Little Indie Games Worth Knowing About (Probably)

Yeah, the training wheels really come off after the first area. It definitely helps though once you start to get decent gear in each slot, which helps with later runs, and the various trait upgrades. I always like it when roguelikes are structured so your defeats help make you stronger, and this definitely does that.

I think a big mistake I have been doing is taking more cards, as opposed to leveling up cards and deleting weak cards. I think I have been weakening my hands by taking every card they offer me.

Yeah, that can definitely get you into trouble, but sometimes the cards you get are so good. And I’ve barely gotten into the third dungeon (once) so I’m sure there’s even better stuff later. I delete a card every time a healer shows. With captains, I try to upgrade , but will take a +3 AP early. If you see a sage, they will duplicate any one card in your hand, which can be crazy good depending on what you have.

Taking AP never seemed like it was worth it. I rarely have a turn where I have cards I can’t play because of being out of AP. That might have something to do with having too many weak cards though.

It should be worth it after the 1st dungeon when you have more cards in your hand.

I’m only halfway through the first dungeon after the tutorial but really digging this. I’m sure glad they added the mid-dungeon save. I would never be able to play it otherwise.

Is Poison 6 bugged or WAD? The text says the effect is cut in half for every card played, but it seems to be counting down by ones.

Poison is supposed to decrease by a single point each card you (or your opponent, if he is the one being poisonned) play.

Is this game good enough to have its own thread?

I think Poison may be the only effect that diminishes by 1 each round. All the other elemental effects are halved, I think.

I think so.

Been playing around with this and it’s interesting. Cleric seems pretty good, the little bit I have tried. But I am a bit mystified by other members of your party. So… they aren’t really party members, they just represent a skill you can invoke every two or three battles?

[quote=“Coldsteel, post:589, topic:73462, full:true”]
Is this game good enough to have its own thread?
[/quote] Looks it to me.

Well, keep in mind they each have two unlockable abilities you can “buy” when you rank up, and I think you need to get to the second dungeon to unlock the more powerful one. And they’re not only abilities on a cooldown timer. Some of them give you persistent bonuses like the warrior’s +1 to physical damage.

-Tom

Thanks. Yes, they look useful, though you have to unlock one particular companion’s abilities at a time, and that companion might not even be offered any particular playthrough. But they are useful.

My comment was just referring to these companions not being participants in battles, in the same sense as your own character. When I first chose cleric, it was because I figured I’d be the tank and let companions be the primary damage dealers. That is not practical here.

Been having a lot of fun with this one:

Anyone try this one? Only one non-early access review so far and it negative because the game wasn’t working and still has “coming soon” content. It looks really interesting though.

@LeeAbe - It’s been on my wish list. I think it’s a Banner Saga knockoff. I’m just waiting for some impressions and perhaps a little better price.

Low Magic Age’s early access version is available in English.

I tried it just a second: it is esthetically really raw (no animations to speak of, and mostly placeholder art). The only mode available is a free battle mode where you pick battles to level and gear up your party (which you can create in all its RPGian glory, although the game is nice enough to provide you with one from the get go). It is very simple on the surface, but there is a nice emphasis on placement, with engagement rules that prevent free movement, and the early battles are as brutal as D&D could be, with single hit kills - but the game holds no penalty to your party for now. The game is square-based, although you can attack diagonally, and while there is fog of war, there are no line of sight penalties.

I will probably leave it there, and wait patiently for the game to be out of EA, but when you got a base game that is simply this fun to play, it smells very good.

Of note, the translation seems to have to accommodate for an imposed limit of characters. A sort of revival of early 8-16 bits console games translation efforts, as it is sometimes trying to convey meaning skipping on vowels to substitude the original ideograms (sometimes effecitvely, as in Healers becoming HLRs; other instances can be less effective, as GW standing for Great Weapon Warrior).

Fort Triumph is a fantasy turn-based game currently in alpha. There’s a playable tech demo (which looks quite good already, see video) and they are heading to Kickstarter soon.

A few things to note here:

  • tactics look relatively advanced, including cover, flanking, overwatch, and attacks of opportunity.

  • lots of interactivity in the environment, such as knocking things over to use as cover or freezing a river to walk across it.

  • the game is intended to be replayed, with each game being quite different. From the website:

One of our goals was to create an engaging storyline and a deeper connection to characters. The stories of Fort Triumph are composed of several elements, procedurally generated from a selection of locations, enemies, allies, events, quests, and influenced by the player’s choices.

In one playthrough you may be facing a horde of monsters laying siege to your castle, in another you’re invading the domain of zealous subterranean molemen to rescue the duke’s spoiled son, and in a third you’re rallying an army for a climactic battle against a neighboring kingdom. No two playthroughs are alike.