Just a Cleric

First off let me start off by saying the Developer is a really nice guy and is there to help in any way possible. He's very vocal with the community and has fixed some things that really irked me when I first made this review. My review was initially negative, but the developer fixed the issues as fast as you can say, "Just a Cleric." So don't be afraid to contact him or post issues on the forum. I will leave my original review intact, but my new review is as follows... PROS -Great and hilarious original soundtrack filled with crunchy bass lines and HILARIOUS lyrics. -New game plus feature that introduces cool new features that I don't want to spoil for you. HINT: Jump around EVERYWHERE when in new game plus. Trust me, you won't regret it. -Cool, but very basic leveling/upgrade system. This is both a con and a positive. I'll explain the cons of this in the con section below. You can upgrade your gear to plus 4 and after that you can get your items blessed for even more power, which is a very cool feature. - Once you get past the difficulty curve, the game is a joy to play. I ended up playing for a few hours last night and didn't realize the time flew by so fast. -NPCs are hilarious as well and blend in with the cutesy atmosphere. CONS -No place where you can farm for money or gear between missions. The gear can be pretty expensive. -The font is pretty atrocious, but hang in there and you'll adapt to it -Sometimes the Cleric has a hard time listening to your button commands.Only seems to be this way when you're under attack. The overall feel of the controls is avergae at best. -Lacks a skill upgrade system. The stats DO affect your powers, but I would have found leveling more enjoyable with something else to invest points in, like maybe passive skills that increase run speed, Attack speed etc, but the leveling system is still solid. -Sometimes difficulty can seem more artifical than fair. That's when you gotta outwit the opponent by using the ladders to destroy them. Trust me, it's a godsend, especially against the Dragon. If you end up buying this game I HIGHLY recommend focusing on mostly the Faith stat because you're gonna get annoyed by sitting there for at least a minute or two to heal your magic points in order to heal your hp, only to go fight a Boss that drains your HP like you're wearing a styrafoam armor set. I'm not saying ignore all the other stats, but make sure you have a healthy amount of faith. Also, the SPEAR type weapons are the absolute best weapons to use. After all my frustrations with the first few hours of playtime, I finally got the hang of it and now I'm having a blast with it. I'm actually destroying New Game plus at the moment with no issues. I recommend this game if you're into Metroidvania style games and also want a good laugh in the process due to the amazing music. Give it a shot! It's cheap! :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ORIGINAL NEGATIVE REVIEW Pros: -Great music, very funny lyrics and that bass line is crunchy -Decent character upgrade/leveling system. (there are cons for this I'll explain later) -The townsfolk are funny, The humor in this game is top notch. Cons: -Lack of farming/grinding for levels or items. This is a problem because of..... -Expensive Gear. This wouldn't be a problem if we were able to farm to buy said gear and upgrade the gear more frequently. -Steep learning curve. I'm just going to say. I HATE the Werewolves and the Dragon. Never ending infuriation. It seems that the enemies tend to hit you first if you dont have a spear. -No checkpoint system. Dying over and over and over again would be acceptable if we didn't have to go through the same stage over and over and over and over and over again, wasting valuable time. Checkpoints NEED to be implemented to lessen the frustration. I would be able to deal with it if the game had such a system. -Difficulty seems more artifical than fair. Trust me, I LOVE difficult games if it's implemented correctly. Here it just seems artifically difficult, If you end up buying this game I HIGHLY recomend focusing on mostly the Faith stat because you're gonna get annoyed by sitting there for at least a minute or two to heal your magic points in order to heal your hp, only to go fight a Boss that drains your HP like you're wearing a styrafoam armor set. This game has ALOT of potential and the developer immediately responds to issues and fixes bugs promptly. At best, this game feels alot like an early access title. As much as I like the developer, I can't recommend this game.

Just absolutly awful, dont waste the 4 bucks on this garbage. First off developers your band sucks. The music doesnt fit the game and is dreadful. Second why would you use such a crappy ass font in the game. Not fun to play, Clunky controls.....blah blah blah, this game blows.

