Gameskinny has reviewed the time-travel RPG Cris Tales:
Cris Tales Review - Time For A New Adventure
The incredible world-building found in Cris Tales is often overshadowed by lackluster combat, regardless of the unique time travel mechanics.
Calling itself an "indie love letter to classic JRPGs," Cris Tales comes onto the market during a time of modern innovation within the genre. But instead of embracing the modernity that some titles have, it instead returns to the ideologies of turn-based JRPG combat, slower-paced grinds, and heartfelt stories.
[...]
Cris Tales has a top-notch art style and an eclectic cast of characters that all players will come to love. Pairing that with time manipulation mechanics and a beloved genre, Cris Tales could have been one of the better games to come out of 2021.
Unfortunately, a lack of diverse enemy types, standard combat, and some questionable difficulty progression outweigh the highest highs, making Cris Tales feel too out of place alongside its cohorts.
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The Legend of Zelda-like is dungeon-crawling without the baggage
Within five minutes of starting Death's Door I knew I was going to love it. The combat was basic but weighty. The visual presentation was sparse but bespoke. Its music, sometimes pastoral and serene, sometimes grim and despairing, made no secret that something special was going on, and my love for the indie action-RPG only continues to grow.
Currently out on PC and Xbox, people have been raving about Death's Door and they are right to do so. There's nothing shocking about its story or mechanics. What's shocking is just how good it is at everything it does. The attention-to-detail is striking: for example, when you chop a wooden sign in half and then try to read it, the top part of the text will be missing. I loathe completionism in games, but this is one where after 10 hours I still want to hunt down every weird side collectible and story secret.
In Death's Door, you play as a crow who's part of a grim reaper bureaucracy tasked with collecting the souls of those passing on to the afterlife. There's a conspiracy afoot, however. Soon, like X-Files' agent Moulder, you're off investigating witches' mansions and swamp castles, trying to find missing comrades and capture powerful souls to uncover the truth behind the afterlife. The rest unfolds like a classic 2D Zelda that's been stripped down and polished so that only the essentials are left-and they gleem so much, they're practically glowing.
A progress update for Broken Roads reveals graphics improvement.
We wanted to give a quick progress update on one of our favourite scenes from early in the Broken Roads adventure.
Hey everyone,
We wanted to give a quick progress update on one of our favourite scenes from early in the Broken Roads adventure: Kokeby Waystation.
This trading hub brings together people from all the nearby settlements, as well as the odd scavenger or water merchant who wanders in from further afield. If you start the game as a member of a Barter Crew, you'll begin your origin story here, but all characters will be able to visit Kokeby at some time or another.
In late 2019 when we first revealed Broken Roads, Kokeby Waystation was one of the locations we showed off in our earliest videos and screenshots:
The art team have been hard at work on bringing our environments to life better than ever before, and we're incredibly proud of the progress made since then.
October 2019 vs July 2021
We hope you enjoy this glimpse of things to come.
- The team at Drop Bear Bytes
The most recent update for Dust to the End announces that the game is releasing in early August.
The game will be available in two new languages: Spanish and French
Hello everyone:
This is a very special day for the whole team of Haojoy Game, since we can finally share with you that Dust to the End is going to be fully released in early August!
The idea of revealing the official date makes us feel excited, but we need to wait a bit more before that moment comes. Nevertheless, we can tell you the game will include two new language patches that players have been waiting for a long time: Spanish and French! This is happening thanks to our incredible community of players. Many of you have been working with us hand in hand to make Dust to the End a better game - and that's something we're going to appreciate forever!
Of course, these new translations will be open to corrections to make sure that everyone makes the most of their playing experience. Same goes for the current language packs in English, Chinese and Russian.
In addition to this, we're glad to announce that our recent partnership with 2P Games, an indie publisher who you might know from games like Immortal Life, Nigate Tale and Zengeon; will allow us to offer a better community and support service.
From now on, they will help us solve questions in the Steam forums and their Discord server is open for you all to make new friends, share your doubts about the game and send suggestions to improve it after the full release. We invite you to join them now and say "hi" in the main chat!
Don't hesitate to leave a message in the comment section if you have any further questions, we'll be looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks for your
time and have a nice day!
SteelySam checked out Solasta: Crown of the Magister:
Solasta: Crown of the Magister Virulent Review
Solasta is a Turn-Based Tactical RPG based on the Dungeons and Dragons SRD 5.1 Ruleset. In Solasta, you make the choices, dice decide your destiny. Wizards of the Coast granted Tactical Adventures a license to use the Dungeons and Dragons SRD 5.1 Ruleset, further anchoring our will to make the most faithful video game adaptation with the Tabletop Ruleset and craft the game you are hoping for!
The open world RPG The Wayward Realms got a Steam page and a trailer:
The Wayward Realms Teaser Trailer
Under the direction of Ted Peterson and Julian LeFay, lead developers of the team behind the original Elder Scrolls, Arena and Daggerfall, OnceLost Games is creating a new open-world fantasy RPG where choice and consequence are experienced on a scale never attempted before.
To delve too deeply into the characters you meet or their particular needs would be to spoil the fun of discovery, but along the way, there are thoughtful questions about morality and culture that juxtapose ancient Roman beliefs about slavery or the role of women, for example, against present-day thinking and current conflicts. While to some extent, each of the characters' specific quests or situations reflect a philosophical, ethical or moral dilemma, the subtext isn't too heavy-handed. Structurally, the game is clever amalgam of Roman myth and modern references. The repeating yet increasingly wise progression of time in Groundhog Day comes to mind, but of course, it could be said that The Forgotten City is a roguelike in disguise.
