casuallyyoa

[casuallyyoa]

STEAM NEXT FEST OCTOBER 2023 ROGUE EDITION

It’s another edition of Steam Next Fest, with a whole deluge of demos for people to try on the platform. As a rogue-genre self-proclaimed connoisseur, October 2023 sees me diving into the literal hundreds of Coming Soon titles to pick out at random something that vaguely interests me. As such, this selection is entirely subjective to my own taste and I’ll clarify what each vague category means. 

I tried to spend at least 30 minutes per title to see if their demo slice is able to ‘hook’ as it were.

Let’s go!

FEATURED GAMES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

Below the Stone: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1170230/Below_the_Stone/

Break the Loop: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1331340/Break_the_Loop/

CD 2: Trap Master: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2330870/CD_2_Trap_Master/

Chrysalis: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1594210/Chrysalis/

Corlero: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1991350/Corlero/

Cursorblade: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2449040/Cursorblade/

Destroy the Monoliths: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2352000/Destroy_The_Monoliths/

Dethroned: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2326050/Dethroned/

Earthless: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2058960/Earthless/

Ending Tau: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2087880/Ending_Tau

Froguelike: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2315020/Froguelike/

Go Mecha Ball: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2008510/Go_Mecha_Ball/

Heroes of Eternal Quest: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2234200/Heroes_of_Eternal_Quest/

Lucky Hero: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2404510/Lucky_Hero/

Magicraft: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2103140/Magicraft/

Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1964200/Phantom_Rose_2_Sapphire/

Sandwalkers: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1639080/Sandwalkers/

Scarlet Record: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2365920/Scarlet_Record/ 

Shambles: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2289630/Shambles/

SpellRogue: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1990110/SpellRogue/

Voice of Belldona: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2223420/Voice_of_Belldona/

NEEDS MORE TO STAND OUT

While simple isn’t necessarily bad, I consider these games either being too derivative or not having some ‘spark’ to draw in people who may have already played similar games. 

Cursorblade

Cursorblade is a really cute game where you play the titular cursor which acts like a blade. Genius. You get the upgrades for your cursor and move your mouse around the screen wildly to slash at the creatures. It’s not quite as ‘free’ as that though, as the monsters will retaliate with bullets or on contact. You’ll see them flashing before you get hit so watch out. If cute and simple ticks your boxes, then by all means, get this.

Froguelike

A frog roguelite? Sign me up! That said, besides the various upgrades that are certainly froggy-themed, Froguelike is one of the closest Vampire Survivors clones you can get out there. Of course, Vampire Survivors is hardly the first of its kind, but as the one probably freshest in most minds, the demo doesn’t convince me people would get this over the other.

INTERESTING CONCEPTUALLY

These are titles that have things that draw me or I can acknowledge seem quite fun, but it’s not quite for me.

Break the Loop

It’s got style, it’s got a way to reduce the RNG a little bit by letting you set events in an order you want to encounter them and is similar to games I like. That’s why I’m incredibly perplexed as to why I bounced off Break the Loop’s demo so hard. I’ve currently chalked it down to balance issues as it feels like I’m meant to play aggressively to get the permanent unlock currency but because skills seem to cost so much I can’t hit the, well, balance. Don’t let my skill issues discourage you from checking out this game yourself.

CD 2: Trap Master

I’m a tower defense enjoyer so this should have been a dead ringer for me. In practice, the demo for CD 2: Trap Master felt clunky, not helped by the tooltips not entirely implemented for this initial build. I screwed myself over by an English Second Language moment not understanding my ‘energy’ to summon the traps would be ‘capped’ as in ‘its upper limit reduced’, so my shiny new card could never be played. It’s a little unfortunate, but the basic mechanics should all be in place and just needs more polish.

Corlero

Do you want even more randomness in your games of auto team battlers? Corlero has got you, with a story of random presumably divine entities also potentially ruining your life. There ARE some mechanics to try reduce the RNG - like if you did mess up with positioning - by allowing you to reroll the result of a battle, at gradually increasing cost. Still, there’s still the fact you need 3 copies of a unit to upgrade it, and more than once I’ve encountered enemy formations with more upgraded units than I have, and rerolling doesn’t get me any closer to a tiered up unit. I feel like they need more ways to ‘tighten’ the mechanics as it were before the randomness becomes more frustrating than fun.

Destroy the Monoliths

Destroy the Monoliths feels ripe for early game hell. Getting the materials feels slow without any upgrades while enemies come knocking on your door whether you look for them or not. You want the structures to destroy the enemy monoliths while fending them off but getting the resources you need before they end your miserable little ball’s life might need to be streamlined a bit more. The terrain also affects your movement which would make for some challenge; it just wasn’t all that nice to get that as a start before I’ve really gotten to know the game’s workings.

Lucky Hero

The slot machine in Lucky Hero is kind of novel as you spin to hopefully win. The slots will be really empty to start of course, until you get more energy to make worthwhile actions. Depending on the positioning of items, you could buff your actions, have empty vials be filled with gunk monsters put into your slots, or just have things get locked up by enemies and you get really unhappy. I feel it’s less clunky than a similar slot machine mechanic in Lucky Island in that there’s less to micromanage, at least, even if it’s not hitting it for me.

Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire

I had the feeling I’d already seen this game before, and yes, that would be Phantom Rose Scarlet. Phantom Rose 2 Sapphire has the same distinctive artstyle and mechanics of its predecessor, to its detriment I feel. The demo didn’t seem to have anything that made it stand out from Scarlet in my mind apart from the protagonist, so maybe I need to be more invested in the story before I consider Sapphire.

Magicraft

Someone’s static is gonna have to look for a new BLM I think. Magicraft’s opening riffs on fantasy tropes and certain player expectations which would make for fun character interactions. You have your wand and your MP, with the wand not only having their own stats, but also slots in which you can modify your attacks. While I understand the MP cost is a necessary evil to balance some of the fancy effects, I guess it does also cramp the style when you’re not allowed to have as much fun with some insane combos if you don’t get the wand slots you want. It be like that in roguelites.

Voice of Belldona

On its own, Voice of Belldona isn’t anything too special. 

There is a certain focus on story and mechanically, you have both your character’s own deck of skills and also can summon uncontrollable units to aid you in battle. There’s a lot of positioning you can play around with regards to your skill effects which should make for some fun. Also, just look at those placeholder assets. If nothing else, having them as an alternative skin for the full release can elevate this game to a grand ol’ shitpost.

TO LOOK OUT FOR

Games that I don’t always click with but there’s more things that interest me here.

Below the Stone

Where Destroy the Monoliths didn’t hit it for me, Below the Stone does. You make your little dwarf to embark on an adventure to dig real deep and perhaps revitalize your dwarven kingdom. You need to upgrade your tools as you go along of course, to work at those veins that sparkle at you from the darkness. There’s some flexibility where you can select low risk missions to take on on your expedition as you need to complete at least one before you can leave the current level. The resources to allow you to keep exploring feel generous enough, so you could just take on riskier, more rewarding missions as you fill up your bags. 

I’m not the biggest fan of pseudo (or otherwise) resource management as I love to just fire away mindlessly, but I think this can be really appealing.

Chrysalis

With your posse of animal friends, rid the world of corruption in Chrysalis. Well, I suppose they aren’t all animals. Go around possessing creatures to use their skills to aid you against the monsters, and hope to find some seeds for the home defense. Since you can always teleport back almost instantaneously to your base, you could absolutely risk exploring till the other edge of the map in hope for resources or better creature companions to be worthwhile investing into. You do get refunded some of the resources spent on completing a level, so you don’t start from zero as you continue.

Dethroned

Traipse around the map with your little squaddie and activate the altars and save the world and stuff! I’m not very good at it, but Dethroned intrigued me. Your hero character isn’t part of the actual squad, but they have skills to support your creatures over time. If you position it right, you can just avoid combat with hostiles in your way by simply slipping by. It does mean you probably won’t have the resources to beef up your army, as the threat level gradually increases to buff all other enemies across the map. Once all your monsters die it’s game over, so the risk reward learning curve is gonna be something.

Heroes of Eternal Quest

Round and round we go. Heroes of Eternal Quest involves placing buildings on the map and you occasionally using active skills to help your hero should the going get tougher. I do like influencing the course by being more strategic with my placements, less on getting some god drops for a god build and more to a relatively consistent power grind. Resources obtained from your merry-go-round will be used to unlock more buildings and gradually open up your options to mow down the unfortunates that stand in your way, further adding to that feeling of incremental growth that I enjoy.

Shambles

It’s like a mix of your typical deckbuilder roguelike with a dash of roleplaying and D&D-esque elements. Shambles places you in a post-apocalyptic world where you become the trailblazer from your bunker home into the new old world now that the radiation is back to safe levels. There are stat checks every now and again for story choices that can grant you a variety of cards, changing based on your decisions. You move along a skill tree to get yourself more equipment to provide different stat bonuses which you don’t need to equip immediately. However, you can only swap it out at certain points, like end of chapter moments. I feel like there’s potential here since story isn’t necessarily the focal point for a majority of roguelikes, so keep an eye out.