Meh. I'm truly one way or the other about this one. i like the style, the music, and the humor, but the gameplay and controls are a tad wonky. gonna have to thumbs down this one, but not with contempt or anything, it just isnt my thing

The game is hard, it's Nintendo hard. It's not unfair but it is challenging for those retro gamers out there. Even if it gets frustrating at time. There are tons of secrets throughout and multiple ways to play the game as you can choose different character classes at the start of the game. The controls never feel stiff and move perfectly with a keyboard or gamepad. Although with this type of game I strongly recommend playing with a gamepad instead. The music is fun and hilarious. Instead of some retro bit music or synth soundtrack you are treated to an actual rock band doing the music and lyrics. In a way the soundtrack sort of reminds me that of Home Movies if anybody recalled that show. The game's pricing is really not that much even at full price it's an enjoyable experience. My only complaint about the game is that there is no Steam Cloud. It isn't need but it would be nice. 7.5/10

Just a Cleric is a simple but fun indie game about a Cleric who finally gets his chance in the spotlight after his team is slain by a dragon! The structure of the game is pretty simple and is split into two halves. In town you can walk around and talk to the eccentric npcs to buy/upgrade your equipment, and then when you're ready you can take on various quests like watering plants, stealing eggs or protecting cats from zombies! The writing/humour in these quests is fantastic and definitely the best part of the game (even the soundtrack is both hilarious and catchy). The controls are pretty standard (move, attack, jump and spell) and the combat works fine (although the hitboxes are a little wonky). The game also has four different stats you can level depending on your playstyle. Personally I prefer Faith since you can spam healing/defensive spells more often if you level that. Now that DOES lead to a balancing problem since you can always just hide and heal up if you're low on a quest, but I won't complain since some of the levels can be pretty tough. My only major problem is that you can't grind between quests so if you're ever stuck there's not much you can do besides tough it out. This shouldn't be an issue once you've learned the game (or abuse the healing trick) but it would be nice if you could get some extra money and materials between quests. Overall Just a Cleric is a fun (but simple) indie game that's definitely worth the price. Thumbs up to the dev who's very involved in the community and always listens to player feedback. Keep it up! [b]EDIT: My video on Just a Cleric.[/b] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ7aFcF6xVE

As a Cleric out to kill a dragon in revenge for his fallen allies, you start out in a small hub where you can buy and upgrade equipment before leaving to perform certain tasks on a series of missions. Some levels are small and require you to beat the nearby enemies in some way, while others are more maze-like and feature optional paths and secrets. There's also a New Game+ mode that has incentives such as stronger enemies, hidden powerups and some different items to obtain. The controls are simple enough, with your character being able to equip a variety of weapon types and to learn a series of spells. You can choose what stats to increase when levelling up and even reset them for a small price if needed. I've found that increasing Faith is quite useful so you can recharge MP quickly and use the healing spell any time you find yourself in trouble. Some missions are rather difficult, but it shouldn't take long for any action game fan to get the hang of it. Get good, will ya? Most of the time you can turtle out of battles, even some bosses, to heal yourself and there's a rather cheesy fire shield spell that trivializes several areas. As a wise man once said: "Ninjas can't catch you if you're on fire". The low-res pixel art gives a cute cartoony feel to it, not unlike Environmental Station Alpha. Plus, it has a silly soundtrack with corny lyrics. All in all, the game feels like an improvement to one of the dev's more well known games, Hasslevania. Frankly, the ongoing Hasslevania 2 project, as I remember it from the betas, would feel more unrefined and slow-paced than this one. Just A Cleric is good fun, lasts for a couple of hours and is well worth the small asking price.

There's a trend amongst indy devs to go beyond just trying to make a game look pixel and old because they couldn't afford an artist, and making games look even more pixellated and low effort than even old games used to be - deliberately! This is one example of this new crime against gamers. Once you get past the horribly low effort graphics, the gameplay is very weak, something like Zeliard but made more annoying because of the poor graphics and somewhat clunky controls. To make matters worse, there's no even a readily available fullscreen option, no mouse support, and unintuitive controls. Clearly not made for PC gamers. Edit: The developer has responded, pretending he doesn't know his game is bundleware trash, at least not initially. He also pretended he didn't add trading cards to try get someone to think about his bundleware trash, and pretends people don't idle his game to get the cards and sell them for a few cents, which is worth much, much more than his game would ever be. The developer pretends his game doesn't have menus, and pretends he doesn't know that using a mouse to navigate a menu is the best option for gamers (except for console peasants, but this is Steam, so console peasants can roast in a fire). The developer also admits he couldn't work out how to make fullscreen work properly, but pretends that's a good thing instead of accepting that's an open admission of his sheer incompetence (and absolutely one of many very valid reasons I could not recommend this "game"). He then questions if I idled the game for cards, why would I play it? I should hope the answer is obvious, to give the developer a chance to impress a curator with almost 2000 Steam reviews. If the game was exceptionally good, to the point I would recommend it to other gamers, then I would have. But I suppose that's a valid response from a developer who really knows his game is talentless trash, being surprised anyone would play it. That's understandable. It is fun when developers get shirty and ignore the Steam review code of practice when his audience calls him out on his terrible game, though. To the dev: Read the code of practice. I'm helping you here. You can do better. Hire an artist. Understand PC gamers, Understand PCs aren't consoles. That's your only chance of ever becoming competent.

