Valiant Tactics

New to this game. First feel, it's pretty straightforward and challenging (not too complex mind you). That's to be expected, but in all fairness the game rewards those who play and learn from it. Keep an eye out for the symbols on top of the charts you'll encouter, that's often an important indication! The further you progress, the more challenging your run gets, and skulls are usually tougher (deadlier) challenges. So better steer clear, until you're more capable and more experienced, to try again, and again until you'll be King of the Hill! You will die often, that's how the player progresses. Did i enjoy my first run, before i was slain by a spider queen? Hell yeah \m/ Shelob, get ready to feel my Sting (in due time) :D This game is easy to understand (hard to master), so i don't fully understand why certain reviewers are so harsh? The Devs have just added a balance patch, and maybe it could be that my first experience has somewhat been influenced by it (i can't tell honestly)? But from my own personal experience, going in blindly, it's been a good one so far! I'll certainly keep on playing and will add more information the longer i play and furter (hopefully) i'll get.. ...now where did i leave my shiny shirt...? Wait?! Who took My Precious!!!! Whaaaahhh

[h1][b]1.5/10[/b][/h1] Not much of a "game", unfortunately. It's just a string of boring fights with no satisfying elements to those fights. Devs need to look at what other, better games do to make combat more interesting. Refunded. [h2]Pros:[/h2] - Art is quite good. Like surprisingly good for an indie - Can take more than 1 of a class. Huge plus [h2]Mehs:[/h2] - Voice acting is not so great, but nor is it so bad as to be distracting - No text/UI scaling. Some of the text on the character screen especially is a touch small but still barely acceptable\ - Music is tolerable [h2]Cons:[/h2] - Biggest con for me is locked classes. I hate being forced to use classes I don't enjoy for *hours* to unlock classes I might possibly enjoy more later - Second, equally biggest issue is lack of any satisfying elements to combat. No satisfying sound effects, no cool death sounds or animations, no screen shake on big hits, no build-up on big attacks, no tension... nothing. A big budget is not needed to put some of these things in the game. As it is, combat feels extremely wimpy and unsatisfying - Can't customize characters. Can't even name them (at least not when you create them) - Not a fan of the tokens in combat instead of actual character models. I can't immediately visually identify enemies like I can in other games (ie a spider looks dramatically different vs a goblin when you can actually the their bodies) - There's no path or grid to see outside of combat. It's just 3 choices of what to fight/do next. Means the game is feels pretty small and restrictive and if you don't *love* the combat, there's not much else to it - If I have a ranged attack, the game doesn't automatically move my unit into range to attack. Slows down combat unnecessarily - Can't move after attacking, even if I didn't already move? - Dev is dismissive and only responds to thumbs down reviews with "you didn't play long enough". Nah bro, we didn't HAVE to play any longer to know it's not good (yet) Edit, to dev: I didn't need a moment more to know I should refund it, so I did. It's the totality of things, not just one specific thing. Tokens, for example, can work in some games, especially if they're done well and immediately visually recognizable, but they're not here. And I can't really tell from the vids - I needed to try the game to even know it was an issue at all. Same for the other issues. And I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but your "genuine effort" isn't relevant to my experience. Results matter. My experience matters (to me, anywa). Your time is better spent improving the game instead of telling me I didn't play it long enough. Also for the dev: look at Lands of Sorcery for some ideas on how to make lower budget combat feel better. I realize not everything will translate if you're stuck on using tokens, but... Look at Knights of the Chalice 2 for how to do tokens well. I can use tokens in that game because they're extremely easy to read. Not like yours which are all samey & murky. Your game has some great art when it's displayed in a larger or more complete way, but the tokens are terrible.

