Treachery in Beatdown City

this game should definitely receive more love. it has a unique style of gameplay, combining beatemup and rpg elements with old fashioned pixel graphics and new fashioned story elements the game its not without its flaws, dialogues can drag quite a bit sometime (specially in the end) and if you weren't paying attention to the gameplay mechanics, you'll be frustrated at how the same tactic wont work on all enemies (duh!) overall, this is a worthwhile purchase, and a recommended play if you want something new and interesting from the indie department

Отличный битэмап

What if a beat em up was also a turn based RPG? Guess what; it is! There's a jerky NPC named Ugly John and you get to beat him up! In the tutorial! This game is wild and weird and great. I'm kinda upset at myself that I haven't played it more (I initially played it on Amazon but it was good enough that I had to just buy it for real), but the latest dlc/update has me pretty stoked to remedy that. I also have to recommend listening to the interview w/ the dev on the Eggplant podcast. Super interesting and insightful! P.S., This one is easily in my top five all time best game names pantheon. Tbh, i'm having trouble thinking of any games with better names right now.

I'll admit to being a little disappointed when I saw it wasn't a traditional brawler, but the gameplay is still a very fun mix of turn based and traditional brawler mechanics. Love the general vibe of the game too; the writing is sharp and the soundtrack is a banger. Seems like it'd make a great Steam Deck game.

I had to alt tab while playing to just rush in here to praise this wonderful game, everything from the style to the commentary to the real innovative gameplay... I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ love it! even if you're not a fan of retro pixel art style I urge you to give it a shot.

It's a super cool concept on paper but it's just not fun to play.

(I purchased this game on itch.io and received a free Steam copy.) Treachery in Beatdown City combines turn-based RPG strategy with fast-paced beat-em-up action, and it works really well. If you're at all interested in the premise of the game, it's well worth your time and money. Right out the gate this game oozes charm with its bright, retro graphics and its witty, satirical dialogue. The plot is a bit silly: President Orama is kidnapped by Terrorist Ninjas, and a group of ragtag street fighters team up to investigate what's really going on. There's nothing too serious going on here, but you will encounter characters and scenarios which touch upon the problems of modern-day America, particularly what it's like living in a big city. So while the conflicting tone may put some people off, I think it works pretty well. There's a few moments where the dialogue's a bit over-the-top, or the comedy just doesn't land, but I found myself enjoying what the game had to say despite the humor not landing. My main critique of the game as it stands is that the gameplay can get boring fast. There's not enough variation in the core gameplay loop to keep interest for very long. Despite this, the gameplay is still pretty solid. It's satisfying pulling off a big combo, or going for the risky hit just to finish your opponent off early. What doesn't work for me is that there's not a lot of enemy variation, and you're essentially doing the same thing over and over. There's four main enemy types: brawlers, dirty-fighters, grapplers, and supporters. Supporters will mostly run around and cheer until they've got nobody left to support, and then they become brawlers. That leaves you with essentially three enemy types, and while the game sort of presents this as a rock/paper/scissors system where you should grapple the brawlers, beat down the grapplers, and outsmart the dirty-fighters, I really just did the same thing to every single enemy. All you need to do is get a big combo off and then you're golden, you'll have so many hits coming at an enemy that they'll just die. On the contrary, grappling is REALLY strong but REALLY risky, I found that it was 50/50 whether or not my big grapple combo would land or not. This is what contributed to me getting a bit bored of the game after playing it for ~30 minutes. BUT, it is a lot of fun in short bursts. There's enough strategy there to keep your interest, there are some challenging fights where you need to make sure you're using the right attacks, and each character is fun to play since they have their own advantages and disadvantages. Because of that, I'd highly recommend picking this up if you're interested in a blend of turn-based RPG strategy and beat-em-up fun. It goes together like peanut butter and jelly! I feel like I should point out that as of writing this review, this game has been out for well over 2 years and there's a second episode that's yet to be released. I'm not sure when that episode will come out but I've got a feeling that it'll provide more enemy variety as well as some improvements to the core gameplay loop. The second episode will be a free update to this game, so I'm more than happy to play & review it whenever it comes out.

FIGHT SOMEONE!

[Review for the Ultra Remix version of the game] This game blew my expectations out of the water. I was expecting a good game, but it turned out to be a great one! It's a beat 'em up/turn based hybrid that's easy to pick up with deceptive depth and nuance if you want to master. Your 3 playable characters fit into the Brawler, Grappler, and Specialist archetypes and are kitted out with counters, parries, dodge rolls, OTGs, and revenge meters on top of the build-a-combo mechanics that makes this game feel really special. If you're a fan of fighting game, there's a lot to appreciate! Outside of the gameplay you're treated to story that's equal parts cheesy, campy, and social commentary set to a banging chip tune soundtrack. It can be over the top and long winded at times, but it was an enjoyable ride overall! Definitely worth the purchase and playtime with the Ultra Remix DLC (which adds 2 chapters worth of story, enemies, and mechanics it's the definitive way to play!)

I really love everything this game is trying to do. It gives a unique spin on the beat em up. And there's plenty of good dialogue to read. What I don't love is how the game crashes on the 2nd to last fight when there are no save points. Rest of the game runs great though.