SpellRogue

There’s so much dice in SpellRogue! Depending on the die faces, you can cast certain spells a certain amount of times. You can see the value range these spells require to cast, so if you just so happen to have a 4 value die and your only remaining spell wants 1 to 3, then it’s unusable. Getting more die and ability to reroll is no doubt going to be key to success. It’s pretty easy to grasp and I managed to get to the end of the demo on my first go despite almost bungling a battle when I didn’t watch my HP, so I’d be interested to see where it goes. 

PERSONAL PICKS

The ones I’d prioritize to purchase.

Earthless

I’m a sucker for sci-fi, I admit. Earthless sees you captain a ship through the cosmos, managing your engine’s heat as you navigate through asteroids, juggling cards to destroy obstacles or hostile aliens wanting a bite out of your crew, and making calls that could affect your crew’s morale and the rewards from certain events. I just really like how all these pretty simple mechanics play together, like a version of FTL that is more to my pace.

Ending Tau

With Dead Cells and Children of Morta in mind, if you liked those games, I think you’d like Ending Tau. Your Hunter has four main ‘curses’ to bear to affect your mobility and abilities, which then get upgraded further by aspects, thematically minor curses, I suppose. It’s faster paced than the stuff I usually like for sure, but it’s mechanically quite satisfying. My gripe from the demo is that the indicator around the character wigs me out slightly. I understand it’s to help indicate your range but it felt more awkward than helpful for me, personally.

Go Mecha Ball

Speaking of fast paced, Go Mecha Ball can be one dizzying bounce all over the field as you crash into enemies. You do have guns to supplement your wrecking ball self but if you don’t bounce off enough enemies, you will run out of ammo pretty quickly. There’s two abilities you can get too, at least. Still, the crashing is the name of the game: you can interrupt flashing enemies when you slam into them besides destroying them outright which can only be good. I’m going to need more practice…

Sandwalkers

Here’s one I’m not good at once again! That won’t stop me from admiring and enjoying what there is of Sandwalkers though. With your merry band, you need to manage your resources as you travel across the world to trailblaze for those who will follow in your footsteps. Different ‘factions’, as it were, will find certain items more worthwhile to trade for so that they’d agree to barter for that thing you really want. I’m sure this will also partly play into them trusting you so that you can have additional options when you find more of their encampments. 

You don’t lose outright when you don’t have supplies to continue your travels, but your units do lose HP the further you go. This can make battles dicey despite your starting shields since you probably don’t have a good way to recover your health. At least when you break enemy shields, they can get momentarily stunned so you can slam ‘em when they’re down. 

CONCLUSION

Once again, these are all my personal opinions, and there were so, so many demos as usual to try out. With that, that’s it for my run in Steam Next Fest October 2023. A number of these games are planning for early access, or even launching very soon, so do wishlist all the things you’re looking forward to. 

Until next time. Thanks for watching.

[casuallyyoa]

ASTREA: SIX-SIDED ORACLE IMPRESSIONS

WHAT

Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles is a new roguelike from Little Leo Games, launched 21st September 2023 (22nd, for those of me in a different timezone). I’ve tried out the demo before, calling it something I’d prioritize among the many, many other games out there. Well, now that it’s out, it’s time for the Casual Impressions.

SETTINGS

The options menu is fairly spartan, but the game doesn’t have that much you really need to tweak anyway.

You have your audio sliders, barebones graphics presets, the ability to change battle speed up to ultra fast, skipping certain animations, a run timer toggle, controls between mouse and controller / keyboard, and miscellaneous options for screenshake, particle effects and data collection. 

Data collection is to send the devs gameplay data and error logs to assist in game balance and does not include personal identifying information. If you’re still concerned, you can turn it off regardless.

Text languages available are:

English

Brazilian Portuguese 

Simple / Traditional Chinese

French

German

Japanese

Korean

Russian

Spanish

While the Ultra battle speed sounds handy for maybe speedrunning and such, it doesn’t seem to affect the actual dice roll animations which while nice, is probably something you might want to skip when it comes to rushing through. 

Since I use the mouse, right-click is for viewing a die’s face. Maybe there could be a toggle for quick use when it comes to area of effect dice.

PRESENTATION

Astrea is mostly in this gorgeous blue, purple and gold trim colour palette. It quite reminds me of tarot, as you lay out the cloth and prepare your cards for a reading. The dice aside, the blessings you can get look like metal pins you could buy off Etsy - and could totally make for some kickass limited edition merchandise, if you get my drift.

The Oracles and the purifying they do are blue, while the corruption is in red. The corruption can morph pretty much anything into terrifying, dangerous entities; if they are sentient beings, they scurry off to the right side of the screen once you help them regain their senses.

I do wonder how much being colourblind can affect someone when it comes to playing this game. We can take visual clarity for granted sometimes.

GAMEPLAY

Gameplay wise, Astrea has not changed drastically from the demo. You have your dice with all their faces of effects that make up your deck. ‘Safe’ dice usually don’t have the biggest numbers, but you’re at least assured you wouldn’t roll something that could be devastating, unlike ‘Risky’ dice which generally have bombastic effects, both good and bad. Mostly bad?

With your dice in hand, you proceed from node to node, picking up more dice options, finding encounters, and what have you. You can have up to two Sentinels, your support buddies offering more dice to complement your chosen character’s playstyle. Their HP is pretty low and don’t all get the ability to attack, so they’re not the most reliable helpers if they don’t have the spread of dice you want.

You will need to balance between Purifying and Corruption, more so if you’re picking out risky dice. You can inflict Corruption on yourself to activate your spread of Virtues - the row of icons above your health bar - but too much, and you’d accidentally lose one of your lives. 

You can’t throw all the Corruption onto the enemies either; it will heal them and trigger Overcorruption abilities once they reach the threshold to immediately perform an action you probably would rather avoid. That’s not forgetting any potential passive effects they have. The least you can do is hover over the smaller icons and read up on what they do.

Once you’ve cleared a single run with a given Oracle, you can start ramping up the difficulty via Anomaly levels a la something like Slay the Spire’s Ascension. You will want to try out all the characters to level them up to unlock even more things for later runs, as you might expect.

One thing I found a little odd was that there wasn’t an Abandon Run option right now. As it happens, forfeiting a run means you don’t get any experience towards levelling up that character. So even if you’re in a run you feel is hopeless, you need to keep on going anyway otherwise you make no progress. I would have thought games like these usually give a nominal amount towards unlocks, but different games, different systems.

CONCLUSION

Well, is it much of a surprise I really like this game following from the demo? It’s pretty simple to grasp, though of course it won’t prevent me from yelling at unfavourable rerolls. I wanted to work on a 'review' once I managed to complete a run with a character which happened a little sooner than I thought, so there’s certainly more to be had. As it is, I already liked it, so Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles is a Highly Recommended.  

[casuallyyoa]

ENDLESS DUNGEON CLOSED BETA IMPRESSIONS

WHAT

After valiantly obtaining a closed beta key via Twitch drops, I could finally try out the latest closed - multiplayer only - beta for Amplitude Studios’ ENDLESS Dungeon. Yet another entry in the overarching ENDLESS universe, it’s a roguelite tactical action game in a similar vein to Dungeon of the ENDLESS. Since I have the latter, there wasn’t any question about being interested in ENDLESS Dungeon. As it’s a closed beta, there’s still time for things to change ahead of its release on 19 October 2023 - provided it’s not further delayed.

SETTINGS

The options menu doesn’t have all that much to play around, with some settings appearing to be unavailable for tweaking. The beta has the option to toggle an ‘Easy Mode’ which simply states to offer ‘several bonuses’ when you explore, but I didn’t try it out. Besides, I don’t even know if turning it on on my end will apply when I join someone else’s session.

Languages offered are:

German

English

Spanish

French

Japanese

Korean

Polish

Brazilian Portuguese

Simplified / Traditional Chinese

You can change subtitle size which is neat. There’s an interaction prompt background opacity slider, presumably not applicable to subtitles or other text boxes. There’s mouse aim assist alongside the laser sight, so that’s always nice.

PRESENTATION

Moving from the pixel top-down style of Dungeon of the ENDLESS, ENDLESS Dungeon uses 3D models in an isometric view. It does look quite nice, though I found it really hard to see certain area of effects. There are player turrets with red AOEs - obviously friendly - but then you have damaging effects from enemies which are also red. When things get hectic, I have missed seeing the warning triangles, or simply ran into terrain and wondered why I wasn’t going anywhere. 

I guess I might need to turn brightness up on my end as well; regardless I hope there’ll be improvements to visual clarity. The markers on the map are at least colour-coded for your convenience with a really long legend you can refer to. Now this kind of begs the question: where’s the colour-blind friendly options? The monster spawners don’t have unique symbols on the map, and the colours are to indicate what they’re weak to. I hope this would be added for accessibility and all.

GAMEPLAY

One thing’s for sure: it’s more, uh, action-packed than Dungeon of the ENDLESS. 

Before I get into the meat of the gameplay, there’s a little big problem with the multiplayer only closed beta. Not everyone has it for one, so games are a touch hard to find. At least, games in my region where I could hope for less than 50 ping. I connected to Europe or either United States servers during my playtime where I pretty much had an even harder time knowing when to dodge or even what was attacking me.

I bring this up early because unlike Dungeon of the ENDLESS, ENDLESS Dungeon feels like a much better time with friends as horrendously laggy as it were for me during this beta. I’m more of a turn-based, low speed kind of guy, and without being able to try the single player during this period, I wonder how the scaling is going to be like.

Anyway.

