Shrouded Aspect

At first, I wanted to leave a negative review, but I see that the game is not well known and there aren’t many reviews, so for now I’ll give it a positive one. The idea is good, the gameplay too, BUT the game has many downsides. 1 – It feels unfinished – like I’m playing a beta version. 2 – The music is boring and repetitive; it would be much better if there were more tracks. 3 – I reached the first big city and… nothing. No shops or anything like that. Is there no gold in this game? I’m getting more and more items, and what am I supposed to do with them – just throw them all away? How could such an important aspect be left out? Also, picking up those chests after defeating enemies is just boring – there really should be an auto-loot option. Even better would be if those chests or treasures were guarded by powerful monsters, making them risky but OPTIONAL fights. That would make exploring and looting far more interesting. And the skills: on the first 8 maps, just spending skill points to increase damage isn’t very exciting. It would be much better if, instead, you could immediately choose specialized development paths. One question: do the developers plan to continue developing this game?

Shrouded Aspect es fantástico, el título nos ofrece un táctico rpg por turnos, para realizar acciones como moverse (nos movemos en casillas hexagonales), atacar, curar, etc. se nos consumen puntos de acción. El equipamiento y el árbol de habilidades es simplón, pero intuitivo. Contamos con tres personajes al principio de nuestra odisea: un guerrero, un arquero y un lobo. Posteriormente, nos encontraremos con diferentes personajes. Todos ellos pueden morir de forma permanente (si no cargamos partida) cuya característica, me agrada. A veces no solo es la muerte, también deberemos elegir con quien quedarnos, de esta forma iremos armando nuestro equipo. El juego es rejugable, ofrece diferentes rutas y formas de encarar la situación.

It's an OK game, ala Baldur's Gate kind of exploring and clearing of maps. It has some different mechanics. You fight about 3 fights and then have to move on to next city, leaving behind 6 of 12 of your mercenaries, so always be leveling those you think you want to keep. You can use the same crew through the first third or half of the game, but then better mercenaries come around (Dwarfs near the end), so don't fall in love with your team as it will probably change. I only had my healer in my final six. It is tedious to have to compare these 12 between city moves and rearrange weapons, armor and shields, as you only want to advance with the best crew, weapons, armor, and shields. However, there is no easy way to compare them other than to open each, try to remember about 4-5 stats, close, open the next one to compare, etc. I was playing on easy and accumulated tons of equipment, most of it bland but occassionally some rare treats. Be careful not to leave behind any excellent gear on ones you leave behind, and feel free to take better gear from those you don't plan to keep. I made it to the end boss battle, and TBH I started it but didn't finish it as it would have taken several tedious hours to widdle down two 400 health point bosses who can heal each other and spawn fire and hell demons each turn. It was just going to be too annoying, however if that's your thing and you like tough fights, this game could be for you. I played for 23 hours so I have to say I got my money's worth.

Short review after completing the game: A visually impressive nostalgic turn-based tactical combat RPG hold back by its many flaws. Pros: - Great visuals, environments, character and monster design nailing the old school feeling like Baldurs Gate or even Diablo I (kudos to the artist the strongest selling point of this game is its visuals) - Decent music doing a great job in spooky music and battle sounds (some funny sounds include the famous Wilhelm death scream if you push someone in lava or water, farting sounds if your characters are de-buffed by gas and so on) - Good amount of armor, shields, weapons and skills Cons: - Severe lack of QOL (the equipment menu is a nightmare, 3 types of equipment that are all in one mess of a menu, only way out of this is to destroy your old equipment so its more manageable, weapons do not show how much damage they do but funnily the do show some stat boosts like 40% to attack... to what do those % apply to? bananas... you have a combat log but only if you press escape to open main menu, game does not show how many % you have to miss a target and ow boy you will miss a lot even from point blank range... its easier to hit someone in real life then in this game... for a tactical game its missing critical information on which you base your actions) - Combat works on a grid based structure, you move in real time and after you spot an enemy it starts in turn based mode where you have a set/preparation phase and then combat, this is fine however for your first character if the combat starts when he did half of his move set in real time he can not use those points in the turn based combat phase, you can have 6 characters but because when there is no formation option when they move in real time as a train when combat starts the characters in the back will be so far away...no matter what you do in your preparation phase the enemy always starts first... WHY? - Almost no real story or lore present, at end of a fight you can freely explore the map for chests (main source of gear) but nothing is happening. A missed opportunity to have some sets or objects explaining some of the lore when you explore for chests - Both your characters AI in real time mode and enemy AI in combat mode are bad, mostly in movement (enemies will take the longer route many times, your characters get stuck in real time movement in tight spaces...) - Faceless uninteresting characters, if i replaced all of the playable characters with dolls it would be the same (they have no lore, no text, no voice... nothing and you are forced with some of them at each mission) - Sometimes when you kill all enemies the finish button does not show itself (fixed by replaying the level or loading a save file) While i can not recommend this game to a turn-based tactical RPG fan or even a starter if you want to support a small indie dev (times are hard for most of them) or you are nostalgic about the art style (best point of this game) then do consider purchasing this game.

It is a fun but simple game. It doesn't have any deep stories or complex moves but is great to unwind and take on a few simple battles. It does take some planning and strategy if you play the higher levels.

Beautiful Art and storytelling! Highly recommend this game!