Phantom Relics

Ролевая игра, где нет отыгрыша роли, нет классов, характеристик, навыков, инвентаря, прокачки, квестов, карты... Да тут вообще ниxepa нет! Я не знаю, как такое можно было выпустить и продавать за такие деньги? Ты просто идёшь и бездумно бьёшь всё, что видишь. Просто симулятор скуфа для диванного скуфа. Выглядит и играется оно так, как 20 лет назад было на Симбиане. Первая Диабло опережает сие на световые годы. В плюсах игры приятный арт и саунд, кооп, который я не пробовал, и цена в полбакса, если взять бандлом.

Played with a friend through Remote Play Together. We're stuck on the stone golem for now, still figuring out how to even kill it 😅 No idea how it feels in solo, but playing together was really fun. Kinda gives off some Indiana Jones adventure vibes!

Potential is a dangerous thing. Twenty years ago, I was young, handsome, had a few literary awards under my belt, and was one of the most popular bloggers in my country. Everyone kept saying how much potential I had. Now? I’m a balding middle-aged guy with a mortgage and chronic back pain... reviewing indie games. I’m saying this because Phantom Relics is a game with a lot of potential. At its core, it’s an action RPG with puzzle elements and a combat system that mixes melee, ranged weapons, blocks, and magic orbs. Sounds great, right? Yeah… on paper. In reality, none of these otherwise promising features really work as they should. Let’s start with the design—it’s a total mythological soup. Creatures from every possible pantheon show up together, and while there’s some kind of story trying to hold it all together... honestly, ChatGPT could write a better one. Combat is a mess. Your melee weapon (a tiny axe you can’t replace) has a weird hitbox—you basically have to shove your face into the enemy’s to hit them. Your ranged weapon, a double-barrel shotgun, reloads on a fixed timer (you can’t choose when to reload), which almost never lines up with when you actually need it. Neither weapon does much damage, though you can slightly improve that by spending coins on passive stat upgrades. That’s the whole RPG system. That’s it. The puzzles? They're just those "step on the right tiles in the right order" type, where a single wrong step restarts the whole thing. Wouldn’t be a big deal—except the controls are, frankly, awful. There are boss fights too. I beat the one I reached on my third try, and honestly—it was more annoying than hard. The boss heals. Constantly. And spams waves of minions to overwhelm you. And once you drop its health below 50%, it starts spawning gravity wells that suck you in. With the clunky controls? Yeah, not fun. In the end, I managed to glitch the boss into a fence and slowly took it down with the shotgun. It took approximately two years. So yeah—potential can be misleading. Watching the game’s trailer, I was hoping for a lot more. Video: https://youtu.be/ykljuN2HZgo

I found this game to be a highly frustrating experience. It starts off well enough, but then you quickly realize that there are way too many enemies and far too few health potions. These enemies also spawn in great numbers and deal a ton of damage, even on so called "easy" difficulty. You can also only hold one health potion at a time and health does not replenish when entering a new area or after you are killed. One health potion also only boosts your health by about 60%. Other issues are that gameplay becomes repetitive slashing through hordes of enemies, the graphics are very outdated, environments seem stretched horizontally, there is no inventory to manage, and the constant dialogue text with no voice acting is uninteresting. Overall, I did not enjoy my time spent with this game so I therefore cannot recommend it. I can however recommend another game by this developer called Ensora. Ensora is a really cool 2D side scrolling space themed shooter. I would have never found Ensora if it hadn't been bundled with Phantom Relics.

Story: We’re a team of artifact hunters, and we’re immediately thrown into a dungeon where some ancient evil has awakened, guarding old halls and items. There are three characters: two playable ones (in co-op mode) and one sort of radio operator/informant. The characters occasionally chat over the radio about what’s happening, and the key moments are narrated by a storyteller voice. Gameplay: Most of the game is about killing monsters with melee weapons and guns. Later, relics start helping, attacking enemies on their own, but they won’t clear a room without player involvement. There are also puzzles like “draw a figure without lifting your pen.” They’re not too difficult — honestly, you fight more with the character’s legs than the puzzle itself. Still, they add some variety to the game, which is nice. Visuals: Nothing special, but neat and tidy. The heroes and enemies are done in 2D realism, no pixel art (thank God), and the view angle is pretty standard for isometric slasher games (like Hades). Sound: Nothing that grinds on your ears, everything fits well together. Some of the music felt a bit out of sync with the theme of the story, but that’s just my opinion. Overall: The co-op mode will probably be a hit with most people — it’s fun with a friend. The solo mode will appeal to genre fans, as it’s a bit harder. I don’t see any major flaws, though it would’ve been nice to have a bit more variety in the assets. But for the current price and scale, it’s not a big deal. I recommend it.

It’s a pretty solid 2D slasher with that isometric vibe — you go room to room, clearing out mobs, dodging traps, smashing skeletons, the usual dungeon fun. Combat feels nice and weighty, rolls and hits are snappy, and overall the controls are tight. The atmosphere’s on point — creepy music, glowy relics, spooky vibes, and the character banter actually adds some flavor without dragging on. Props for that. Also big thumbs up for key rebinding and autosave in every new area — saved my butt more than once after a dart surprise. Speaking of which, those dart traps are wild — sometimes they fly like they’ve got a mind of their own? Not game-breaking, just weird. Also, ngl, the tile puzzles had me stuck a couple times. All in all, if you're into hack n slash with some story and a cool dark dungeon setting, give it a shot. It’s not revolutionary or anything, but def worth playing.

