Today I review another demo
on Steam. This time it’s Josia’s Kacau (2025).
The title screen could belong
to Castlevania game, I reckon. Nice ripple effect. What makes this game is so
interesting is: the title “Kacau” is very catchy. It’s Indonesia for “chaotic”
so I expect the game will be total turmoil.
There are 3 save slots, which
are standard for modern game. Oh God! I hate those creepy eyes on the top.
There could be voyeur behind that save slots.
So, here’s the game. It’s
like Diablo but you have gun and you can shoot at specific spot instead
of solid target, allowing you to have more flexible aim. Maybe it’s closer to
Crimsonland but in 3D isometric perspective instead of flat top-down view.
The gun only can hold 10
bullets so I think it’s not that ideal to deal with large group of enemies. But
I have grenade, activated by pressing right mouse button. Demoman_taunts08.wav
Oh, I see. I have to go to
that blue orb thingy to progress. Doing so, triggers these options which
similar to Hades or what have you. I take the most bottom option because
double damage sounds very useful.
Then I have to go that
portal. Sure. It’s Hell Worlds all over again.
It takes me to this shabby
camp area. I met with this grim reaper at the beginning and now I meet him
again but he disappears quickly again. I get new objective though: Activate all
3 teleporters, written on top right corner.
I find another magic blue orb.
This time I choose “+100 basic damage & increased knockback” boost. It’s
better than “base attack + 5”, right?
I activated a stone pedestal
that I thought it was teleporter. It’s not. It makes me fly like superman to
designated area that I choose. Scout_sf12_badmagic11.wav
I don’t know what’s that
thing sleeping on the left but I want it. I need 300 gold coin to wake it up.
Or I can spend 150 gold coins
to open chest! Opening chest needs gold? Outrageous! Spy_negativevocalization03.wav
The teleporter is the obelisk
around this place but to make it completely active, I have to stay at
the area around it. Basically, I’m playing control point. Soldier_standonthepoint01.wav
Do you remember that
sleeping thing that requires 300 coins to wake it up? Turns out it was dragon
with ability to shoot green rubber laser that heals me. Funny thing is: it may
belong to vertical shmup Raiden because how flexible it is.
I believe I have stayed in
this area quite forever and the control point percentage is only 41%? Scout_jeers06.wav
I activate the ultimate skill
by pressing “Q” button. The screen becomes blur and red. But other than that,
I’m not sure what else the ultimate skill does. Maybe I should keep shooting
while it’s still active.
Finally, I get enough gold
from dead enemies to open the damn chest near the obelisk. There’s quick help
that skill orb that from the chest can run away! Why the prize within a chest
can run away????
Oh God! The creepy eye is
back. So, I manage to get the skill orb which is not that hard thing to do. So,
the orb is random upgrade. I got max health +50. I prefer more damage power but
I will take what I can get.
Finally, the obelisk is fully
charged. It takes a whole century [obviously hyperbolic] to charge the
teleporter. Moreover, I have to do this routine 2 more times! The combat is
fine but it’s next to necessary to have the charging rate 2 or 3 times faster.
For successful attempt on charging the obelisk, it spawns huge drop of blood
that -I assume- to restore my health but the healing dragon is all I need.
I though the evil goop of
flesh is bad to touch. Turns out, it’s jump spring! Scout_apexofjump02.wav
I get another skill orb and
this time I pick skill that makes my dash releases water wave. It doesn’t
relate to increase my damage output but I feel lazy to reroll because it costs
gold coin. I’m stingy and lazy person.
When there’s very large group
of enemies like this, I feel it’s unnecessary to use the gun. Just use the
grenade and flee. Good thing I pick the water power for the dash.
Consider it blessing on your
side that I skip to the last obelisk. Luckily, I show the demo in written media
instead of real time video because the charging process is superbly long
process and also my laptop is not strong enough to make the game runs at 60
FPS. I may push my luck too hard on playing this demo but curiosity gets the
best of me.
Anyway, let’s talk about the
enemies. Most of them are melee attacker and becomes real threat when they’re
snowballing but still not as dangerous as Da Ork’s Green Wave. Some of them can
jump to your near location but there’s ground indicator where he lands so if
you keep moving you will be fine. Then there’s big one with giant axe who can
sometime charge at you but once again if you keep moving you will be safe from
it. Then there are witches that stand still can shoot homing projectiles.
They’re your top priority because those projectiles are troublesome.
There’s super rare moment
where enemies aren’t present at all. Anyway, you can clearly see what I have
here. I get another dragon but this one fire lobbing projectile like mortar.
Then I have these lightning orbs that can zap anyone who dare gets close to me.
Kind of like shield satellite in Operation Carnage. I remember only
having 2 of these orbs, no idea why they increase in number up to this moment.
All 3 of the teleporters are
activated which lead to the first boss fight against Morvella the Witch! She
likes to conjures flying skulls and dark geyser from ground. Amidst her intense
bombardment, I notice that there’s skeleton playing piano over there. He’s as
charming as skeleton biker from Castlevania 64.
Morvella herself is quite
funny. I thought a witch should be scary but Morvella isn’t. I mean look at her
doing pirouette with Kung Fu pose! How am I supposed to get scared of her?