Up to three players can be in a game session at a time to descend into the Core of the space station they find themselves getting repeatedly resurrected in. With the power of friendship, guns and turrets, you and your buddies need to escort a fragile Crystal Bot through the zones while besieged by any assortment of creatures wanting pieces out of all of you. If you go down, your friend can help you back up. If the Crystal Bot goes down, all of you die. 

As you might expect, the playable characters all have their own roles. I played Shroom, the medic, just so that I wouldn’t embarrass myself dying rushing in to kill enemies (har har). Her active skill has no cooldown but requires Soul stacks to heal. Ultimates require energy to cast, gained by dealing damage to enemies. I would pretty much just hang on to my Soul stacks and spray and pray to get my ult up for the heals.

As alluded to earlier, there’s a rock paper scissors thing going on, where certain elements are more effective against certain enemies. From the beta, it seemed we’d be more likely to get collectibles than anything usable - much less worthwhile - and in one session, 98% of the weapons from either chests or merchants were only for the Zed player wielding a heavy gun which neither the Bunker player nor me could use. At least if there’s any collectible drops, the loot is locked to you when it appears so it won’t get nicked from you if it’s that crucial.

There are fixed monster spawners instead of randomly just appearing from any old dark room with waves coming in as the danger level peaks or from certain actions, like from researching new tech or moving the Crystal Bot. At least the Crystal Bot can be upgraded this time, using shards you find lying around. That does also call the horde, so best be ready. 

Action does feel more emphasized here as turrets have relatively limited range - compared to effectively covering an entire room in Dungeon - so the limited nodes have a greater impact. Likewise, the slots to build resource generators also don't feel as plentiful and monsters will go after these constructs that you can’t rebuild. Once the industry tanks, tough luck trying to make anything.

This game does let anyone be a fixer-upper to restore turret health at least, and they can get upgraded once they see enough action. Should a blackout happen, though, you’re going to have to replace all of them as they can no longer be restored. At least enemies don’t open doors you haven’t, so there’s a bit less crying about them trying to reroute your meticulous funnel. 

Unless…

At certain points of exploration, you will be moved to a separate slice of zone, cutting you off from the previous segment. If you forgot anything there, then too bad, they’re gone. You do also leave the baddies behind, so you don’t have to worry about getting ambushed. Instead, you have to be concerned over bosses! These can have their own mechanics and phases, like how the Bug Momma will become invulnerable until you find the nests to enrage her to expose her fleshy underbelly. These so-called arenas can be quite small to maneuver in, so hope you can be quick on your feet. 

It’s kinda funny that way because there are some rooms that are just so huge but have barely anything in them.

On clearing a zone, you get scored and earn Scrap that can be later used at the Saloon. This Scrap and most progression is only applicable to the host as far as I’ve experienced, which is a little of a bummer really? I wanted to go check them out in my own time in my own instance, but since I’ve only joined games and not hosted any of mine, I’ve got nothing.

Whenever you return to the Saloon, the hub area will gradually open up with a variety of things to check out and manage, or just chat up the people here.

There’s the Booster Chest at the Kiosk where you can buy a chest for some loot for your next run. Only the host can manage this so people don’t get funny ideas to throw a bunch of materials for junk. 

The Library will have all the lore you’ve encountered, as well as ‘quests’ for respective Heroes to check. This is similar to Dungeon, where the characters in between zones in the elevators can have conversations and unlock unique dialogue and / or buffs (or demerits) depending on their relationship with each other. 

From the Workshop you can find a list of equippable Chips for a Hero, but only after clearing the first step of their associated quest. The beta shows there’s at least three slots per hero as well as the Crystal Bot. This too, is currently only for the host to change.

The Hacking Post opens up different zones you can start in, so there’s a certain level of control for at least which bunch of monsters you’d prefer to fight first.

The Cafe is home to my current favourite, Fassie. You can find drink recipes as you explore and have him mix them for you. The ones I’ve gotten access to so far pretty much open up several flavours (pun not intended) of risk reward play, so pick your poison.

Normally I’d have a little section about the story of a game I play, but I haven’t been able to unlock all that much so I won’t comment on what piecemeal they have right now.

CONCLUSION

Even as I got sling-shotted across the map from lag after some rolly boys ran over me, I enjoyed the multiplayer ENDLESS Dungeon closed beta. That said, the issues with visual clarity I had are far more easily fixed than connecting to multiplayer lobbies, so if I do get the game eventually, here’s hoping single player doesn’t feel so bad. I fully acknowledge there’s likely to be a degree of skill issue, but until I can give it my best shot, we’ll leave it there for now.

Good luck on your adventures to the Core!

[casuallyyoa]

HONKAI: STAR RAIL RATING FOR THE SO-CALLED BEST BLESSINGS IN SIMULATED UNIVERSE (UP TO SWARM DISASTER)

Self-proclaimed roguelite enthusiast here to rank the BEST (in quotes) Blessings per Path you can get in Honkai: Star Rail’s Simulated Universe. This video is basically my opinion after experiencing many balding runs as a penniless Trailblazer (for legal reasons this is a joke). 

Scale is 1 for situational, 5 is good in all situations.

Abundance

Path Resonance heals and increases party max HP. 

A safe choice for first time clears for regular Simulated Universe, not so much for Swarm Disaster. When enemies start getting fat buffs, just trying to outheal will not help you.

Overall 3/5 to 5/5, ranking low if you’re dependent on only one well-built DPS, and higher if you have more damage sources to kill things before they outdamage your heals.

Path Resonances

Anatta slots the Path Resonance into the action order, allowing for regular, albeit lower heals, as the battles go on. 4-5/5, generally handy.

Anicca dispels any debuffs on your party and gives a one-time safeguard from a debuff. 5/5, as damage over time or disables can really mess up your party and / or rotations. Typically you’d want to pair with Anatta for extra safety.

Terminal Nirvana triggers when an ally gets knocked out and immediately casts the Path Resonance. 2-3/5 since it’s one time only; would prefer prioritizing Anatta or Anicca for stability.

Nihility Interplay: Nullifying Ardor

Anatta will help with the stacking effect to break enemies. Lower in usefulness if you can’t break weaknesses to begin with. 1-5/5 due to varying utility potential.

Propagation Interplay: First Illuminate the Mountains

Overheal grants a skill point and damage buff. If you don’t have the characters who are both SP hungry and deals damage, its use can be hit or miss. Another 1-5/5.

3-star Blessings

Mudra of Blessing

Dewdrop deals additional damage based on how much it’s charged. A 5/5 for start of turn charge to get the ball rolling.

Prosperity, Longevity

Dewdrop charges on heal, needs to be enhanced to increase Dewdrop damage. 4-5/5 since you’ll definitely get heals if you have the Path Resonance, a bit lower if you somehow don’t have reliable heals.

Being of Abundance, Becoming One Mind

Useful utility both with or without the enhanced effect. Recovers from chip damage, and you can buff attack if upgraded. 5/5 for utility that enables more flexible party composition.

2-star Blessings

Aversion to Suffering

Just take it if you can. Bonus damage is bonus damage. 5/5.

Prajna Boat

If your healer isn’t well built, this can come in handy. Since it doesn’t do much out of that, it’s a 1-4/5 depending on your party.

Salvation from Damnation

Debuff clears can be clutch. It does rely on your character attacking though (because of Dewdrop), so it’s more of removing damage over time or Outrage. 2-3/5

Mortals of the Buddha-Field

Better if you can reliably keep HP up for the overheal charging bonus. 2-3/5.

Good Deeds Come After Old Sins

Would allow characters to keep themselves topped up. More of a clutch thing than outright must have. 2-3/5.

Clear Lucite Body

Makes overhealing easier. Won’t help if the enemy can keep taking turns hitting you. 1-2/5.

Precious Moon-Like Candlelight

Allows healing to buff up your party. Better when enhanced, and you have the characters who benefit from the ATK increase. 3/5.

1-star Blessings

Extended Life

So that you don’t cry when entering battles after your Cosmic Big Lotto explodes on you. 2-3/5 depending on how clutch it is on top of any buff-on-heal Blessings you have.

Dispel Disaster

Increase defense after getting healed. Pair with Extended Life to tank any first hits. 2-3/5 for clutch.

Blessing

Chance for skill point when a character heals. Great to be SP positive, though the 45% chance may bungle your plans. 2-3/5.

Victorious Force

Increase speed after getting healed. Could be clutch with Extended Life. 2-3/5 for clutch factor.

Sweet Dew

Increase incoming healing. Would help for Dewdrop charging, but probably not something you will take immediately. 1-3/5. 

Rebirth

Your healer gets to help themselves, basically. 2-3/5.

Rain of Truth

If your main Path is Abundance, then just go all the way to get thicker. 1-3/5.

Seal

Your DPS will be able to top themselves up, if they can reliably break weaknesses anyway. 3-5/5.

Destruction

The path promoting the so-called high risk high reward play, dealing more damage the bigger the difference between your party’s current HP to their max HP. 3-4/5 since you can just as easily be one-shot despite all the buffs.

Path Resonances

Cataclysmic Variable

Consumes HP to further boost Path Resonance damage, granting shield based on HP lost. 3-4/5 as this can be incredibly detrimental without enough of your other stacks.

Event Horizon

Free damage twice a battle when someone gets low enough. Since it’s limited use, I wouldn’t pick this first since I can’t ensure Path Resonance will kill. 3/5.

