You are right. Aside from the card draws, the combat in Trials of Fire is entirely deterministic. Thanks for the write, the game look interesting enough.
So this is out of Early Access now and on sale on Steam for $15 US - any more recent impressions? Looking at this thread and the Steam info I’m kind of on the fence here…
I have played it and finished two successful runs and a few failures.
The overland ‘strategic’ layer is a lot like Slay the Spire, in that you choose a path and the types of encounter - battle, event or special - that you are going to travel via. There is however a lot more going on than in a typical roguelike node to node map. This includes that each land, there are three acts, is becoming corrupted, and if the corruption overtakes you and corrupts a node the event or battle will become far tougher. Even on normal challenge level I reckon you have to use the synergies of your heroes well to complete a run. For example, one hero might act as a tank and damage sponge, another mostly dedicate to buffs, and the third to traps and ranged damage. Each combat turn often involves careful positioning and choice of actions, aggressive or defensive, and end positions.
The battles are fantastic, like a medieval Xcom, and highly thoughtful and tactical. The team of 3 heroes you go in with develop in highly distinct ways and the combination of somewhat random level up options, relics and equipment makes for meaningful variation between runs.
Non-battle encounters are mini-narrative events, very like Trials of Fire or another choose-your-own-adventure game with potential for positive or negative impact, in particular gaining honor.
There is a fair amount of meta to unlock during runs, including upgraded versions of initial heroes, new heroes, new spells and new uh, Merlin-alternatives. Merlin acts as a kind of spiritual presence guiding the heroes and able to intervene in battles and some events. My first alternative to Merlin was Morgana.
The theme is very, very rich indeed. I have probably learned more about the King Arthur / Camelot legends from this than any other single source, and I have read threads on Steam from people that wanted to just be able to enjoy the Camelot theme and stories without the combat, which seems like a compliment to the writing.
So I played through one Act of this and partway through the second Act, a couple of hours of play and it is a fairly solid example of a rogue like but sort of drove home a point that I should have realized years ago: I don’t like rogue likes. I think when they were less common, this dislike would only crop up mildly but now that they seem to be dominating the indie TBS sub-genre, which is my wheelhouse, I’ve come to hate them.
This game would have been SO MUCH better with a conventional power curve. I had to put it down. This is a matter of personal taste, not game quality. I don’t like perma death, and I don’t like that “living hand to mouth” feeling of a rogue like, which are selling points to other gamers. I also don’t like the limited info, randomness, etc.
This riffs into the managed risk v. guaranteed risk meta thread I started a few days back.
I should really avoid anything that is classed as rogue like or rogue-lite. I just don’t like em, regardless of the actual quality.
The actual quality of Hand of Merlin seems solid; it’s just not to my taste.
Sharpe’s post almost sold 1 more copy of Hand of Merlin!
Then I watched the first video on the steam page. I don’t know how to link directly to a video on a Steam page and I can’t find that exact video on YouTube.
Am I insane, or are the graphics extremely dark and indistinct in that video? Game looks terrible. And in any daylight scenes, shadows streak across the ground, dominating the visuals. But I’m not controlling the shadows. I’m controlling my little dudes! Why are the shadows more prominent than my dudes?!?
Rage non-purchase
If the game is like that, it should be easy enough to show us in any of the YouTube videos of the game so we understand what you mean.
found it! outside of a couple shots, all the tactical battle clips look horrible to me
Now that you mention, the artwork always looks like it is at sunset. Darkness though? Maybe you monitor isn’t adjusted right? It looks fine to me.
lol monitor’s fine
dark scenes:
:05 :25 :30 1:00 1:07 1:13 1:20 1:38
Most of the other scenes have mile-long shadows.
I tried this a couple of months ago. No issue with the grafixs here, but I found the combat kinda boring, basically using the same skill (shoot? Hit?) again and again. Maybe if you survive long enough you get to play with more options? I wasn’t patient enough to find out.
Thanks for the impressions! I have it and need to get back to trying it after a brief flirtation.
I hate to be the downer here but I’m starting to really get sour on the game.
I’ve finished it almost 10 times now on normal. I lost 1-2 runs total. I found the game extremely easy on normal. The problem is some skills are incredibly strong (Quick Draw) and some are incredibly weak (Decoy, Second Wind). The real difficulty come from understanding which skills are in the former category and which is in the latter.
The characters themselves have different passives and starting skills to set them apart from others in the same class but some are absolutely terrible (Wilfred).
There is not enough enemy and battle variety. The main difficulty comes from attrition. Since most moves have charges, the game relies on sending bodies to wear the player down.
The game have a few good things going for it like theme but I think this game should’ve stayed in EA for another year.
Thanks for the summary, I will keep it wishlisted and see what people are saying a few months down the road.
I’ve been giving this a try.
It strikes me as an odd game. It’s mainly a tactical battle game, but lacks facing, zone of control, and a movable camera to inspect the battlefield. And it has seemed to me that the main way to lose is through the enemy suddenly getting huge reinforcements late in a tough battle – which is not totally unrealistic, but does not leave you with a sense of agency. Which I think is more of a problem in a long game than a short one.
Still, I can’t deny that I am having fun. Just not a game I am likely to want to play over and over, which does not fit well with it being a roguelike.
Yuck, I don’t like that, unless there is some indication it’s going to happen.
Seemed arbitrary to me. Certainly out of your control.
I finished my run, and I would say that the central theme of this game is limited agency. Things just happen. Skills you choose turn out to be far more or less useful than expected, because of things that just happen.
I’m not a roguelike fan at all, but I suppose it’s all part of the idea you are supposed to replay the game not just with added unlocks, but building knowledge of these arbitrary occurrences. ??
But I can’t say it wasn’t fun.
You just have to know via repeated playthroughs.
Is this like Vagrus?
The abilities weight alot?