Usurper

Usurper is a strategy roguelike that will appeal to chess enthusiasts. The game's unique but simple mechanics, such as dropping pieces with a reserves and power system, create a compelling layer of strategy. Pros: - It's pretty addicting, and the short rounds make it perfect for quick sessions. A full run may take about an hour or two, and this is largely due to overtime making each game quick, which also adds a layer of complexity in a way that doesn't feel forced. - The other classes have an obvious theme and are well designed around it. The shogunate class is clearly inspired by shogi, and between that class and ranged, they offer two ends to chess being somewhere in the middle. - Drafting, modifying pieces, and upgrades are effective. I think there could be some more variety there, but I wouldn't be upset if nothing about it was changed. - This may also be viewed as a con for a roguelike, but one of the greatest strengths of this game is the strategical depth. In other roguelikes I often feel that getting better at the game is just figuring out what strategy or unit is overpowered, but getting better in this game feels meaningful because it comes from improving calculation and learning to use the pieces properly (although there still are overpowered units imo). - It definitely borrows elements from Balatro, such as the stakes progression for each class, which does fit the theme pretty well. - Pixel art is clean - High replayability - Has PvP Neutral: - Sound effects are good, music is bad, so I play with music turned off. Would be nice if the game also allowed a speedup greater than 4x. Cons: - The biggest con is the AI. For the record, making a good chess AI is not an easy task and the current state is already decent enough, but there are some noticeable flaws that can be fixed with the current version. The problem with the AI is that it doesn't feel consistent at all. A general example of this is Stockfish AI (a commonly used chess engine) when it is set to low elo levels -- it feels very artificial. Stockfish is designed to play perfect moves at the highest level, and at lower levels it plays the best move available a certain percentage of the time, and if it's not the perfect move then it plays a really questionable move. As a result, it feels very non-human to play against. The AI in this game feels pretty similar, as it will play some moves that require a decent amount of vision, and then follow that up with just sacking a queen for no reason. - The balancing is not the best, and part of it comes from the AI design. The AI is weak to certain units; for example, the 2 power sniper is extremely powerful against the AI (and in general), and if you throw one down on the back rank at the beginning of a round, sometimes the AI will just continue to throw high power units in its lane for no reason. I've seen it throw 2 diamonds and a queen in 3 consecutive turns, while just moving its king around aimlessly as each unit gets popped by the sniper, and this was not when I already had an overwhelming advantage in the game. - Besides that, on at least one occasion, my save was wiped the next time I entered the game. Overall, I would definitely recommend it as a solid chess roguelike with high replayability and PvP support.

Usurper is one of my all time favourite games. Whether you're a chess fan, or a newbie who needs a new pass time, this is a great game to buy. I found this game from an Icely Puzzles video, and I had been waiting to buy it since then. Chess skills help you get through the first few levels, but they are not required to enjoy the game. I've managed to beat the game with every basic deck, yet my chess elo is only 500. Despite being the hardest basic deck, my favourite is the Pharaonic deck. It has tons of cards that have nearly unlimited movement, at the cost of being unable to capture with normal movement, and the inability to move on it's capture tiles without an enemy piece being there. It's as if the entire deck was based around the unique movement of a pawn. The campaign mode is probably the best gamemode I've ever seen in a chess game, but that's probably because of the fact that I'm biased. The way that when you start out, you only have three enemies to defeat, but after you win, the final boss will be located after beating six enemies. This makes it so as you unlock more decks, the more types of enemies you can face. I bought this in the Chess-like Rouge-like bundle, among with Pawnbarian and The Ouroboros King (which were also definitely worth the money, but in my opinion, this one's the best), and it's definitely worth the extra money. Even if this review doesn't convince you to get the game, maybe their demo will. It includes half of the basic decks, and the campaign mode. If you're ready for the rougelike of the year, this game is for you.

I like some of the ideas behind this game, but I can't bear myself to play it. The UI is unfathomably slow, even at 4x speed the UI feels sluggish, [i]everything[/i] has an animation that takes forever, and after the first few round it became old, very very fast. Actions that should be snappy, aren't. It feels slower than actually playing chess online, and this is a videogame running at 6000+ FPS, it shouldn't feel so slow it seems grinding to a halt. No matter how much I tried to enjoy it I ended up asking for a refund, it's giving me physical distraught and I don't plan on opening it again, ever, unless something changes drastically in the UX department.

amazing game. terrible ai

Fantastic chess-based rogue-lite. I've been looking for this game for my whole life. No other chess based game that I've played manage to scratch the itch of combing chess knowledge with an interesting rogue-lite twist. It is worth full price. My chief criticism is the music. It's serviceable, but no better. Also it will very awkwardly restart its' loop. It gives off an amateurish vibe.