I fully expect a dev response along the lines of "you haven't played enough / skill issue" - that's what I saw on other negative reviews that had valid points. And the response to positive feedback is "thanks, much appreciated, please join our Discord" :) OK, first, here are some aspects I liked: - Character variety and party composition: there are like 8 distincts classes, each of them with their own playstyle, you can have up to 5 in your battle squad with an option for another 3 reserves, you can also have multiple characters of the same class. Starting gear is customizable as well. - Path choices: I saw some people complaining about this, but I personally liked it, you can choose 1 out of 3 encounters on each "floor", makes you focus on whatever you need at the moment rather than planning your path through the act. Next, there are a few things that have a good idea behind them, but the current design doesn't work: - Keeping an item for the next run: I liked it at first, but then I realized that if you find a really good item, you will keep it over and over again, making all your subsequent runs revolve around that item. A better implementation of this idea would be to have something like a vault where you could store some items you found on runs (keep 1-2 items found in the run, max storage of 20-30 items, at run start you can take X items with you and they will still be available in the vault so you don't have to select the same items at the end of the run to keep them). - Perk selection on level up: Again, nice idea at first glance, but when you get 3 equally useless options for your archer multiple times in a row, you realize the flaw of this system. Potential fixes would be to add reroll option, maybe refine the pool for each class, or simply increase the selection to 4 or 5 options. Keep in mind that this is pretty much the only way to make a character stronger (besides gear), so it's really important not to brick your build. Alright, now the bad stuff: - Art and graphics: Those are just horrible! If you're going to use AI, at least make it come up with something better.. And as someone else mentioned - if you're using tokens on the tactical map, you need to really make the different enemies be recognizable. Right now all the different bandits look the same, all nomads look the same, all undead also look the same. - Bugs: Yes, despite the game being out for a couple of years, there are still some very obvious bugs. Have you tried adding a coating to a weapon that's in your storage (not equipped). Did your assasin kill an enemy with Assasinate (or whatever that skill that insta-kills an enemy is called) and then couldn't enter stealth because the skill cooldown didn't reset, despite clearly stating "cooldown resets when you kill an enemy" in the description? Yeah, that kind of stuff. - Descriptions and tooltips: Those are essential in a tactical RPG. If I don't have an undo button, I want to know what exactly I can do on my turn. Tutorial says that my character can use the Q, W and E skills freely, but sometimes using one of those puts the others on cooldown, and sometimes it doesn't. - Item variety and availability: Yeah, cool, we have like 120 different items, woohoo! But why do I keep getting dropped items for classes that I haven't even unlocked yet? None of my unlocked classes have polearm profficiency, stop giving me spears! And when I finally got to act 2 and started getting some rare items, I was excited to receive this rare shield as a reward from an elite fight - only to realize that the shield only gives 1 DEF and nothing more. Thanks a lot, game, now I can use up an equipment slot to get fir for 14 dmg rather than 15... - Difficulty and scaling: The enemies naturally scale as you progress further - they have more hp, more dmg, more defense and new skills. Your characters don't naturally scale, even when leveling up - you can be offered 3 perks that do nothing for this class. Combine that with the previous point about items and you end up with characters that have pretty much the same stats at the end of act 2 as they have at the start of act 1, and now are getting two-shot by the enemies. - Lack of ZoC and Taunts: In most tactical games, you usually have a concept of "frontline" and "backline", the former being tankier and the latter being squishier. Big part of the tactical gameplay is supporting your frontline as they engage the enemy, and not letting the enemy reach your backline. That's why your melee fighters usually have ZoC (Zone of Control) that prevents the enemy from running past them in a single turn. And your dedicated tank classes often have taunting skills, forcing the enemy attacks on the tank rather than the rest of the party. These two concepts are especially important when melee and ranged units have similar engagement range (melee can move and attack just as far as the range of ranged units). - Lack of QoL features: Again, as someone else stated in theyr review - there is no easy way to check which are the "safe" tiles to move to, without getting in range of the enemy. No info about which skills allow movement after using and which don't. Being able to carry extra gear and swap during combat (Battle Brothers style) would also be nice. - No meta progression: This is a personal preference, but I do like to be able to get stronger between runs. Especially if the game is designed to be unbeatable in the first couple of runs. From what I see, the only progression is unlocking different classes and items, which makes the game harder because it increases the rewards pool, making it even harder to roll the item types that you need for your characters. I guess that pretty much captures my thoughts.. I mean, don't get me wrong, the game definately has potential - but it looks like the devs either don't play their own game, or they have some very specific vision about how the game is intended to be played, which is very different from the classic tactical RPG.