Oh wow! Morvella is cussing
me. Rude! Also, I notice that this is another game that implements
Danmaku/bullet hell so I have to be careful.
When her health is less than
50%, he begins to spin in center while emitting big dark laser and the area
becomes noticeably smaller. Move clockwise while send bullet or grenade to the
center. That’s my only tips.
Ok. She’s sick of her own
spinning laser trick. She’s back to her old routine Kung Fu pirouette.
Enough swearing already.
You’re going down soon!
Houston. We have problem. I
deplete her entire health but she still attacking me (while cursing too). To
make thing horribly worse, I can’t do anything except dashing and the dash has
significant cooldown so I can’t dodge her attack everytime.
Eventually, I unfairly died
to that witch and I’m stuck in this game over screen forever. I try pressing
any button and nothing happens. This game is far from perfect. But I believe given time, the game will no longer be undercooked like this.
Josia’s Kacau (2025)
is interesting shooter roguelite game. I never played any game similar to this.
I don’t think Vampire Survivor is the same genre as this game because
the player has auto-attack feature. Please do let me know other game that have
same gameplay! This game has solid gameplay aspect but with some apparent bug
and flaw. The most annoying aspect of the gameplay is how slow the charging
rate for the point control on top of that I have to do that for 3 times! It
should be 2 or 3 times faster. It’s kind of monotonous that I’m stuck with gun
that have 10 bullets capacity. I watch someone play this game and when he dies,
he respawns to an area where he can pick other weapon that may similar to
starter area of Curse of Dead Gods. Apparently, I’m too good with the
initial loudout that I’m denied to this loudout change feature. Another problem
is there’s no graphic setting so I can set it to low and make the game runs
smoother. But that’s just me having low-spec laptop. Other than that, the game
is fine and I have fun playing it. Unlike when I play Hell Worlds that
feels unfair and tedious. Gold coin is pretty easy to get as long as you kill many many enemies. Sound effect is pretty good. The music is kind of
nonexistent.
Summary:
It gets pass on my wishlist
It takes long time for me to get the decent
computer that can run this game smoothly. But in the meantime, it deserves
place on my wishlist. Even though there’s the creepy eye git.
Now that I had the technical
issue sorted out. I can play more game on STEAM and slowly chipping that
backlog. So, I play Choose-your-heir em up game: Cellar Door Games’ Rogue
Legacy (2013-2018). Credit to TheGameWanderer_ gave me this game 2 years ago.
That’s awesome title screen.
Huge castle with evil figure on the top. I also like the huge broad sword on
the logo. Look powerful but generic. But again, the game is all about generic
fantasy. Hero goes to evil castle to vanquish evil lord. I’m not sure the
detail, how I know about this game. Most likely from reading an HG101 article
about it. Anyway, I start my legacy now!
My Duties are for my family…
But I am loyal only to myself
That’s what he said as the
nameless hero walks. I like this tutorial section that acts as story in the
past, judging by the septia tone. It’s also serves as prologue credit.
What’s relatively unique in
this game is this switch platform that you need to hit with your downward
thrust to make it become platform that you can step on. There’s bit bounce when
you successfully hit something with the downward thrust so you can activate
that platform safely.
Press X to attack, now? He
looks like good king. Why? In previous section, there’s also tutorial button to
attack but I use it to kill grey knight that looks evil and he attacked me
first. But this time, I have to strike down your highness in the back. Are we
the bad guy? But again, he says “But I am loyal only to myself” so it tracks.
Then I move on to other character.
Judging by the normal color filter, we’re move on to present time. Right in
first room, there’s conveniently placed prince’s journal. The first page says
“Treason! An assassin has wounded my father, the king”. So, the bastard that I
played on tutorial is bad guy. This won’t happen if there are more guard than
just that one grey knight. Anyway, according to this journal. We’re on cursed
castle that house and item that cure any ailment. The prince is tasked to
retrieve because the king order all of his children to do so. I assume the king
possibly bedridden because of the grave wound, needs the miracle healing item
to cure the injury. Can’t he afford the best medical treatment in the kingdom?
He’s king afterall!
Ok, buddy. That’s not how
spear works. Spear doesn’t generate slash wave. Only sword in anime, does that.
I found chicken drumstick but
it only heals 10 HP. So little. At a glance, you should notice
that this game is parody of Castlevania. Chicken drumstick out of candles,
living armor, and that skeleton that lobs bone. And the hero’s magic is just
straight-out throwing knife from Castlevania’s sub-weapon! Instead using heart
that kind of nonsense, it uses MP cost. Funny thing is: the tutorial doesn’t
explain about this magic for some reason. It’s pretty useful on combat.
Pressing “B” button will use the magic/sub-weapon.
Since, the game uses control
configuration of XBOX controller. I have little bit of hard time to get used to
it because I often use Playstation controller configuration. The game did
warn me that the button symbol will not match with controller that I plug
in, even though the controller works fine. Luckily, there’s light on my
controller which illuminates XBOX controller’s symbols besides the usual
Playstation controller’s symbol albeit, they’re significantly smaller. So, “B”
button is circle button. “X” button (for sword slash) is square button. “A”
button (for jump) is cross button. That’s just my personal technical issue.