Got bitten by bats in the first hall. Hope they didn’t have covid lol. Great start to the adventure.

Проходим игру вдвоем. https://vkvideo.ru/video-235087259_456239019 видео прохождения) Из плюсов: 1. Динамичные бои. Система комбо-атак и парирований требует реакции, сражения не кажутся монотонными. 2. В конце каждой главы можно улучшать характеристики персонажей, небольшая прокачка всё же присутствует. 3. Разное оружие. Доступны как ручные топоры, так и огнестрельное оружие, что добавляет разнообразия. 4. Кооператив. Совместная игра на одном ПК. Из минусов: 1. Отсутствие классов и разнообразия персонажей. 2. Линейность локаций. 3. Повторяемость врагов. Вдвоем вполне можно поиграть и с интересом провести время. Одному сомнительно, скорее всего будет скучно.

I havent rolled this much since The Witcher 2 :D The game has its own style, but would be cool to see more variety in the architecture. Technically its done pretty well, didnt encounter many bugs (only a couple of times a stone block texture loaded late when entering a new area). Miss the option to recheck the relic window, or maybe I just couldnt find it, not sure. If its not there, it definitely should be added. The game kinda reminds me of Gauntlet – you go somewhere, kill monsters, look for the main bad guy, and some voice is commenting everything from the sidelines. If you like games like that, this one will defo be for you.

NOTA GLOBAL: 6/10 NOTA CALIDAD/PRECIO: 8/10 Seguimos completando Phantom Relics, un juego que, aunque cojea en ciertos aspectos de su control y diseño de progresión, nos parece super adictivo desde el punto de vista de la acción, los combates y sus puzles. Además, por ahora, mantiene una buena ambientación de fantasía oscura con una perspectiva isométrica en 2D. Os comento mis impresiones tras 4 horas de juego: PUNTOS FUERTES ( + ) Sus puzles, basados en el sigilo -laberintos y fantasmas- y en activación de placas de presión, aunque a veces pueden resultar repetitivos, introducen una pausa en la acción frenética y constante de los combates, dándole a la aventura un tinte de investigación o arqueología que se integra muy bien en el tono narrativo del juego y su ambientación. ( + ) Me ha gustado el sistema de progresión de estadísticas basado en el oro que vamos recolectando en las mazmorras, ya que es una motivación suficiente para explorar todos los rincones a riesgo de que nos aniquilen. ( + ) El combate se disfruta mucho, con ataque normal, especial, a distancia y con combo de golpes que podemos ir extendiendo a medida que vamos mejorando la habilidad de combo. El bloqueo, la esquiva, y las habilidades pasivas que vamos consiguiendo desbloquear a medida que obtenemos nuevas reliquias lo hacen aun más interesante. ( + ) Todos los textos vienen traducidos al castellano, lo cual es una buenísima noticia. ( + ) Sin ser para volverse locos, el relato oscuro y de fantasía que nos traslada el juego, y la narrativa que lo canaliza durante la aventura, es suficientemente interesante como para querer acabarlo y conocer el final. ( + ) Su cooperativo local con pantalla compartida para dos jugadores puede ser una opción muy divertida y amena. ( + ) Los jefes son variados, con movesets y patrones únicos que dotan a cada combate final con personalidad propia. ( + ) Los enemigos son muy variados, encontraremos mutantes, esqueletos, gigantes, faraonas y un bestiario que nos tendrá siempre entretenidos a lo largo de la aventura. Cada uno con sus puntos fuerte y débiles. ( + ) Buenas animaciones, tanto de personaje como enemigos. PUNTOS DÉBILES ( - ) La estamina, hasta mitad de la partida, es una mecánica que cae en desuso, ya que en ningún momento es necesario reponerla ni tenerla en cuenta durante los combates, ni siquiera contra los primeros jefes. No tuvimos que reponer estamina, consumiendo una botella azul, hasta el combate con el tercer boss. Quizás, estaría bien que el juego fuese más exigente con el aguante y la estamina, o que directamente esta mecánica no estuviera presente en un juego tan centrado en la acción y no tanto en un combate técnico. ( - ) Una pena que las habilidades pasivas que vamos consiguiendo con las reliquias no estén mas integradas con la jugabilidad. Al no tratarse de un roguelite, y ser un juego lineal con puntos de control, estas habilidades pasivas quedan completamente anuladas por la propia dificultad progresiva del juego. Ya que en el siguiente nivel, sí, contaremos con esa habilidad pasiva, pero también los enemigos serán mas fuertes, con lo que al final, desde la perspectiva de la jugabilidad, podríamos decir que no tiene demasiado sentido. ( - ) Por otro lado, hay que decir que su sistema de dirección y apuntado es muy impreciso, y cuesta mucho acertar por ejemplo al disparar a barriles explosivos, o incluso rodar en la dirección correcta cuando estamos resolviendo puzles de presión. ( - ) La UI del juego debería mejorarse en aspectos básicos de usabilidad y habilitar el Gamepad para poder navegar por los menús del juego. ( - ) En general, el juego presenta un diseño y una estructura que hubiera encajado perfectamente en el género de los roguelike/roguelite. Es más, ciertos aspectos de su diseño actual, especialmente en lo referente a las reliquias y el sistemad de progresión, hubieran tenido mucho más sentido. Su propuesta se queda a medio camino entre roguelite y acción slasher, y quizás no sea algo que le beneficie demasiado.