Trail of Gods: The Cursed Island

It's a bit tricky to describe this game, it's like a miniature Souls-like with cinematics from games like Another World, very strange combination. Technically it does not have all of the traditional souls-like features to make it one, but to me it feels very on the nose with how the world-building and the methodic approach to the combat is handled. You will meet all kinds of characters just talking melancholy with the foreboding tone, to me it feels very on-brand, I don't associate that kind of storytelling with anything else. I assume Leonard is the artist? Probably best known for The Eternal Castle which was Another World/FlashBack type of game, so I guess it makes sense the more I think about it, occasionally the game has some pretty cool visual/cinematic moments, almost has that recorded video quality to it, even though you are stuck playing in a tiny window (I assume it was a phone game?). The game is probably not meant to be very advance either way, I think they trying to capture that early 90s RPG feel in a different light, it's meant to be a little frustrating/minimalistic/unforgiving by design, or at least I suspect that it was the idea behind it. It's not a very smooth game in my opinion, I think it could use another round of polish with the pathing, as well as maybe making the timings, telegraphing, and movement a bit more intuitive. The first 30 minutes you might find yourself somewhat frustrated, but once you understand WTF is happening, it's not as confusing and clunky as it appears to be. It's mostly a spacing type of game, you just want to time your attack at the right time, or just dodge away, again, it kinda has that Souls-like vibe to it, reminds me how people would PvP during invasions, just rolling and swinging at the air. [b]Some tips to get you started (it's 1-button combat game): [/b] ~ Hold Mouse 1 to charge the attack ~ Hold and drag Mouse 1 on the screen to dodge roll ~ Click further away to run ~ How do I jump? Charge attack and aim at the platform you want to land on ~ After you die, eventually you will see a choice of bodies to slay, that is how you upgrade ~ You can light "bonefires" when you close to them [h1]Pros: [/h1] (+) If you played The Eternal Castle, you will get some of that cinematic feel, and sometimes the navigation in the game looks pretty cool. (+) Kinda moody, not much music, has that oldschool feel to it for the most part. The location design feels very souls-like to me, not sure how intentional it was. (+) Seems there are multiple routes you can take, I think I got a normal ending, but I know there are other bosses you can fight and other areas to explore (+) Multiple characters [h1]Feedback: [/h1] [u]Just some random thoughts: [/u] ~ I know the 1 button thing is the whole gimmick of this game, but honestly, I would prefer if you tied the roll to Mouse 2 or another button in addition to what you have ~ maybe increase the roll distance, it feels so weird cuz it gives you like no distance, I get it's for dodging, but still, it's actually sad how short it is ~ It feels like you could do a better job color coding the breakable things, as well as the character, maybe a different shade of white, make him a little more gray perhaps ~ it might be unclear to the player why the charge attack does not go off sometimes ~ would it be possible to keep the mouse pointer visible outside of the box ~ you could maybe make the transition areas a little easier to enter so you don't force your character on the edges of the lines [u]Bugs: [/u] ~ there seems to be an immortality bug raising your res to +100, not sure how I triggered it, maybe you have 00 somewhere it should not be ~ the dialogue options with the nun looking girl were hard to choose [b]Overall Thoughts:... 6.5/10 [/b] More of a novelty game, it's very unusual artistic experience, so far I can't say that I am in love with how telegraphing is handled, it's hard to see wtf they doing. It's punishing, it's frustrating, maybe you would push through that to see the world, I am a bit split personally. Feels like some experimental Half-way Souls-like to me, not sure if that makes sense. Cool cinematics though, love that Eternal Castle/Another World vibe to it. Kinda cheap, so I don't really mind. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]

Macabre, mysterious, immersive. Rotoscope animation. Sometimes less is more.

Fun little game to spend a late night on. About 1.5 hours of gameplay, unless I got stuck in a loop.

definitely more to explore for me but I got one ending. Short and sweet with cool concept of one button for everything, though in some dialogue boxes and character screen I had to use my mouse. Very cool art style and impressive rotoscoping (I am assuming thats whats going on) imop, for the asking price it is a nice little game :) A critique I would give is it may be useful to mention in the manual that you do not start the 'full game' for the first 5 minutes or so and some of the HUD mentioned in the manual isnt present till then. On the introduction though, I would say it was likely the part of the game where I was most immersed in the world - though that may be due to the more 'gamey' elements coming in later and because the HUD was not present yet. Cutscenes were always a treat