[h1]Long story short [/h1] When I purchased Just a Cleric I expected a fun, quick, indie RPG for a weekend of enjoyable gaming. And, for once, I was neither surprised nor disappointed! I was entertained and humored by the story and music, had a blast with the game play, and delighted in collecting each and every achievement. Don’t get me wrong, the game isn’t perfect. It is sprinkled with unpolished bits and pieces that, although not game breaking, can be a little frustrating. Even so, I loved this game. So pick it up for its cheap price and have fun playing Just a Cleric! [h1]Long story long- The gameplay[/h1] As with all classic RPG, you choose your class at the beginning and form your playstyle around it. It also has the classic armor system where your choice of protection determines not only defense, but stats as well. Also, like other RPGs, the main point of this game is to complete quest, level up your character, fight bosses, and become OP as crap in New Game+. What makes Just a Cleric special you ask? Well to start when you chose your class (ranger, mage, or warrior) the class’s powers simply gets added to your original class which is, or course, a cleric. What does that mean? It means you’re a ranger, mage, or warrior with cleric spells and abilities. Every class earns the power to heal, summon holy armor, and incinerate your enemies with spinning fireballs MAHAHA! I’ve got to say, I’ve never seen this done in a game and I found it added a whole new dimension to the gameplay. [h1]Art and music[/h1] Perhaps what people hate or love most about this game is the art and music. The art is pixel graphics, obviously, and is designed for the small resolution of 160x112. Some people appreciate this simplistic deign with a nod to the past. Others, including myself, don’t necessarily prefer it. As for the music, it’s quirky, VERY quirky, but also catchy and silly. I know at least 3 guys off the top of my head that would go nuts for soundtrack because of its humor, rhythm, and vocals. I, however, am not one of those kinds of people. In fact, some of it I wouldn’t consider “real music” at all. But it didn’t bother me in the slightest. So, basically, when it comes to the art and music, it all boils down to preference. [h1]Achievements and Controls[/h1] One of my favorite parts of this game was the achievements. They were almost perfect! There were side quest achievements, completion achievements, progression achievements, even ultimate super hidden over powered boss achievements! To top it off, not one person has reported an achievement that didn’t activate, which is somewhat of an anomaly for indie games. There was, however, one small achievement (Stumped) that was a little frustrating and forced me to crawl around in the discussions to complete. But all in all nice going with the achievements DXF Games! They were one of my favorite parts of the game! I can’t say the same for the controls. I was weirded out by the default controls for the Steam Controller and disappoint to find they couldn’t be changed. It took me awhile to get use to but I only blame a couple deaths on them. [h1]Story and need to know info before playing[/h1] I enjoyed the story way too much. This game really wasn’t made to be story driven. But I somehow connected with the characters. I watched the beginning for fun WAY too many times for me to be considered a normal human. I’m pretty sure all 5 voices were done by the same person. Yet, it was some of the best voice acting I’ve seen in a game this small. I’m still baffled as to why I like that cut screen so much, but I do. Now for a few handy tips that aren’t told to you in game! 1, you can save by talking to the bartender. 2, there are two hidden passages to the upper left and upper right in the well under the town. Only use the one on the right until you’ve beaten New Game+. 3, for the achievement “Stumped”, drop a Bow+2 on the stump to the far right of town. These three facts aren’t spoilers, they are merely info that you would have had to look up in the Steam discussions later. [h1]DXF Games[/h1] DXF Games is run by a kindly developer who programs, plays songs for, and lovely draws art for his hand crafted games. DXF Games have now released several games into the marketplace but Just a Cleric was its first. That being said, you should not expect perfection. The developer was unable to solve a problem concerning crashes so, to fix it, he disabled full screen. Also, the mission where you have to collect eggs and then kill the blue jays is not able to be completed to my knowledge. Once your objective changes from collecting eggs to killing blue jays, the birds can’t be found. Now those two examples are the biggest ones that show the developer had a lot to learn. But for crying out loud this was his first game! And it’s fricking good considering! [h1]Conclusion[/h1] When I picked up Just a Cleric I thought it looked like a nice little indie game that would be fun to play over the weekend. And boy was it! The art, achievements, and music all delicately designed to make the experience as enjoyable as possible! All weapons and enemies balanced and rebalanced until they were perfect. Far better then what you’d expect from a developer that never made a game before! Truly, it isn’t perfect, but most games aren’t. I’d give it a solid 7.5/10 which is saying something because I’m rather picky. So go ahead and pick it up for its cheap price! There plenty of bang for your buck! And have fun playing Just a Cleric! [i]If you liked this review or want to see more recommended games, be sure to follow our curator group: [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Original_Curators_Group#curation]Follow Original Curator Group[/url][/i]