Pedigree Tactics

UPDATE - 1/17/2023 At this point, all bugs and issues mentioned in this review have been addressed. Menu's have been added, options and choices are now available. In addition, many of the quality of life features called out have been added, making the game far more playable then it was previously. In recognition of that, I'm changing my review, but leaving the previous text for context. In respect for that effort and feedback, I'm changing my review to a recommend for the moment, as the game is now fully playable. That said, I don't necessarily think everyone is going to love Pedigree Tactics. This game is effectively an miniature combo of certain parts of Disgaea and (sorta) Pokemon, and the game itself is fairly short. I'll be replaying to see how long it takes, but my first playthrough was about 4-5 hours. It's just under 25 levels total, and some strategies feel a bit broken/overpowered. Still though, I really appreciate the effort in bringing the game to where it is currently. OLD REVIEW Short Version: Pedigree Tactics is currently far too buggy, and lacks far too many basic quality of life features to be worth playing in it's current state. This is unfortunate, as there are a few interesting ideas present. Long Version Here's a short incomplete list of bugs I've encountered after playing for 4 hours. -Monsters occasionally get max level after a fight for no reason, or more often, get no exp after a fight. -Monster Fuse menu breaks and cannot be used after performing another fusion. -After a certain fight defeat, attempting to go into the next battle will hit a condition where no monsters can be placed, and the game hard locks, forcing a restart. Here's a list of quality of life features that are missing -There's no settings menu, at all. You need to use Unity Launch flags to play on an ultrawide monitor. You can't change volume either. -You can't speed up battles, which is a pain, because they're slow, and some parts of the game feel like they need to be grinded. -There's no clear button to get to the menu, it's just ESC, but that's not indicated anywhere. -You can't reorganize the order of monsters in your party, meaning that you have to tab through all of them to change your party order. I could go on, but I won't. If you're the dev of the this game, and you see this review, please reach out. I'd like to chat. You can reach me here on Steam. (Yes, I know game dev is hard, I know someone who isn't making a game giving you feedback seems stupid, but please take this chance.) Your core gameplay and idea is fun, and interesting, but it's so smothered by the other issues. As someone who plays a stupid amount of weird indie games, right now I can't be bothered to even try to get past stage 21, because I'm not willing to deal with trying to grind up a team/build up a team, when a decent portion of the time I don't even get EXP for fights. I'm not going to go into the concerns I have with the art and some of the design choices here.Some are interesting and I like them, some I don't like, the art is frankly a disconnected mess (not the hand drawn part, but the fact that we have crayon combined with what feels like Unity Store assets, combined with MS paint sketches). But I'd be willing to deal with all of those and try to enjoy this, except for the bugs and missing QoL make it feel almost impossible past a point.

ENG: I couldn't resist playing this rarity with such hand-drawn graphics. It's a tactical RPG where you can collect and fuse monsters, a bit weak in the attack animations and in that all battles are 3 vs 3. It's interesting for collecting and gathering the 100+ monsters, but not much more. If you buy it, wait for a good sale, also you can try the free demo. ESP: No me pude resistir a jugar esta rareza con gráficos tan hechos a mano. Es un RPG táctico donde podes coleccionar y fusionar monstruos, un poco flojo en las animaciones de los ataques y en que todas las batallas son 3 vs 3. Es interesante para coleccionar y reunir los mas de 100 monstruos, pero no mucho mas. Si los compras, espera una buena oferta, tiene demo gratuita también.

I've always wanted a tactical with breed mechanics, and it's a tactical with breed mechanics! Edit - seeing the controversy, I wanted to weigh in. I agree with many of the criticisms but not all of them. The art is fine, I like it actually, and I understand that there are unity assets in the game as well because this is obviously the work of a small shop. The game was broken at launch, I didn't run into some of the bugs the others did, but I ran into several. All of them were fixed with updates, and I was able to finish the game without bugs getting in the way. Given the difficulty (which was a bit too easy) it is hard to recommend at the current price, but it is still a thumb up from me because it's a unique experience and I did find it fun when the bugs were fixed. If the devs add a difficulty slider to the game it's easy to recommend at the current price, otherwise I would wait for a sale.

Pedigree Tactics is a gem whose name should be known far and wide. While the art style may be offputting to some at first, its charm quickly grows on you and is reminiscent of Dragon Quest in its flavor, and the gameplay feels right at home for those yearning for another Final Fantasy Tactics. With plenty of puns, spells, buffs, debuffs, and an endless amount of party compositions due to its monster-fusing mechanics, it's a criminal act to not have it in your library for the price it demands. Even if it's not for you, when it hits cult classic status in a few years, you'll be able to brag that you knew about it first.

Fun game!!! Took me about 4 hours to beat the main story but had fun the whole way and I haven't unlocked every monster yet. Really charming art style and fun to collect and fuse monsters.

Give it a shot if you like tactics games I haven't played a tactics game since Disgaea 1, but so far I have enjoyed my time with Pedigree Tactics. The Southparkian animation is part of the charm. It's a small shop so a little patience with some of the minor issues is in order.

A nice, unique strategy game made with alot of heart.

While I love the conceit and direction the bugs and lack of complexity make it impossible to recommend the game. I have had fun playing it and at the core is good idea. Love Jive Turkey and Escape Goat I think the art and humor is good, I have never played a game with this art style before and its fun. If the terrain was hand drawn in the same style with hand drawn attack animations as well it would be amazing. Obviously a lot of work for the dev but I think that would have changed it from a bit of a hack job to a work of art. The combat is too simplistic, lack of facing, terrain modifiers, height mechanics, equip-able or consumable items makes it quite two dimensional with limited tactical options. Increasing the party size from 3 to 5 might also make it so you actually have to buff / debuff, as it was matches were over in two or 3 turns so no need to use the buffs etc. I think part of that is because the difficulty doesn't scale its easy enough just to grind a mega powerful party and use a multi-target spell like thunderstorm to end the opponents. It feels like an alpha and is probably too expensive at full price. I would love to see further development and refinement

It's too early to review much of the game, but i did just want to leave a quick review to mention that the game runs just fine on my steam deck. Currently, you have to rebind a button to the escape key in the controller settings. Apart from that - I personally love the graphics, and plan to keep playing.

Buen juego pero no perfecto, creo que vale su precio cuando lo consigues en oferta. Es una combinación de Pokémon y Final Fantasy Tactics con un arte gracioso y diferente, reclutas monstruos para que luchen por ti en batallas por turnos de 3 vs 3 en un tableros cuadriculados. LO BUENO: * Puedes fusionar a tus monstruos para hacerlos más fuertes * Tiene una historia * Cuenta con muchísimos monstruos por descubrir * Los dibujos son hechos a mano por lo que se nota el esfuerzo Es un juego imperfecto pero disfrutable, creo que vale la pena apoyar a la desarrolladora para motivarlos a hacer más y mejores juegos. LO MALO: * Los monstruos no tienen animaciones como tal * Algunas batallas requieren más dinamismo * La música es repetitiva y llega a hartar Tuve una pelea contra un burro que duró más de 1 hora, llegó el punto donde pensé en dejar el juego de lo aburrido que estaba. Fue una batalla en que la que cada quien le bajaba solo -1 al otro por turno. Super tardado y cansado. Al final gané pero la próxima vez que surja una situación similar no lo pensaré mucho y saldré de la batalla.