Old School RPG

Atrocious UX, problematic balance, primitive level design, bad performance (20 fps in combat on 4070), inconsistent assets, catastrophic lack of information for build-related decision-making... but it's obvious that this game has a soul and is a labor of love. And the formula that forms the game - it works. Thus, it's fun, engaging, and captivating. Charming. It's HARD to make games. The amount of work and love put into this game deserves the highest honors and respect. Considering this is a one-made game - the result is good. My highest-prio recommendation would be to focus the next update on the UI that informs a player on what each class gets on each level. I totally recommend this game to all old-school gamers like the developer, and me.

it becomes quite tedious , when exploring dungeons and you find yourself unable to kill the final boss fight . and yet your trapped in there because doors bugged and closed behind you when you died. your unable to level in the dungeon as nothing respawns and your unable to get outside where things do respawn, leaving the only option to wipe the party and begin from scratch . very tedious.

[h3]RANKING:[/h3] [table] [tr] [td] [h3][strike]AVOID | FLAWED[/strike] | [b]MAYBE[/b] | [strike]WORTHWHILE | COMPELLING | UNMISSABLE [/strike] [/h3] [/td] [/tr] [/table] [h3]SYNOPSIS:[/h3] [table] [tr] [th][b]ASSESSMENT:[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] Old School RPG is a title where the experience outweighs its asset production. It plays like a simpler Wizardry 8; taking place in a compact, undynamic 3D world, home to a generic story. Classic races & classes make for good party combos. A surprisingly good magic system, raises the solid weapon-based combat to generate convincing, if at times unbalanced encounters. In contrast quests are regimented lacking the branching required for varied future playthroughs. The UI is serviceable, but clunky. Audiovisuals are okayish. Production is acceptable, yet the final part needs to be fleshed out more & the potential for undiscovered bugs remains. While not a game for the connoisseur, it [b]MAYBE[/b] of interest to fans of the Indie scene. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [td][b]STATUS:[/b][/td] [td]Complete after the latest expanded content update was canned for a sequel. Will receive bug-fixes only [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]APPEAL:[/b][/td] [td]Anyone who enjoys entry level, generic fantasy RPGs [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]VALUE:[/b][/td] [td]Price is borderline reasonable. Would suggest buying on a small sale [/td] [/tr] [/table] [quote=]Key provided by developer through [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/][b]INDIEGEMS[/b][/url] curator | Check out their vids on [url=https://www.youtube.com/@IndieGems2][b]YOUTUBE[/b][/url][/quote] [i]More info below....[/i] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3554014455 [h3]CONTENT:[/h3] 🟡 GAME MODE consists of a solitary adventure with x9 difficulties. A mix of mostly linear quests set within self-contained islands. Each possesses a single transit point & central hub for quests & services. 🟡 x5 MAPS consist of a few points of interest. Filled with empty expanses & sparsely populated with respawning encounters. The first x2 are smaller in stature, but seemingly more detailed. Castles, towers, dungeons & caves make up the bulk of visitable locations. 🟡 QUESTS are fairly straightforward & lack nuance. Essentially an uncomplicated mix of the usual main & side quests found in titles of this stature. Gained predominately through completing existing quests or from a handful of strategically placed NPC quest givers. [h3]ATMOSPHERE:[/h3] 🟡 GAMEWORLD has just enough depth to make exploration interesting. Islands follow a similar layout. There are no locations to grind for XP. Most are small in size with only a very few dungeons having more than x1 level. Between locations its sparsely populated with only potential encounters & isolated pockets of loot to find. 🟡 AUDIOVISUALS are indicative of its entry level bearing. The looped SOUNDTRACK is lowkey, but captures the essence of the fantasy setting. VISUALS are okay, but there are engine imperfections. AUDIO are passable stock effects, ANIMATIONS limited. Short excepts of decent quality VOICEACTING draws attention to encounters or being idle for too long. While a few choice CUTSCENES would have framed the story a little better. [h3]EXPERIENCE:[/h3] 🟢 GAME LOOP hits the proverbial nail on its head. Its lean, fairly repetitive. Some quests need to be undertaken in the right order or some XP grind will be needed. 