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Demons Age by Bigmoon Studios - turn-based RPG "highly inspired" by Chaos Chronicles

Galdred

Studio Draconis
Patron
Developer
Joined
May 6, 2011
Messages
4,346
Location
Middle Empire
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Kill enemies, get loot, become stronger, kill stronger enemies. What more do you need?

A narrative.
I added one that would fit the gameplay:

258

The eastern lord Leoric comes to Tristram, declares himself its king, and converts the old, long-unused Horadric monastery to a Zakarum cathedral. His advisor, Archbishop Lazarus, secretly releases NotDiablo from imprisonment.

King Leoric descends into madness as he valiantly struggles to resist NotDiablo's possession.

1263

Increasingly deranged, King Leoric begins imprisoning all who question his authority and executing them as traitors. He declares war on the kingdom of Westmarch.

Under NotDiablo's influence, Archbishop Lazarus kidnaps King Leoric's only son, Prince Albrecht. The terrified child is possessed by NotDiablo.

Lachdanan, captain of King Leoric's army, returns from the disastrous war with Westmarch and is forced to kill Leoric. The fallen monarch curses Lachdanan and his followers with his dying breath. Not long afterward, Lachdanan and the king's guards are attacked by Leoric, resurrected as the Skeleton King, as they attempt to bury him.

Archbishop Lazarus leads a group of villagers into the cathedral and abandons them to a bloodthirsty butcher demon. People begin fleeing Tristram in droves.

A party of heroes arrives in Tristram and defeats the bloated, fetid butcher demon.

The heroes kills Archbishop Lazarus and defeats the Skeleton King.

NotDiablo is defeated by the heroes, who then tries to contain Diablo within himself. Despite the heroes' noble intentions, one of the heroes' spirit quickly succumbs to Diablo's corruption. He becomes the Dark Wanderer, leaving Tristram behind shortly before legions of foul demons attack and destroy the town its inhabitants, and his former companions.
 

Grunker

RPG Codex Ghost
Patron
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Messages
27,385
Location
Copenhagen
I don't really need a narrative - KotC barely has one - but a series of designed encounters and an end goal is a must. Random constant arena fighting sounds like it'll get old fast.
 

Galdred

Studio Draconis
Patron
Developer
Joined
May 6, 2011
Messages
4,346
Location
Middle Empire
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I don't really need a narrative - KotC barely has one - but a series of designed encounters and an end goal is a must. Random constant arena fighting sounds like it'll get old fast.
Indeed, I was pushing it a bit, it works much better to have a reason to fight, and more importantly, to see some consequences of the fighting, but I don't remember why I was fighting in KOTC at all, or even in TOEE, so a minimum dressing might be enough, even though it is not the best way to do it.
 
Self-Ejected

Excidium II

Self-Ejected
Joined
Jun 21, 2015
Messages
1,866,227
Location
Third World
It's p. hard to make a game with more than one screen without a narrative. Any form of scenario progression implies it.
 
Self-Ejected

Harry Easter

Self-Ejected
Joined
Jul 27, 2016
Messages
819
TOEE is gold because it has a simple plot. It's all about fighting while get into some dungeons.

Your fights are the plot. Never underestimate the satisfaction of getting stronger and blasting a group of bugbears with one fireball.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,886
BG1EE and BG2EE both have that Black Pits arena combat and they even got the narrative. I found both boring. I cannot play such games.
 
Self-Ejected

Excidium II

Self-Ejected
Joined
Jun 21, 2015
Messages
1,866,227
Location
Third World
a series of designed encounters and an end goal
This arguably fits the definition of a narrative.

I could have played Blackguards if you removed all dialogue and lore descriptions. KotC as well (I basically did, I read none of its narrative stuff). If that still fits a narrative for you, I'm not about to argue semantics.
It's a videogame. You don't need anything written to have a narrative.
 

Purple Dogg

Literate
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
5
Location
Portugal
https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36813 <- Holy shit, when you've lost fluent

This is going to be hilarious.
"Game's shit" - from the guy who even liked Ellis Studios games :lol:

I don't think Purple Dogg will be coming back guys


As I said when I first posted here, I'm available at pr(AT)bigmoonstudios.com. I came to the forum because I felt some people definitely deserved a more public show of gratitude from our part. Some of you helped the game through their criticism and feedback, either prior to me joining Bigmoon, or just recently, following these posts. To those, our sincere gratitude. I may drop by occasionally, but I'll reply faster to emails.

Not all the features everyone suggested were implemented. That's not uncommon. Most of the insight was used. Some was not. Depending on what the dev team felt pertinent to add to the game at the time. Some is still kept on backlog and might be added later on.