Then I meet this elf. She
isn’t hostile but offer me to gamble with my money. With fee of 25% of my
current gold, I can pick one of 3 chests. The correct chest contains triple the
fee amount which is 75% of my current gold but other 2 chests contain nothing.
I like to earn gold honest way by killing evil denizens instead of gambling so
no thanks.
Then I encounter zombie which
is easily ignorable enemy because how weak and stupid he is and guardbox which
is automatic cannon. The latter is significantly more dangerous than the
former.
The unique enemy in
this game is monster that disguises as painting. The fake painting will rattle
a bit so you can tell whether a painting is real or monster. But I just slash
any painting that I see.
I found another teleporter.
Paired it with the one on entrance. I can go back to entrance…but what for? The
entrance gate is locked, I can’t get out. There’s no healing source or shop in
entrance area. So, what’s the point? On the bright side, I got chicken
drumstick and MP potion from breaking these statues.
I arrive at the dungeon. I
don’t think I’m not supposed to be here because I encounter skeleton level 55!
Actually, the skeleton is not much of problem because he does what other stupid
skeletons do: hop a bit and then throw slow bone. The real problem comes from
the eyeball below that spraying me with blood within a box that I can’t go
through. Anyway, I will chop you to pieces! To hell with you Mr. Bones from
that Sega Saturn game!
I keep pushing my luck here.
Theoretically, I’m fine as long as I can dodge their overleveled attack. The
ninpo throw fast shuriken at me while the mage will conjure big stalagmite at
the designated area.
Enemies sometime drop
gold coin but the most reliable source of gold is definitely treasure chest! Heavy_mvm_collect_credits01.wav
Then our hero killed by wall
turret on ceiling, makes me wish I can install arrow trap on ceiling in Kagero – Deception 2.
Here’s the main
gimmick/feature of the game. Once your hero died, they will get replaced with
their child with random traits. This gameplay aspect that lives up game’s
title. The main element of the heirs are class and magic spell they have. Then
the minor element is trait that range from useful, detrimental, or novelty.
Some of the traits are: immune to knockback effect, increased knockback effect
on attack, take extra knockback effect, large body size, small body size,
far-sighted, or near-sighted. You have 3 heir choices and you can switch
between them with up and down direction.
From the gold loot Sir Lee
got, we can expand our manor which basically similar to technology tree. You
can or rather you must unlock the 3 main NPC: smithy, architect, and
enchantress. I will talk about what they can do later. Besides unlocking NPCs,
you spent the coin to upgrade stats such as maximum health, sword attack power,
and maximum mana. I prefer increasing attack power because I feel like
increasing maximum health is not beneficial due to how scarce the healing item.
The same problem that I got in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic where
maximum health upgrade felt not significant benefit. I also upgrade knight into
paladin who has ability to block with their shield.
Smithy is for making
equipment. There are 5 pieces of equipment: sword, helmet, chest plate, limbs
(or gauntlet and greave, to be more precise). And cape. The equipment’s price
depends on the grade. Smithy will have more equipment to make if you can bring
him equipment blueprint.
Enchantress is for
enhancement on each equipment piece. She has enhancement for dash and double
jump already! The latter clearly is a must-have in any platformer game.
Enhancement’s price is the same on any kind. However, for every enhancement you
bought, the price is getting more expensive. So, choose wisely! It’s
inadvisable to buy enhancement that you think bad or you don’t like.
Enchantress will have more enhancement if you can bring her runestone.
Lastly, the architect. He’s
not that useful in my opinion. The nature of this evil castle is: it changes
its layout for every run. However, you can tell architect to lock the layout
from your previous run. But your gold income become 60% for the current run.
Obviously, I want as many gold as I can get so I don’t like the architect that
much.
But the biggest bastard among
the NPC is probably Charon here. He will take any remaining gold you have as
toll to enter the castle. Naturally, you want to maximize your expense around
here before you enter the castle. It’s better than waste any gold that you can
still spend for something useful to not-Grim Reaper here.
If you are lucky, you
encounter a room with fairy chest. It won’t open until you finish the
challenge. It’s ranged from something simple like kill all enemies, take no
damage or no fighting at all until you’re near to the chest. One of the absurd
challenges is: you must traverse through series platform above spike
pit…without jumping! Clearly, you need dash for the challenge.
My reward for this challenge
is: runestone for double jump on bracer equipment! I can gain access to triple
jump right now! With price of course.
Sir Schroo here has scythe as
his magic spell. The scythes fly diagonally. One flies in lower angle and the
other flies in higher angle. Hang on a moment! Doesn’t this scythe magic work
very similarly to bow weapon in Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts?
I got lost into the tower
area dubbed as The Maya. Whatever that means. Then Sir Schroo instantly killed
by bigger stronger guard box. Next hero, please!
I like that I can see enemy’s
stats besides mine in pause menu. Heck! I can even see whether a painting is
real or disguised monster with the pause menu. If you want to see more detailed
information on your hero, press “X” button. If you want to see settings or exit
the game, press “Y” button.
I got careless and killed by
flamelock, the floating mage that shoot lots of fireball. It’s wordplay for
Flame and Warlock, you see? Since Lady Evelynn has “Coprolalia” trait, she has
sailor mouth. She swears with symbol and sometime with >:( emote whenever
get hit. Her last words also swearing instead of usual tips, which is
understandable. In my opinion Coprolalia trait is not that detrimental. Amusing
even.