🟡 ROLE-PLAYING is better than first looks. Even if the QUEST SYSTEM is rudimentary, there's just enough elements to the game world that give life to the DUNGEON-CRAWLING experience. The best longest, most complex dungeons only number a few. Filled with a mix of switches, secret rooms, traps, teleporters, chests, liberally scattered consumables & character upgrade objects. Puzzles add something, but need to be seen in greater numbers. 🟢 PARTY MGMT includes many classic fantasy classes & races. Plied with combat & magic relevant stats apart from CHA. Of the x8 classes played, each comes with at least x1 useful ability from; lockpicking, damage dealing, health/mana regen &/or healing. Levelling happens regularly so acquiring new skills & upgrading existing ones keeps things interesting. Around a dozen equipment slots ensures characters have a wide range of customisation options in regards to weapons, armour & jewellery. 🟢 TB COMBAT is surprisingly good for an RPG. The range of martial abilities & spells makes for a lot of fun. Aided by a fair hit/miss ratio, when compared to similar games. Specific or groups of enemies can be targeted. Numerous states result in some pretty tactical considerations. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3553955729 [h3]MECHANICS:[/h3] 🟢 MAGIC includes a great range of spells across numerous schools. In combat spells direct & AoE attack spells are plentiful & varied. Healing is as important as spells that paralyse or delay enemy turns. While buff & debuffs can even be cast out of combat. 🟡 RESPAWNING ENCOUNTERS thankfully only occurs on the large expanses between quest locations. It is the only source of XP grinding available. Enemy groups killed in towers, dungeons & caves are permanently eliminated. 🟡 INVENTORY comes as a small pool of familiar weapons, armour & potions. The range of special items found through killing bosses & in locked chests is impressive. Becoming more varied & powerful with progress. [h3]CHALLENGE:[/h3] 🟢 ENEMIES come from a comprehensive fantasy bestiary with different attack abilities & spells. Basic & mid-level enemies come in at least x3 or x4 sub-classes. BOSS FIGHTS are purposely difficult with a stronger mix of classes. 🟢 AI provides convincing encounters with enemies using a range of attacks & abilities. Even healing themselves. Most times doubling up on characters to one or two shot them if the player isn't careful. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3553987116 [h3]COMPLEXITY:[/h3] 🟡 DIFFICULTY is straightforward, with most fights achievable. The occasions they are not, it is possible to retry the last combat. Sometimes with alternate opponents except for boss fights. 🟡 BALANCE is dependent on the mix of classes & more so the party's level when facing certain [boss] encounters. Encounters can be one-sided where enemies target the same characters repeatedly. 🟡 GAMEFLOW has an upbeat tempo given the proximity of quest hubs & locations. Aided by the compressed gameworld & self-contained nature of each island. 🟡 SCALING works surprisingly well throughout, but nothing is signposted. Skills remain effective with enough investment. Inventory organically keeps up with the party level. [h3]STAYING POWER:[/h3] 🔴 REPLAY VALUE of the adventure is limited since there are no quest branches or dynamic gameworld elements to vary the experience otherwise. 🟡 LONGEVITY is limited to repeat playthroughs with parties of different classes. Due to the usefulness of class abilities & magic in combat. Achievements are almost gettable in one pass. [h3]PRODUCTION:[/h3] 🟡 QUALITY is indicative of a low budget. Visual blemishes & lack of polish make it feel amateurish. The final act lacks detail which suggests it was pushed out to early. Reported bugs have been quashed. Some remain undiscovered. x1 buggy achievement. 🟡 OPTIMISATION is good, but far off objects need 12GB to render all the time. Ran at 50-60 fps for the most part. 🟢 STABILITY was good. Never crashed or froze. [table][tr] [td]Click for:[/td] [td][h1][url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/TheIrregularGamer/discussions/0/592906052488606635/]Full Review[/url][/h1][/td] [/tr][/table] [table] [tr] [td][b]REVIEWED WITH:[/b][/td] [td]Build v 1.130 INTEL i5 6600 3.3GHz, 8GB RAM, GTX970 4GB @ 1920x1080 fullscreen, EVO850 SSD [/td] [/tr] [/table] [quote=]Thank you for reading | Click to follow my curator[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40556040-The-Irregular-Gamer/] THE IRREGULAR GAMER[/url][/quote]