Refunded the game. I wanted to like it, but I felt it has some major things holding it back. 1) Enemy type balance - could easily be fixed by patches, but it feels like of the three enemies types in act 1 (spiders, undead, bandits) there's a definite wide gulf in difficulty between them. [list] [*] Spiders are mostly manageable. I found myself picking them the most as a route option. [*] The rogue type bandits have the ability to hit like freight trains (10+ damage) and shred anyone they get near. They'll cut right through anyone trying to tank. [*] The undead's resistance to non-mace damage made them my last pick. Not to mention they also have mages, even in act 1, that can hit for 10+ on an AOE spell. [/list] 2) Player progression feels very limited and way too RNG dependent. Want another party member? Better hope you get the recruit event. Need to heal? Better hope for a camp. Want your tank to gain HP/defense? Better hope that your options aren't constantly damage boosts or other less useful bonuses. 3) Without a route map like most roguelites present, you're picking blind and just hoping you get the right things to show up as you need them instead of planning ahead. 4) You have no idea what the difficulty of selected encounters are. Is it going to be 5 easy enemies or one with more "elite" types? You don't know until you click. 5) Enemy damage/health/count feels extremely weighted against the player, even in act 1. Enemies hitting for 10+ damage when your tank has <30 and you heal for 3 at a base level is out of whack imo. 6) No meta progression other than gear/class unlocks. Some permanent boosts to stats would help alleviate balance issues. I like roguelites, so I understand randomness is part of the appeal, but it was just too much for me.

Decent game for what it is. Pick up on sale, note this game has no controller support so does not work on steam deck like I had hoped. Hopefully this will be added at some point, but for now decent rogue-lite tactics game to mindlessly burn time on.

Sadly I will refund it. It IS because of difficulty (and a tiny bit clunk). First the clunk, The way to see enemy health / dmg is to actively click on them, gets a bit much when theres 6+ enemies. The range of movement doesnt appear to toggle (like fire emblem) or even click an enemy to stick their range. In short knowing if your in range is doable but TEDIOUS. NO take back on movement is also an issue, IE enemy is blocked but can hit my archer, I move archer away, and now the enemy path is OPEN and he can still hit me, cant undo and move farther. This is absolutely my fault, but as a father with a child not yet in school I play disctracted, small mistakes are bound to happen. Now all that above feels bad, but is workable if not for the difficulty. The archer starts with 15 life,, skeletons can hit for 13. IF a skeleton spawns IN RANGE of a physical powerup they can 1shot a squishy. That happens uncommonly often, the enemy starts in range of a powerup. Also, no 'engage range' IE, they can literally RUN PAST my melee units to annihilate my squishy. So you may be thinking move him back, except enemies move between 1/3 and 1/2 the arena in 1 movement. Also the archer gets half his dmg (if not more) from NOT moving before attacking (attacking stops you from moving). This is all rough, but the thing that made me quit and say yeah its a refund and negative review, was when I got to the first boss and without any indication of WHERE, he spawns 5 adds who then IMMEDIATELY get to attack before I can respond. 1 of those 5 hit my archer for half his life. So, I say np and heal him with my cleric, up to 13. oopse, boss was able to run past all my units and 1 shot him since he was only at 85% life. IMO if I need to play perfectly, I need more QoL features to not make it tedious to do so. Final thought though (in case a dev reads) I do appreciate the start customization of choosing which units and what gear to start with. Its nice customization.