Next hero is Lady Evelyn II,
direct child of late Lady Evelyn. Unlike her mother, she doesn’t have sailor
mouth. She has ADHD instead, which increase her movement speed by 30%. You can
test your movement and strength in this ground. There’s talking training dummy
to test how big is your attack power. In this ground, casting spell doesn’t
reduce your mana. You need to look out for exclamation mark on smithy or enchantress. It means they have new thing on their store because you bring back equipment blueprint and runestone previously.
Ouch! I hate these spike
floors. I can’t stand still for too long on this kind of floor. I wish spike
floor in Deception games as intuitive as in this game.
I arrive at the room where
door to boss room placed. Should I go there? I don’t think I’m strong enough
for the boss. In this room that connected to boss room, there are always 2
chests and 2 statues each contains a chicken drumstick and mana potion
respectively. I just realize that chest with metal rim on it is rare chest and
chest that entirely made with wood is common chest. Needless to say, that
common chest has smaller reward than the rare chest.
Then Lady Evelyn II got
stabbed by corrupt vanguard. I thought he was like corrupt knight that can only
make slash projectile with spear but stronger. Quite often, enemy with higher
level has something to catch you off guard compared to their lower-level
counterpart. Bigger moveset. More number of projectiles fired. Or Bigger
projectile.
Next hero to die is
Lady Bryne. Her class is knave which has reduced HP, MP, and strength. However,
the class has increased critical chance by 15% and critical damage bonus by
125%. Note that, by default all hero class except knave has 0% critical chance.
So, knave may not seem so bad. However, I don’t like that I have to rely on
critical attack chance when the game is already constructed with myriads of
randomness.
So, I meet with the miserable
elf and I lose the gamble. Note to self: gamble is bad. Including Gacha, though
I still play Azur Lane to this day.
Next hero later…
Here’s what I talked before
about challenge that don’t allow you to jump, to pass this spike pits. I don’t
have dash enhancement yet so I move to next room. Some fairy chest challenge
will be canceled if you move on to other room though some are not.
What’s this unusual painting
of pixel art. So suspicious. I’m going to hit it.
I knew it, you painting
monster! This one can fire ghost fireball and he’s significantly bigger than
the other. Some enemies can get knockback when you hit them so you can have
some safe space thus does positive damage trade when you use sword slash.
However, some enemies are immune to knockback like painting monsters. You can’t
interrupt their flight path so be careful. Though quite tedious, I manage to
defeat this foul beast and receive blueprint of blood chest plate from special
chest that appears once the big git vanquished.
Next hero later (again)…
I have enough gold to upgrade
mage to archmage so I do. Upgrading class is quite essential to the game, allow
the hero to have active class ability by pressing “Y” button (which is triangle
button in Playstation controller layout). For example: Paladin can block. The
block itself doesn’t cost MP, only when you successfully block a projectile
that costs you 25 MP. Archmage can cycle their magic spell and they can have 3
magic spells. Assassin (formerly knave) can turn partial invisible to avoid
confrontation but drains MP over time upon use.
This is super odd. 1 block
away from transition room is room with boss door. I haven’t defeated the first
boss and my health is super low. I’m not stupid enough to push my luck now.
Next hero later (once again)…
So funny. How am I supposed
to defeat all enemies when they’re located behind wall like this? I pass. Anyway,
check out my blood (red) sword! It looks quite menacing. It grants me heal
everytime I kill enemy but reduce my maximum HP by 30.
Demoman_sf13_influx_small04.wav.
I found a room that contains magic spell. You can only replace your current
spell one time here. It’s quite useful because my current spell is: blade wall
which conjure a giant sword in front of me which is not so useful.
I have feeling that the game
implements bullet hell as I slowly walk between these fireballs that fired from
wall turrets.
Now I’m really convinced that
this game implements bullet hell. I mean look at this danmaku! I think
Blasphemous also has bullet hell but I have dodge slide. Whereas in this game
there’s none of that. I don’t think I can dodge bullets with the dash. Looking
at the minimap on top-right corner, I see question mark icon on room that I
currently in. The icon marks special room like the one that house a magic
spell, the gambling elf, or the painting miniboss. So, in this occasion I’m
faced with 2 flying mage minibosses and they don’t pull punch. I mean magic
whatever. Luckily, I can hide between these 3 alcoves to dodge their ice and
fire projectiles. However, they can also conjure stalagmite at designated
location so I have to keep moving around. By the way, if you feel like to have
rematch with sub-bosses or boss or rechallenge the fairy chest, you can use the
architect’s service. Just ignore the gold income cut and finish the unfinished challenge!
I couldn’t defeat them. I ran
away with just a sliver of my health and later killed by spitting plant. What’s
this? In option setting I can set directional down alone for dropping down
platform and downthrust so I don’t need to press jump or attack too? Finally, a
useful tip!
A couple of dead heroes
later…
What in tarnation is this?
There’s hero named Chun Li? I don’t care about her trait is clumsy. I have to
take her on next question and later dies miserably too.