The normal kinds of RPGs that I like to play are grid-movement, turn-based dungeon crawlers. My favorite RPGs are Etrian Odyssey, Bard's Tale, Might and Magic and Wizardry. This game is more like Wizardry 8, which is free movement, turn-based combat. I have finished the first 2 islands at the time of review, with a custom party of Cleric, Bard (Music), Barbarian and Elementalist (Water / Air). I am playing on Normal difficulty. I wanted to have a Paladin in my party, but the Cleric had a wider variety of spells, including offensive spells. I hope the devs add more offensive skills to the Paladin so he is more of a warrior. I only like to play games if I can play good characters and be on a good quest to defeat evil. I have not made it to the end of the game to see if there is a depressing "twist" ending. I hope there isn't. But so far, you do get to be the good guys, and you do get to help people. There is an option to turn off the blood effects, and I turned blood effects off. I don't like the dark environments with piles of human bones, or the horrible cries of the various undead creatures. However, I do like the funny and mean things that the goblins, kobolds and orcs say. I would give this game an 8/10 so far, with 2 points removed for too much evil imagery and too many loud evil barks from the undead. The devs are amazing, releasing new patches daily. Whatever you say in the forums will get fixed in a day or two. Not that there is much that needs fixing. I would like to see popup comparisons of equipped items vs items picked up from the inventory, or items in the store. It doesn't tell you which characters can equip store items, so save your game before you conduct commerce.

Keep in mind that a thumbs-down simply means "not recommended." I don't normally leave negative reviews unless there are significant problems that players need to be aware of, and that is definitely the case here. There's nothing wrong with the core game design. It's a tried and true RPG in the later Might and Magic style. It could have been really engaging, but instead is extremely frustrating, with the two big problems being the bugs and the game balance. This is honestly one of the buggiest games I have played in a long time. Graphical glitches, choppy performance, multiple interface bugs (including selecting the wrong combat target!), missing voice lines, debug lines in the combat log, status effects that randomly do nothing, puzzles that solve themselves, mechanics that don't seem to work right, and even lockups during combat - I don't know why it's this buggy, but it's been over a year since release, so it seems unlikely that these will be resolved. Even when it's not bugged, the interface is confusing to navigate and doesn't always convey information well. Then there's the game balance, which caused me a lot of confusion and frustration. Skill and stat point allocation is extremely opaque (even the manual says little more than "increases proficiency"). Investing heavily in Dexterity won't stop your attacks from missing constantly. Investing heavily in Constitution won't stop your cloth and leather classes from being 1-2 shot (there's no back rank to protect them) while plate users rarely even need healing. Damage output varies absurdly between classes, with my fighter and mage able to 1-2 shot most enemies (at least until my fighter randomly starting doing something else with her attacks for no clear reason), while my ranger deals about 10-20% of that while bringing basically nothing else to the team. Itemization is absurd and seemingly heavily randomized, with skyrocketing skill point requirements just to open chests containing 3 gold and a potion. You CAN have fun with this one if you're willing to forgive a lot, but I'm not sure I will continue. There's a decent game here, but it still needs a lot more polish.

I cannot believe how slow the game loads. BG3 loads faster. In it's current state I could not recommend it. After the most current update the game freezes and crashes each time I try to look at the inventory. The cost to heal is 2000 gold right away,. Are you kidding me? The combat seems like the Beta version of MM5. I might revisit it in a few months, but save your money.

So buggy it's unbelevable even on lowest graphics settings. 9GB of RAM just to even start a game too.

Fun way to waste a few evenings. Make party, kill evil. The very essence of a beer and pretzels game. This is not hard game by any stretch. As for Old School...This game reminds me of the first RPG that I ever found, Dungeon Master: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Master_(video_game)#:~:text=Dungeon%20Master%20is%20a%20role-playing%20video%20game%20featuring%20a%20pseudo-3D

Unexpected hidden gem. I've been hesitant for a while about getting this game since I'm more of an old school grid based DRPGs like Wizardry. But honestly this is a very good, old school game and I can't wait to play devs next game, gonna be an insta buy from me for sure. Let's be honest we're not playing Oldschool RPGs and DRPGs for the graphics or the awesome animations but for the gameplay, challenge and dungeon crawling which are done on a pretty nice level here. Sure the game feels pretty experimental, is kinda buggy and janky but I think it gives it its own charm.

I think ihis is a game with a good idea but the performance hits i was suffering was horrendeous when asking for help was always told to adjust basically all the graphical options which i did but i feel i have more than enough to run this game...i can run skyrim Anniversary edition really well bur rhis was just a really bad experience.......i cant refund it or i would if the performance could be fine tuned to an exceptable state and mayb e better customer service i might recommend this game but right now i cant do it.