This game needs a balance overhaul badly and a reworking of its progression system. It is one thing for a game to be hard, it is another thing for it to make me ram my head through the same encounters just to grind up enough to lose slightly less badly. Progression in this game is slow, unsatisfying, and it seems expect me to grind which I was hoping was a trend we left behind in the 90s. Grinding doesn't even make me feel any stronger in the game, it just gives me access to marginally better cards. I have the same amount of energy, the same amount of health, and the same hand size.

I normally love deckbuilders but this one has me regretting my purchase. I should have played the demo first and then not waste my money on it. Sorry, the storyline can't keep me engaged through the game's painful mechanics, lack of meaningful progression, and unreasonable difficulty.

Good free way to burn about 10 hours. The story and characters have a decent amount of depth for a game as short as it is. Dialogue is decent although the secondary villain is a bit cartoonishly evil. The setting, art, and story are this game's strongest selling points. The tension between the different nations and races in the game was well established and led to a satisfying conclusion. Franz and Leflas also made for a cute and unconventional couple although I would have liked it if the story explored their past more.

The interface is a bit clunky and there could be some more variation in battle mechanics. You can also abuse the daemon cores in the game to quickly become an unstoppable juggernaut although this is only possible about halfway through the game. Tune your expectations on item variety based on the game's length although I would have liked to see variation between the types of equipment each character can use. There are also mechanics that seem vestigial or just outright not present. It advertises a unique leveling system but all it is is that you use items you win from boss battles (and later on you can buy them) to improve stats. Besides farming gold and item, there is zero reason to interact with any non-boss encounters.

Lunacid is a first person old school style souls-like game that hits all the points and does so well. The game's difficulty is mostly based on what type of character you are building with magic users having an easier time than melee builds. There is decent enemy variety and excellent ambiance for zones. Fighting is pretty well done with weapons having an appropriate feel although magic may be a bit too strong currently. A decently leveled mage or ranged build can kite enemies way outside their level with ease. Magic staffs also make the game too easy and could probably use a nerf. Between the first staff I got and the base fire spell I was able to wipe the floor of the abyssal dungeon which is meant to be a challenge run.

Overall well worth the price already and the game isn't even done yet. Prepare for some spookiness too as the game is excellent at creating a dark and foreboding atmosphere.

Yes.

In all seriousness, my time is only slightly inflated (leaving my game at a sight of grace and walking off to tend to the kid and a weird problem where steam thinks it is still running after closing the game until I restart steam). I have completed only one playthrough. Granted I am a completionist, but this would be more than worth it even if I sped towards the ending.

Now for a tip for those of you with really old PC's like me. There is a fair chance you can play this game below the minimum settings. Now, this ain't going to run on your Apple 2 computer but I have managed to run it at a mostly decent FPS on a GTX 740. There are some workarounds that you will have to google involving direct x 12 and you may need to install a few nexus mods to turn off some graphical features like rain or tree movement but a 35+ fps rate was pretty consistent for me. Be warned that it did chug a couple times when certain bosses did graphically intensive moves like some dragon breath attacks. Now take advantage of some extensive modification research and take advantage of that 2-hour refund window to see if your old battlestation can run a game that will easily absorb almost a month of your life.

Do you miss Secret of Mana or the several games of that genre on the SNES? Secrets of Grindea oozes with classic SNES action rpg feel and wears its influences proudly. Combat is tight and varied in approaches, giving you not just a choice of options in weapon types that vary melee combat up but also a slew of ranged spells for the inner mage in you.

Pros: Good variety in combat. A varied cast of characters with distinct personalities. Stellar SNES era graphics. Plenty of sidequests and exploration. Authentic SNES era soundtrack. Very engaging storyline.

Cons: I don't know if this is a one person development team but its update schedule indicates it probably is. Don't expect frequent updates although the main storyline seems to be almost done. That's about it, I want more of this game and don't have it yet.

Overall this is the easiest thumbs up I have given so far. Takes me right back to my childhood rediscovering SNES games on an emulator in high school. I first bought it about 5 years ago and it has updated on a slow burner since then but the wait has been more than worth it. Just need that last main quest dungeon to drop.

Pretty straight forward rogue-lite game with a Slay the Spire like campaign setup with a nice Halloween theme. You get to play as my favorite biblical character: Satan. It also gives you a cast of classic horror characters like Dracula, Baron Samedi, and Bloody Mary. Unlike Slay the Spire, Rogue Lords relies heavily on party synergy instead of deck synergy (there is no deckbuilding in this game). Other than that, there are plenty of similarities with StS: enemies telegraph attacks, you have only so much AP to use on abilities in one turn, you collect relics and new abilities to enhance your team, etc.

Pros: Team synergy was well thought out, voice acting is good although more lines from Satan would be nice, game play is tough but fair at later levels, devil mode is a creative idea that opens up several options for several scenarios.

Cons: There is little the way of enemy variety, I have gone through half the campaigns on it and have encountered about 15 different kinds of enemies. Plot line comes off as an afterthought that has me clicking through voiced text boxes to advance rather than gripping me to actually listen to what the dark lord has to say about whatever.

Overall, I bought this on sale for a total of $20 and have spent about 20 hours playing it to only get through about half the game. Is this better than Slay the Spire? No. Is it different enough to stand on its own for the price I paid? Yes. Is it a great use of $20 for Halloween spookiness? Also yes.

