Path of Achra [early access] - The Next Evolution in Roguelikes?

Games
1

@Misguided asked me to start a thread over in the action roguelike thread, so I’ll just paste what I said in the indie games thread to start things off:

So I’ve lost five hours to this in a couple of days:

Basically, it’s something of a twist on the Vampire Survivors formula. You pick your build beforehand (race, class, religion), and then are thrust into random areas, each with enemies, many with loot. Once an area is clear you pick the next one, and some are tougher than others. Along the way you acquire new powers and gear, and you can really get a visceral build, whether a stabby assassin or a wizard or a summoner with a billion pets.

Now, some may dislike the gameplay. It’s turn-based, and all you do is hold down the right mouse button or tab key, and the game does the rest. I, personally, am fine with this, as I love having a somewhat active part in the slaughter (as you can use number keys to pop off specific blessings or prayers), but it’s also an amazing game to play when you don’t have much fuel in the ol’ brain tank, if you know what I mean.

I honestly love this game. Unlocking new classes, races and religions is super fun, and every build I’ve tried has been enjoyable in some way (though some have been way more successful than others).

So yeah, if you want something akin to a bullet heaven, but not quite, do check this out.

2

So I think I’ve unlocked every culture, class and religion available right now, and wow are some of these builds fun.

Also the game has chakras, which anyone who’s played Kingdoms of Amalur knows, is the best weapon ever.

3

Good lord! There are dozens of each category, how many more hours have you played?

Some people have compared this game to Path of Exile (despite being turn-based) in that the idea is to put together a build that clears the screen of enemies. And while the moment to moment gameplay is fairly rudimentary for a roguelike (there aren’t any consumable items, and skills activate on their own, but there are prayers you get based on the religion you choose), I managed a win on my fourth run and it felt immensely satisfying to put together a skill, gear, and character build that popped off.

This is a roguelike you can play in an hour. While I think there’s a ton of depth here it’s in putting a build together and if people go in expecting that, tough to not appreciate this one for how unique it is.

4

Dozens? Oh then I’ve not unlocked them all yet. Dang.

5

This is what I’ve unlocked after eight hours.

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6

Which combo did you win with? I won with an Stran assassin ashem.

Only once though, have only gotten close once since.

7

Yeah, I overstated that. I think that’s all of them.

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I wish it showed my encumbrance

8

1,8 million damage, god damn.

9

I found my encumbrance, it was 127 🤣

10

Holy shit, you had all the things.

11

Can confirm.

12

I am glad you are enjoying it guys, I had to bow out personally, I just like them a bit more interactive myself.

13

Did @tomchick edit the thread title? This isn’t an action roguelike.

@Chappers I get it, this is really different. The emphasis is much more on coming up with a build idea then putting it into practice. Much like Monster Train, you have to become strong in a hurry or your run is going to end. There’s no real sense here of careful, deliberate play is going to carry you through (for more than a room or two anyway).

14

Why am I getting called out?!?!???

Okay, fair enough, the culprit tends to be me when titles get edited. :) I don’t know the first thing about this game except that you guys got me excited about it and then I went to check it out and I saw it’s early access. Ugh. So I put the [early access] tag in the header. But all the other words are @BrianRubin’s, so you’ll have to take up any genre nomenclature with him.

15

While I generally share your distaste for early access and would completely understand if you just wanted to avoid all of them on general principles, to me this, like Vampire Survivors in its time, feels like a complete and worthwhile game experience already and the continuing development is likely just going to expand and further polish the experience. It’s not like it’s a story thing or is missing big chunks of the game, like a lot of early access titles.

16

I have no desire to play unfinished games. I’m happy to wait until developers have spent the time they need to reach whatever arbitrary threshold they call 1.0. In fact, I’d prefer it.

So you concede you’re settling for a restricted and less polished experience when you play the early access version? That’s an unusual tack to take in these kinds of posts. :)

17

Thread title updated. Apologies for the confusion.

18

It’s not the sort of game where that materially impacts the experience or where starting with whatever arbitrary point they consider “released” brings that much advantage. Like, if I had started Vampire Survivors with its 1.0 version I probably would have a lot less completion with it because I would simply have had less time with the game. I also strongly suspect that, like VS, “release” will have little relation to development ending.

19

Sorry! I just didn’t recall it saying that before, lol.

It’s funny though, isn’t it, that as far as 1.0 goes, the general expectation among gamers these days is that there will be ongoing support of a game, regardless of whether or not it is intended as a “live service” game or sobering like that?

I don’t mind funding development by playing EA games, though I greatly prefer it when the gameplay loop is complete vs “here’s act 1 of 3”

20

Well, we should expect “support” for anything we buy, whether it’s a boardgame with misprinted counters or a videogame that doesn’t support NVIDIA drivers. Traditionally, support occurs after a product is sold to the consumer, and development occurs before. I realize it’s rarely that tidy, but if the folks designing a game see fit to make the distinction by specifying “early access” instead of “1.0”, I’m happy to believe them. At which point now they’re in the unsteady territory of being developers having to support games they haven’t even released yet, but that’s nothing to do with me since I’m not interested in playing those games. :)

But, yes, it’s a blurry line because videogames, among other reasons.