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Bastard Bonds - fabulous fast-paced tactical RPG with high-end pixel art
- Thread starter Drowed
- Start date
-
- Tags
- indie rpg turn-based
I feel like people don't talk about the risk mechanic enough. That is what really sets the battle system apart. If I were to reduce it to a sales blurb, I'd at least say "innovative combat".
I rather like how "minimalistic" it is in certain ways, really helps to highlight the few things it has going for it. The lore blurbs for example are rather interesting.
And the fact that when you meet new bastards, it doesn't tell your their name, but rather their crime. you know, because everyone has been branded. That'd actually make for pretty cool narrative device for a more story-driven game.
And the fact that when you meet new bastards, it doesn't tell your their name, but rather their crime. you know, because everyone has been branded. That'd actually make for pretty cool narrative device for a more story-driven game.
Siveon
Bot
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2013
- Messages
- 4,509
Or perhaps, risk-versus-reward combat system. A bit specific, but gets the idea across.
ArchAngel
Arcane
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2015
- Messages
- 20,054
It is not really very complex. And considering the skills in the game are super simple, the risk mechanic makes is playable but not special.
Zetor
Arcane
Does the risk mechanic actually make for interesting in-battle decisions, though? Some posts in this thread suggest you may as well just use it by default, and only avoid it in certain situations like when your dude is exposed to counterattacks or something. Seems like a no-brainer to use it on each attack from your ranged dudes while the enemy is tied up with your tanks, frex...
DramaticPopcorn
Guest
Yeah it's a no brainer, especially for ranged attackers, since you either lose an attack or gain a confidence bonus and EXP boost, in melee you just fill it up to 80% and then attack normally
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2015
- Messages
- 5,444
Yeah, unless your character is horribly surrounded and outnumbered it is usually better to risk. Tank build is usually better of defending though.
Mortmal
Arcane
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2009
- Messages
- 9,185
That's all there is to do , a high def high evasion char tanking soaking all the damage , everyone else doing damage. It gets quickly repetitive, but well cant blame indies the do the exact same thing than pillar of eternity. it wasnt much brighter either, just tank and spank .
I think it's a nice first attempt. Art is great, the premise is interesting, the setting is unique, and he threw a few different concepts in the gameplay.
What is missing is, essentially, depth. The setting is interesting, but very poorly explored. You have glimpses of it here and there that are great for stir curiosity, but the thing stop there. The same thing happens with the characters system and combat. You have nine different attributes to choose from when you gain a level, which is nice. But the "perks/traits" you earn appear passively (by accumulating enough points in a given attribute), which decreases the control we have in the evolution of the character - he could have created more perks/traits and then let us choose between them when we reached enough points, etc. This, of course, is reflected in combat: the characters are divided essentially into "tanks" and "damage dealers", and the risk mechanic ends up being pretty straightforward, as others have already said. The risk mechanic, even though interesting, isn't enough to be a substitute to a greater variety of types of attacks, a more complex magic system, a wider variety of items with different attributes, etc. Even the fact that you can choose your crime (and say whether you're guilty or not) only serves to define your trait and the availability of NPCs - many other interesting things could come of this.
Still, I'm enjoying the game. And if it serves as a step for the developer to create a second RPG with greater depth, I would say that there is a lot of potential here.
What is missing is, essentially, depth. The setting is interesting, but very poorly explored. You have glimpses of it here and there that are great for stir curiosity, but the thing stop there. The same thing happens with the characters system and combat. You have nine different attributes to choose from when you gain a level, which is nice. But the "perks/traits" you earn appear passively (by accumulating enough points in a given attribute), which decreases the control we have in the evolution of the character - he could have created more perks/traits and then let us choose between them when we reached enough points, etc. This, of course, is reflected in combat: the characters are divided essentially into "tanks" and "damage dealers", and the risk mechanic ends up being pretty straightforward, as others have already said. The risk mechanic, even though interesting, isn't enough to be a substitute to a greater variety of types of attacks, a more complex magic system, a wider variety of items with different attributes, etc. Even the fact that you can choose your crime (and say whether you're guilty or not) only serves to define your trait and the availability of NPCs - many other interesting things could come of this.
