Indie Bludgeons & Krakens - free oldschool turn-based RPG inspired by Ultima and Diablo

[V_K]

I made a thing.

Spoiler

Now I kinda see why it isn't available in its entirety in the game - it doesn't make any geographic sense whatsoever.

 

[Corvid]

Now I kinda see why it isn't available in its entirety in the game - it doesn't make any geographic sense whatsoever.

Huh, you're right. It kinda looks like random crap drawn in paint than an actual landscape.

 

[thesheeep]

Someone just beat procedural terrain generation at randomness

 

[Corvid]

I'm having a problem. Help?

Spoiler

Specifically, the Ghoul Chapel, Citadel, and Coven. The common element is floor pentagrams like the ones that allow you to return to surface after a boss fight, but I can't interact with them in any way. Am I missing some item or something? Also, one of the pentagrams (in the Chapel IIRC) is only an outline.

Also, a hint on how to get past the lever gate in the Pit would be nice. Even if I take the most optimal route it slams shut like 2 steps before I can go through.

 

[Trash Player]

I'm having a problem. Help?

Spoiler

Specifically, the Ghoul Chapel, Citadel, and Coven. The common element is floor pentagrams like the ones that allow you to return to surface after a boss fight, but I can't interact with them in any way. Am I missing some item or something? Also, one of the pentagrams (in the Chapel IIRC) is only an outline.

Also, a hint on how to get past the lever gate in the Pit would be nice. Even if I take the most optimal route it slams shut like 2 steps before I can go through.

Mistform scroll, need some int to use though.

 

[CryptRat]

I just finished the game, had a lot of fun, they really did open world right. Itemization is not like in Diablo, the game uses a fixed set of items and handplaced ones are numerous.

 

[V_K]

I just finished the game, had a lot of fun, they really did open world right. Itemization is not like in Diablo, the game uses a fixed set of items and handplaced ones are numerous.

How are the dungeons?

 

[CryptRat]

They're mostly banal, you're there for the XP and loot.

Game is 90% combat and building your character but that part is well done, boss fights are cool and unique and besides free attribute upgrades you're also free to select your set of skills from all the skills provided by the teachers in the different towns, a couple of spell books can additionally be found. I can't say that pieces of equipement don't feel like random combinations of + at all but at least strong passive abilities like "gain HPs on kill" are avaliable only on one unique item in the game. The difficulty curve is small enough that you can probably quickly find stronger equipment by adventuring in harder area but high enough so that it's not too easy to do. Besides difficulty is well distributed over the map, not completely random nor exactly the more you walk away from the start the harder.

Main quest is "kill the 7 bosses in any order" and side quests are mostly banal but sometimes at least you've got to explore a minimum to find what you seek. There are generic keys opening optional doors and you won't have enough to open all of them, there are also traps that you'll need a way to pass (enough HPs to sustain the damage in my case). There are a few puzzles/secrets, one boss that you can just avoid to fight with 150+ charisma (and other charisma checks, but I'm not sure any of them would really open something substantial, they just make you save some money or so), one quest unlocks crafting a few strong items with a nice twist and one way to get a boat is to just kill a bunch of pirates and steal their's. One boss is a corrupted father whose sons you can kill so he's weaker but you don't have to and sometimes you need a specific item to enter a boss' dungeon or to fight the boss easier but the purpose is half-broken by the fact the same person who asks you to kill the monster also tells what to find and where to find it and all this stuff is written in your questlog (half-broken because you can still do that without talking to anyone before).

TL : DR The game is not exceptional but freedom regarding build and exploration make for a fun experience.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Try it, it's free!

 

[Kalarion]

I just finished the game. I bought it (donated $10) back when it came out but quit near the end due to never being able to find Alva's Lamp. Couldn't find it this time either :D. Luckily I figured out that Magic Mushrooms are super OP for getting through dungeons (they don't last very long though). It turns out I didn't really need a light source for the final Beast dungeon anyways.

I had some questions now that I'm done:
- WHERE IS THAT GD LAMP?!
- what are the stone circles for?
- what does Draupnir's Ring do ("this ring hums with unknown power")? I tried infusing it into one of my Artisan pieces and it told me I'm not allowed. Tried wearing it and just walking around, including through all the stone circles.

I had a lot of fun.

GOOD
- Character progression. Fully embraces the Oblivion model of "be everything all at once", but sensibly makes it take all game to do it. I always enjoyed getting another level. Classes are only fully differentiated by their passive, which can in turn be changed/enhanced through specific Mythic items.
- Mythic items are really cool. Each has a unique passive that does anything from giving bonus power to a skill to creating entirely new effects to completely changing the way certain classes are played. I was always excited to find a new Mythic.
- Artisan infusion. You can take the power from a Mythic item and graft it into the unique class-specific armor obtained at/near endgame. The Mythic gets destroyed in the process, and each Artisan piece can only hold one power at a time (the power can be overwritten by a new graft) so there's some tension in your choices. Makes endgame itemization feel like a branch of character progression.
- Dungeon exploration was fun. Nothing crazy, but some fun teleport/item-based puzzles, and you need half a brain to navigate some of the larger dungeons.
- Boss fights have their own unique mechanics, mostly (but not always) requiring use of a special item. Baal and the final Druid dude were my personal favorites, see some of the previous posts for other examples.
- I liked the music. Gave me a comfy 80s console/8086 vibe.

BAD
- The world map. See others' posts.
- Itemization outside of Mythics is fucking terrible. Items follow the well-known tier system (white/green/blue/yellow). Each item has fixed stats, no prefix/affix or similar procedural system here, a slight plus. Set against that, the names of uncommon (green) and rare (blue) items might as well have been spit out by a computer algorithm. Their stats are all over the place, there's no rhyme or reason to them. I never felt good about getting any item outside Mythics, totally forgettable and sometimes (due to the schizophrenic stats) actively aggravating.
- Random encounters become really tiring by the middle, and only get more so towards the finish. The game would have benefited enormously from a way to ignore much lower level encounters entirely. At level 30, decked out with Mythics and all four Artisan pieces, able to do over 1K dmg/hit, the lowest level random enemies (orcs etc) would still make beelines for me and die in their thousands, sapping away my precious bodily time-units. Ugh.

All in all, 15 hours well spent (it shouldn't have taken that long but I must have spent at least 5 hours looking for that FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU- lamp

).