Words of Yendor

Classic word games + roguelite elements + steampunk flavor + stylish UI and visuals + fitting atmospheric music + a pinch of Ambrose Bierce's witty wisdom = a fun and immensely replayable game.

I want to like this, because I love word games and puzzle games and roguelite games. But I didn't. It's hard to put my finger on why. The word game part felt pretty basic and unsatisfying--the words are very basic words and it doesn't really feel like playing with words and more like navigating a kind of uninspiring puzzle where the tiles are letters. Maybe trying to jam all these aspects together is a bit ambitious. I'd like to see this idea developed, but as of now I will have to not recommend (sorry!) just based on my experience of it. I don't really have any suggestions to make it better. I wonder if the basic concept is flawed. I know this isn't terribly helpful. And this is a small indie developer so I know this review matters. I appreciate the thought and craftsmanship that went into the game. I wish I didn't have to make a binary decision here, but if I were recommending it to myself, knowing how I felt about playing it, I would have to tell myself to skip it. Note: if you are interested in this game TRY THE DEMO. If I had tried it, I would have known it didn't click for me and would not have bought the game. I think a lot of people might like it, though, and the demo will show you what it's like. If you like the elements here, give the demo a try. Like I said, it's not badly made, it just didn't click as fun for me. For the dev: while doing the final puzzle of a round, finding a word of yendor, I found a bug: if you spell a word right, but it's not in the "correct" horizontal position, it will not register as correct. This seemed arbitrary and unfair.

Wrote this review after beating the game once on seven letters. The word puzzles are interesting, and the feeling of the game is great. You can feel that the devs really care about the game they made. the game has a couple of different "loadouts" you can start with that gives different consumable and equipable items to vary up your runs even more. the character creator is simple but very nice (I desperately want more hats and hairstyles, pretty please?). The duels are probably my favorite part of the game. The game lets you check out wiktionary for some of the stranger words, which is also very nice and a fun way to learn obscure antiquated vocabulary. I am not very good at word games but I still managed to scramble through the game as a non-native speaker and reader. I say give the demo a try, and if you like the two scenarios, definitely give the game a look, because the full game is a treat.

You investigate a mystery and, to make progress, you solve puzzles and make choices, like getting equipment, healing your wounds, stealing from museums or getting frightened by ghosts. Duels are pretty fun, and if you like Wordle, you won't have much trouble figuring out what to do at the end of each city you visit. Replayability is also great.

This is effortlessly one of the strangest games I have played. There is lore to the game and some story elements, but nothing is clear, from the player character's motivation to the way the fictional world works (including why and how some words have powers). The procedural storytelling doesn't offer much of a coherent narrative, either. There are lots of items, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself but can be confusing, and lots of instructions that are too long to read and difficult to follow. That said, I do think it's an enjoyable game -- just unnecessarily convoluted and lacking in terms of narrative. Reframing Monopoly as a turn-based battle works well, as do most of the other mini-games (e.g., a version of Hangman). The only part I don't enjoy at all is the Wordle-esque puzzle that follows after each boss fight: you are solving multiple words at once, can only move the letters by swapping them around, and lose 1 HP each turn. This is just too punishing! I wish the developer would either make the letters swappable between any two points (it's tedious otherwise) or not penalize the player each turn. To sum up, if you're looking for a word game that isn't _just_ a word game, this can be it. Tentatively recommended.

A fun game along the line of other classic anagramming-focused puzzles, but also with an eerie setting, variety in the puzzle types and some elements that carryover from playthrough to playthrough. If you have any inkling that this is a game you might like, you're probably right!

Words of Yendor is a pretty good word game with a roguelike game loop with permadeath, great writing and steampunk art. The battle system is pretty clever and I've had a lot of fun figuring out good word combinations. I'd say it's not endlessly replayable as after around 8 hours I started noticing some patterns and common words I could often reuse to great advantage, but 8 hours of fun for 8 bucks (or half that price on sale) seems pretty fair to me. Overall, if this looks appealing to you, I'd say you do give it a try - this game deserves more players and positive reviews!

Super fun word-game! Unique elements added to it set it apart from others. Highly recommend giving it a try!

https://youtu.be/0fi9OnGm8q4 With a bit more polish and presentation this collection of various word based mini-games wrapped in a rogue like would really be something more than the sum of it's parts.

Has its charm, reminiscent of small Game Crafter titles where hobbyists express their wild and unsellable ideas. Exploration involves cards, much like the classic Mini Rogue (it was a pleasant surprise to see my fav mentioned in the Credits as inspiration). What sets it apart for me are the scouting, the small, "find the word" puzzles that unlock more options for your next moves. I also liked that certain duels require that you only wound your opponent without killing them, which fits well with the dark, Victorian theme. The gameplay can be short if you opt for smaller word lengths, but hardcore puzzle fans can go for 12-letter word marathons.