This is a top-down fighter/shooter with roguelike levelbuilding, in which you play a Wizard going through a randomly generated battle trial, empowered by various spells. You've got a slash, a dash, and a collection of ranged spells to destroy from a distance. Each of your spells (a set of four chosen prior to every run) has some elemental aspect, either air, fire, ice or earth, and there's about a hundred to choose from, letting you have whatever combination and playstyle you like.
Each run contains three different areas, with a couple of minibosses and an elemental boss to defeat, and are each themed with a given element, so that you want to keep at least some variety in your murder magic.
There are also a few other mechanics to add a bit of strategy to your playthroughs. Each new spell has to be bought in the town with gems, which you acquire during dungeon delves and are persistent between runs, but you also acquire gold, which only hangs around for each single run. You can use it in the dungeons to buy spells or relics temporarily, keeping them only until you die. Relics are equippable items that have an influence on your attack/defense/dodging etc, but you can still only have one at a time. Odds are good you'll find a build you like in all of the options. Plus, you can pick your favourite manly cape.
That does mean that occasionally some of the spells feel a bit worthless, as they might do things that don't match your personal playstyle. I'd like to suggest only buying spells permanently that you've already tested and discovered you like in the dungeon, but if you're anything like me, you're just going to acquire them all anyway.
When I first picked this up, I spent about twenty minutes on it and then rage-quit. I don't know whether I'm just bad at this sort of thing (quite possible, don't play them often) or it's harder than most. The combat can be a bit punishing, and I've not actually managed to get past about level 4 at this point. I may need to learn a bit more patience. And strategy. And moving quickly.
It has a local co-op mode, but I've not yet managed to get the Girl playing it. (We still need to finish Full Metal Furies, so struggling to start anything else in the meantime.) However, I keep being dragged back to it, so it's obviously pegged its challenge level at just the right point. I'm determined to get further through it, damnit.
More fun than I expected, and it looks like they're going to keep supporting it with more stuff, so likely to keep pulling me back till I beat it. (It's possible that will be never, I'm not the best at these.) Can be a bit repetitive, as the levels don't really vary much (and have bloody annoying pits you can fall into a bit too easily), but the fun of unleashing hell on things makes it one you'll likely continue to pick up.
Tagged: Game Roguelike Topdown Hard difficulty PC