Still, I'm enjoying the game. And if it serves as a step for the developer to create a second RPG with greater depth, I would say that there is a lot of potential here.
Last edited:
Hobo Elf
Arcane
Drowed nailed it. It's a solid foundation that begs to be expanded upon. I hope the dev makes a Bastard Bonds 2.
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2015
- Messages
- 1,350
Ent
Savant
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2015
- Messages
- 540
I'm too much of a coward for that
.Anyone know how to replace / alter certain clothing parts ? I want to try putting some designs on the tabard top / bottom.
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2015
- Messages
- 1,350
The Mighty Bellegar
Novice
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2016
- Messages
- 22
The gameplay is incredibly shallow, and the game becomes quite easy after you recruit the overpowered monsters like the Iron Golem. The character creation & first ten hours or so of the game are great, but quite frankly I can't force myself to finish it.
The premise is great and I loved the character creation(some options are just evil, kudos to that). I played nothing like this before, it's an original take on the concept.
However, the game-play leaves much to be desired. There's not much to do and since there's no smut there's little reason to play. It's just tedious. Maybe a sequel will improve this.
However, the game-play leaves much to be desired. There's not much to do and since there's no smut there's little reason to play. It's just tedious. Maybe a sequel will improve this.
Lios
Cipher
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2014
- Messages
- 425
+Excellent chatracter creation. Barbie lovers arise. The whole i'm innocent or not thing and its whole reprecursions is great too.
+Huge map of the island to explore. Nice exploration even if it's all pinned down. Lots of secrets to find.
+The whole npc and nemy recrutiing and base thing.
+Nice enemy design. Nice art overall.
+Good idea with the risjk shit. Addsa just a touch of strategy,
+Less gay than you expect.
+Nothing;'s served to you history wise, you discover buits and pieces here and there.
+interesting weapons that are not "AXE OF MOTHERFUCKING WITH COMETS FALLING" but more humble yet working gthe way they are supposed to.
-Combat becomes tedious and grindy early on
-One of the worst pathfindings ever fort the npcs
-camera while on battle is shit- where the fuck did that sahuagin saw me? and what the fuck is this a wall or ?
-maybe other things i don;t emember now.
all in all it's a good game. next game frtom the creator gonna be epic.
+Huge map of the island to explore. Nice exploration even if it's all pinned down. Lots of secrets to find.
+The whole npc and nemy recrutiing and base thing.
+Nice enemy design. Nice art overall.
+Good idea with the risjk shit. Addsa just a touch of strategy,
+Less gay than you expect.
+Nothing;'s served to you history wise, you discover buits and pieces here and there.
+interesting weapons that are not "AXE OF MOTHERFUCKING WITH COMETS FALLING" but more humble yet working gthe way they are supposed to.
-Combat becomes tedious and grindy early on
-One of the worst pathfindings ever fort the npcs
-camera while on battle is shit- where the fuck did that sahuagin saw me? and what the fuck is this a wall or ?
-maybe other things i don;t emember now.
all in all it's a good game. next game frtom the creator gonna be epic.
Lios
Cipher
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2014
- Messages
- 425
Battle brothers is far far far better and it''s going to be a legendary game, but it's also totally different than bastard bonfds.
So, I've joined the prestigious few who've completed the game.
God damn, the game is LONG. I skipped a ton of optional content and it still took me more than 30 hours to clear.
Some thoughts:
- I really hated the level scaling. Not because of the level scaling, but because high level enemies get disarm and invulnerability, which is extremely annoying. Disarm lets them randomly disarm one equipment piece/weapon, forcing you to constantly pick stuff up. And when you do miss a disarm and exit the map with your unique soul weapon lying on the ground... Invulnerability on the other hand means that trash mobs can take entire extra round to kill (during which they can disarm you).
The worst part about that is the fact that almost EVERY enemy gets those skills. It is one thing when you encounter new, tougher enemies and know and expect them to disarm you or get invulnerable when you damage them enough... but when every damn zombie starts doing that it is simply retarded. I really recommend not turning the "leader scaling" on, you get XP faster but so do the enemies.
