Monsters' Den: Book of Vengeance

I expect a new entry in a nearly 20 year old series to use their own ****ing artists instead of AI trash

Seems like it will be a decent one when it's out of EA, but the AI art just looks awful and jarring

They've been selling the same game for over a decade now, and they've stopped even pretending they're going to add anything interesting or original to it. It was cute to pay for a re-release, once. But not when they keep coming back for more. If this were 2012, this would be a thumbs up.

I was fortunate enough to take part in the playtest for this game, so don't let the 0.2 hrs playtime fool you, I actually have 120+ hours. Safe to say, I'm hooked. As a long-time fan since the originals going back over 10 years, Book of Vengeance even in it's early stage delivers a perfect mix of nostalgia and a fresh take on the series. It's aesthetically pleasing and the new music and sounds are great (and I appreciate some of the old ones making it into the game too for that extra nostalgia hit). Where the game really shines and what I think will be it's greatest selling point is the brand new class system, as it's the most fun and customizable yet. Your primary class (which is also your secondary class when you start out) offers 5 skills, each with a modifier based on your secondary class. Modifiers have 2 effects; one used for offense skills and one used for support skills. Eventually, you unlock the ability to use ANY class as your secondary, applying that class's modifiers to your primary class's skills. Furthermore, you can then unlock the ability to pick and choose modifiers from ANY class, mixing and matching as you like, allowing for hundreds of skill combinations and builds. It's honestly genius and Garin should be very proud. I'm very excited to see how this system grows in the future. There is also a new trait system that replaces armor sets from previous games in a much more flexible and fun way. The healing shrines of old have had a glow up too, each featuring a unique design and with new functionality. In addition to healing, they will also provide a party-wide buff for the rest of the current floor. Alternatively, INSTEAD of healing and a buff, you can gain a permanent bonus to a single character, which can help work towards a specific build/flavor. At the time of writing, my main complaint as someone who's played as much as I have would be a big lack of variety in loot and the lack of loot scaling between floors (if you find some boots on Floor 9, it will be identical in stats to boots found on Level 1, aside from prefix/suffix modification), as it does take away from the customization and 'building a character' aspect a little, but this is merely a result of the game being in early access and is 100% going to change in the future and thus making this point redundant, so I am not concerned :) The custom class system and permanent bonuses from the shrines help make up for this for now. I could probably find lots of things to gush about but I think my main thoughts have been shared. For the very generous price, Book of Vengeance is a great addition to the series and has so much replay value already. I can't wait to see what updates come in the future :)

I had to stop myself from playing not because it wasn't a great blast from the past but because I had to make sure I remembered to put down a review before the never ending delving into dungeons. I am a bit biased because of the old games from kongregate and armorgames but this is a call to the earlier days of gaming where things were simple and fun. No MTX or weird incomplete features. This is very playable from the get go. I have to say this is a pure dungeon delving looting game with good old fashioned excitement of seeing purple or pink/orange loot and feeling like you have a good amount of depth (although I do wish there were more class and skill customisations) but simple enough to start off without having to read a dissertation to get started. If you enjoy the style of game BoV brings to the table I URGE you to check out Dan's other games. They are on sale and definitely worth picking up even if just to see how the games evolved and how he continues to listen to his community and keep what works and what is fun. At 10 USD ( regional pricing may vary) I strongly believe this is a fantastic and even absurd amount of value especially with games reaching 70-80 dollars for the "base" version of the game. This gets a solid 8.9/10 from me unbiased, as I would love to give this game a 9/10. tl;dr the game is FUN and isn't that the whole point of gaming? EDIT: I just realized you can combine subclasses, I take back what I said about more depth in customisation. 10/10 holy game

日本語化Tool作成依頼を受けた為 日本語化Toolを作成しました。 ↓↓ https://steamcommunity.com/app/3579490/discussions/0/687495779967907257/ プレイレビューではなくて、スミマセン。。。 その他ゲームの日本語化情報 https://steamcommunity.com/groups/japanesemod/curation キュレーターをフォローしていただくと、 ストアページから簡単に日本語化Mod/Tool入手先を表示できます。 また、当キュレーターにて日本語化した他の多数のゲームも、 同様にストアページから入手先を開けるようになります。

Okay, I'm going to admit; while I'm giving this game a positive review, I'm kinda torn on this game. I have fond memories of the Monster's Den series, and while the gameplay is as solid as ever, it's a bit disheartening to see them use AI for portraits (which admittedly look fine, I guess? I honestly wouldn't have thought they were AI if the Store Page hadn't pointed it out). Now, the game is in early access, so I hope that they get some real artists later down the line, and I would gladly pay money for alternate monster art DLC if most of the proceeds went to the artists. It would be pretty fun to have some up and coming artists give their own take on the myriad monsters, especially if they have styles that are a bit outside the norm. Of course, this is only going to work if you strip all the AI portraits out of the game in the first place, which is no easy feat. But if you can pull it off, you'll earn a lot of goodwill from gamers the world over.

The game doesn't look like much and if you didn't like the original monsters den flash games you definitely won't like this but I think this game has probably the best gameplay of all the monsters den games. If you were a fan of the originals you'll love this. Edit: I wanted to add that the dev updates the game very regularly and takes a lot of feedback from the community.

Got the game to support a small dev whose previous work I've enjoyed, development then dropped off a cliff. Do not purchase at this time, game isn't finished, art is AI, and this is less developed a title than their literal first flash game. What a shame for something that seemed to have interesting potential.

To all fans of dungeon crawling RPGs: this one has that nostalgic feel of classic Monsters' Den: Book of Dread with a ton of extra customization options and engaging combat with strategic elements. The music, the combat, the LOOT, the randomized dungeon layouts and enemy team composition, it checks all the boxes for rewarding gameplay and fun times to be had. The fact that you can unlock class combinations and the mix-and-match options it presents gives you endless options for team building and testing different strategies. It is such a fun new addition to the Monsters' Den series and is a huge step-up in replay-ability. The amount of content and replay-ability you get for a game still in Early Access and, as of writing this review after many hours in the play-test, being fresh out of play-testing phase is astounding and I just know I will be sinking many hours into this game. Testing different difficulties of the multiple campaigns and pushing into the endless dungeon, I can't wait!