Voidspire Tactics

There are times when you truly play something special and immersive that completely swallows your attention. Voidspire Tactics managed to completely captivate me more then I could ever have expected. I love immersive sim games and to this point have only really experienced first person ones. And this by all means is an immersive sim through and through, the sense of logical puzzle solving and secret finding is pretty much unmatched and I felt so smart finding my own solutions and way forward as this game is non-linear and have multiple ways to solve one problem. The sense of exploration is nothing short of brilliant and you have so many different ways you can move around and interact with the world. You can dig up the ground, pickaxe through walls, plant vines to climb walls, use rope to descend mountain slopes, activate machinery with electricity, just about everything and anything you can imagine. To compliment this just about every single attack/buff have a use both in combat and in exploration/puzzle solving. Combine this with an incredible environment, the titular voidspire is a huge floating spire made of landmass stolen from all the corners of the world (and even some out of this world) which allows the game to explore all these different and varied biomes with totally different tones to them. The combat is really good and allows so much creative freedom on how you want to build your characters. You have the ability to use two different items in both your hands, unless you're using a two handed weapon. So you have a near unlimited amount of dual wield potential, no matter how you wanna combine your weapons and support items. Every support item also have multiple uses just like the weapons (say shields blocks attacks but can be used as a weapon to shove enemies around and lanterns provides light but also can do fire attacks) You also have 18 different classes to pick from and can dual class 2 at a time. The stats are taken from your main class, but you can use any abilities from your secondary class aswell. There is also 3 passive slots where you can use any combination of 3 passives from any class without restrictions. Aswell as the choice between 4 different races with different racial bonuses. Admittedly the story is not the main focus of the game and while there are story to be had it's more there as an excuse to move forward and fight enemies. A lot of it is world building and your own personal journey as a player. Which is totally fine by me as too much story would detract from the excellent exploration. Overall I can only say wow, what an incredible game. Nothing short of a masterpiece and one of the greatest immersive sim games on the market. I can not wait to play the other titles by Rad Codex.

I played this game then immediately bought and played the next 3 games by this dev. Please help.

[h1]Positive[/h1] Packed with [b]secrets[/b], it's insane, I have never seen anything like this. For instance, you dig through a suspiciously-looking wall and discover a hidden room with some loot, but then inside that room there is another hidden passage that takes you to a whole new hidden area! The game is full of secrets. [b]Rewards exploration[/b]: it's exciting to enter a new area, because you never know what new secrets or items you'll find, but there will be something interesting for sure. [b]Backtracking[/b]: it's fun to go back to previously explored areas once you gain new spells, skills or items, to use them to discover more secrets. You can [b]interact with the environment[/b] in multiple ways. For instance, you can cast the "Grow" spell in a tree stomp to make it grow into a tree, then use an axe to get wood and revert it back to a stomp. Rinse and repeat, and you can get as many wood planks as you need. The [b]class system[/b] is great. It's similar to the job system in some Final Fantasy games. You don't level up by gaining XP. Instead, you use the XP to gain abilities and skills related to your class, and you can switch classes at any time, as well as having a secondary class, so that you can use skills that are unrelated to your main class. [b]Non-linear[/b]: you can explore the different areas in any order you please. In fact, I discovered a secret entrance to a late-game area while I was not in the late-game yet, and I could continue exploring said area without breaking the game. Excellent. [b]Combats are interesting[/b], and the encounters are well-designed. You can [b]adjust the difficulty[/b] at any time. [b]Crafting[/b] is actually engaging and fun, it rewards experimentation, you can get your materials back if you don't like the resulting weapon or armour. Pretty much [b]bug free[/b]: the only thing I found was a very minor bug with the journal: if you add a new entry to the journal and reload the game, the notification is still there. But this can be fixed by just restarting the game. That's the only bug I found. [b]No grinding[/b] (unless you want to): the majority of the battles are a one-time thing, you win and the enemy group disappears. Only a small number of them are repeatable. [b]Good post-battle management[/b]: if any of your characters dies during battle, they still get full experience. Also, you gradually and automatically recover your HP and MP very quickly. Nice [b]itemization[/b]: you progressively find better items (or crafting materials) to improve your current gear. Some of them are unique. [b]Good music[/b]: it stayed with me, it reminded me of the music in the classic SNES RPGs. [b]Graphics[/b]: not what you play these games for, but I liked them. [h1]Neutral[/h1] [b]Length[/b]: it's not super short, and even though I don't like games that are too long and overstay their welcome by adding unnecessary padding, this is not one of those games. This is one of the rare occasions where I wish the game was even longer, as I have had a lot of fun and I couldn't get enough of it. The [b]story[/b] is not the strongest point of the game (and it doesn't need to be). This is not a negative point, the game excels in other areas, and it does not need a big story. The world-building and characters you find are interesting, but the interactions with them are minimal. I don't think this is a detriment to the game, as the dev has (correctly) chosen to focus on the strong points of the game (exploration, combat, etc.). [h1]Negative[/h1] Small one, but [b]I wish you could add your own custom notes[/b] to the journal or the minimap, as there are many places that you know you want to go back to. I had to take notes in my computer. It's [b]hard to understand the effect of spending points in certain skills[/b]. What's the difference in terms of damage when you have 3 in Swords vs just 1? The game won't tell you. Similarly, the status effects are not clear either. What does "itchy" do? What is the actual penalty for "blind"? I later discovered that in order to know this, you need to hover over the tooltip of the stat while you're afflicted, but this is not intuitive. [b]Inventory management[/b]: no easy way to keep things organised. It becomes a chore quickly. By far the worst part of the game. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] [b]Hidden gem[/b], how is this game not getting more attention? It's the most fun I've had with a game in a very long time. The dev has, at the time of writing, released another 3 games that I can't wait to play. Get this game if you like exploration, finding secrets, experimenting, and well crafted tactical combats.