The parody joke doesn’t stop
there. I upgrade barbarian class to be able to unleash shout which is clearly
parody of Elder Scroll V: Skyrim. You know the “Fus Ro Dah!”. Jumbling some
letters doesn’t fool me there, game.
Pressing the “select” button
or whatever button that equivalent for XBOX controller, will bring full map. This
rectangle map really reminiscence of non-classic Castlevania or people call it
Metroidvania. I don’t think Konami can sue anyone with this map design because
it looks generic so it’s might as well as in public domain.
Sorry, fans of Chun Li. I
made her killed by evil eyeball. But to be fair the eyeball enemy is the worst
type of enemy and I hate it. Yes, it’s one of fragile enemy with not big health
but its blood tear projectiles can pass through terrain, catching me off guard.
Unlike beholder in many Castlevania game which is very easy enemy to defeat.
Hang on a moment. Blood tear? It refers to Castlevania OST “Bloody Tears”!
Demoman_sf13_influx_small04.wav.
Now, the technology tree allows me to haggle the Charon’s toll so I don’t need
to pay him with all the remaining gold. But I don’t think this upgrade is that
useful if you just spent the gold you got to the fullest potential. Though,
purchase this upgrade will unlock upgrade class for shinobi to become…Hokage?
FRICKIN’ HOKAGE!
This challenge is actually
simple and easy. I have to kill that skeleton with axe spell but the problem is
I don’t have enough MP to kill him with the axe because I spam the barbarian
shout to learn what’s this for. You just wait there, Mr. Skeleton! I’ll be back
with enough MP to kill you.
But I decide to challenge the
first boss instead which is on the next room. Everyone. Meet Khidr, the
gatekeeper. Isn’t Khidr name of a prophet? Anyway, as you can see that the
eyeball boss fills the screen with blood tears. Another example of bullet
hell/danmaku in this game. However, I can defeat him quite easily. Without taking
any damage, even! On my test run, I try fought him with sir Lee, the very first
hero but failed. This time it goes very easily. Perhaps the key to defeat this
first boss is to have both dash and double jump enhancement. You can’t be
turtling on the corners because there’s spike floor on them. So, keep moving
and slashing!
The boss drops a chest
besides gold coins and diamonds. It contains permanent upgrade to my MP and HP!
Heavy_mvm_get_upgrade03.wav
Oh, I see now. A symbol is
lit on the great door on the entrance. So, I need to kill 3 more bosses and
that door to demon lord will open.
Later on, an evil wolf killed
Lady Dee. It can’t be helped. Either the wolf too fast or Lady Dee is too weak.
Anyway, I like the body count now contains the first boss with accusatory look, staring directly at your soul.
Spy_autocappedcontrolpoint02.wav.
Our manor grows big. This upgrade is interesting ones. It increases damage of
downthrust attack for every consecutive hit. I think by default the downthrust
attack has 50% power of normal slash so this upgrade may seem useful. However,
I find it hard to land the downthrust because it comes out slow and the duration
is short. Though the size of the sword definitely helps to land it.
I found this unique
enhancement called grace rune. It lowers enemy’s level making them easier to
defeat. There’s also the opposite of it called curse rune. It makes enemy’s
level higher but claimed they will drop bigger reward. It begs question: what
reward though? Bigger experience point? Defeated enemies don’t give me
experience point because there’s none. Hero levels up with upgrade on manor
with gold cost. I assume higher level enemies drop coins more in quantity and
chance. That’s barely worth it. If you want more gold, put the gold gain up
enhancement. It increases gold gained by 10%. It may seem trivial since a gold
coin gives you 10 gold and with the enhancement you will get 11 gold. However,
when you pick a money bag that worth 100 gold, you will gain 110 gold. That’s
quite significant benefit, in my opinion.
I found another special room.
This time, it contains the continuation of prince’s journal. Not so beneficial
unless you’re curious about the lore. So, the reason why the prince takes on
the quest is not for his love for his father the king. He wants his family and
himself treated back to royal family when succeed on the quest. For some
unknown reason, this eldest prince and his family are exiled from royal family
and forced to move out of the capital city.
Eventually, Ian Fleming the
hokage has fallen. :(
Haha! Marie Antoinette the
queen of France is here. Her magic spell is axe, which kind of irony. Isn’t axe
pretty close to guillotine in similarity? Anyway, axe is very dang similar to
axe sub weapon in Castlevania.
Next (dead) hero later…
Eventually, I challenge the
second boss: Alexander, the forgotten. Isn’t he reference to Alexander the
great, the king of Macedonia? Anyway, he’s pretty easy to defeat thanks to how
big the boss room is. Like his lesser counterpart called wrath, rage, or
something, he can only shoot ghost fireball in 4 main directions, leaving me
safe in his diagonal area. Sure, he spawns rage ghosts once in a while.
However, that’s where vampirism property come to play. If I remember correctly,
I have 2 pieces of equipment that gives me vampirism property: cape and sword.
That means I heal 4 HP for every minion killed, which quite helpful in this
boss fight. Don’t tell him my secret here, ok? Let him spawn more minion for me
to heal. For defeating Alexander, I get permanent MP, HP, and magic damage
upgrade. Sniper_mvm_loot_rare08.wav.
