Letalis

Played one of the very first Early Access versions for about 8 hours, and before release I decided to give it another shot. I ended up finishing the game and honestly couldn't put it down. I'm still going back to complete side quests and hunt down all the secrets I missed. The game is packed with little secrets, optional content, and puzzles that really reward exploration. The retro Game Boy-inspired style is awesome, the pixel art is great, and the gameplay does a really good job of capturing that classic feeling while still feeling fresh. The permadeath mechanic can feel a bit unfair at times, especially if you lose a Letalis you've invested a lot into. But that's also part of the game. You need to prepare your team before tackling certain areas and be careful with Letalis that are close to dying. As you progress, the game also gives you more tools to level up your Letalis more efficiently, so it doesn't become an endless grind. Overall, I had a great time with Letalis. If you're into retro RPGs with rewarding exploration, hidden secrets, fun side quests, and a good challenge, I'd definitely recommend it.

I so far am really enjoying this game, there’s lot of pros, and obviously some cons that I hope as time goes on, they either add features, or improve upon them. PROS - Combat is simple but engaging, I enjoy the weapon system and how each Letalis has a weapon preference and it can help you build them each differently - Exploration is fun, and I keep finding areas to go back to cause of new abilities I’ve acquired - The music is very retro and enjoyable CONS - I feel like some things could have better explanations, such as how Letalis evolve - Hopefully they add a tracker that explains what each psyche does as they are finished - Random encounters happen very frequently, which sometimes is a little tedious Things I hope are added: - I think increasing the level cap could be fun in a New Game+ scenario, if they add that - Maybe some more Letalis Classes, just cause I like variety - Reconfiguration of Keybinds Overall as you can tell, I’ve quickly put almost 6 hours of gameplay in. I really enjoying the experience and am extremely hopeful for the additional content they will add, and making this one of the best retro gladiator experiences to exist :)

I liked this game so much I wrote a guide on how the fusion mechanic works for it. GLORY OR DEATH! Letalis is truly one of a kind in the monster taming genre. Instead of being a trainer of strange creatures that are a mixture of cute and cool, you are an aspiring CAESAR, or a master of your very own coliseum. You will recruit and manage a team of five LETALIS, or gladiators to fight for you and conquer all five existing CAESARs in order to become one yourself. Instead of elemental typing, each LETALIS has a fighting style. Just like real gladiatorial combat, different fighting styles counter others. Valkyries, for example, are strong against Bandits, but are countered by Ronin. Everything has a fighting style, including chickens. Speaking of chickens, there are two ways to get new members of your team. 1. Hire LETALIS at the market. 2. Capture Wild Beasts. Animals are less flexible than LETALIS, but often have higher health and stats to compensate. The lack of flexibility is a big deal, but sometimes you just need a fat boy to tank some hits for you. The level cap (until post-game) is only 24, so managing your strategy is key to not dying because, much like real gladiatorial combat, DEATH IS PERMANENT. While your LETALIS will not always die when reduced to zero health, there's always a chance. Every time they survive a fatal blow, their GLORYRISE meter goes down. Once that's at zero, the next fatal blow will stick and that LETALIS is gone for good. The game rewards strategy and punishes just trying to brute force the mechanics just as any good RPG should. The game is also fully open world. The low level cap means you can functionally go any direction. Your only real limitation is through the "perks", which work like HMs in old Pokemon games. Defeating CAESARs will reward you with the ability to cut bushes, break rocks, or roll boulders out of your way, allowing you to go new places and discover new secrets. This can lead you to secret bosses, legendary weapons, or special types of non-human LETALIS that I won't spoil for you. There's a lot here and it doesn't hold your hand, but the devs are quite fair and happy to assist if you're lost. You'll always find some interesting content even doing that which I won't spoil. Exploring is always rewarded, and there's a real sense of accomplishment when you stumble across a named weapon or shield. My only real criticism is that you will have to backtrack a fair bit to find EVERYTHING. Fast travel can only be done for the main towns, so you'll be walking to some places of interest once you have the means to proceed somewhere you couldn't until you had the right item to open up a secret thingy. Random encounters also can't be turned off in two of the endgame areas, which can really slow down your progress. That's more of a symptom of the JRPG genre itself, but it is always worth noting. But yeah, definitely one of the most interesting and unique games I've played this year. I strongly recommend you give it a try, as the demo is free and your save carries over to the full game. The devs are constantly updating the game. Once this thing is exactly as they envisioned it, I think this will stand alongside some of the best creature collectors/monster taming games in the indie scene. Coromon, Nexomon, Mirrored Soul, Lumentale, Cassette Beasts...and now, Letalis. Spread the word and show these devs that their hard work was all worth it.

