Stonemachia

I went in expecting a jank indie souls rip off. What i got was a majestic, unique and wonderful take on the genre. Tight parry windows, tons of bosses, rewarded exploration without wasted paths. No consumables or itemizations to worry about. Just me versus the game. The amount of love you can tell was poured into this game is humbling. From the random npcs scattered off the path, to clever hidden bosses and jokes, I was immersed almost immediately and it never let up. Pros Great clean rhyrhm parry combat (eg Sekiro) The music is 12/10 Linear enough to never be overwhelmed, while checking doors and jumps is still rewarded with vinyls and a whole slew of secret bosses Soul banking- dying is not stressful as you can just bank your souls towards your next level up, no need to hold piles of souls until you have enough. No gear or consumables (might be a negative to some)- pick your most comfortable chess piece for the situation and have at it. No stressing about optimization Fun ways to farm souls if wanted via the fishing mechanic. No more running the same path 100 times, just go fishin and have a blast re fighting bosses and elites. Comedic timing is good. The game knows when to insert jokes without derailing serious moments. Cons: Certain large bosses can be visual overload. There is ALOT on the screen during certain later bosses and it can be hard to decipher timers. Some of the terrain can be buggy at times when exploring places off the path, sometimes hard to discern if youre supposed to be in a place, fell through the map or got stuck several times. Not a huge con tho. Overall 10/10 game for me and exactly what I needed right now. Will be added to the list of games I beat once a year. Perfect length, perfect level of satisfaction. Thank you devs for this masterpiece.

+20 hrs, The game has spectacular atmosphere, the angels, the chess pieces, the lore, the NPCs, the music. I was really surprised by how difficult the bosses were ( I love hard bosses ) and I was amazed by the amount of Lovecraft references, which totally captivated me since I'm a huge fan. I could call it a soulslike, but it doesn't have a stamina bar. Is a unique game, stonemachia gives you several strategies, which I think is great since it makes for a more open playstyle in terms of builds or ideas. Something I maybe didn't like as much were the repeated bosses (I won't say where) but there were about 3 of them i think, and I'd also like them to fix a few combat things (which don't really affect the gameplay either). Anyway, I liked this game a lot. I hope they release a DLC. Very happy with the final boss too. Thank you so much for giving me such a beautiful memory. Scacco matto, hanno catturato il mio cuore Mistywaifu

Chess ✅ Italian ✅ Souls-like ✅ Magnus Carlsen as the Last Boss ❌ I was expecting something silly, haha Chess 2 but what I got is arguably one of the best Souls-likes out there (alongside Lies of P), especially considering it came from such a small team and is relatively cheap. I’ve tried many newer Souls-like games made by bigger teams, and they mostly seem to lack something that kept me interested and I ended up not even finishing them. [h3] Gameplay [/h3] Basically, it's your usual R1 attack + L1 parry, but it comes with a chess pawn promotion gimmick that lets you transform into other chess pieces, such as a bishop, rook, knight... even a queen. Each piece has its own distinctive gameplay and skills. [h3] Difficulty [/h3] The difficulty mainly comes from the healing mechanic. You only have one heal, but it refills every time you parry an attack. That means you can heal infinitely, so learning enemy attack patterns and getting good at parrying is the key. Sounds easy. Honestly, the game becomes drastically more challenging in NG+. [spoiler]Especially the endgame, where you're solely a pawn with no transformations.[/spoiler] I would say this should've been the intended NG difficulty in the first place. [h3] Story / Art / Music [/h3] I can't spoil much about the story, but it's not your usual chess theme with a classic medieval royal battle and hierarchy. Instead, they went with a biblically accurate angle mixed with Italian folklore, set in a land plagued by corrupted angels merging with physical things, stone, architecture, mundane objects like lamp, even the earth/ground itself, where most of them seek a giant Babel-like tower to return to Heaven. And the devs really did an amazing job of showing the beauty of all these themes, from the NPC and enemy designs to the objects, environments, and skyboxes. And the music is SO GOOD. Ambientmachia, Horrormachia, and Epicmachia. from Clair de Lune but horror to Scacco Matto ✋😐🤚 [h3] TL;DR [/h3] Chess 2

Достойный сосалик, в целом несложный, но местами приходится потраить боссов. Английский плохо знаю, сюжета не понял, но концовка все равно доставила море эмоций, абсолютный кинотеатр. ✋👨‍🦳🤚 [b] Из плюсов [/b] - шикарные, атмосферные пейзажи и саундтреки, а так же некоторые дизайны, да и в целом наркоманский (в хорошем смысле), но разнообразный итальянский фольклор, за который я не шарю, но все равно рад оценить. Также комбинации классов, парирований за них и уклонений, это выглядит "инвокерно" в моментах, отчего еще приятнее. [b] Из минусов [/b]- слишком ершистые и топорные текстурки моделек и местами локаций, иногда не понимаешь, что делать, куда смотреть и чего ждать, но в целом и так приспосабливаешься, входишь в струю и парируешь. Разработчику желаю улучшить свой скилл и создать еще более качественный продукт. Игру закрыл на [b] платину [/b], ради пары карточек и пластинок пришлось забежать на нг+, там, конечно, пришлось снова напрячься на некоторых боссах, но в целом - успешно) 8/10

Un excellent Soulslite, bourré de bonnes idées qui marchent bien. Le level design est également très réussi (surtout pour un premier jeu), et certains font le fameux effet "Waouh". La BO est exceptionnelle. Quand on réfléchi au fait que le jeu est developpé par une petite équipe de 9 personnes, c'est assez fou de voir le résultat. Vraiment, pour un jeu à 20 balles, il n'y a rien à reprocher. A noter que le jeux n'est disponible qu'en Anglais et Italien, mais ça ne gène pas beaucoup. Surtout que l'anglais utilisé est facile à comprendre.

we need chinese

Played for a couple of hours so far and this game is really great. Amazing music and interesting levels. Fighting feels like a more forgiving Sekiro. After about 10-15 bosses i never felt like having an unfair disadvantage. The story is cryptic and therefore i can't really tell if it's good or not. But i had a couple of WTF moments i didn't expect. Really like this game and if you're unsure you can try the demo.

chess souls is beautiful