First played it years ago. Was good ♥♥♥♥, a certified hood classic. I could barely remember most of the finer plot and exploration but after completing Horizon Gate last week I wanted to go and revisit the rest of the series to remedy that. One moment in particular stood out to me; a clash at the final boss room with a powerful gatemaster. About a dozen more hours later and I stand at the top of the world facing god, I am hit with an epiphany as my amnesia clears: I was not the powerful gatemaster accelerating themselves to terminal velocity via portal and slamming their enemies so hard it engraved the fear and terror into the souls of their foes. Ekras was. And he was doing it to me again. -------- In all seriousness, great combat, music, good exploration and a best boi merchant. Playing voidspire feels like exploring a post apocalypse fantasy amalgam of several different realities ripped from their native plains and pieced together by a madman, bc that is precisely what you're doing. Here's a protip, most of the survivors you'll meet in the wild can't understand you and will shoot first, ask questions never. You should do the same. I give this gem 9 magical flying wendigos hellbent on making libertarian flying islands a thing out of 10.

Cool game, feels like if somebody tried making something like Divinity: Original Sin on the SNES.

I played this game twice, once years ago, once more this year (2024) after playing Kingsvein. So, as the first tactical RPG of RadCodex how is this one compared to the three others? It's great! I feel like this one had charms that the others didn't. it's the one where I can say there's ALMOST a decent plot setup. There's mystery and the dialogue choices while usually for flavor are fun. I especially like mocking Celia for failing her ambush and fleeing. But if you play these games it's not for the plot but the gameplay. Sadly the plot is never the focus, a shame because the lore made for those games would definitely support more heavy story elements. In fact, my favorite fights are often those story driven, like that ambush I mentioned. Now, what about that gameplay? it's tactics grid based with timed turn orders, elemental weaknesses, status effects galore and synergistic dual class system with three passives selected from any class you levelled into. It's good stuff. Some things come and go with the entries like the size of the party being only four in this one, or the cool terrain stuff of Kingsvein being the latest innovation, but overall this is where it all began and it's solid. Also, exploration IS rewarded in this game and all the others (though less so in alvora tactics, but that one is more experimental and the most combat focused of them all). Here's some exploration tips: -HUG ALL SUSPICIOUS WALLS. some are fake. -Break some walls and dig some ground, goodies and new areas can be found sometimes. Remember that in the mines for example, you can get ore, there's even some mythril hidden away... -Bring pitons and ropes, essential for going down holes and cliffs. and to go up cliffs you can technically pickaxe through some of them or use lattice seeds. -Use wood planks to repair bridges, and rungs to repair ladders -Use ice spells on water to make walkable ice. -Use lightning on devices and water, you'll see why easily. -Growth and ruin damage have uses too. Rarely though. -use gate spell to move to some hard to reach place. Worth it. -Use crafting. It's worth it. Fighting tips: -Read skills carefully. For example, while Spell archon is unlocked through ranged classes, most of it's skills are usable with melee weapons! you can tell because the game DOES say when you're not allowed to use ranged or melee with a skill, so just assume it works when there's nothing written. -Triggers make a spell attack, they DO NOT count as weapons for ANY skill, but simply holding one will raise the associated element damage and well, it's similar to having a melee weapon on a mage, it's infinitely reusable if you run out of MP. -Mixing magic and physical damage is perfectly viable in these games. I'd say this is especially true for healers and ruin magic users (unmakers only in this entry), the former because life magic scale easily and supplement well with melee, and the latter because many of unmaker's skills are melee or close range and the class synergise poorly in this entry with the other mage classes. You don't get enough star points to laser focus only on one stat, spreading around a bit CAN be optimal because the cost to level a stat WILL increase after each purchase, the exception is health and MP who only increase in cost after many purchases. -Please do level up health and MP. In this game, where health and mp remain rather low the entire playthrough, any hit point makes a difference. It's like how it is in paper mario: low numbers mean one point of anything matters a lot more. I know waiting for damage levels seems better, but at some point you REALLY need health to not get one shot. Some bosses do EXACTLY 30 damage in an aoe precisely to discourage you from never levelling health. If you know about the white spider boss, you know what I mean. -You'll likely need one character with a scholar sub class equipped and levelled at all times, both for scanning weaknesses of enemies(and adding them to the encyclopedia, only way to do so in battle) but also for restoring mp through the prayer skill. Focus energy is also a decent emergency heal, Gust is a very good aoe if you focus on it, etc. -A healer isn't strictly mandatory if you use items religiously, but it makes life way easier. -You need a gatekeeper. The gate skill is useful to reach some areas, and the class is just super strong. Gate:Flood is a very good opener. Biggest aoe in the game and makes enemies weak to ice,wind and lightning.