An attempt at making a chess roguelike. Feels pretty awkward to play with two-step turns: you deploy a piece (optionally) and then you make a move. With how this game UI is, the resulting flow is poor, with a lot of unnecessary button presses. Plus, most upgrades aren't enjoyable because you just get custom pieces with non-standard moves, so now you have to think harder to make use of them. For science I'll tinker with it a bit more, but so far I'm not seeing the appeal

Whoever said the AI was bad needs to get their brains checked for super genius activity. The AI is pretty good and aggressive enough to keep you surprised. The game is very good. I highly recommend it for those who like puzzle / strategy games. Even if you're new to chess.

Wish there was a key to press that showed all the coverage of my unit's potential attacks.

[h1]チェスや将棋を題材にしたデッキ構築型ローグライク[/h1] 数ある「メジャーなコンテンツにローグライク要素を加えた」ジャンルの中でも特に親和性が高い作品。 デッキを強化しながら全10ラウンドを勝ち抜くキャンペーンモードの他にオンライン、ローカル、CPU対戦、カスタムデッキの作成など豊富な機能を搭載。 [b]ゲームルール[/b] 基本はチェスだが、開始時点で盤上に存在するのは互いのRuler(キング)のみ。他の駒はカードとしてデッキに纏められている。 ターン毎にカードを３枚引き、Power(コスト)を消費してRulerの周囲へ駒を配置(次ターンまで動かせない)。次に自陣の駒を一つ動かし、移動先に敵駒が居れば排除する。 交互にターンを回し、最終的に相手Rulerを追い詰めるか脱落させると勝利。 規定ターンを過ぎると駒を巻き込んで外周から崩壊が始まり、盤面が次第に狭まっていく。 多種多様な駒を組み合わせ、広い盤面に一から陣形を構築していく柔軟なゲームデザインによって戦略、創意工夫の幅が非常に広い。 チェスや将棋のハードルが高い一因は「開幕から多数の駒を考慮して立ち回らねばならないこと」であり、「最初の駒は２つだけ。ターンが進むにつれ段階的に追加される」本作の仕様はプレイヤーが盤面の全容を掴みやすく、その難解さを大幅に解消している。 盤面から戦況を読み取り、駒を連携させ敵陣を切り崩しキングを落とす爽快感を誰もが手軽に体験できる。元々苦手意識を感じていた人にこそおすすめしたい名作。 [b]カード(駒)[/b] 左上の数値が配置に必要なPower、右下の数値が使用回数、左側が駒の移動範囲。 矢印:駒に遮られるまで対象方向に移動 枠付き:他の駒を跳び越えるジャンプ移動 十字:対象に敵駒が居れば移動可能 斜線:対象に駒が居なければ移動可能 ひし形:対象の敵駒を排除する遠隔攻撃 Promotion:アップグレード後の移動範囲

算是一款有特色的国际象棋类rougelike，虽然整体内容不算多，但下棋固有的策略性结合了rougelike元素还是能保证一定的耐玩度，推荐给喜欢下棋的玩家。 游戏为棋子设定了召唤费用以及可召唤次数，每回合由一次可选的召唤棋子行动，以及一次必须进行的常规行动组成。下棋过程中，在一定的回合数后，棋盘会不断缩小（边界的棋子会被全部直接摧毁），这个设定较好的控制了游戏的时长。相较于另一款游戏衔尾蛇国王，我个人更喜欢这款游戏的设计。 作为轻度roguelike，游戏包含了一些针对牌库的随机升级项，以及数量不少的各类棋子（分为4种不同派系），当然也有能力各异的十几种boss。个人觉得平衡性还算不错，有一些运气成分，但主要还是下棋的策略。游戏也包含了10种难度阶梯，简单说就是每上升一难度，都会多一个初始设计好的诅咒效果。 最后，说一下这游戏的两大主要缺点： 1. 各种奇奇怪怪的小bug确实比较多，虽然大部分不太影响游玩。当然作者也在不断修复就是了。 2. 对手的AI很差，经常会作出非常愚蠢的行动，而且个人并不看好作者能较好的优化这游戏的AI。（不过从另一个角度，幸好电脑经常犯蠢，否则由于后几关对手的资源远高于玩家，估计玩起来会是噩梦。）