Addressing what seems to be the biggest problem here - and my own personal experience - yes, the game currently doesn't have a personalized character creator and leveller. I wish it had too. But it DOES have 16 playable characters with over 40 hirable party members, each with their own backstory, feats and traits. My advice to you? Plain and simple: don't buy the game for now. If you don't think it will be a pleasant experience to play with premade characters that level up automatically, wait until we release the patch with the personalized character creator that will include the personalized level up menu too. It's a game. It's supposed to entertain you. If you think the lack of this particular feature hinders your chances of having fun with the game, then skip it. Personally, I'm playing with the premade characters and seeing the game as I like to see all games (I did mention I'm a reviewer for some specialized and not so specialized press): I'm exploring it. I intend to finish it with one or two characters and then I'll put in on hold until the patch is released when I can create my own guy and roam with it.

It seems to me though that some of you are too attached to an idea of a different game. As if this should be just another iteration of mechanics and feats other games had. I for one enjoy the fact that this is a custom game mode based on OGL 3.5. Yes, there are some features that should/could be here BUT... I play a lot of games inspired by certain genres and each of them has its own view on what the game should be and behave like. Tides of Numenera is completely different from Wastelands 2 or Banner Saga. And I like that. I wish XCOM or Jagged Alliance had a couple of features I have in my mind, but that doesn't deprive me of enjoying the games as they are. Demons Age has its influences like Baldur's Gate, Chaos Chronicles, Temple of Elemental Evil. It doesn't hide that fact. In fact, it advertises that on the company's website. But it follows its own path. As it should, in my opinion.

Anyway, regarding the "review" someone posted... come on. I write plenty of reviews. What I don't do is spend more time writing about the game than I did playing it. He claims to have played it 20 minutes before he started writing 16 paragraphs about it? Sometimes, 20 minutes is enough to catch the overall grip of a game. Let's say it's another CoD, just another iteration of an iteration like FIFA and the likes... 20 minutes could be enough to catch a proper glimpse of the game. But not for all games. This game has over 40 hours of gameplay. Its main feature, its biggest selling point is a thing we don't get that often in games: a betrayal mechanic. Based on your party compositions and your actions, some of your party members may turn against you. You can't experience that in 20 minutes. Hell, in 20 minutes, I don't think its even possible to leave the first area, to reach the first Inn, to see the world map. There's also an overall tone on the "review" that denotes some sort of hidden agenda that I'll definitely not look into. I understand the "20 minutes" could just have been put there for some dramatic effect, but there's a blatant lie in the end regarding the game price. The game is set to be released at 29,90€ on digital platforms. 34€ on retail, if I recall correctly. So don't expect me to comment much more on that.

I'll be available to talk about game features and I'll welcome your feedback and constructive criticism. Feel free to drop me a line, should you have any questions. I'll reply to them as soon as possible, either from what I know about the game or after talking to the team that developed it. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy playing it, for those who already have a copy.

Cheers
 

deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
4,352
Location
UK
yes, the game currently doesn't have a personalized character creator and leveller. I wish it had too. But it DOES have 16 playable characters with over 40 hirable party members, each with their own backstory, feats and traits. My advice to you? Plain and simple: don't buy the game for now. If you don't think it will be a pleasant experience to play with premade characters that level up automatically, wait until we release the patch with the personalized character creator that will include the personalized level up menu too.
Wouldn't it be better to just delay the game till custom character creation is implemented? Or does it take too long to enable it?
 

Galdred

Studio Draconis
Patron
Developer
Joined
May 6, 2011
Messages
4,346
Location
Middle Empire
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
yes, the game currently doesn't have a personalized character creator and leveller. I wish it had too. But it DOES have 16 playable characters with over 40 hirable party members, each with their own backstory, feats and traits. My advice to you? Plain and simple: don't buy the game for now. If you don't think it will be a pleasant experience to play with premade characters that level up automatically, wait until we release the patch with the personalized character creator that will include the personalized level up menu too.
Wouldn't it be better to just delay the game till custom character creation is implemented? Or does it take too long to enable it?
Indeed, that would be much more reasonable. Most reviews will appear at launch, so it would be very hard to recover from an initial review disaster.
 

YES!

Hi, I'm Roqua
Dumbfuck
Joined
Feb 26, 2017
Messages
2,088
I hate waiting more than anyone I know but even I have to agree pushing back release to add a required feature such as character generation is necessary.
 

ikarinokami

Augur
Joined
May 5, 2013
Messages
109
like the God of Nintendo said "delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad"

Granted regenerated level up characters is common JRPGS but something based on a pen and paper RPG and the grand daddy of Pen and Paper RPGs seems to be an unwise move, but I get it, for a small company, there may be no other reasonable option.
 

Purple Dogg

Literate
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
5
Location
Portugal
Wouldn't it be better to just delay the game till custom character creation is implemented? Or does it take too long to enable it?

it's under consideration.
following some forced delays due to console certification, we're considering a delay that would allow is to include it before the official launch. It's still uncertain though. :)
 

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