- The art is godly. So many alternative sprite sets. God damn. You don't need fancy animations, sprite diversity is way way way more immersive.
- Quite a few locations have interesting ambience and backstories. Makes it even more of a shame that they are so rarely explored deeper.
- The writing is really good. I like the way that they have introduced a couple of unique fluff concepts (the role of females in orcish society) and then explored them with several different perspectives. There is just the right amount of detail, not everything is explained but central themes are built up throughout the game.
- It is a little bit of a shame that most of the deeper character interaction involves buggery. It becomes distracting when (almost) every character gets his bunghole raided. The writer clearly has the talent to write non-sexual stuff as well, but the unique scenes mainly revolve around gay innuendo. Which shouldn't come as a surprise when you look at the art, but with such a large cast of bastards, some scenes for the straight folk would be appreciated. The scenes themselves are nothing too racy and the game is thoughtful enough to give you several opportunities to stop the scene if you're not into it.
- There is surprising amount of character reactivity and even some tiny C&C, which shows that there would be potential for a more traditional story driven RPG here as well.
- Characters are a bit too similar, especially in the dialogue. There are some interesting character concepts that could've been explored deeper.
Additionally, I find it kinda funny how the happier(?) ending involves you
This certainly show the unique touch the developer has with some themes.
Definitely hope that we'll see more from them, hopefully with deeper combat mechanics and a little bit more ambitious writing. And with less buggery, if possible.
God damn, the game is LONG. I skipped a ton of optional content and it still took me more than 30 hours to clear.
Some thoughts:
- I really hated the level scaling. Not because of the level scaling, but because high level enemies get disarm and invulnerability, which is extremely annoying. Disarm lets them randomly disarm one equipment piece/weapon, forcing you to constantly pick stuff up. And when you do miss a disarm and exit the map with your unique soul weapon lying on the ground... Invulnerability on the other hand means that trash mobs can take entire extra round to kill (during which they can disarm you).
The worst part about that is the fact that almost EVERY enemy gets those skills. It is one thing when you encounter new, tougher enemies and know and expect them to disarm you or get invulnerable when you damage them enough... but when every damn zombie starts doing that it is simply retarded. I really recommend not turning the "leader scaling" on, you get XP faster but so do the enemies.
- The art is godly. So many alternative sprite sets. God damn. You don't need fancy animations, sprite diversity is way way way more immersive.
- Quite a few locations have interesting ambience and backstories. Makes it even more of a shame that they are so rarely explored deeper.
- The writing is really good. I like the way that they have introduced a couple of unique fluff concepts (the role of females in orcish society) and then explored them with several different perspectives. There is just the right amount of detail, not everything is explained but central themes are built up throughout the game.
- It is a little bit of a shame that most of the deeper character interaction involves buggery. It becomes distracting when (almost) every character gets his bunghole raided. The writer clearly has the talent to write non-sexual stuff as well, but the unique scenes mainly revolve around gay innuendo. Which shouldn't come as a surprise when you look at the art, but with such a large cast of bastards, some scenes for the straight folk would be appreciated. The scenes themselves are nothing too racy and the game is thoughtful enough to give you several opportunities to stop the scene if you're not into it.
- There is surprising amount of character reactivity and even some tiny C&C, which shows that there would be potential for a more traditional story driven RPG here as well.
- Characters are a bit too similar, especially in the dialogue. There are some interesting character concepts that could've been explored deeper.
Additionally, I find it kinda funny how the happier(?) ending involves you
making a deal with the devil, yet the game doesn't lecture you for that. After all the devil gave you 500 years of prosperity, it will be the future generations that will see the consequence.
Definitely hope that we'll see more from them, hopefully with deeper combat mechanics and a little bit more ambitious writing. And with less buggery, if possible.
Fixed. "Bigfingers" is one guy, which explains why all the writing seems to have one "voice". I'd love to see what he could come up with collaborating with another writer - the mechanics and art of BB are excellent, but the weak plotting at the beginning lost my interest fast.
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