Good stuff. Plays well on Steamdeck. This is a very neat little game, despite not being much of a Pokemon fan it turns out gladiators make everything cooler (empirically true). You explore, do quests, make money, and - of course - fight to the death. The game has a little bit of a twist on the classic formula in that your fighters have a limited number of times they can be knocked out of battles before they are gone for good. I believe this is similar to Nuzlocke in Pokemon but again I am not all too familiar. The game can be a little bit tricky, but certainly not unfair or overly punishing, and I have yet to lose anyone for good. It provides a reasonably wide variety of strategies and combat can be as cerebral as you want it to be. Different classes perform differently against others but personally I have been ignoring that and playing blindly, and so far it has been quite enjoyable. There seems to be a lot more to this game than I have messed around with so far but initial impressions are positive.

RPG inspired by classic Gameboy RPGs like Pokemon and SaGa (Final Fantasy Legend). After a little tutorial segment, it just drops you into a world lets you go anywhere. Lots of quests everywhere and tons of options to develop your team so you can win the matches for badges and unlock more progression. It's the kind of game where you can just mess around and experiment. I would recommend this to anyone who likes Gameboy RPGs and would like to experience a modern take on it. Graphics are honestly nice because it really feels like Gameboy graphics, and there's lots of variety in the sprites. Music is kind of strange, different tracks are made in different styles. I would prefer it to sound a bit more like Gameboy.

At first glance, Letalis is a 3v3 gladiator combat game very loosely inspired by nuzlocke runs in the old Gameboy Color Pokemon games. However, it has a lot of unique design decisions that make it unlike anything I've ever played, offering a surprisingly captivating experience. My experience with Letalis was one of discovery. You're plopped into the world with the goal to beat the 5 coliseums and become a Caesar. The thing is, though, those coliseums all want you to have your gladiators at the max rank of 24. Early on, it'll take a few hours to build your units to that level, so you explore. You find quests, new weapons, and even unit types. By unit types, I don't just mean new gladiators (which there are plenty of, each having their own intrinsic bonuses), but you'll also learn how to get wild animals and more interesting beings in the later game. Weapons are always exciting to find since your gladiators moves come directly from which two weapons they have equipped. Want a pure tank? Grab a couple of shields. Want to catch a wild animal? Grab a whip or a net. Going in mostly blind and just trying things and exploring the world map was a blast. The max rank of 24 means your units are going to max out fairly quickly, though new weapons can change that up to some degree. This is intentional as an antigrinding mechanic, and I think the idea is to encourage you to try out new units and build up a diverse roster to choose from. I mostly like that, though I was always caught between using my favorites that aren't improving and leveling up some new units to have better type coverage or just see how they change as they level. This pairs with the "Gloryrise" mechanic, which basically gives you a decreasing chance to not permanently lose your fighters. I got lucky and never really lost anyone I cared about, but so I don't have a whole lot of feelings on this system, though I can see how the quick leveling would make it less frustrating to use a beloved unit. I flat out dislike the choice to not have standard save and reload, rather only an autosave. Letalis is a game that thrives in its exploration and experimentation, and it asks you to make permanent choices with your units in quite a few ways. I was going to play the post game and look to discover as much of the world as I could, but I tried out a post game mechanic and it changed my favorite unit in a way I really didn't want. I'm generally not much of a post game content person and I'd been annoyed by the save system throughout my playtime, so I decided to just call it quits there. Regardless, I had a ton of fun with Letalis. While they started out with an all too common inspiration, the devs managed to make something that really stands out. 3.5/5, would be 4/5 with a traditional save system.

A labor of love, fun creature taming RPG reminiscent of the old DQM games, with a lot of variety and more mechanics than you would expect

[h1]TL;DR: A promising early access gem on its way to becoming a classic[/h1] An addictive hardcore [i]Pokémon-Nuzlocke-Souls-like[/i] that has the potential to become an instant classic once it hits version 1.0. It’s a unique blend of [i]Pokémon[/i]’s creature collecting with [i]Nuzlocke[/i]'s permadeath and [i]Souls[/i] games’ punishing yet rewarding combat and exploration. The difficulty feels challenging but fair, keeping you on your toes without feeling outright frustrating (most of the time). [h2]World[/h2] From the start, the world is kinda "fully open", allowing players to explore even some advanced areas right away. Gradually, as players earn medals in coliseums (similar to [i]Pokémon[/i] gyms), they unlock abilities to overcome obstacles like bushes and rocks, expanding the world even further. [h2]Combat[/h2] The combat system encourages experimentation, both with class types and weapon loadouts. The damage penalty for repeating the same ability twice in a row during combat adds a strategic layer, making players carefully consider the setup of their Letalis to maximize their utility and damage output in combat. On top of that, the game offers an abundance of special weapons as rewards for quests, battles, and hidden locations. These unique weapons add even more depth to the combat, giving players plenty of reasons to keep exploring and experimenting. [h2]Difficulty[/h2] [b]Beware, though, that the difficulty curve at the start of the game is really steep.[/b] Until you get the grasp of what you can do, you’re going to hit your head against a wall, and it will claim the lives of many of your Letalis. If the developers keep refining it, fixing the bugs, and polishing up the rough edges, this game could easily stand among the greats. If you’re a fan of tough-but-fair gameplay and a world full of surprises, don’t miss this one!

I would have loved this as a kid on GBC