Hits an itch for both metroidvanians and souls-like games. The themes are dark and compelling. Not quite as compelling as competitor games like Hollow Knight but that may be because it is vastly more alien. Yeah, things are shaped like humans but the underlying feeling is anything but familiar.

Combat is tight and well designed around understanding your opponent's move sets. Yes, the character gets stronger the more you level up but that isn't what wins you the boss battle. That takes learning their telegraphs and mastering parry and dodge, just like a souls-like. The most leveling gets you is access to better equipment. The only criticism I have about combat is that a few of the prey-abilities seem pretty necessary to unlock to have a real chance at killing a few bosses and the orbs to reset things like that are few and far between.

Exploration is laid out relatively well although there is some glitchiness in some of the platforming. I have had the character stuck on a wall more than a few times. Some encounters and map layouts have had me irked but not because they are unfair but rather irked in a good way. Like getting frustrated by a tough, but fair, challenge.

Unlockables are mostly based on finding weapons and new enemies to learn abilities from. Some are quite rare with my favorite ability coming from an enemy that there is maybe 3 of in the entire game. Some more variety in things to find while exploring here would be nice. It may be thematic but having armor be purely cosmetic is a bit of a let down.

Finally, art direction is great. I get the impression of minds long disconnected from their former humanity trying to remember what being a human was all about. We get themes of beauty, life, killing, and reshaping ourselves to become "acceptable". I haven't finished the game yet at about 20 hours of game play (I often have to pause and walk away for hours at a time due to real life stuff so my hours played is a bit inflated) but I am compelled to finish it mostly based on how well executed the art direction is, followed closely by its combat system.

Game is riddled with issues at launch. I wasn't even able to get it working after 7 hours of reinstalling drivers, redistributibles, and other fixes suggested by other players. Go look at the community page for this before buying it, you will see a litany of other issues about the game crashing, resources turning negative, and other fun things that would never be in a finished product that went through adequate QA testing. I don't see how developers can expect people to purchase their game on release if it is a clunky mess on release. I have watched videos of people playing the game and the gameplay looks fun, it is just inaccessible to me and several other players.

I was looking forward to this game for half a year. Broke my rule about pre-orders to show my support for a series that may actually try new things in the 4x genre. What I got was disappointment and three afternoons wasted that I could have spent playing a game that works.

Was definitely worthy the $18 I spent on it while it is still in alpha and it will be more than worth that price if they follow through on everything they want to add before official release. Updates come pretty regularly and include some substantial additions with a clear road map to a much more robust game. I have over 80 hours but some of that is due to multiple restarts and just accidentally leaving the game on when I go to bed lol. The game has a bit of a learning curve. I still have yet to reach the late game but I get a bit closer with every new game.

Pros:
Fairly intelligent AI (Fairly intelligent, runs in to issues. See Cons)
Straight forward tech tree and resource hierarchy
Crew AI is pretty easy to customize
Increasingly interactive NPC groups, a little lack luster now but there are plans to expand here.
I can make a spaceship shaped like genitals
There is a debuf for ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ your pants
Why do all my crew members keep ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ their pants?
Oh, I need more bathrooms.
What do you mean that they are less likely to use the toilet right across from where they eat and with no privacy? Who doesn't ♥♥♥♥ in front of their friends to establish dominance?
It's not cannibalism if I compost my enemies into fertilizer first.
Or it can just be cannibalism, protein doesn't grow on trees after all.
I researched artificial meat, now protein does grow on trees.
What little music there is in the game is amazing.
Wonderful game to play while listening to podcasts or watching youtube.
Nice little lore nuggets in the data pads and such you can pick up on derelicts. My favorite is the one where someone committed manslaughter by making toast.

Cons:
AI can be a bit... odd at times. My favorite example is that even if all parts are delivered to a construction job and someone is sitting right next to it doing nothing, the game still assigned the job to someone across the map mining an asteroid. This same issue caused one member to suffocate to death while waiting on the random person assigned to deconstruct the wall trapping them arrived.
Music needs more variety. I got my hopes up from the hauntingly beautiful opening music. More tracks would be nice.
A few more late game tech options would be nice. Make it more apparent what kind of roles and such you can tech into. (Like better scanners and miners for late game salvage setups or better cargo holds if you want to play a trader)
It is way too easy to accidentally speed past the point of no return. (I turned my attention away on high speed for a bit and now I have ten units of fuel left and my crew is starving.) More things to automatically kick the game back to normal speed would be nice. Like when my fuel reserves get low or a crewmate starts to become malnourished.
NPCs are a little lack luster at the moment but they have already announced plans to change that that make me excited. Currently all they are good for is watching them kill each other and trading. Although watching slavers get blown to smithereens by a bunch of androids and then looting their corpses after the androids leave is fun and a great windfall to happen on in this game.
Some more starting setups or gameplay modes would be nice.
I've yet to get to the late game but it looks a little empty based on the tech options and gameplay in the midgame. I suspect this is also on the developers' table for future updates.


TL:DR
Most of my problems with the game are already slated to be fixed with future patches. This game is more complete in alpha than many games I've seen released officially. More interaction with NPCs and more late game content are my big concerns. They give the ability to make your own fleet but have yet to give me much reason to need more than one ship.

It's like FTL on crack.