Extreme Helium Flash

Entropic Retribution applies a defense down on enemies and additional damage based on the HP difference of your allies. Relatively safe pick. 4-5/5.

Elation Interplay: Zero Age Main Sequence

As you will see later regarding my thoughts on the Elation path, the bonus from follow-up attacks is really dependent on your party and thus, has the highest variance in utility. 1-5/5.

Preservation Interplay: Substellar Belt

Protects your low HP characters further with a shield. More general use compared to Elation. 3-5/5.

3-star Blessings

Regression Inequality of Annihilation

While it’s nice to split damage, your low HP characters will also be affected and they could just die. 3-4/5.

Universal Heat Death Characteristic

Better enhanced so that your characters can pass the Fighting Spirit stacks around. 3-4/5.

Non-Inverse Antimatter Equation

Just gives you Fighting Spirit stacks at low enough HP. A ‘safer’ bet. 4-5/5.

2-star Blessings

Destructive Flare

Deal more damage at lower HP, gets better when enhanced. 4-5/5.

Hazardous Lucent Residue

The extra safety measures you would want when using Destruction. 4-5/5.

Devastating Accretion

Better if you can enhance it right away for safety. 3-4/5.

Indicative Depth of Field

Another one you’d prefer to enhance ASAP for the higher Fighting Spirits stack and survivability. 3-4/5.

Disciplinary Flicker

A clutch heal, but your party might just die first. 2-3/5.

Catastrophic Resonance

Get more Fighting Stacks when you already have stacks. Definitely better when enhanced. 3-5/5, depending on whether you’ve got the other synergistic Blessings.

Incremental Doomsday

Retaliation damage. It can’t defeat enemies though it can help get them closer to death. 3-4/5, for damage is damage but you’d still want a little more.

1-star Blessings

Primordial Black Hole

Flat ATK stacking. If you’re on this path, take it. 3-5/5.

Orbital Redshift

More HP. Might as well pick it up if everything else is just mid. 2-3/5.

Instability Strip

Energy on hit or when HP is consumed. Pick it up if nothing else looks good. 3-4/5.

Polarization Receptor

Increase defense based on HP lost. A clutch Blessing. 2-3/5.

Eternally Collapsing Object

Increases effect res this time based on HP lost. Another relatively clutch Blessing. 2-3/5.

Metric Reservation

Shield at the start of battle, to help you survive that first turn. Since the shield is scaled based off missing HP to max HP, I’d consider this more clutch than required. 2-3/5.

Sentinel Satellite

Each character can get this shield once per battle. I consider this another clutch Blessing. 2-3/5.

Reflection

If you get this, hopefully it’s already enhanced because 30% from 1% is a big jump and you can only trigger this once per battle. 1-2/5.

Elation

Much like their die in Swarm Disaster, you either win big or just can’t use them at all or risk what you do want get taken away from you. It’s a damaging Path at least. 1-5/5, highly dependent on your party. For most people, it’s going to be 1/5 except for one Blessing.

Path Resonances

Doomsday Carnival

Sensory Pursuit buffs follow-up attack damage for a turn. One of two of the safer choices for this path. 3-5/5.

Dance of Growth

Doubles Path Resonance energy, with an effect that “basically” auto-casts the Resonance to random effectiveness. 3/5

Instant Win

Get more energy for more win. 4-5/5, at least you can consider spamming this without needing to worry about maximum efficiency. 

Abundance Interplay: The Taste of Anglerfish

You will at least dispel one debuff so sure. 3-5/5.

Remembrance Interplay: Guinea Pig in Ice Coffin

The Path Resonance deals a random damage type but if you’re on this path, you’re already gambling anyway. Higher rating since Freeze is always nice unless they’re immune. 3-5/5.

3-star Blessings

Slaughterhouse No. 4: Rest in Peace

Even more follow-up damage, more so if you’re able to break weaknesses, as you might expect. 4-5/5.

Auto-Harmonica: Whitest Night

Want more damage? You get more damage. 4-5/5.

Champion’s Dinner: Cat’s Cradle

This is the one Blessing anyone can use, which then immediately elevates all the other Elation Blessings. If you had to pick just one Elation Blessing for any party, this is it. 5/5.

2-star Blessings

12 Monkeys and Angry Men

The damage increase isn’t all that high on its own, and even enhanced, who knows how much that 2% really affects your party? 2-3/5.

The Hourglass Kindergarten

You could roll high to reduce your enemy’s damage, but it only lasts until the end of their next action. Forget a boss’ Extra Action; some enemies just have high enough speed to take more turns before you could fire off a follow-up attack. 1-2/5.

Just Keep on Crying!

Similarly to Hourglass Kindergarten on the next action clause, it’s not the best choice. In this case though, the follow-up damage could just be enough for a weakness break so I’d rank it higher. 2-3/5.

The Painted Albatross

It could be a follow-up on just one, or on all of them for big damage. 3-4/5.

Portrait of a Man on Fire

One thing’s for sure, if you go Elation, it’s one of - if not the most - synergistic paths on its own so just get this for more damage. 3-4/5.

Aiden Gravitational Rainbow

A relatively clutch Blessing in terms of delaying enemy actions, and the Imprisonment on upgrade. 2-3/5

Twenty-First Military Rule

If your follow-up attacks are going to be reliant on using skills, you would like this. 3-4/5.

1-star Blessings

Exemplary Conduct

No frills damage increase. Go big or go home. 3-4/5.

Pale Fire

Crit rate increase? Appreciated. 3-4/5.

Platinum Age

The defense increase doesn’t change but the duration does when it’s enhanced. 2-3/5.

Suspiria

Another no frills damage increase, not reliant on having more Elation Blessings. 4-5/5.

Back to the Lighthouse

If you have someone like Jing Yuan who adds to his follow-up’s stacks on ultimate, this is definitely one you’d like. Even without, if you have Champion’s Dinner, this can only help. 5/5.

Doctor of Love

Some sustain. Not too shabby at least. 3-4/5.

Clockwork Apple

SImilarly to Platinum Age, the actual buff increase doesn’t change on enhance, only the duration. Speed would be more useful than just defense. 3-4/5.

Hunt

Probably the one you think of when all you want is speed and damage. The Path Resonance damage is based off the character with the highest attack, so it could be underwhelming if you happen to not have a well-built DPS, and/or if the enemies just scale up a lot. 3-4/5 as a main path.

Path Resonances

Bow and Arrow

Kick them when they’re down, and you can probably regenerate Resonance energy to full if it’s a lot of small fries. 4-5/5.

Perfect Aim

Double the rain of arrows, and charging up each time an ally starts their turn. 5/5.

Star Hunter

It works pretty much like Seele’s Resurgence, with your DPS being able to get another turn if they kill an enemy. The damage buff only lasting until the character uses a skill does put a small damper on things if you’re reliant on skills. 3-4/5.

Abundance Interplay: Shooting Starfire

No frills: kill and heal. If the Resonance doesn’t kill, though, this isn’t as great. 3-4/5.

Elation Interplay: Startling Breeze

The summoned units getting increased speed won’t have much effect until more characters are capable of doing so, but more speed is always nice. It does need you to have Elation Blessings, however… 4-5/5.

3-star Blessings

Celestial Annihilation

Getting more turns on Weakness Break? Great, of course. 5/5

Imperial Reign

Pass round that damage buff. You can enhance it to build up to 12 stacks from 8, but stacks also reset if you get attacked so the maximum buff is probably unlikely for most. 4/5.

Imperishable Victory

The snowball effect. Since it’s on kill, I rank it a little lower since it’s likely a little harder to chain consistently. 4/5.

2-star Blessings

Battle Against the Old Foe

The buff to get when you can overcap crit rate to turn it into more damage. Getting the ideal conditions is another thing. 3-4/5.

Ejecting the Borisin

Getting more turns is never a bad thing, and this is one without more conditions besides number of turns. 5/5

Archery Duel

If you need more sustain after your turns, then this will be useful. 3-4/5.

Auspicious Star

The fact you do need to kill for the injection of energy would make this more conditional than usual. 3-4/5.

Monster-Expelling Rainbow

Without enhancing, the heal won’t be ‘as reliable’ so to speak. The enhance is definitely useful since Weakness Break is more likely. 3-4/5.

Flowing Mist

If you have Hunt as a main path, this would be higher priority for you, and less so otherwise. 2-4/5.

Adept’s Bow

Might as well just get this to make Ultimates hit harder. 4/5.

1-star Blessings

Catastrophic Constellation

Every little bit is appreciated to get more turns in. That said, there could be more buffs you’d want to get before this. 3-4/5.

Shrewd Arrangement

Flat crit dmg increase. 3-4/5.

Skirting Life and Death

Flat crit rate increase. 3-4/5.

Thundering Chariot

Further delaying enemies on weakness break is appreciated. 4-5/5.

Vaulting Ambition

If you’re starving for more energy, sure. 3-4/5.

Blessed Bow and Arrow

Your DPS could get a minor damage increase if your healer took the last turn I guess? Your healer is unlikely to get much use out of this themselves. 2-3/5.

Vermeil Bow and White Arrow

Stacking speed buff. To consider if Hunt is your main Path. 2-4/5.

Constellation Surge

If your characters don’t get attacked, maybe it’d be funny to see them keep taking turns regardless of what the enemy does. 2-3/5.

