I'm a gamedev myself, and that's the only review you need
[h1]Idea/Highlights 7/10[/h1] [hr][/hr]
- Spell system. You have 4 abilities and 3 stones for each. Stones are various improvements, such as “launch sparks on ability cast that deal magic damage.” You can freely reorder abilities and stones. This system lets you build around almost anything and gives you room for experimentation. On top, you have character building (metaprogression)
- Character building. You have a constellation with different slots (attack, health, etc.). In these slots, you can put the upgrades you want, which creates a building system. Simple, but good. Additionally, you can choose unique starting abilities and a passive. I especially like it's UI.
- Visuals. They are absolutely marvelous. I especially like the background (the non-playable space behind the islands you play on). It's very detailed and atmospheric.
[h1]Gameplay 7/10[/h1] [hr][/hr]
I played mostly in duo, and I think it really shines in co-op.
It gives you a planning layer for your journey because you can share abilities/stones and currencies. So you have to decide who gets what and talk a lot for an optimal run, which is fun.
Overall, gameplay is not unique. You select the next location, clear it, loot it, and repeat. There are different areas, locations, and so on. The loop is very straightforward and you are very likely familiar with it.
In here loop is done well, abilities are fun so definitely a worthy one in the genre.
Most of the time you experiment with builds or unlock stuff.
[h1]Progression 7/10[/h1] [hr][/hr]
- There are a lot of unlockables (characters, character abilities, game modifiers, spells, and stones), so there is plenty to unlock.
- On top you can level characters up to their max levels
- Finish the game on the highest difficulty
- Achievments and unlockables
Not enough? Try to get all cosmetics
So despite many things being a bit grindy, devs definitely gave players enough goals to last for at least 100 hours, which is amazing.
The way you see the game also changes after a while. As you unlock more spells/abilities/levels, you get access to way stronger builds, which is good.
[h1]Replayability 8/10[/h1] [hr][/hr]
I would say it makes a very strong first impression thanks to its systems and visuals. It may start becoming a bit repetitive at the 20-hour mark, but this heavily depends on what type of player you are.
For me, it started becoming boring because there was no real difference in gameplay, few synergies between abilities, little randomness (you can almost always build exactly what you want), and the strongest build is easy to make:
[spoiler]
You just take 1 ability and pump it to max. Maybe you take 2 abilities or ability + passive. Anyway, it's usually not worth building multiple abilities. And all experimentation comes down to: what if I max out this ability?
[/spoiler]
[h1]Overall rating 29/40 (7/10) [/h1] [hr][/hr]
It's a good game. Not everybody would play it for hundreds of hours, but almost everybody would enjoy it for ~20 hours, which is a good sign for me
I would repeat myself. Visuals are gorgeous. :D
So it's definitely worth trying out!
[h1]Extra[/h1][hr][/hr]
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