Timewreck Tales: A Rogue RPG

This game is fun. There's two modes of gameplay: story and combat. The story is funny and there are quite a few moments that make me laugh out loud. I really enjoy seeing how the "meta story" progresses, as there are stories within each run, but there's a story outside the runs that progresses as you win. I think the combat of the game is where it shines most, especially as you unlock new characters and abilities. When your party level ups you can choose new skills for each party member, which gives tons of option for creating synergies. Add items that unlock during runs and you can make some very fun builds. Building up your party is very addicting. I also love the abilities which feel very satisfying and are often over the top silly (Bass Cannon comes to mind).

Amount of content is poor, humor is decent, but everything else is painfully average. Certainly not worth the asking price, get on sale for 75% off or don't bother. Also of the small cast of characters they also share abilities so very few unique combinations. If you played the demo, there is nothing else in the game. You saw everything but 2-4 bosses.

A nicely polished, light-hearted game. There were a decent amount of times the game got an actual chuckle out of me. There are a lot of well-designed systems in place to keep the game from getting stale, such as the piecewise narrative bits and the multitude of build/synergy possibilities. Definitely worth checking out if you're into turn-based games

Lovely little Team based RPG. Quite funny too. Theres Options on which quests u want to try as you attempt to get strong enough to beat some God or something. You need to really think about which level upgrades to choose as you need to synergise with your whole squad to beat the fights easily.

tldr: 8/10 -- The gameplay is fun, engaging, and the presentation of that gameplay is creative. The story is okay, with side quests being the most entertaining, but the dialogue between characters isn't very good. The humor they were mostly going for in the dialogue wasn't really my style. Buy it if it goes on sale, $20 is a bit much. Timewreck Tales is a good game with fun combat that unfortunately seems overscoped, leading to parts of the game feeling lackluster compared to others. Regarding the pure gameplay aspects, the combat system, although it has its flaws, is charming and the best part of the game hands down. It's not something you haven't seen before in other RPGs, but the way the game goes about presenting it is creative and makes it feel unique compared to other games. Even though this game did originate as a mobile game, there are very few places in combat that you'd notice this. Regarding the abilities, most of them are fun to use. Although abilities aren't completely unique to each character, the synergies you can create in your team have massive effects and can make or break your run. However I do have a few gripes. Some of the passive effects like poison and bleed really suck early game each run and I found myself trying to avoid any ability using bleed or poison wherever possible. I also found that slow didn't seem to have any worthwhile effect for me to pursue anything that used that effect. If the devs were to change this, I'd definitely bump up the score half a point or more. Another minor gripe I had was that when characters unlocked new abilities when they leveled up, there was seemingly no way that I could find to choose not to switch out an ability. Sometimes I just didn't want to swap abilities but I didn't have a choice. Most of the time, the abilities were upgrades, but sometimes they got rid of stuff I wanted to keep. Because this game is a rougelike, the developers may have felt that mechanics can be learned while playing; however, the skills system completely confused me and seems rather tacked onto the game. It's the system I cared least about. Depending on the run, I either passed every skill check presented to me or failed over half of them which just annoyed me that I couldn't do what I wanted. Regarding the story, the "meta" story that continues between runs is motivating enough. "Gah time is quirky, go kill a god or something while you work for us (indentured servitude) and give us all your money to repair the timewreck :)". It's entertaining enough and doesn't have too much weight, it really just serves as a convenient way to tie together the story, which is a good thing. There's also a newbie friendly option that allows you to ignore some of the consequences of losing a run by choosing to experience "story mode" after a death. The game doesn't take itself seriously at all which leads to some of the best parts of the story, being the random side quests. The events that happen in the world are actually interesting. There are some funny moments you can come across like a cow dimension/cow world (best area in the game), you can fight BoomKitty (known for BeatSaber music, PeePee song, etc), and so much more. The devs put a lot of effort into these knowing they wanted to make it a rougelite and it shows. However, these moments are often unfortunately sometimes ruined by your own party and their offputting dialogue. They have this weird dichotomy where on one hand they act like they're from the medieval period but on the other they talk like they grew up on Tumblr. Sometimes the comedy works, often times it doesn't land. To me, it just felt off and ruined some moments. Although relatively minor, one thing I wish the game had was a progression map (I don't exactly know how to describe it) like the Henry Stickmin games where once you go down a path, you can see the exact path you have to travel to get back to it, along with the amount of other possible paths you could have taken from that point. I often went down routes I had gone down before which was annoying because I wanted to experience new things but I can't remember which side quests I had done on previous runs. This would definitely help players experience more parts of the story quicker and easier, along with showing how to unlock characters and do the challenges presented before every run so that it's not nearly impossible to find them. (Recruiting new members is a part of that, it seemed I did it almost randomly. On top of that I didn't even realize that they were available as party members in subsequent runs as I never got any sort of pop-up or anything saying so. Maybe the dialogue hinted at it but I'm not exactly sure.) Regarding the audio although good, it does get repetitive after a few runs due to a lack of variety. There are a few areas that have unique music, but outside of that you hear the same few loops wherever you go. In the areas where you do get unique themes, it is pretty good, but there just isn't enough variation for something that's supposed to be a rougelite. Games like Binding of Isaac and Risk of Rain have a plethora of songs where this game only has a few. I can't blame the team as they're a small indie studio that is trying to publish on multiple platforms, but if one thing were to come from any sort of update it should be more music. Overall, this is a fun game that has a few narrative issues, but is a bit overpriced. Consider picking it up if it's $10-15. I feel if they went for more of an adventure rougelite instead of an RPG rougelite it would have worked out a lot better, as the "RP" part of the game didn't feel as engaging as the "G rougelite" part. Consider playing the demo and as stated above, buying the game if it goes on sale. ---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☐ Good ☑ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☑ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☑ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☑ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Ehh... ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- One Run: ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☑ Average ☐ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond Multiple runs: ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☑ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☑ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ Overall: 8 / 10 }---

Loving this game! I worried I'd get tired of the time loops, but enough things change each time that I'm always kept guessing and wondering what might happen next. The combat also has some great synergies to play with, and enough randomness in the upgrade choices that I still have strategies left to explore. It's also laugh-out-loud funny! Definitely worth the price and then some!

A hidden little gem with lots of fun dialogue and jokes, yet also very engaging for people that love stacking 50 different buffs on your little guys and gals. Play it, its worth it!