After playing this game for 15 hours here is my opinion. (Sorry english isn't my first language) I enjoyed the game quite a lot, its fun but im not actually sure I would recomend it, yet, to everyone. I would recommend to people who love this type of game and wants to support a small dev team. I woudn't recommend for people who have high standard, It still need a lot of feature and improvement to be a great game (Quality of life, mechanics, maps, items, visual, balance, bug, etc). That being said, I really enjoyed it and I am looking forward to see it evolves. The gameplay is simple but its exactly my type of game. Pros: 1) I really enjoyed the strategic aspect of this game. Its challenging but not too much. 2) I absolutly love the different bosses, There is quite a good variety and they all feel completly different from eachother. Some character definitly shine in some fight while others in other fight. 3) I like how each character feels very unique and well defined. They each have their strength and weaknesses. They can be built in different ways and still be strong. When I play other game, I usually really enjoy some specific character and focus on them. In this game im happy to use any of them. 4) Im bad at listing pros but Its really fun haha. Cons: 1) Items - The variety in items and all their effect isn't bad but I feel like limiting it to a 1 weapon, 1 accessory and 1 consumable really limits the item I use. I always end up using the same item because some are just straight stronger. I feel like some of them could be used if I had 2 slots. An exemple is my tanks. With their shield stats it forces you to use a shield but it takes the place of the accessory. This makes it impossible to pick a helmet as well. I would love to have 1-hand and 2 hand options + 2 different accessory. 2) Path - each level you have 3 choices of encounter. Sadly I end up picking the fights about 90% of the time. The fight rewards you with steady cash income and steady character upgrade. The church gives you 3hp or Morale but the morale is temporary and a fight can give you 5hp + gold. The training ground gives level up or morale, again morale is temporary and the level up cost 100 gold. Gold is too scarce to spend on a level up. The random encounter one can actually be pretty decent and reward with very good gold, sadly it can also be pretty bad making it too risky. At least, I sometime choose it when it also has the 50 gold bonus. Then there is the Shop, recruit,heal. When I get this option, its either amazing or useless. Sometime I reach it and I have low gold and im full hp. Basically wasting the encounter. I choose the shop and try to sell my item. If I have gold I gotta go for my recruitment. Getting a top unit from the recruit option is costly but required if you want to get 5 good unit at step 45. The problem is that half the time Im full hp with low gold. 3) Team building - Its difficult to level up all your early character and have them all be good enough for the last fight. I feel like you have to focus on 1-2 and then buy the rest from the recruit option. I usually focus on 1 of them only. Buy 1-2 when possible and build from that. 4)Level up - I think the 3 option to choose from when leveling is fun, but sadly it can go very wrong on some character. Some of the option are useless if you get them too often. The archer is a good exemple, he has too many option you don't want and getting them back to back can destroy the character. If im building a bow build, I get many useless option (Trowing, Potion, Speed, Swift, herborist, Strike back, ACC if I already have a bit, etc...). Improvement: 1) Talent- I like the skills but I wish I could have more option. I feel like im always using the same one when possible and many of those are the generic one shared by all. 2) Easier tooltips for effect and easier way to tell which character is affected by what debuff/buff 3) More Maps 4) More levels or better way to improve character. I feel like I always end up with 2-3 strong character, 1-2 mid and 1-2 very bad character by the time im at the last boss. In the end, this game could be amazing with a little polish. Looking forward to see it evolves.

A really enjoyable game that's perfect for playing a few rounds to clear your head during a work break. My only suggestions would be to add a tutorial for new players, as it took me a while to figure everything out. Also, an option to speed up enemy turns would be a fantastic addition for those of us who want to get back into the action quickly.

I don't usually write reviews, but this is my new account, and this was one of the first games I bought on it. The game is fresh and definitely deserves more reviews, so I decided to give it a try. At first, I lost 4 games in a row. It felt extremely difficult, and the enemies seemed unbalanced. But after spending more time with it, I started to understand how the game works. Each enemy type has its own strengths and weaknesses. For example, Bandits felt overpowered at first, but once I started positioning near barrels and using explosions, they became much easier to deal with. Skeletons are extremely strong too, but if you keep Divine Aura on your Cleric and use shield buffs on your team, they become far less threatening since most of their damage is AOE-based. The core idea of the game is to adapt your party to the enemies you choose to fight—since you get to pick your battles. The late-game becomes incredibly fun and unpredictable. You never know what loot you’ll get or which boss you’ll face. I almost defeated the first boss, the Big Spider. From what I can tell, the key to that fight is having strong AOE abilities and taking it down quickly before it spawns too many smaller spiders. The game is not easy, but it’s extremely fun and definitely worth trying. It gives me strong Heroes of Might and Magic III + Slay the Spire vibes. Recommended. 👍

A great game. I enjoyed the variety of heroes. In my opinion, the game really opens up and reaches its full potential after unlocking all the champions. Before that, it feels more like a tutorial phase. I personally went with the slayer tactic—it’s easy to one-shot bandits since there are three of them. You go to the backline, take them out, gather loot, and by the second safe zone interaction, you already have a full squad to take down the boss. My friend, on the other hand, uses two marksmen with a tanky frontline. I really enjoy games that offer this kind of variety, where multiple strategies are viable but you can still lose regardless. You can tell the developers spent a lot of time tweaking the stats. At first glance, the game might seem extremely unbalanced, but as you play, you discover new strategies—sometimes it even feels too easy. I think this is a great example of “easy to learn, hard to master.” A fantastic game, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys this genre.