Sir Gray managed to defeat
the second boss however he’s killed by lesser enemies. I think that’s the
thing. Boss level is fairer and easier than the level itself what’s with tricky
enemy and trap placement. I’m quite baffled with this conclusion. But I think
it’s meant to be that way because there’s no in-battle healing like estus
flask, healing potion, or whatnot. Without in-battle healing, the boss battle
becomes frustratingly difficult like in YS 1. The only in-battle healing
mean is the vampirism which is heal on killing. It only works against lesser
enemies and not for boss battle.
Behold! The descendant of
Chun Li: Chun Li the 2nd. Without doubt, I pick her immediately. Funny
coincidence that both first and second Chun Li are barbarian queen. Another
characteristic of barbarian class besides the not Fus Ro Dah shout is: they
have higher max HP but lower MP and Strength. But why low strength? That’s not
supposed to be barbarian’s characteristic. If anything, they should have low
intelligence (magic power) instead. Maybe that’s how it is in early version and
later developer change it for the sake of making the game more challenging.
Don’t quote me on that one.
I have developed right wing
of our manor. There’s upgrade to increase restorative effect of chicken
drumstick and MP potion. Each level increases the effect by 1% and the maximum
level is 5. So, the maximum extra restorative effect is 5%. So, the upgrade is
barely worth it unless take 1 level to unlock other upgrades. What baffles me
the most is chicken drumstick effect is relative to maximum HP. By default, it
only replenishes health by 10% maximum HP! That’s barely adequate. The analogy
of how minuscule the effect of healing item is mosquito in Battletoad
arcade game. Some people say that healing is so small that it’s almost like
insult more than anything else. But in this game, I need heal very badly
because there’s no continue here. I mean there’s continue but as next hero
which reset map progress. You can kind of save the progress if you use
architect’s service but your income will be cut to 60% which I don’t like. Sorry
to digress. My point is: chicken drumstick should restore health by constant
number -for example- 30 HP or around that number and not just by 10% max
health. Thus, the healing upgrade become more useful and interesting.
Several generations later…
What’s this? There’s clown
NPC and he offers me to test my weapon skill for gold reward. So far, there’s 2
types of minigame: First, using 10 knives to destroy 8 moving targets with
various range and move speed. Second, using 5 axe to destroy bunch of floating
targets. If you fail, he mocks you. Damn Jester. When I first met him, there’s
special music plays and I instinctively thinks “Isn’t this music from Pooyan?”
and the clown’s name Booyan confirms it. Very young me like to play Pooyan on
NES so no way I can’t identify the music here.
I played for 4 hours (within
2 days) and I have defeated 2 out of 4 bosses + final boss. I think we can end
this here.
Ok, I lied. I was absorbed
into the game for days until I finished the game and unlocked new game+. On new
game+, enemy’s level become significantly higher and turn into their highest
tier counterpart. However, the gold income is doubled and you get the chance to
obtain blueprint of higher tier equipment so it’s worth it! If you are eager
with the ending and don’t mind about spoiler, you can scroll further below the
summary. Anyway, let’s go to summary first.
Cellar Door Games’ Rogue
Legacy (2013-2018) is amazing platformer roguelite game. But let’s talk about
the bad things on the game first. The biggest problem of this game to me is:
how bad the healing mean in this game. As I have mentioned before that the
chicken drumstick has rather poor healing effect which only heal for 10% max
HP. Not to mention, finding this meat is so hard. Very low chance to obtain it
from destroyed decorations or enemies. Either increase the chance or increase
the healing effect. Thus, I’m forced to rely on Vampirism ability. If you are
very damn lucky, you may find a fountain that restore HP and MP by 30% maximum
HP and MP. But still, that’s not enough. I wish the fountain is on entrance so
you can refill your HP and MP when you’re really low on them. First time is
free. Second time and so forth, it costs 2,000 gold or something. I don’t mind
spending gold to heal as long as I can keep my map progress. Or maybe how about
portable healing potions? Kind of like estus flask in Dark Soul. Of
course, the upgrade for this potion should be expensive. There’s a new idea on
the technology tree’s branch. Probably something like, the amount of potion you
can carry and the healing effect. This potion’s effect can be relative to
maximum HP or MP. Curse of The Dead Gods works quite well with more generous
healing source, why not work for this game? The second biggest problem of this
game is how unreliable the downthrust attack. The duration should be doubled so
I can trigger the switch platform more reliably or pogo jump on enemy’s head better.
I encounter some bug/glitch. The most often I met is I immediately drop down to
room below because the teleporter is on droppable platform. Then there’s one
time that I use teleporter and I’m stuck on ceiling until I restart the game
which respawn me at the entrance. Speaking of teleporter, quite often I have
hard time select the one that I want to get into. The teleporter select on the
map is not as smooth as any Castlevania game. I also don’t like the small
reward for killing lesser enemies except for a chance for gold coin/chicken
drumstick/MP potion and security because they will permanently die for that run
if you kill them. They should drop something else like temporary invincibility
or boost stats for a certain period. Not permanent upgrade stats like in Dragon Valor though because that will make the game too easy. There’s permanent
stats upgrade item from sub-boss chest though. The thing that they should add
is bonus gold when the kill count fills an entire line. Making the kill count
not only for decoration alone.
