THE DARK DWELLERS

I have only beat the 1st boss and cleared the 1st area, so this isn’t my final review, but I thought I would point out that this is more or less Dark Devotion without any rogue elements. I am digging it so far, although it is a little rough around the edges. More Dark Devotion is always a good thing in my book though!

A solid little souls-like metroidvania (roughly a 5-7 hour romp) hampered on ly by controls sometimes not responding following a dodge or jump, as well as the black and red visuals that comprise most of the game. It brought back memories of the Virtual Boy color scheme and while that never gave me a headache, this did here and there due to squinting to see if there's a trap up ahead or if that's a campfire in front of me. Hopefully there will be a sequel somehow, as I would like to know more about the plague and our cast. Wik: Yes, there is a cat Also wik: Yes, it meows at you when you try to talk to it. Also also wik: Yes, there's a post-credits scene.

The Dark Dwellers is an unbelievably fun game that I highly recommend. While a little bit rough at times, it's charm always shines through. A lot of the charm of this game comes from what it does exceptionally well. These include art, sound effects, voice acting, level design, fair traps, and some super sick weapons. I want to highlight sound effects, since I swear I have never heard such good sound effects! From your footsteps to triggering a trap to cursed monster noises, everything is accomplished at a genuinely professional level. When the art, sound effects, and high quality voice acting combine, you get an unbeatable atmosphere. Since strong atmospheres feels like something most games fail to accomplish, I highly recommend trying this game out just for that. In addition, the game developer is super approachable and helpful when contacted through the steam community discussions page, so even in the case that you encounter a bug, he will quickly send out a patch or even give you a new save file with all of your progress if the bug is really bad. Finally, this is a souls-like game, so be prepared for a challenge. Bosses are often tough, and this game has a nice blend of duelist bosses and creative bosses. Some tips for the more complicated bosses, [spoiler]for the first boss, remember that your special attack stuns him, and then for the flying angel, remember that your blood arrow stuns him[/spoiler]

Really enjoying the game so far! The story is good and the characters are cool. Voice acting is also very professional. Very challenging but rewarding and fun. Really nice pixel art too!

+ : fine atmosphere: pixel art, animations, ambient sounds; the voice acting was unexpected, felt slightly awkward but good nonetheless; be warned: "the dark dwellers" proceeds only deep down in gloomy caves, you won't get much air. 0 : should take about 6 hours to complete, requiring a bit of exploration but almost no back-tracking; checkpoints are relatively frequent but often not directly on the path; the story is decent, not that rich, and the player has no influence on it; bosses take a bit of patience and rigor, and the majority are not gimmicky. - : attack animations cause the character to move slightly forward such that subsequent hits may not connect with enemies anymore, while they can still hit you; enemies may be right next to you when climbing up / jumping down ledges, with no way to avoid their attack: either there is not enough time to react, or trying to roll through (for invincibility frames) will make you plunge down the way you came (or into more danger); some bottomless pits were not obviously distinct from dedicated paths; several times, when suddenly changing movement direction and then rolling the game registered the rolling action only, causing the character to roll in the unwanted direction... These last cons together can lead to frustrating situations and made me quit before the end, so personally I would not recommend...

Having fun with the game so far! Can’t wait to see how it ends. The characters are all really well done. It’s been getting easier to pick up on attack cues as I go - just had to get the hang of it at first, also finding the hidden rooms with campfires to save the game has been very helpful. I changed my keybindings just so I could play more easily with two hands. Overall a very good souls-like game!

TLDR: I regret everything, stay away. Don't get this game. It's bad, mediocre at best. Learn from my failure of not refunding this within 2 hours (I thought it would get better). Story is minimal but not in the interesting "Dark Souls" ambient way, there's just not much to understand. Some bullet points: -Can't skip dialogue -Full voice acting isn't a plus when the dialogue is boring -Combat is clunky, abilities are practically worthless. -"Strongest" ability is worse than melee in every way -First sword you get is the best until Blink Blade, do Archives asap -Other weapons pointless -Areas are entirely linear and boring, with pointless dead ends. -No discovery, no character progression beyond new-and-bad weapons and abilities -Boss design is basic and/or frustrating -Most "interesting" boss's abilities are as worthless as yours (only dangerous move was his basic attack) -Various bugs: buggy restart keeping currency and current weapon, adding heals you shouldn't have, blood claw ability doesn't hurt 2nd boss(!)

Overall good game, but a few notes to give to developer (if he ever comes across this review): - I had difficulty distinguishing npcs from background due to their colour palette, its hard for an eye to see red coloured object in a red coloured room filled with red coloured light, I dont know if its intentional but it was just annoying getting hit by something you cant even perceive. - When it come to moving platforms in archives, they move too slowly, I think most players will agree that they dont want to just stand still and wait for no reason. - Blood magic is pointless, in a souls like game HP is probably the one most important stat (If you played DS you know, always level your vitality first) so there is no way Iam gonna be wasting it for a tiny bit of damage especially when there is no practical need or necessity to do so, I played the whole game not using any of the spells (unless its required) and I assume other players did the same. One way you could fix it is to make player recover some hp by hitting enemy in melee that way there is "extra" hp to "experiment" and try using blood magic with. - I had multiple situations where my melee attacks "missed" npcs because I was standing too close, I dont know how hitboxes look but maby try extending them to cover player mesh so that attacks wont "clip" through npcs.

I truly love this game, although the controls are a bit odd (in my opinion at least) the game is a fun!

Перед выходом ELDEN RING искал, чем убить время. Купился на визуальный стиль Dark Devotion. В общем зря... боевка унылая и откровенно деревянная, поведение врагов и первого боса банально скучное, анимации такие же.