Nihility

If you main this Path, it’s a somewhat all-in one since its Resonance doesn’t deal direct damage. Since I did do a full-auto run on Swarm Disaster D5 with this though, its synergies are pretty worthwhile regardless of whether you actually have Nihility characters or not. 4-5/5.

Path Resonances

Suffering and Sunshine

Confusion and Devoid just makes it easier to kill, or at least break, enemies. 4-5/5

The Doubtful Fourfold Root

Better chance for debuffs to land, and makes them last longer. Doesn’t add to the damage itself, so a little lower priority for me. 3-4/5.

Outsider

Regenerates Resonance energy on applying a DOT. Might as well pseudo-spam the Resonance for stacking debuffs first before the extension. 4-5/5.

Hunt Interplay: Off the Beaten Track

Up to 16% Advance, which is alright. There are incredible synergies with Hunt Blessings, so definitely one to aim for regardless. 5/5

Propagation Interplay: White Nights

Your healers can do their own fireworks with a simple basic attack. 5/5

3-star Blessings

Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?

Enemies can just die at the start of their turn. 5/5

The Man in the Cover

Suspicion increases the DOT damage taken so yes. Enhancing is less important for this one as you should already be always applying DOT without needing a refresh. 4/5

Funeral of Sensory Pursuant

You don’t need to have both this or Man in the Cover, in my opinion anyway. Similarly to its partner 3-star Blessing, enhancing isn’t as necessary. 4/5

2-star Blessings

Cafe Self-Deceit

As long as you have one Suspicion inflicting Blessing, the others are less important. 2-4/5.

Twilight of Existence

More chances to apply DOT. The enhanced version dispels a DOT on you which is nice. 3-4/5.

Night Beyond Pyre

5/5 for sheer utility for all paths.

All Things are Possible

Just more damage when dealing damage, provided a DOT has already been applied. 3-5/5.

Hell is Other People

Area of effect attacks become slightly less important for you if you can just grab this, with or without enhancement. 4-5/5.

Beginning and End

For even further accelerated Suspicion stacking. Just make sure you already can inflict Suspicion. 2-3/5.

Call of the Wilderness

30% reduction is a lot for buffed mobs. 4-5/5.

1-star Blessings

Questioning of Purpose

Honestly I discount Break Effect more than Weakness Break Efficiency so I don’t rank this very high. 3/5

Ignosticism

Best when your main path is Nihility. 3-4/5.

Emotional Decluttering

12-20% damage increase from other sources of damage is neat. Not something I prioritize myself. 3-4/5

Offerings of Deception

The multiplier seems low but when you consider there’s a lot of DOTs likely going off at once, it’s not too bad. 3-4/5.

Sensory Labyrinth

Something I’d take if there’s nothing else. 2-3/5.

Before Sunrise

Similarly to the healing, this isn’t so bad if you can stack the DOTs. 3-4/5.

Tragic Lecture

Plain ol’ damage increase. 3/5

Blind Vision

Just to further ensure the DOTs actually land. 3/5 

Preservation

After clearing D5 for the first time with this path, you’d think I’d highly recommend this. Without Geppie though, full on stacking might be hard (March is single target, and Trailblazer doesn’t give that much in comparison to Geppie). 3-5/5.

Path Resonances

Zero-Dimensional Reinforcement

Big damage with big shields. Nice but not my personal priority. 3-5/5

Isomorphous Reaction

I tend to take this second. It’s always nice to just spam damage while barely taking any yourself. 4-5/5

Eutetic Reaction

I prefer taking this first to ensure my characters actually survive as Amber can block at least one hit once shields are gone. 5/5

Remembrance Interplay: Cold Snap

Increasing damage by 80% is nice until you remember it removes Freeze, so if you didn’t already apply Dissociation, this could cost you. 2/5 

Nihility Interplay: Spiked Armor

Even if you’re only going to be applying Bleed and no other DOT, the synergy here has been godlike. 5/5

3-star Blessings

Resonance Transfer

Just shield up and hit an enemy and watch the sparks fly. 5/5

Metastatic Field

Retaliation damage, while it doesn’t kill, at least ensures they get closer, and you yourself should still be snug. 4/5

Macrosegregation

The shield getting removed every two turns maybe isn’t so great, but if you can strengthen it, it’s hardly a bad idea. 4/5 

2-star Blessings

Sanctuary

This on top of Macrosegregation should ensure a level of security. 5/5

Shear Structure

Spread the Quake love! 5/5

Burst Lattice

If you can upgrade this, slap on a bunch of supporting Nihility Blessings and you can go to town. 4/5

Solid Solution

Buff Quake even further. It’s based off current DEF so the idea is having your shielded tanks get hit for the fireworks. 3-4/5

Hypoeutectoid

Ensuring your tank doesn’t die. 3-4/5

Safe Load

Your protected DPS gets a damage boost. Not something I tend to prioritize though. 3-4/5

Quadrangular Pyramid

Just to further ensure survival. 3-4/5

1-star Blessings

Assemble

If Preservation is your main path, then by all means. 2-3/5 

Compensation

If your shielders are unavailable, then your DPS could stave off some damage on their own. The low multiplier could be a little rough. 3/5 

Rotation

Mostly for clutch cleanses. 2-3/5 

Burst

More good ol’ damage provided the DPS has shields. 2-3/5 

Concentration

Likewise with Burst, if your DPS is shielded, then sure. 2-3/5

Firmness

For better survival. 2-3/5 

Patch

It’s both on hit and HP loss, so a bit dicey to rely on. 2-3/5

Sentinel

Starting off with some shields is fair enough. 2-3/5 

Propagation

The Path that would seem absolutely perfect for Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae. The bugs even have Imaginary Weakness! That said I don’t like it all that much, as it feels like you’re even more reliant on one single character. 3-4/5 overall

Path Resonances

Phenol Compounds

You should be able to gain a lot of energy for this to keep giving your one DPS all the turns, in theory. 3-4/5 

Proboscis

My idea would be to have this and have two people get the buffs, but I tend to not prefer on kill effects due to my low starting damage. 3-4/5

Crystal Pincers

Spores now get triggered only by a Meta’d character so they can trigger on kill effects, but again, I rather not rely even more on one, maybe two, characters to do all my damage. Still, on its own is quite a beefy buff. 4-5/5.

Destruction Interplay: Superposition Eye

The one character will be protected… unless the enemy does an area attack. Not my favourite option. 3-4/5

Preservation Interplay: Adherent Microbial Mat

This would technically be a safer bet to keep a character safe. 3-4/5 

3-star Blessings

Scythe Limbs

After ultimate use, their next skill is considered to be using 1 extra skill point to increase their crit dmg by 40/45% until they attack, stacking up to two times. Damage, basically. 4-5/5

Spore Discharge

You’re always going to be using skill points regardless so easy stacking of Spores is nice. 5/5

Fungal Pustule

You’re always going to be recovering skill points, so easy Spore stacks is nice. Enhancing this also increases the stack from 6 to 9 (nice) for more on hit damage. 5/5

2-star Blessings

Exposed Brain Matter

Basic attack becoming area of effect regardless is nice to help with parties lacking in that. 4-5/5

Intersegmental Membrane

The defense up, 8% reduction at minimum up to 24%. Could be clutch. 3-4/5

Catalyst

If you’re gonna just buff up one single character, just stack it all with their skills and go from there. 4-5/5

Excitatory Gland

SP hungry teams will want this for sure, and for the buff synergy you can get for Catalyst, it’d be useful regardless. 4-5/5

Lytic Enzyme

Improving Spore damage might kill your game’s frame rate, but hey, damage! 5/5

Metabolic Cavity

Semi-clutch Blessing for heals, or enhanced for damage reduction. 3-5/5

Putrefaction Ulcer

If you’re struggling with area of effect damage, then this is definitely one you’d like to ensure enemies will have Spores. 3-5/5

1-star Blessings

Channeled Needle

More damage on your basic attack, always appreciated and especially with this path synergy. 3-5/5

Spinal Spur

Increased crit rate is also always appreciated. 3-5/5

Conjunctiva

Enhancing the duration of increased defense might be nice, but I consider this more of a bonus than something to prioritize at least to start. 3-4/5

Scaled Wing

I weigh speed higher than defense, so even though it works on the same principle as Conjunctiva, I’d rate this higher. 4-5/5

Osseus Blade

If you’re on Propagation main path, then by all means, grab this. 3-5/5

Sporangium

Up to a potential of 12-16 extra energy could come in handy. Probably not something to prioritize for most though. 3-5/5.

Compound Eye

If you have one-turn skill bursts, this is probably how you’d do it. 3-5/5

Vesicle

Do you heck up often, eating all your SP and realizing you needed to heal? You hopefully have less oopsies with this. 3-5/5

Remembrance

Remembrance is all about Freezing, hurray! Though sometimes you get the enemies that are immune to Freeze so you become really sad. It’s still a respectable path and isn’t as wildly situational as Elation, so it’s a solid 3-5/5.

