Stumbled across the email for it earlier tonight buried under my Promotions tab. Pretty sure it's open for everyone who backed on PC - I'm in it at the $20 tier - and I couldn't find an NDA or anything around it, so now that I've run through the first few hours, figured it was worth a thread for both impressions and letting other 'fire and forget' backers know it's here.
Quick refresher for anyone unfamiliar:
It's a hard game to describe concisely. Essentially, it plays as JRPG-meets-ARPG dungeon diver. You run around the overworld from an old-school JRPGish point of view, visiting towns, picking up loot, and fighting enemies on your way to dungeons, which put you in a Diablo/Torchlight-esque labyrinth of interconnected rooms. You explore the dungeons in real time much like an ARPG, looting chests, interacting with objects, pulling levers, fishing, avoiding (and baiting enemies into) traps, and battling nefarious dungeon-spawn. Enemies are all visible while you explore, and when you run into them, bam, turn-based JRPG combat time.
So, with that out of the way, impressions:
- First thought I had was that the game is gorgeous. Love the Joe Madureira art, and it's been translated beautifully. The game doesn't skimp on the animated cutscenes, either. The voice acting is a lot of fun, too.
- I really like the overworld, which has that hand drawn Darkest Dungeon-style. Hadn't heard about it before, so the presentation was a nice surprise.
-Towns and shops were handled through dialogue as opposed to the 'ground level' view you get in dungeons, but it didn't feel lacking at all. Every place of interest is manned by an actual character, rather than a generic shopkeeper or a lone dialogue box, so it was always nice interacting with them. Portrait art is stellar. Pyre vibes in the overall feel of towns.
- I played through the first dungeon, and it was meaty. I'm pretty sure it took somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour, and I never felt like I was just grinding through. A healthy amount of traps (that hurt enemies too), lots of loot, lore dumps and puzzles that are interesting but don't take themselves too seriously either, a good enemy variety, fishing, etc. I think dungeons are randomized ARPG-style, and I know that they come with two difficulties available the first time around with a third unlockable. I played through on the higher difficulty and unlocked the highest, so I don't know whether or not the lower difficulty does as well.
- Combat is solid. I was a smidge worried at first because I opened the game doing a lot of overworld exploration that led to a bit too much of that bland early JRPG fighting, but within a few levels things really began to open up with new abilities, gear, perks/specs, combat systems, etc. The stuff that they've added level-to-level has been really good so far.
- There seems to be a very healthy amount of side stuff. Crafting, fishing, a bestiary with hunts, the aforementioned Legendary dungeon rerun difficulty, sidequests and side dungeons, and I'm only just out the first dungeon and still getting lots of stuff thrown my way.
Negatives?
- Run speed in dungeons is a tad slow.
- On the tier 2 "heroic" difficulty, most combat wasn't too challenging once I got a grip on everyone's roles and abilities. I did start to feel a bit of a pinch towards the end of the dungeon though, so I could see some bad rolls leading to a less fortunate end, and the tier 3 "Legendary" difficulty is probably a solid challenge.
- Fishing is alright. It seems useful, but the implementation is pretty basic. It wasn't bad or anything, and I still happily cleared out every fishing hole I came across, but it was more of a "gathering resources oh boy hope I get something good" feel than an intrinsically fun activity.
Anyway, I could write a lot more, but that seems long enough for an OP. Overall, I'm very pleased with the game so far, and am probably gonna dump a few more hours into it tonight. So, if you're a Kickstarter backer, check your email for a beta key, and enjoy.
Quick refresher for anyone unfamiliar:
Battle Chasers: Nightwar is an RPG inspired by the classic console greats, featuring deep dungeon diving, turn-based combat presented in a classic JRPG format, and tons of secrets, story and randomly-generated replay goodness.
It's a hard game to describe concisely. Essentially, it plays as JRPG-meets-ARPG dungeon diver. You run around the overworld from an old-school JRPGish point of view, visiting towns, picking up loot, and fighting enemies on your way to dungeons, which put you in a Diablo/Torchlight-esque labyrinth of interconnected rooms. You explore the dungeons in real time much like an ARPG, looting chests, interacting with objects, pulling levers, fishing, avoiding (and baiting enemies into) traps, and battling nefarious dungeon-spawn. Enemies are all visible while you explore, and when you run into them, bam, turn-based JRPG combat time.
So, with that out of the way, impressions:
- First thought I had was that the game is gorgeous. Love the Joe Madureira art, and it's been translated beautifully. The game doesn't skimp on the animated cutscenes, either. The voice acting is a lot of fun, too.
- I really like the overworld, which has that hand drawn Darkest Dungeon-style. Hadn't heard about it before, so the presentation was a nice surprise.
-Towns and shops were handled through dialogue as opposed to the 'ground level' view you get in dungeons, but it didn't feel lacking at all. Every place of interest is manned by an actual character, rather than a generic shopkeeper or a lone dialogue box, so it was always nice interacting with them. Portrait art is stellar. Pyre vibes in the overall feel of towns.
- I played through the first dungeon, and it was meaty. I'm pretty sure it took somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour, and I never felt like I was just grinding through. A healthy amount of traps (that hurt enemies too), lots of loot, lore dumps and puzzles that are interesting but don't take themselves too seriously either, a good enemy variety, fishing, etc. I think dungeons are randomized ARPG-style, and I know that they come with two difficulties available the first time around with a third unlockable. I played through on the higher difficulty and unlocked the highest, so I don't know whether or not the lower difficulty does as well.
- Combat is solid. I was a smidge worried at first because I opened the game doing a lot of overworld exploration that led to a bit too much of that bland early JRPG fighting, but within a few levels things really began to open up with new abilities, gear, perks/specs, combat systems, etc. The stuff that they've added level-to-level has been really good so far.
- There seems to be a very healthy amount of side stuff. Crafting, fishing, a bestiary with hunts, the aforementioned Legendary dungeon rerun difficulty, sidequests and side dungeons, and I'm only just out the first dungeon and still getting lots of stuff thrown my way.
Negatives?
- Run speed in dungeons is a tad slow.
- On the tier 2 "heroic" difficulty, most combat wasn't too challenging once I got a grip on everyone's roles and abilities. I did start to feel a bit of a pinch towards the end of the dungeon though, so I could see some bad rolls leading to a less fortunate end, and the tier 3 "Legendary" difficulty is probably a solid challenge.
- Fishing is alright. It seems useful, but the implementation is pretty basic. It wasn't bad or anything, and I still happily cleared out every fishing hole I came across, but it was more of a "gathering resources oh boy hope I get something good" feel than an intrinsically fun activity.
Anyway, I could write a lot more, but that seems long enough for an OP. Overall, I'm very pleased with the game so far, and am probably gonna dump a few more hours into it tonight. So, if you're a Kickstarter backer, check your email for a beta key, and enjoy.