As for the good things: there
are a lot. I really love this game. I like the joke and parody elements on it.
Personally, I prefer the combat gameplay in Curse of The Dead Gods but
there’s nothing wrong with the simplistic gameplay in this game. The sword
attack has useful 90o arc on it like in Ghosts ‘n Goblins
although with unnecessary long duration which makes me lock on one direction
for seconds which mess up my aim sometime but I still can move around freely
while in sword slashing animation. I don’t think there’s hard dead end on the
gameplay as long as you don’t give Charon all of your gold before spending
anything that you can first. I feel like sword attack upgrade is the most
important to level up. It’s simple yet essential upgrade. I prioritize it.
Thus, if I pick spellcaster hero, they will have limited potential because they
don’t rely on sword attack. But sometime they have to conserve their MP for
tougher battle and MP potion doesn’t come out frequently thus they have to use
their sword. So, in the end sword attack upgrade is needed for everyone and you
can’t never go wrong with it. Besides, to increase spellcaster’s potential, I
need to upgrade more things: increase MP capacity, Increase Magic power, and Decrease
MP cost for spell. That means if I want to focus on magic potential, I have to
spend the gold in divergence way as the opposite on focus on sword attack
upgrade alone for physical attack power. Critical chance and critical bonus
damage upgrade are easily ignorable. Health and armor (defense power) upgrade
also important but I suggest the latter though the former is unlocked in very
early technology tree development. The reason is: armor (defense power) is
stats that doesn’t get negative (but also positive) modifier on every class. I
think the stats that often get modifier are HP, MP, and Strength. Intelligence
(magic power) only get positive modifier from archmage and lich king/queen
class. On to equipment pieces, generally: sword increases sword attack power,
helmet increases maximum HP and MP, chest plate increases armor (defense
power), lastly gauntlet and greave increase magic power. As for cape, it’s
close to accessory. It doesn’t add any stats in general. It adds unique
property depends on the type. For example: squire cape increases critical
chance by 6%, guardian cape increases armor (like other equipment piece with
name “guardian”), or sky cape increase extra jump by 2. Then there’s trait on
heirs. Some are funny and some other are bad. The worst trait is Alzheimer
which makes your hero can’t see or remember map though you can still read the
minimap. Or trait that claim the hero feels no pain. Sounds badblood and great but
it’s curse in disguise. The trait makes you can’t see Hero’s HP which is super
stupid. I feel like the traits on heir are pretty balanced. Maybe there’s one
time that all of 3 heirs are pretty bad. There’s heir reroll on technology tree
but it’s very late to have and it only for once for a generation. Although not
affect the gameplay, I like the randomized name of the heirs. There’s Lady
Sonia which I believe is Sonia Belmont, the mother of all Belmont though Konami
removes her in timeline canon. Such a shame. The name of Lady Chun Li, makes me
wish there’s Sir Zangief or Sir Haggar name. There’s the very rare spiritual
shrine which can grant you artefact such as: Hyperion ring that grants you auto
resurrection once or Charon’s obol that negate the Charon’s toll for once.
As for the classes, they’re
well varied. Some I favor over the other. One day, I have to make tierlist of
them for further information. For now, I can say this: My personal favorites
are both Hokage and Spellsword. The former has high strength but has 0%
critical chance which is ignorable flaw. I think Barbarian should be the one
with 0% critical chance. Hokage should like has bit reduced strength but double
attack speed. Come to think of it, there’s no attack speed modifier. Hokage’s
class ability is kawarimi no jutsu. You know. The ninja’s move where they are
replaced with log to avoid danger. As for spellsword, they have ability to
restore MP with sword attack and class ability is empowered spell which I
stronger version of magic spell but with double MP cost. The game says that
spellsword is for expert which I don’t agree. I feel like spellsword is easy to
play as because they have consistent way to replenish MP making them more
reliable spellcaster than archmage.
The game simply consists of 4
levels: castle, forest, tower, and dungeon. Each with boss that you need to
defeat to unlock the final boss gate. You probably wonder which level that I
need to tackle first. Unlike Blasphemous with vague guide on the levels,
Rogue Legacy has solid guide on that. If you look at the overall map on
entrance between the final boss gate and prince’s first journal, you can see
there’s number of blocks besides the name of the level. Those blocks represent
number level. If you don’t want to scroll way up there, don’t worry! I will
summarize it for you. So, the castle is basically first level and also the
center hub of the levels. The forest is second level which generally located on
far-right castle level. The tower is third level which generally located above
castle level. The dungeon is fourth/final level which generally located below
castle level. The presentation is remarkable. The sound effect is pretty good.
The music is superb. My personal favorite is the one in castle with title: trilobite.
The music perfectly captured
the dreaded feeling of entering evil castle but also feels energetic thus
encouraging you to move forward dauntlessly. I find it unusual with the water
creature as the OST name like aforementioned trilobite, pistol shrimp, lamprey
and narwhal. Strangely the music for the dungeon is not scary as it should be.
It’s pixelated soothing music. It’s more like music in cavern area on Terraria.
The title of the OST is: Broadside of the broadsword. I like to point out the
thumbnail for the OST video is Sir Lee passionately play the piano which is
very something to me because I don’t usually focus on thumbnail picture.