Path Resonances

Rich Experience

I usually prioritize this so that if Resonance has already applied Freeze, then it’ll be two turns of Freeze. 5/5

First Love Once More

If you can’t freeze anything, then the recharge rate speed isn’t going to do much for you unless you have some wild damage to fire off on battle start with the 40% starting energy. 2-4/5

Total Recall

Make sure they do freeze! Normally my second pick. 4-5/5

Destruction Interplay: Faces Places

This one helps for those freeze resistant enemies so that at least you don’t start thinking your ice characters are useless. 4-5/5

Hunt Interplay: Landscape in the Mist

Lowering enemy speed is handy, though I personally don’t feel like it helps as much as I hope it would. 3-4/5

3-star Blessings

Innocence

The enhancement is pretty important in this case since it ignores Freeze resist. Stopping enemy turns as a whole is nice. 4-5/5

Fuli

So like, a double freeze if an enemy is already frozen? Since the Dissociation is applied on already frozen enemies, I tend not to prioritize this. 3-4/5

Reticence

My top Remembrance 3-star pick since it just freezes enemies on number of hits, no thinking required. 5/5

2-star Blessings

Dizziness

Adding insult to injury, always appreciated. 4-5/5

Melancholia

Not a top pick for someone without sufficient Freeze into Dissociation, and can’t tank/heal the resulting turns. 2-4/5

Insensitivity

Enhancing appreciated for the extra 25% base chance to freeze following Dissociation. 2-4/5

Indelibility

One of the blessings you’d want if you don’t already have a ‘proper’ freeze comp. The chance isn’t all that high even when enhanced, but more clutch things have happened. 2-3/5

Sentimentality

No AOE ice damage no problem with this. 3-5/5

Shudder

Basically required if you rely on an Ice character for a DPS to do their own weakness break or for assists. 4-5/5

Maverick

Getting a “free turn” to set up is nice. 3-4/5

1-star Blessings

Pain & Suffering

Bring the pain… if the enemy is already frozen. 2-4/5

Stone Cold Hatred

Relatively more ‘reliable’ damage, though only if the enemy is frozen. 2-4/5 

Thrill of Escalation

This should hopefully lead into even more Freezing depending on who you have. 3-4/5

Lost Memory

The high chance to freeze being only once a battle isn’t something I’d consider relying on if I don’t have other sources of freeze. 2-3/5 

Responsive Excitement

In a way you could see this as anti-synergistic since the shield a character gets might not be up when the freeze does wear off, though of course it could help tank hits from non-frozen enemies as you might expect. 3/5 

Primordial Hardship

Freeze into more damage before they build up resistance. 4/5 

The Torment of Alienation

If you’re on any DOT build, grab this regardless. 4-5/5

Unspeakable Shame

If you’re already focused on freezing, this should be a given to take. 4-5/5

I’d like to repeat that this “rating” is based on my experience with the limited resources I have. If you have gotten fancy synergies on your own, good for you. Roguelite is how you can experiment after all. Feel free to discuss and good luck.

[casuallyyoa]

GUILD WARS 2: SECRETS OF THE OBSCURE IMPRESSIONS

INTRODUCTION

Secrets of the Obscure is the fourth expansion to Guild Wars 2, ArenaNet’s MMORPG. Released 22 August 2023, it marks a new chapter in the game’s story following the end of the Dragon Cycle as of the previous expansion, End of Dragons. It’s technically a new slate, with certain design decisions certainly making me think it’s geared to be a much better starting point for those new to the game but we’ll get to that. This will be a mostly spoiler free “Casual Impression” as the expansion is not “fully” released.

OPENING

After an interlude chapter where the commander bids farewell to Aurene, there’s mail asking us to meet at the home instance. Your commander’s race plays a little part in here but whatever it is, it turns out, that journalist you probably would have heard a lot of in Cantha is here for an interview. After answering her questions, a timely mail comes in letting us check in on some old pals.

The commander is not one to be idle, and they certainly sound relieved to have something to do. As we all know though, a ‘break’ never really comes for the singularity that is the commander; what with disappearing towers and seemingly possessed townspeople all in a panic over the loss of their long-standing anchor. Of course, it’s time to investigate.

The stealth section was honestly a little awkward for me to navigate, perhaps in part because of some lag and also launch day jitters. It goes better on a subsequent playthrough. The scouting mission quickly takes a turn for the worse with fleshy interiors and someone - or something - looking eerily like Deimos from the Bastion of Penitent raid. My commander isn’t having the greatest of times, but that confrontation gets put on hold as he makes a stumbling escape. 

We can’t have a proper reunion with Zojja just yet even after so long. We have to keep moving, getting to grips with the basic mechanics of using the Heart of the Obscure, the expansion’s MacGuffin, to close the rifts to prevent more demons from spilling out. 

Welcome to Secrets of the Obscure, and let’s have that DPS meter close for a bit.

I turned down quite a number of settings but there were places where my FPS would completely tank looking out at the land. It’s quite unfortunate, and reminds me of the time where I tried playing Heart of Thorns on release on a dinky gaming laptop. 

Up in the clouds of the wizarding world of Tyria, the Skywatch Archipelago has familiar sights of the past expansions, slices of possibilities explored. I suppose it would be pretty obvious, but this, to me, is one of the things that lends to Secrets of the Obscure being a subjectively better expansion for new fans to start in. 

There are no heart markers that serve as quests, but there is a regular rotation of dynamic events scattered all round. During launch week, there was certainly an unfortunate tendency for a number of these events to stall, leaving those wanting to complete achievements or just the events themselves be left hanging.

MASTERIES, UPDATES

Secrets of the Obscure does not introduce new elite specializations. In its place is probably some of the most utility oriented additions, namely:

Better traversal on flying mounts, and a more quote unquote, streamlined, way to obtain the Skyscale, arguably one of, if not the best and most flexible, mount of the game

For those who already have the Skyscale such as myself, a couple of the skills you unlocked from Living Season 4 get upgraded to make it that bit much better to fly you around, or to yeet yourself halfway across the map. Skills you learnt from Bloodstone Fen during Living Season 3 are usable here. 

Weaponmastery, where a class can wield any weapon previously locked to their specific specializations

The Heart of the Obscure, a trinket to help hunt down the Kryptis, the demons filling the void of the Elder Dragons

You get access to a hub area similar to Arborstone from End of Dragons with its own set of masteries to improve resting bonuses and unlock more crafting. It’s nothing overly substantial, but convenient nonetheless. Getting the portal scroll here requires completion of the current storyline and associated collection.

The Skyscale is probably the biggest deal since otherwise you would have needed Living Season 4 with a lot of materials required. Completing the Season of Dragons Return achievements do get you quite far into obtaining the mount, but yes, it would likely take more time investment than this alternative method due to time-gating.

The expansion introduces the Wizard’s Vault, where players can get a variety of previously premium (in quotes) items that were exclusive to the Black Lion Trading Company cash shop. You could certainly have gotten gems using in-game gold, which isn’t necessarily something most people put in the time to do.

The Wizard’s Vault means you can just play as you like in PVE, PVP or WvW as you so choose to earn acclaim towards these rewards. As people have pointed out, while certainly nice to have more focused options, there are also less of them at present where previously, you could have just picked out the easiest ones to do out of the options you had. I am a primarily World versus World player, but I do understand people’s misgivings about reducing a certain community vibe as everyone congregated to certain maps for a day to get things done together. This is being addressed somewhat, so stay tuned for that. 

Relics are new to Secrets of the Obscure, replacing the sixth rune bonus. Since I only follow meta builds, it’s been an experiment in finding the relic best suited for me. Some of them seem incredibly niche while some I know have risen quickly to prominence. I won’t really comment much on these besides thinking they seem much easier to balance, though them being soulbound at launch instead of account bound makes it quite troublesome. Players like me without the associated legendaries are going to be juggling multiple relics of the same type without being able to shift them from character to character.

OVERALL

Secrets of the Obscure will be doing quarterly updates, so the story as it stands is on a little bit of a breather cliffhanger. End of Dragons took me about 17 hours to go through, while the first release of Secrets of the Obscure took me about 9 to 10 hours, both including breaks. I got all the masteries currently available in about 4 to 5 days, while I don’t recall how long it took for EOD.  

The story is a decent taster to the latest threat that is the Kryptis, continuing from the brouhaha in Cantha’s jade mines. Some characters get introduced just to die which is par for the course, while others return much to my delight. 

Visual clutter is an issue here and there unfortunately., At the very least, I feel like the map wide meta events are much easier to understand even without any context thanks to the mechanics being widely used in smaller events. I think it does make for some oddities in pacing, but like I mentioned, I do feel like this expansion is better catered to completely new fans, so easing them in at some so-called expense of more veteran players is more or less the trade-off I see.

I enjoyed myself, and I think sometimes that’s what matters the most when it comes to being a mostly solo player in an MMO world. Until next time.

[casuallyyoa]

STEAM NEXT FEST JUNE 2023 ROGUE EDITION 2

Welcome to another edition of the Steam Next Fest June 2023 Roguelite / Roguelike Demo Taster! I decided to go through the list to see what else caught my fancy and presumably determine my finances for the months to come. If you haven’t seen my previous list, you can find it in the video description. 

I give the games at least 30 minutes or so to try hook me with their demo. Who knows what will change come full release?

NEEDS MORE TO STAND OUT

While simple isn’t necessarily bad, I consider these games either being too derivative or not having some ‘spark’ to draw in people who may have already played similar games. 

Geometry Arena 2

Choose your shape and fire away! Auto-shoot is available to toggle on.

A sequel it may be, I think the genre is now pretty saturated with games with similar mechanics, so if you haven’t played the first game, I’m not sure what this has to draw you to it.