Another great Final Fantasy Tactics-like game. It has an ok story but the gameplay is where it shines with how you can combine classes and how spells can interact. A great hidden gem and definitely a new fan of the developer. This game is also the first entry to the series and I'm excited to play the rest

Honestly a great game, Its a neat exploration tactics game where you just roam around walk up on groups of enemies just sitting around chilling. get close enough to be spotted and the fight just starts, if you cast spells nearby it might cause them to turn to look at you, but unless you are too close or move then it shouldn't start the encounter immediately. it's also possible to adjust the terrain in places (mainly freezing water, setting things on fire, or setting up a blockade), come from another angle or set up buffs and throw a pre-emptive strike from a distance. Story-wise It's linear enough to not get confused where to go, with hints available if the way forward doesn't seem possible. Though it does come down to walking in a direction from the 'hub area' and coming back with an item meant for progression, the locations you have to go are all neat enough to not feel systematic which brings me to... Exploration-wise its fantastic, backtracking when you get your hands on ways to mine or dig, going back to that cave you couldn't reach or seeing a crack in the wall in the corner of your eye, there are also false walls that you spot since the area is suspiciously funneled towards a crevice. even looking around with the arrow keys might have you seeing something that's just off in the distance that you can maybe reach. It usually doesn't lead to insane treasures but figuring out what the items you find do what is alos part of the fun. Gear-wise its alright, the numbers on weapon and gear mostly remain in the single digits and a lot of your power comes from passives and equipment levels, where a +1 could make your attacks go from doing 8-9 dmg to 12-13, so its never bad to just hold a specilization even if you don't explore all the classes. The limited inventory is also not an issue since you find a lot of bags in places that can hold 9 items, and larger bags that can hold 16 (as well as small bags, but large bags can't go into small ones), so its not infinite but as long as you keep finding bags and not hoard items that are described as useless, then you'll never run into inventory issues (keeping things sorted be damned). Ultimately i had fun with the game enough to actually lose track of time, I would start playing at 10am, check the clock after a while and now it's 5pm, though that doesn't mean that its that much of a time sink and more it just had that much of a hold on my attention. Fully recommend if you like tactics games, like one vs many battles, or like to play games that isn't a grind on normal difficulty since i never really went out of my way to a fight an encounter more then once (though there is a grinding area location in the hub area that respawns enemies on returning if you are into that).

I don't leave reviews very often, but this game deserves it. Less than 2 hours in I was working out how my mages would specialize, whether I wanted my rogue to dual wield daggers, or have a crossbow in one hand, and if my fighter should save his XP to learn counter or a combat skill. My main PROs for this game: - Create a party of four when the game start (choose race, class, and appearance) - Class system works like FFT (unlock classes by gaining enough XP in prerequisite class, equip 2 classes at a time) - Inventory works like Divinity: Original Sin (pop up window lets you drag items for easy sorting) - Music... we like it? Yes... is good

It's a rough beginning, but it's the base of all the other fantastic games that come after. With that being said, it's still a solid game in its own right. I recommend all of Rad Codex's games, as they largely are all the same mechanically with QOL improvements and refinements here and there, and if you enjoyed one you'll enjoy all the others.