I finished Rogue Legacy
(2013-2018) so needless to say I love it and deserves AA-grade recommendation
even with flaw here and there. The gameplay feels cruel but on the other side
feels forgiving with the bosses that you can learn their pattern or whatnot
pretty easily. Maybe the flaws or bad things that I mentioned are fixed in the
sequel. I look forward to the second game, then! By the way, I really like the
hero’s walking animation.
Sir Lee and his descendants
look jovial yet determined to charge forward with sword at hand. Compared to
Arthur from Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, he’s more like clueless dolt but more
serious looking. I can make comparison with Arthur in Ghosts ‘n Goblin Resurrection with how close the released date between that game and Rogue
Legacy. But that be unfair because GnG Resurrection use RE engine
and not pixel. Just imagine that Arthur on screenshot looks 2.5D-ish and angry.
Anyway, the game is charming and fun. If you haven’t played it go play it now! Though
keep in mind that, you have to be really patience to play the game and make
progress.
So, about the conclusion of
the game…
…you sure? You want to
proceed and not afraid of important spoiler ahead? Fine…
Tower’s boss is Ponce De Leon
whose name based on a Spanish explorer and conquistador. This living fireball
is a huge bastard. He keeps making track of fireball along the way. On top of
that bouncing morning star assist him on the boss fight. I suggest pick
Barbarian King/Queen and use the shout to remove the fireballs when necessary.
Dungeon’s boss is far from
scary. It’s just boss version of slime which has ability to spawn lesser of
itself along with flying mage that conjure stalagmite whenever its HP reaches
0. There are like 4 phases of splitting in total, I think. Meaning you have to
defeat 31 slimes and 15 flying mages in total. I do believe the mages are added
on later version to make the boss fight more challenging. Once again, vampirism
works wonderfully here. By the way, Herodotus is the name of Greek historian
and geographer. So, I defeat all of 4 bosses and unlock the final boss gate. As
I enter the gate…
Isn’t this tutorial section?
I very remember this part that introduces me with the unique switch platform.
Surprise. Surprise! The final
boss is the knight on tutorial section, the king murderer. This is predictable
to me. What I can’t predict is the king murderer turns out to be the prince
that left the journals around the castle part! You would think anyone who left
diary, memo, or journal in video game is already dead in the event of the game
because that’s how the tradition is. There are lots of example of dead people
left note in video game: Resident Evil, Bioshock 2, Elder
Scroll V – Skyrim, so on and so forth. As for assassination on entry #1 in
the journal, that happens way before the tutorial takes place. The king faked
the assassination so the prince become motivated to search the evil castle. Another
plot twist is: Johannes here is Lee’s father which mean he’s our great great
great great great grandfather. I mean you can predict that because he shares
our funny heroic walking animation. The last plot twist is there’s no demon
lord in the castle despite the symbol on the gate. Johannes also thought that
there will be demon lord that stands between him and the miracle heal item.
Turns out there’s none. The miracle heal item that turns out to be fountain of
youth left unguarded, except for that single grey knight. What also surprise
Johannes the prince, is: he found the king is well and he’s about to drink from
the fountain of youth. He fears that if the king gains the effect of eternal
youth and become immortal, he will never inherit the kingdom as king. So, he
instinctively strikes down the king on the spot.
Johannes accuses us to take
revenge for king’s death but what I have in mind is: conquer the evil castle
and defeat the demon lord like idealistic hero I am. Negative intrusive mind
gets the best of him. I can only assume that he becomes demon lord himself
after drinking from the fountain of youth and driven by the negative feeling
and emotion. No wonder Charon guards the front gate because the ultimate reward
in this castle is eternal life.
Anyway, we fight. His moveset
is altered version of the hero’s. He can summon blade wall while back dash.
Jumping while throwing many axes. Or throw a barrage of knife. Don’t forget
that he can also do the same sword slash as your hero, so you can’t simply hack
him without expecting him does the same thing to you.
Of course, Johannes has
second phase. Luckily, he dropped 4 chicken drumsticks and 3 MP potions when
you defeat him in first phase. I spare you the detail of the 2nd phase of final
boss. You have to search it or play the game yourself. All I can say is: he
becomes larger and he put up a tougher battle but not felt unfair. Once I
defeat him, he’s dead so the promise of immortal life is quite lie. He did live
for 10,000 years but that doesn’t mean he can’t die. There’s the silly touch of
irony as he died and put into game over screen like our heroes, completed with
kill count of only the king himself.
With Johannes defeated, the arises and the
heroine return to her manor greeted by her 3 kids. Her spouse probably busy to
claim life insurance but unbeknownst to them that Lady Christine is still alive
and well. Ignore the fact that you can’t see her sword, that’s the special
visual gimmick of a spellsword. It’s invisible until I swing it and make noise
akin to lightsaber. To finish the game, I require 49 heroes. Or is it 50
heroes, counting the Sir Lee? Play time is less than 6 and half an hour? I kind
refuse to believe that. I spent like 6 days or so. It should be at least 8
hours. Maybe the relatively easy boss fights contribute to how fast I can
finish the game. Anyway. The end. Happy End! :D