Goobies

Another one of those in a niche Vampire Survivors is currently occupying. It’s got a cute style and wide variety of upgrades to be sure. A little problem I found with it is that the visuals of defeating the enemies into globs makes it hard to tell if the other blobs on the screen are from dead goops or hostile ones.

Yokai Art: Survival

It’s anime Plants vs Zombies! The randomness comes in ‘equipment’ your yokai can equip - available in different qualities, of course - and the skills you charge up over time to assist in beating back the parade. Other than that, it’s pretty standard in my opinion.

INTERESTING CONCEPTUALLY

These are titles that have things that draw me or I can acknowledge seem quite fun, but it’s not quite for me.

Downtown Dealers

Can you build a town to hit the given objectives while getting dealt random cards to use with limited budget and space? If that tingles your grey cells, then this one could be for you. I’m certainly not the best at it, which is why it’s in this category, but there’s definitely something here.

Golden Record Retriever

A combination of lethally bad luck and instructions being lost in translation does not make this a  game for me. You need to roll your dice to get coloured ‘auras’ to execute actions, and the colours need to be in the right configuration. I actually flunked the tutorial because I ran out of resources trying to reroll for said combos, but I wouldn’t dismiss this game right away just because I’m terrible at it.

Kanji Industry

If you like games like Factorio and similar, add a little randomness into your drive towards automation to get this game. I think this game has the potential for educational purposes, just that looking at kanji alone is already enough to collapse my brain into a pile of goo.

Prescience

Whether you play black or white, you’re gonna need a mix of both to use your skills. Consume a set number of pieces to use them, otherwise if you don’t draw the right amount of the colours you need, that’s too bad for you. I got into a sad loop of getting slept and whittled down by damage over time by the first boss, myself. If only I could eat their pieces.

Territory of Egg

Protect the big egg with smaller eggs, but you can’t place your eggs willy nilly. They can only be placed on certain tiles, forcing you to expand out. There’s risk reward even after you’ve killed a particular area’s boss; you can choose to retreat to ensure you keep all the stuff you’ve earned, or keep going to brave the darkness and unlock new areas.

I’d like to take this mid-roll to shill a little.

If you find my subjective list interesting, consider tipping me on Ko-Fi so that I can buy these games for myself and support the devs. Link is in the description as well.

Now for the rest of the list.

TO LOOK OUT FOR

Titles I have more interest in than those in the previous category, basically.

Never Ending Beyond

This is something I’d actually peg as a Personal Pick, but for some reason, I was getting motion sick or at least some visual effects I was not having a good time with. Aside from my personal maladies though, this is a pretty neat game where, depending on your menagerie, you can have a wide variety of weapons and effects to take on the world, and they follow you around too! 

There’s definitely a lot of runs you’d want to do to unlock the critters permanently and have them graze at your sanctuary, as well as have them as your starting gear for future runs. It can potentially be incredibly grindy in that way due to the random nature and all, so that might be something to consider.

Rogue Cube Defense

This is yet another spin on the ‘build your own map’ roguelite tower defense. Carve out the path towards your cube and hope you can place your towers along the way as the environment could potentially screw over the perfect placement. As you level up, you get to slap down more of the towers you’ve set in your loadout and upgrade them via passive buffs.

Sliding Swords

I don’t know how big the 2042 (ed. note: I meant 2048) player overlap is with the roguelite genre, but this is the one for that niche of people. Resources and enemies will spawn on the grid as you shunt yourself in the four cardinal directions, stacking buffs on yourself or making your enemies real thicc. So, if you fail your math, you die. 

PERSONAL PICKS

The ones I’d prioritize to purchase.

Astrea: Six-Sided Oracle

Considering I really loved Dicefolk from the previous video, it’s rather a no brainer I would highly consider this game. You need to Purify the Corruption, but your dice won’t necessarily always have beneficial effects. You might have to apply more Corruption to the enemies and thus trigger an Overcorruption attack that occurs immediately.

Alternatively, you have to get Corrupted yourself. However, you do have multiple 'lives' so to speak, and getting Corrupted grants you access to more skills depending on the level. It's about balancing the risk/reward faces, with this game giving you more control over the 'bad' effects.

CONCLUSION

Steam Next Fest June 2023 will be on until 26 June Pacific Time. Some of these game demos are for games that will be out somewhat soon, so if any of them interest you, you should definitely try them out! 

Until next time. Thanks for watching.

[casuallyyoa]

STEAM NEXT FEST JUNE 2023 ROGUE EDITION

It’s another edition of Steam Next Fest, with a whole deluge of demos for people to try on the platform. As a rogue-genre self-proclaimed connoisseur, this June 2023, I dive into the literal hundreds of Coming Soon titles to pick out at random something that vaguely interests me. As such, this selection is entirely subjective to my own taste and I’ll clarify what each vague category means. 

I tried to spend at least 30 minutes per title to see if their demo slice is able to ‘hook’ as it were.

Let’s go!

NEEDS MORE TO STAND OUT

While simple isn’t necessarily bad, I consider these games either being too derivative or not having some ‘spark’ to draw in people who may have already played similar games. 

Death Must Die

Imitation seems to be the sincerest form of flattery, considering the game’s basic mechanics being what Vampires Survivor popularized in recent memory, and a UI uncannily like Hades, down to its flourish, besides other things borrowed from the latter.

God of Weapons

Similarly to Death Must Die, this is also one being an auto-battler. It does have an interesting gimmick in that you need to sort your inventory to try activate synergies, but I’m not sure if that’s enough at this point.

Spellshot

Getting upgrades for your bullets for synergies, effects and firing them as you try to kite waves of enemies in a pretty cramped room is okay as an idea. I can see the potential, but it’s not for me.

INTERESTING CONCEPTUALLY

These are titles that have things that draw me or I can acknowledge seem quite fun, but it’s not quite for me.

Acolyte of the Altar

Take Hearthstone, or perhaps Legends of Runeterra, and give it some randomness to get this game. There’s some fun to be had to play around the Beasts’ Rage skills which activate as turns go on, or events that could see you picking up a not quite helpless dog which could potentially ruin your primary gameplan. Deckbuilder enthusiasts can definitely consider this one.

The Black Pepper Crew

With your eclectic crew of furries, pick up bounties and take your targets down. It’s a tactical RPG with random elements as you could pick up some amazing item, or find a godly crew member to add to your roster. I think it controls a little stiffly - which is probably odd to say about a TRPG - which can be worked out in time.

Cards Survivors

Protect the bottom of your screen with the draw of the deck, firing bullets to fend off the horde from the top. It’s got a bit more going for it as you try to wrangle the piercing shots and / or cry out in dismay as the rocket AOE doesn’t clear as much as you wanted it to.

Finely Diced

Imagine serving up dice to your customers. It’s deceptively challenging since you need to hope the dice are weighted in your favour and if they aren’t, you’re forced to send them off anyway and not get paid for your troubles. I blanked out and spent all my money on ingredients and really hecked up my dice faces so uh, give it your best shot.

Knights of the Cross

In order to not be shanked by the Polish, I will only refer to this game as Knights of the Cross. It felt to me like a more story-driven Slay the Spire, which is fine and all. The Live2D jiggling boob physics is definitely distracting, but can be a selling point if you’re into that. 

Lucky Island

A cute little spin on a typical sim city builder management game, where you play the slot machine to get resources for your residents. I’m not sure how to really work on the slot machine as I felt it rather clunky to actually utilize, and it’s basically the foundation of the game.

I’d like to take this mid-roll to shill a little.

If you find my subjective list interesting, consider tipping me on Ko-Fi so that I can buy these games for myself and support the devs. Link is in the description as well.

Now for the rest of the list.

TO LOOK OUT FOR

Titles I have more interest in than those in the previous category, basically.

Digs

Alongside another game in this category, you basically get to create your own tower defense map by chunking the path yourself and hoping you get the stuff you need from the rocks around you. You can’t just dig out with abandon, as you will be forced to stop when you hit too much ‘noise’, and enemy spawns can appear just about right beside your beloved treasure.

Let’s! Revolution!

Reminiscent of the classic Minesweeper, you need to flip over the tiles to chase down Lord not-Farquaad. Hope you have enough energy for the skills, or have the resources you need to get the upper hand on the enemies hiding face-down. For future builds, being able to use the WASD to move around the field might be nice, as otherwise, there’s a lot of clicking involved. At the very least, let the player just zoom across rows or columns they’ve already unveiled.

TileDeck TD

A different take on tower defense, you also build your own map based on the cards you draw. As nice as it is to just slap down single exit roads, you will need to branch them out to access the resources on the outer ring so that you can actually protect your castle from future waves.

Wizard with a Gun

If you liked Cult of the Lamb, I think this one should be a dead ringer for you. It’s got similar overworld exploration mechanics for materials to craft more bullets and to fix up the world one bit at a time with the power of extreme violence. Potentially. 

PERSONAL PICKS

The ones I’d prioritize to purchase.

Cuisineer

Did you want to be more hands-on violent in the Atelier series, or even Recettear? Pick up Cuisineer where you can whack the living lights out of everything in the world outside and bring them back home to serve up in delectable dishes in your restaurant, or simply to fulfill errands. The rogue-lite elements are, well, lighter here - to me anyway - so if you aren’t really a fan of the randomness, there’s still plenty of static elements of action combat and management for you to work on. The early game hell is certainly real here!

