Knights of Tartarus

Mediocre at best, and dickish at worst. Battles consist of mashing the attack button or spells (if you're able to earn them in the first place) and hoping you kill the enemy before it kills you. If an enemy kills you in a dungeon, be prepared to redo every puzzle. The crafting system would be fine if you'd had a bestiary that told you which enemies dropped specific crafting items instead of gold. Exploration is really bad despite the small map, because there's A LOT of backtracking. Every time I decide to progress a bit more, the game gets worse. If you're going to purchase this game, PLEASE get it on sale!

So this game was going to get a pass but with how early access games are comming out as "finished products" (dont lie to me about this any more, you know its true) i cant overlook flaws anymore. This game dose start out pritty charming and the monster fights are pritty neat and varied, but after a while the RNG battles start wearing reeeally hard on the patience, mainly around the pirate ship level, where i feel every 5 steps you get another encounter, INCLUDING while your TRYING TO SOLVE PUZZLES. This is VERY irritating. I also know this is early access, but sometimes i feel some parts glitch out, making me worry that progression might be impossible in some areas, havent had that happen yet, but it dose feel a constant worry. (Though havent had that yet) BUT that also brings the point of mechanics, resetting themself in the dungeon, nice to know progress resets when i go out, save, restock, come back, and progress is lost. Wait a while on this.

Game won't full screen. Z is inexplicably used as the "enter" key by default. Took a lot of button mashing to figure out how to even start a new game. I appreciate the devs dream but I can't recommend the game as it stands, needs a lot of QoL attunement. Edit: Recommending the game due to dev addressing the issues listed above.

This is a perfect nostalgic trip, bringing me right back to my childhood sitting playing my Gameboy Color. This game is a fantastic callback to all those great simple RPG's of the 8bit handheld generation. I do not want to mention a certain Z-word game, or any other game, to compare with as Knights of Tartarus is its own thing, yes gameplay elements are taken from others but it holds enough original ideas to be enjoyed without scrutiny and comparison to other games. This game left me wanting more, in a good way, and I do I want more, I do hope that there is a sequel to this game in the future Challenging puzzles, awesome pixel art and fantastic music. The only downside to this game is that I can't play it on my Gameboy however it is available in the app store. Overall a pleasant and enjoyable experience and one I would come back to over and over again.

It definitely had that old timey game feel. The art is very good and the music is quite nice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_bP6kyWhRo&feature=youtu.be

Quality little solo character RPG with top down Zelda style dungeons. No random encounters, leveling comes pretty quickly and spells/materials acquired from monsters are fairly plentiful. Good visuals and some very good music. There are a few negatives to mention. At least back when I played (which was when it was out of Early Access) the earth dungeon could not be left from till you defeated the boss (though it's possible this was never the case and I simply missed something). Puzzles reset if you happen to leave the area. There's no in game crafting guide (though the dev did create and pinned one on the forums). None of these detract from the game that much and single character RPGs are incredibly rare as it is, so please do give it a shot.

[code]If you enjoyed this review, please consider following my Curator Page [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33864135/]Nep's Gaming Paradise (Nepiki Gaming)[/url] for more reviews![/code] [h1]Nepiki's Stats[/h1] [table] [tr] [td]Overall length[/td] [td]4-7 hours for beating and completion.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Overall difficulty[/td] [td]Low to medium difficulty.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Overall score[/td] [td]★★★☆☆[/td] [/tr] [/table] [h1]Review[/h1] I was pretty excited to start playing Knights of Tartarus when I first bought it. It looked like a game ripped right off the Gameboy Colour, specifically a Zelda game. That hope was soon answered as it didn't just have Zelda puzzle elements in dungeons, but also a turn-based gameplay style! Playing even further I discovered a crafting system for weapons and armour, and the world in general being fairly non-linear. For example, I defeated the earth boss first, but you could also defeat the wind boss first and unlock a whole new area to visit before even facing the earth boss. All of this sounds very cool right, what could possibly go wrong? Well.. there are a few issues that make some of the gameplay absolutely aggravating. Let's start with the Zelda puzzle elements, which is basically item-based gameplay to solve obstacles. If you remember Link's Awakening, it was sort of tedious to switch items because of the limited amount of buttons. You could carry two, and had to go to the menu constantly to switch. Surprisingly, Knights of Tartarus handles this even worse, far worse even. You can only equip one item at a time, and instead of just selecting it you have to sit through a confirmation dialogue that is unskippable. Now imagine doing this in a room where you constantly have to switch between items. What's even worse, the dungeons and puzzles reset after a defeat or leave, meaning that you have to do all the rooms with said puzzles in them again if you didn't finish off the boss the first time. To be fair this issue is mostly relevant to the final dungeons, but it certainly is annoying. I did have my fair share of defeats because being open-world does bring along some issues. The challenge of this game is all over the place, with some bosses taking legit strategies and medical item consumption, while others die in a hit or two. The challenge didn't give me an issue personally, but grinding at some points is almost a requirement so do keep that in mind. Grinding goes pretty fast though so kudos for that. The combat feels weirdly like a non-Pokemon Pokemon game when it comes to status effects and the like. It does the job well enough though, nothing to complain about here. I also liked the mechanic that if you've fought a monster once, the next time you fight them you can actually see their health bar. It's a simple touch but one that I approve of. Spells are actually learned from monsters as well, so if you're choosing the mage class there's definitely a good amount of spells to choose from. There's a good diversity in skills to choose from as well after every five level-ups, though one of the defensive perks negates one of the attack perks and that just felt weird. Overall Knights of Tartarus is a good game, and one that I would definitely have liked more if some of the bugs and my earlier mentioned problems are ironed out. [hr] https://store.steampowered.com/app/922920/Knights_of_Tartarus/

So I've only played the first hour of this game, but I will update my review as I see fit. This game leaves a hell of a first impression. Anyone who is a fan of early JRPGs like Dragon quest will immediately fall in love with the game's simple turn based combat system. The story thus far has been intriguing, and the sprite work and music have fit the sort of mysterious tone that the game presents you with early. All in all, a VERY strong start for what I believe will be a very good game. tldr; if you like jprgs, BUY THIS

Ok Gotta say if you are a fan of retro style games this will be in your wheelhouse of press the buy button. Its forward and to the point, but doesn't hold your hand either. Just like those games back in the day. Very remenicent of Dragon warrior. But one of the best things is the Dev is constantly checking his bug thread and communicates and tries to get those bugs swatted with furious vigor.

If you love the old style of Zelda and Dragon Quest games, this is right up your alley. Loved it.