I can’t believe we don’t have a thread for this, but it is a pretty darn indie game that seems to have snuck out of early access at some point. I bought it years ago for five bucks (it’s $9.99 now) and even gifted several copies around because I had so much fun with the early access Arena mode where you roll up a party of D&D characters and tackle waves of enemies, gaining levels and better equipment as you go. As far as game modes go, it’s a pretty fun one. And the combat is the highlight of the game - it’s turn based, classic Open Gaming License (OGL) era 3rd edition D&D but with some twists and QoL improvements I really like (for one thing, many spells require “spell materials”, a resource you have to replenish with hard-earned gold in cities or can find as loot, but spells have cool-downs rather than “casts per day” so your early game spell casters are really useful right from the jump, which I love).
LMA features sprites from the same artist that created TOME, and in some ways (animations and flow of combat) it feels almost like a party-based TOME - there is even a Roguelike difficulty option. But I digress, what I wanted to really talk about is Adventure Mode!
So this is what must have been added for it to drop out of Early Access. I’m a little confused as it’s receiving regular patches and is still in the 0.9 version number, but I also don’t see an early access tag in the store any longer.
But Adventure Mode is a little bit of TOME and a little bit of Battle Brothers, with a pinch of Temple of Elemental Evil thrown in. You start off creating a party of characters, or picking some pre-made dudes (there is a decent variety of avatar sprites and portraits to choose from, but there is also a good amount of variety found in the Workshop for more), and you start off washed ashore and in search of your other companions. You quickly find them, and start following the main quest chain. So far, this is largely “accumulate reputation and wealth to continue” and the brunt of the game is actually exploring the world, delving into dungeons, taking various quests in cities and keeps, training skills at Adventure Guilds (this is how you get Open Locks and Disarm Traps, by the way, you will not start with these skills - just a friendly PSA).
In this way the game plays a bit like Battle Brothers - gaining XP, loot & treasure, having fun stomping kobald slingers and dire rats, exploring dungeons (these have their own random map and are very fun so far, with traps and treasure and monster rooms).
I lost almost three hours this morning rolling up a quick party and playing around - we’re nearly level 3 and I’m almost at the point where I can start the next leg of the main quest when I decided to put a pin in it and write something up, as I think (especially for ten bucks) there is enough meat here to easily recommend it. I’m enjoying it very much so far - the combat is fast yet fun and satisfying, everything feels very intuitive (there is a lot of great tool-tip information, from what effects are actively applied to a unit to what a spell or ability does), and it really looks fantastic.
Has anyone else ever picked this up and tooled around with it? I may record some footage of it, just to get something out on my channel, if anyone would be interested.
Also, this topic is similar to Dead Like Me: Life After Death, LIFE-not LIKE, you dumbfucking Japboy-is like a hurricane (this is a topic I may have to check out, wtf), and Are films like District 9 good or bade date films. (The 5th District 9 thread).