Withering Realms

I have zero attachment to the first game; never played it. I did watch streams of it and thought it looked interesting. Saw streams of this one and thought the same. Like others have said, the world and the aesthetics are the most appealing part of the game. OG RE fixed camera style + dark souls is an interesting combination. The low quality look gives it some old school, indie charm. The music can be foreboding and melancholic, but ramps up when fighting bosses. I dig it. I don't think the combat is bad per se. It's soulsish, but it's just... Boring? Monotonous? Sometimes it feels like an enemy or boss is over tuned or at the least, the area doesn't make you feel like you're under leveled. You can breeze through an area only to find out the boss will one shot you. It takes a long time to travel between zones, which isn't an issue until you clear the landmarked areas. Once you do, the zones become empty save for a few enemies. I wish it just refreshed everything so it doesn't feel so lonely and barren. There is fast travel, but you're still going to get around mostly on foot. The shrines in the game that let you fast travel also let you rest, similar to a dark souls bonfire. You can't level up at them though. You have to travel to town to do so. There is a basic day/night cycle and the zones will populate with different enemies at night, but you can't change the day/night cycle while in a zone. You can only do it at the shrines in town, which I find unnecessarily time consuming. Outside enemy locations are randomized when you rest. Sometimes they'll even respawn in a different room from the one you're in. Same thing happens when you die. From what I can tell, other than shuffling the area, there is no penalty for dying. In the end, the game just didn't keep my interest with the generic souls combat, barren zones, town backtracking and uninteresting builds. It is early access though. Really early access. I'm hopeful it'll flesh out and fill in a lot of what's lacking. So as of now, at its $20 price point... I'm not going to say I don't recommend it, but I'd wait for for development to go further along or until it goes on sale.

Very good video game and a worthy successor to Withering Rooms. That being said, if you don't like janky aspects of combat that aren't polished yet you might want to wait for the full release.

good

This might be one of the best indie games I've played in a minute *EVEN IN EARLY ACCESS*! From my experience, I could hardly tell it wasn't completed yet. I had little to no bugs in my venture and it feels like a fleshed out game so far. I highly recommend the game if you're looking for a unique "souls-like narrative horror game" with a Tim Burton aesthetic. (Maybe not the BEST way to describe it but close enough) PROS: Combat - I tend to like "hit - dodge - block" type of games especially when they don't pigeonhole you into one certain playstyle. I personally went with a heavy strength build and just bulldozed my way through enemies while tanking attacks. Enemies - Surprising amount of variety here, any kind of mob you can think of is in this game. - from the exploding ones, the rush ones, annoying dodging ones, tanky ones, poison ones, ranged ones, etc. I LOVE IT!! The cherry on top is how unique they all look as well. The style really shines with the enemy design Equipment - There is so much variety in what you can do in this game! There's a surprising amount of weapons, magic, accessories etc. You legit find something new in every area so you are constantly optimizing your doll. Story - This is a narrative driven game with clear objectives all throughout. The story is about a ghost girl solving occult mysteries with her doll guy. There are some interesting twists and turns in the story that I don't want to spoil so I'll leave it there! Again, for an indie game, the story is decently well done - there have been AAA games that aren't even close to as engaging. Art Style - I cannot undersell how amazing the art is. Side Quests - This is where the fun is for me, exploring random optional areas and clearing out the town's ails is my bread and butter. And while (so far) there aren't a lot of side quests to go around, the ones that are there are fun and worthwhile! CONS: Difficulty - Holy moly, I played this game on NORMAL and it felt like Hard Mode ngl. Maybe this is a skill issue but I had to turn it down to "narrative" mode for a bit just until I could grind out some more levels. The difficulty doesn't seem that bad in the beginning but once you unlock "NIGHT MODE" that is where the challenge begins. The enemies are at least x2 stronger there and you also are juggling the lack of light and ghostly hands that slow you down every few seconds. It was unbearable until I tuned down the diff. (Again, could be a skill issue but I do think the hands at the bare minimum should be tuned down). Mini Map - This is a personal gripe, but I found the minimap sometimes more annoying than it should be. It's just way too small in certain areas. It'd be nice if there was a way to scale it to where you can always see the full breadth of the area we are in and maybe even more (like the adjacent tiles). Constantly looking at the minimap to see if "!" would spawn just feels bad for no reason. Nighttime Shrines - I'd get it if the shrines were simply reset at night, but to not allow teleporting to the center of an area at night feels cumbersome. TLDR; This game has 10x more Pros then Cons and I would 100% recommend it. Don't sleep on this game

Amazing game

Withering Realms is a must-play! It was a pleasure to return to the Withering Rooms universe and explore it in a brand new way. The developer did a fantastic job with the transition to a 3D world. World traversal and combat is shockingly robust right out of the gate, and I had a lot of fun experimenting with the huge array of weapons and tools. As is the case with any early access game, you may run into a few balancing issues or hiccups. This should not be a deterrant: this is a fully playable, completable game. Difficulty spikes are present, but I found that the levelling system in place and catalogue of weapons meant that I was able to progress by adjusting my approach to a challenge with a new weapon, or by levelling up. Speaking of which, I was shocked by the sheer amount of things to do! There's never a dull moment, and you regularly pick up a new chain of smaller side-quests as you go. Although you do not need to have played Withering Rooms to enjoy Withering Realms, I feel like having played Moonless Formless's other title enhanced my experience. One of the highlights of this game is seeing cameos of beloved characters from the previous game. For those like me, who enjoy Welsh history and culture, you will enjoy catching references and speculating their meaning. [spoiler]The tie-ins to Annwn, or the Welsh "underworld" was so cool. And I got a real kick out of the Rhodri/Worker's plight storyline; An all too familiar tale in Wales.[/spoiler] I could write an essay about all the things I love about this franchise, but I want to keep this concise for now. I look forward to playing through the game again when it comes out for console, and seeing how it changes over the coming months/years. Clover and Althea are wonderful characters, I loved watching their relationship develop. I aspire to be as badass as that Lady Reporter one day. [spoiler]P.S I love Nightingale sooo much, she's the GOAT.[/spoiler] Diolch yn fawr for the fantastic experience, Moonless!

Solid sequel.

Dev doesn't miss. Wonderful so far.