can escape. The notification is also kinda hard to see if you're focused on something else (checking your equipment, for example). Although I find that the final boss is challenging, it's taking a lot of time to get the scroll drop. The boss also seems to be buggy since I can't leave the area after I wiped out all of the enemies. [b]Problems[/b] I had a lot of minor problems in the game. Sometimes I find that the in-game mouse to be separated from my mouse cursor when I hover it in certain areas. I couldn't click some items in my inventory because of this. It seems to be intermittent though and I need to restart the game a lot of times to fix this. The game also slowed down at some point, especially when there are a lot of enemies on the screen. This might be because of my low-spec device although I can't check it because the processor part in the system requirement is too vague. The game also crashed twice when I played this. I can't seem to reproduce this either so I'm not sure what's happening. Most of the problems are intermittent and don't happen often. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] It's a game where you repeatedly kill enemies and upgrade your gear. It might be boring for some people but it might be enjoyable if you just want to play something that doesn't require a lot of thinking. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/23741321]Follow our curator page[b] Alexander's Club Curations[/b], if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote]