KickStarter AntharioN

[Doktor Best]

So I tried a little bit of this game and it seems like it's fun! A slight discount currently on Steam. To buy or not to buy? What's the Codex consensus? Incline or not? If incline, to what level?

I liked Lords of Xulima a lot, should this game be right up my alley?

Throw them some coins already and pirate Fallout 4 instead.

 

[Obviousplant]

So, how is this game compared with Serpent of Staglands?

Depends whether you prefer Divinity OS or Pillars of Eternity. The combat system is better but visually and story/writing wise Serpent is much stronger.

 

[Abu Antar]

If you play it in small chunks, I'd say that it is worthy of the tag "incline". I've played better games, but I intend to finish this at some point. The combat isn't amazing, but I like just exploring and I also like that you create your own party.

 

[roshan]

Throw them some coins already and pirate Fallout 4 instead.

I have actually never played a Bethesda game ever. When it comes to RPGs - Isometric perspective or GTFO!

I got this already. I have never really had a problem with simplistic combat systems, so this should be fun.

 

[roshan]

So I'm playing this now and it's quite a charming little game! How many hours of playtime can I expect, BTW? I'm still in the initial areas, but a few early impressions:

- I like the fact that the game unabashedly doles out "Collect 10 Crab Meats" type of quests. There's almost too much self-seriousness and "progressiveness" in newer RPGs and having this sort of playful throwback to older times is great.
- Gameplay also involves a decent amount of save scumming, and other old school mechanics that certain false prophets would like to see stamped out of the genre.
- Skill system is awesome! Almost everything feels useful, and having to balance the combat and noncombat skills across my characters makes for very involving gameplay.
- Itemization is great, and I love how the cool stuff I am finding actually shows up on my characters. Sometimes, less is more. Before trying the game, I assumed the simplistic graphics would be a dealbreaker but they're very charming.
- Combat is fun but a bit simplistic, but I like how small things you do can affect your victory in battles. I've done a couple of small dungeons, and they've been interesting so far. I really liked battling The Butcher, I love throwbacks like this to old classic games. A game that respects it's roots and it's forerunners is itself worthy of respect.
- Money has a lot of value! There's so much I am tempted to spend on but I have the urge to hoard for better stuff later on.

 

[mindx2]

So I'm playing this now and it's quite a charming little game! How many hours of playtime can I expect, BTW? I'm still in the initial areas, but a few early impressions:

- I like the fact that the game unabashedly doles out "Collect 10 Crab Meats" type of quests. There's almost too much self-seriousness and "progressiveness" in newer RPGs and having this sort of playful throwback to older times is great.
- Gameplay also involves a decent amount of save scumming, and other old school mechanics that certain false prophets would like to see stamped out of the genre.
- Skill system is awesome! Almost everything feels useful, and having to balance the combat and noncombat skills across my characters makes for very involving gameplay.
- Itemization is great, and I love how the cool stuff I am finding actually shows up on my characters. Sometimes, less is more. Before trying the game, I assumed the simplistic graphics would be a dealbreaker but they're very charming.
- Combat is fun but a bit simplistic, but I like how small things you do can affect your victory in battles. I've done a couple of small dungeons, and they've been interesting so far. I really liked battling The Butcher, I love throwbacks like this to old classic games. A game that respects it's roots and it's forerunners is itself worthy of respect.
- Money has a lot of value! There's so much I am tempted to spend on but I have the urge to hoard for better stuff later on.

Pretty much sums up my feelings on the game. The combat is a bit simplistic and gets repetitive when battling animal-type creatures. There is a bit more variety when facing a few more powerful monsters or other spell-casters but don't expect it to be very in-depth. Itemization is great and there are tons of "things" to find all over the world map. In fact the map exploration part of this game was the best part. You could just stay on the roads which were safer to complete most main quest objectives but going "off road" and finding hidden caves, dungeons or chests was rewarding. Those little side quests/exploration was actually enjoyable and led to better equipment and importantly...money. I played right at launch and money was scarce for me. It was challenging to save up enough to buy that cool magical armor from the shop and I would only have enough to buy one or two powerful items at a time. I'm not sure if the devs have patched this part out but I think I read they did adjust the loot tables some. I kind of think that would be a mistake as having low resources added more challenge and encouraged me to go off the beaten path to discover more and better treasure. There was always a sense of progression in the game from the start to almost the end (however, the last 10% or so of the game you've pretty much achieved top skills and equipment and I just wanted to finish the main quest as quickly as possible). As you unlocked more skills, found or bought better equipment, or gathered more resources you felt more powerful and able to venture further out into the wilderness. A comparison would be having a similar feeling when playing the Gothic games. Venture too far out and get your butt handed to you unless you could find a path and run around those obstacles. It's definitely an "old school" game both in looks and game-play but that's why I enjoyed it as much as I did.

 

[CryptRat]

Yup, I started, and I've got a similar feeling, so far exploration and number increasing are at their best. Combat is cool as soon as there are archers or spell casters.

 

[V_K]

I liked Lords of Xulima a lot, should this game be right up my alley?

Not necessarily. I also liked LoX and got bored with Antharion pretty quickly. The main difference is that LoX had a lot of variety in its level design with puzzles, secrets and whatnot, while Antharion is just a standard kill&loot routine all the way. Also, the writing is arguably even worse than in LoX - and there is much more of it.

 

[Reapa]

Spoiler

the game has no ending... no video, no comments on having saved the world, no nothing...

 

[roshan]

Loving this so far! Only at the second populated town though, I don't know if the experience gets old later on. More impressions:

- The gameplay feels a lot like Lords of Xulima. Focus on dungeon crawling and character building. The exploration mode also feels similar because your party is lumped together in a group. Combat is also simplistic but through spells and such, variety and interesting challenges are created. Combat, overall, is better though, because encounter design is better, here you fight spellcasters and such that are actually quite threatening due to the use of hard counters.
- The game really knows how to create the feeling of "exploration". You wander into corridors only to come up to a dead end. Sometimes you find some treasure, sometimes a secret passage. You never know what to expect. Encounters are usually appropriately spaced out, whether in dungeons or overland, unlike Shitternity where you find a random horde of enemies behind every bush.
- The game does a really good job of balancing combat versus non-combat skills.
- Barely any plot or story, and what there is is very light-hearted, but this is really not the sort of game you play for dialogue. I also disagree with the idea that LOX and Antharion have bad writing. For one thing, they barely even make any attempt at it, so what is there even to judge? Also to compare pulpy lightheartedness to the self-serious philosophizing of PST makes little sense. If a game actually makes an attempt at that sort of thing and turns out to be crap, like POE, then it's fair game to say the writing is shit.

Overall, so far a very good, solid, old-school dungeon crawl.

 

[CryptRat]

Spoiler

the game has no ending... no video, no comments on having saved the world, no nothing...

I suppose I just finished...

Spoiler

Persuading the councilman that the staff is destroyed seems like a good ending with world saving but I'm not even sure.
Killing the councilman then the "minotaur" gives nothing.
If I give the staff to the councilman he requests to kill some orcs, it will be a pain in ass to search for orc ears, does the main quest continue after that?

Almost everything I could say was already better said. However :
- Exploration is very fun at the beginning when you're weak, it's not as good after that
- The experience gained from alchemy is significant, the use of persuasion is fun (the skill system and party developement are very enjoyable)
- The game lacks of dungeon puzzles (or even of singularities) IMHO (I suppose some hidden passages is better than nothing), and unfortunately it can be said of many games
- The fighting system is correct ("At least it's turn-based" summarize well what I think about it)
- and

Money has a lot of value! There's so much I am tempted to spend on but I have the urge to hoard for better stuff later on.

I'd say that it's barely above average, but they follow many good directions, so their next game could be very good.

 

[roshan]

Do any of the devs post here at the Codex?

 

[Hirato]

They did during the kickstarter when we were all complaining bout the heads being huge.
I've not seen them here since.

 

[Bubbles]

I think I'm gonna wait for the Enhanced Edition.

 

[Mustawd]

I think I'm gonna wait for the Enhanced Edition GOTY edition.

 

[Infinitron]

- I like the fact that the game unabashedly doles out "Collect 10 Crab Meats" type of quests. There's almost too much self-seriousness and "progressiveness" in newer RPGs and having this sort of playful throwback to older times is great.

How many old RPGs have you actually played

 

[Abu Antar]

The more I play, the more I am inclined to say that this game should be played by people who like turn-based combat. Not that the combat itself is on ana amazing level or anything, but it is solid enough. It has more to do with developing your characters, exploring and finding new and cool items. It's a shame no one is talking about this. It won't be my GOTY, but it will make my top 10 list for sure.

For those who have played this, is there a possibility that I would like Lords of Xulima?

 

[roshan]

The more I play, the more I am inclined to say that this game should be played by people who like turn-based combat. Not that the combat itself is on ana amazing level or anything, but it is solid enough. It has more to do with developing your characters, exploring and finding new and cool items. It's a shame no one is talking about this. It won't be my GOTY, but it will make my top 10 list for sure.

For those who have played this, is there a possibility that I would like Lords of Xulima?

You will definitely like LOX. It's very similar in concept, story light, focused on exploring a large continent and building your characters up. LOX has worse itemization, you pretty much just keep finding the same weapons made of better materials that do +damage. But what is interesting are the exploration related skills, how the environment affects your party (you can starve in a desert, slowly take freezing damage in glacial areas, get bitten by snakes in a swamp, different areas deplete your food at different rates), also, the dungeons are really cool, and many of them have absolutely no combat and are purely puzzle areas. There are also traps and environmental hazards that you can't disarm and need to carefully navigate. Very solid game, can't recommend it enough.

 

[Abu Antar]

Well, I beat the final boss. That was a fun game. There are some flaws, but in general, I had a lot of fun. There were still side quests to do after the big gun was killed but I feel that I'm happy with the 36 hours I have spent with the game.

Now, these guys need to learn about marketing and hyping up your game. Other than this topic, I see absolutely no discussion about the game.

 

[Doktor Best]

well they rely on word of mouth, so do your duty.

 

[roshan]

Infinitron can this game be added to the Codex Steam curation list?

 

[JudasIscariot]

Bought the game on the developer's site. Runs flawlessly via WINE 1.7.53.

Combat is very simple and I am still kind of learning the game but if you're going to have two mages in the party ( I had a Black Mage and a White Mage) then they should get some weapon skills going because they are kinda useless when they run out of mana.

Interesting thing about mages in the game is that they do not up and learn some spells as they level. Rather you better get ready to buy EVERY spell save their starting spells.

Another thing to notice is that everyone gets spell points so you can try building a Fighter that can use some spells to buff himself and such although I have a sneaking suspicion that the game doesn't offer respawning monsters so you might want to be careful as to how you spend your skill points in the game.

 

[Lucky]

Sooooo, JudasIscariot. Any chance of you putting in a good word for a GOG release? Possibly? Maybe?

 

[Saxon1974]

The devs have gone AWAL, haven't been any updates. I assume it didn't sell well enough and they lost interest and move on to something else.

 

[mindx2]

The devs have gone AWAL, haven't been any updates. I assume it didn't sell well enough and they lost interest and move on to something else.

I just emailed them this morning and they responded within a few hours so they are still around. I asked about the boxed edition and was told it ships by or before the end of this month.