One drawback while playing through is that The Forgotten City doesn't keep a great record of your objectives and information. While you'll have a quest guide that walks you through your next steps, it is often missing vital information that you heard from a character, and the only way of regaining that information is to run through the same dialogue again. It's no problem for anyone with a scrap of paper or phone to hand, but it feels like the quest system could be a little more intuitive, especially when players are just getting their bearings.
Those familiar with Outer Wilds will have a very reminiscent experience here. Instead of zooming through space, transcribing ancient alien text and manipulating gravity though, you'll be chatting with people and tending to their woes with smaller moments of combat scattered throughout. Solving these problems, and exploring and deducing from the evidence you find are inextricably linked in a way that makes the entire game feel like one large puzzle that begs to be solved. Cunningness and creativity will be required in learning someone's story and all of its potential outcomes to then ultimately manipulate events to get your desired result. Like Outer Wilds, there's also that fun element of accidentally stumbling into an answer for a different quest that completely changes your immediate goals.
Clearly The Forgotten City is a game that speaks to those who revel in conversation. Those RPG fans who'd prefer not to fight or lash out, but converse and take a more steady, expository approach to finding a solution. It's no exaggeration to say that the mythos Modern Storyteller both utilize and borrow from here is both surprising and satisfying with where it ends up heading. And while the narrative's conclusion can come off too immersion-breaking or plain ridiculous for one's taste, the caliber of writing for the most part is no less impressive for a game of this physical scale. The presence of its time-loop premise may fall too far back into the shadow, but as minimal its influence on moment-to-moment gameplay may be, the consolation is that it allows the writing to rightly take center stage. Its momentary combat segments are woeful in their implementation and there's always a worry that another annoying bug or two can crop up when you least expect it. But for all its occasional grievances - that don't add up to too much - it's the intriguing mystery as much the appeal of its investigative leads across many a conversation where the strengths of The Forgotten City end up standing out most of all.
In case you do turn all your suspects to gold, The Forgotten City makes genius use of a time loop mechanic to keep your investigation going smoothly. Every time you break the Golden Rule by, say, killing somebody or stealing an item, you must run back to the starting portal and begin the day anew. The world resets to its original state but you keep everything in your inventory, allowing tangible progress from day-to-day and leading to some interesting conversations, such as how you know a character is about to do something or how you have a certain item in your possession that you couldn't possibly have without stealing it.
Since The Forgotten City started off as a Skyrim mod, anyone who has played that game will feel right at home with its visuals. Although, the graphics and animations in here are much more polished than what you would find in Skyrim. The facial animations in particular are much more realistic, albeit with some questionable lip syncing at times. The environments are highly detailed and feature some dynamic lighting effects as well. I did experience some pop-ins during my time with the preview build, but those issues have been ironed out for the launch build. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that it maintained a stable 60 fps at all times.
I will say that the bits of action that make up The Forgotten City are not great. Any time I fired a weapon or engaged in combat, it somehow felt sluggish and weighty. That obviously has a fair bit to do with being built around a game that was made in 2011, but there really isn't much of an excuse for a 2021 game to feel as awkward as this game sometimes does.
The Ascent - Dystopian Grimdark Isometric Action RPG
The Ascent Gameplay with splat! Let's Play The Ascent and check out a game where you'll escape from an evil corporation while blasting guns at every mutant, monster, and manthing that gets in your way.
Altercate has reviewed the Final Fantasy Remaster:
Final Fantasy 1 - Pixel Remaster Review (NEW 2021 Version)
Square Enix just released the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series, which includes a new version of the original Final Fantasy! But is the Pixel Remaster the best available version of Final Fantasy? If you're wondering what the game is like or if it's worth buying the new version, this video is for you.
Like every month The Turn Based Loverspresent the upcoming tactical / turn-based games:
On The Radar - August 2021
Upcoming turn-based games
"Things in Arizona don't just die; they bake and fry in the heat until there is nothing left."
― Jeffry R. Halverson
Usually August is not very exciting from the point of view of the releases.
Indeed, with the arrival of the Summer, even the purest turn-based lover feels the need to take a break from his favorite games, maybe going somewhere, away from the sweltering heat of the cities.
It is undeniable, in fact, that nowadays our beloved PCs looks more and more like a charcoal stove, a circumstance very useful during the winter, but that not when outside is so hot that you can see a fire hydrant chasing a dog.
But, even if this month may appear not so good for the release of a game, the list below can give us more than a reason to change our mind.
During August will be released 17 turn-based games (and I'm sure I missed a game or two...), and to be honest I cannot even remember a month so generous in terms of releases. A renaissance? A coincidence? Who knows, but what I know is that this month there is no time for chit- chat.
So, forget the heat, put your PC in the fridge and live this fantastic turn-based month!
P.S. Speaking of heat, do you know what is faster, hot or cold? Hot, because you can always catch a... cold... Ok I'll be quiet now.
CREATURES OF AETHER - 2nd August
SKALD: Against the Black Priory (E.A.) - 2nd August
Chris Davies reviewed Pillars of Eternity in his series "A History of Isometric CRPGs":
Pillars of Eternity Retrospective | A History of Isometric CRPGs (Episode 13)
Pillars of Eternity is the first true successor the classic Infinity Engine games of old. It does some things better and some things worse. Let's take a closer look.
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Gameskinny has reviewed the time-travel RPG Cris Tales:![[IMG]](https://sorcerers.net/images/news/rule.gif)
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