Realms and Ruins: Abencor

This one is starting to grow on me. But I've been following this one for a while and there's a lot more to it than the first 10 minutes of the game as it starts a bit slow and it's made by a single developer on an obscure, if clunky engine. I can appreciate that, but also can say it's not for everyone. Here's my experience so far: After going through a catacombs, fighting a kobold boss, coming out of the tunnel they dug to the other side of the forest, then stumbling across a giant frog and spider cave (where I died fast, gotta level up and go back there and exact my revenge), I found the game has a ton of content packed into it. I tried rushing some areas, dodging monsters to see how far I could get but I got lost in the desert and died fast in the ice area - again I'll need to level up and go back there, but that's the kind of thing I like in a game and it makes me wonder what else there is. Underwater maps and volcanos at least if the trailers and screenshots are any indication. You don't just level up and get skills at least so far as I can tell, I found some quests to get them. Help the hunter in the forest (you have to find him first!), he'll teach you how to sprint - a helpful speed buff on cooldown. Get some bandages for the medic and he'll teach you how to use them, an alternative and cheaper option than potions that apparently scales the healing with your stats. Skills feel earned instead of given away and I haven't found any magic yet but it makes me really want to explore every square to find out all the stuff that's sprinkled throughout the game. It's been fun and I'll keep playing.

I'm gonna recommend it as a good game, however in 4 hours I bricked the game 3 different ways and ultimately lost a 3 hour game file. My advice: Don't save after anything fishy looking happens. - Brick 1: changing the window size - Brick 2: getting blinded in the lava cave, then all enemies dissappear from the cave and the game crashes when walking in the lava cave. - Brick 3: Multiple bricks in the lake cave south of the siren. DO NOT hit any travel directions when being transported by the water streams. It can break the mechanic in the game responsible for character movement. Nothing fixes it, not even fast traveling. - Big bug: Some areas don't load correctly (sometimes they do) and enemies in the region don't have hit boxes for ranged weapons to hit them, have to kill them with melee.

This is a really nice little throwback to the old era. The art and sound triggers lots of nostalgia so that's an immediate plus. It's your typical dungeon crawler adventuring gig. Talk to some people, grab a quest here and there, top up on supplies and check for loot upgrades before you set out. Careful where you wander, you could easily find yourself somewhere you definitely shouldn't be yet and keep track of landmarks or you'll get lost pretty easily, always fun when this happens and then you accidentally stumble upon a mystery or secret area, or something that kills you immediately heh. Combat is real-time, there are also abilities you can learn, a little bit of dancing can save you but you can also pot spam, so maybe there should be a cooldown or something to make combat a bit more tactical in that respect, though I do just enjoy simply running through areas and bashing monsters no nonsense, it's a pretty chill experience. The game has more depth than you might expect especially after initial impressions so that's good, and I don't know how long the game is so hopefully my journey doesn't end abruptly because I am enjoying it! Inventory and interface could do with some QoL but it's very minor just like additional button presses or not being able to shortcut something easily, but I know it's a limitation of the engine so dev isn't at fault for this. A couple of other things would be nice, perhaps a few more quests from NPCs dotted about initially, but this is just a preference I like having tasks to tick off, and a few more options in the shop for things to buy, though I don't know if there are more choices later, like at the beginning I didn't have any int-based gear to buy, so putting stats into int wasn't as beneficial (apart from the perception bonus), but this might be a design choice anyway! Finally, it's really refreshing not having an AI game and I look forward to seeing the dev's next project, maybe even a sequel (if story allows??) or another crawler. Note: I just found the manual and it's nicely written and presented, feels like reading a manual from one of the old days of rpgs! Wish I had it in physical form!

I liked that you can explore lots of different areas, NPC's to interact with and there are alot of different monsters to fight. The customization with picking your background at the beginning and choosing your stats when you level up is pretty cool. I really like the pixel graphics and sound effects too.

I haven't played that much of it, but from what I've experienced. I like it. HOWEVER, I think this game needs some more polishing. Seems like there are a lot of bugs that need addressing from seeing other posts and I've encountered a few things that could use some enhancement and additional testing. Overall seems a little clunky with the menu controls and how they are used. Having to click on the text box to continue play seems odd. 25g Healing Potions actually cost 10g. This should have been caught in testing. Auto mapping is nice. But I can't stand how small it is. I can't navigate in the bigger scheme of things. Having access to a bigger map of the area I'm in would vastly help. I would even like to see the whole level/section/area and view what's been explored. Also didn't know how to access the map. I just randomly pressed 'M'. Also pressed 'I' for inventory. I like it. Just needs more polishing. This is more of a beta at the moment.