Dicefolk

Your team of three not-Pokemon accompany you to the greater outside to defeat other not-Pokemon! The battle system is simple but engaging, with three dice per side determining your actions. You must spend the enemy dice before you can end your turn, but you do get some control over the randomness. I really enjoyed the demo, doing Rotation Battles while picking up my mostly-snail homie for the team and bopping the creatures along the way.

Froggy’s Battle

Wow, who could have imagined a frog game would make its way here? Jokes aside, it’s another pretty mechanically simple game where you go round and round in your skate tube and pulling off sick moves to style on your quote unquote rizzless amphibian brethren. It’s also really cute to boot.

Heretic’s Fork

There’s something magical about being some unpaid intern working away at a gamified version of being purgatory’s jailor, accompanied by legally distinct Klippy. It’s got some bopping music to go with watching your big balls swinging back and forth to smite the sinners trying to escape hell.

Robobeat

With an opening more or less beat for beat taken straight from the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, this wholly robotic Star Lord will be gunslinging to cassettes you can change on the fly to find a beat you can shoot to. Of course, you’re entirely free to do completely tone-deaf clears by not matching the rhythm, but where’s the style in that?

CONCLUSION

Steam Next Fest June 2023 will be on until 26 June Pacific Time. I am just one man trying out a mere handful out of one specific sub-genre’s available demos, so if you have the time, definitely do give the whole lot a shot! 

Until next time. Thanks for watching.

[casuallyyoa]

COFFEE TALK 2: HIBISCUS & BUTTERFLY REVIEW

WHAT

Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly is the sequel to Coffee Talk, a more-or-less visual novel game with drink brewing mechanics to complement the story. Released 20 April 2023, this game from Toge Productions invites you to have a warm cup as you settle in to learn the lives of some fantastical people, with incredibly down-to-earth worries. This will be the Casual’s spoiler-free review.

SETTINGS

There’s not much, if anything, to the options menu. You start by making a new save in one of three slots, naming your barista, and you can dive right in. There’s sliders for SFX, BGM and ambience volumes, resolution, fullscreen off or on - with no windowed fullscreen - text language options in:

English

Japanese

Traditional / Simplified Chinese

Korean

German

French

Spanish

Text speed comes in default crawl or instant, autoscrolling dialogue on or off, and skipping read or all dialogue.

PRESENTATION

Much like its predecessor, Coffee Talk Episode 2 has this pixellated art style paired with its lo-fi soundtrack. It very much is a cozy little game, of course, no less gorgeous in its ‘simplicity’. There is no voice acting, so the game relies on its sound direction and expressive sprites - and some play on timing of text - to set the mood. In a way, I feel this allows the player to be more immersed in the text, which is what I’d say is the reason people get this game for, but I’ll elaborate on that just a bit later. 

GAMEPLAY

The most complicated the gameplay gets will be to figure out which combination of ingredients, and in which order, you need in order to serve the right drink, and maybe sometimes hand over an item in your care. While there’s no hard fail state on serving the incorrect beverage, it does affect the stories you might encounter. Depending on how you see it, that in itself could be a fail state.

Outside of that, there’s the Endless Mode where you can either experiment with making drinks, or get challenged to serve as many correct ones as possible within the given time limit. There’s latte art as a side activity, but it’s just that - more of a side thing than ‘mandatory’.

Otherwise, sit back, and read how the power of your drinks can connect - or perhaps, disrupt - the paths of the people who come to you seeking advice, companionship, or maybe some solace on a lonely rainy night.

STORY

The story is the heart of Coffee Talk Episode 2. In this Seattle populated by anything from regular humans to succubi, elves, vampires, werewolves, nekomimi and more, their lives seem almost hilariously mundane in comparison. We do have the cast returning from the first game, alongside the debuts of Lucas, a satyr, and Riona, a banshee. I’d say it’s a given that first appearances aren’t always what they seem, and you will get the opportunity to know just how much that applies depending on the drinks you serve.

I did enjoy their interactions - even as I deal myself unnecessary psychic damage due to my own personal circumstances - as I mull over their stories. Sometimes, we just take things for granted - like common sense - but we hardly stop to think about it until a heartfelt piece of fiction reminds you that yes, these are completely relatable feelings and worries. The question becomes, what will you do with that knowledge?

Throughout the game, you’ll get to see little updates from your friends’ Tomodachill profiles and Stories, and the daily piece from the newspaper’s new short fiction column. There’s much to read, so, do.

CONCLUSION

For those of you who’ve played the first game, Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly is more of the same. For those unfamiliar with the now duology, let me ask you these:

Do you love ‘human’ stories?

Do you want your stories to be served with a side of lo-fi music and delicious drinks?

If yes, then, get this game. In all the world’s hustle and bustle, being able to stop for a while and be listened to is such a luxury. Just for a little bit, you can get it here. I give Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly a Highly Recommended.

[casuallyyoa]

HONKAI: STAR RAIL EARLY IMPRESSIONS

WHAT

Honkai: Star Rail is the newest live service game in the HoYoverse, launching globally 26 April 2023. The game is free to play / free to start, a primarily single-player turn-based action RPG available on mobile, PC and PlayStation consoles. It’s part of the larger Honkai series universe, featuring so-called alternate versions of the main universe’s characters. 

We know it’s an alternate Honkai universe because Himeko’s alive.

This early impressions video is brought to you by just under 9 hours worth of gameplay.

SETTINGS

That aside, I like to start with the options and settings. You start off by picking one of four servers, each effectively being an account of their own, broadly speaking. There’s quite a number of little things that Honkai: Star Rail has taken from HoYoverse stablemate, Genshin Impact, so this comes as no surprise.

You don’t get access to the actual settings right away which is somewhat a pet peeve of mine, but I won’t dwell on it too much. The actual options available are the standard swathe of graphics, audio and keybinds on PC, with little to no accessibility options. I suppose considering its overall gameplay, accessibility is less required compared to Genshin, but it would be great for larger developers to start standardizing their availability.

There’s quite the selection of text localization available, while the characters have voices in Chinese, English, Korean and Japanese with separate downloadable voice packs. I got too lazy to get them - even Japanese, despite my self-proclaimed weebery - which… is neither here nor there. Let’s move on.

OPENING HOUR

The first hour basically serves to get you familiar with the basics; of the story and the controls. You get to choose between the Stelle or Caelus forms, the selection of which the game warns cannot be changed later. Shortly after naming them, you become the industry standard mute, amnesiac hero. 

Much like Genshin, Star Rail’s protagonist IS voiced at points but otherwise only ‘speaks’ through dialogue options. I honestly think this is a shame; a decision perhaps meant to more easily facilitate self-insertion. Who am I to speculate, though?

PRESENTATION

Honkai: Star Rail is quite the looker of a game. At first glance, it may appear more muted with the dark backdrop of space and the stars, but it’s hardly lacking in colour - especially when it comes to the design of the playable characters; all interacting with each other in a 3D space. They have their respective, cohesive colour palettes and are button cute; important for marketing. Maybe the enemies do seem kind of boring, though. If you’re really nitpicky, NPC tend to not have mouth flaps even when they’re fully voiced, which might just seem weird.

I feel like the UI and menus could be a little more streamlined as there’s quite a few clicks to go through for upgrades and such, which the devs can consider for later.

Haven’t paid too much attention to the music, but you can get records to listen to select tracks on the phonograph you can find later on. The English dub is pretty good. At its quote-unquote, worst, it’s serviceable. 

My gripe is mostly the fact that there’s no Ultimate animation skip. Skipping story is one thing, but even with 2x speed in battles, be prepared to memorize the few canned lines and animation sequences whenever characters are off being cool and stuff.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay section will be split into how you interact with the world, and the systems in relation to the characters.

THE WORLD

I briefly mentioned it being a turn-based, action RPG. The turn-based part should be self-explanatory; characters and enemies act in order, visible on the top left of the screen. 

Enemies have a ‘break’ bar which doesn’t make them skip a turn, but does make them vulnerable to damage. You can break enemies by matching character elemental attacks to an enemy’s weakness, where a character without the corresponding advantageous element directly chips away at the enemy HP. 

Status effects exist. Debilitating statuses like Freeze will skip turns, while something like Bleed deals damage over time. Unless otherwise stated, damage over time damages shields before HP. Using skills take up skill points, seen as pips on the bottom right, which you gain simply by attacking. Once a character charges up enough Energy for an Ultimate, they can cast it at any point, though the order of when the Ultimate casts does still depend on when they’re input.

Enemies can be seen walking around on the overworld. It’s possible to run around them which alerts them to your presence. You can start the fight with an advantage by hitting them in their elemental weakness, which you can see as you approach. Furthermore, characters have field ‘Techniques’ which can either aid in exploration or for a pre-emptive attack on foes.

The overworld exploration in Honkai: Star Rail is more limited than the open world of Genshin Impact, more akin to connected instances instead of a seamless plane. For one, you can’t jump. There still are destructible objects, chests to open and puzzles scattered around, among other things. You just don’t need to worry about parkour.

Systems gradually unlock as you raise your Trailblazer level from going through the story and assorted missions. There will be daily missions, a Battle Pass, and repeatable ‘rogue-lite’ mode as the ones I consider major gameplay additions. The ‘rogue-lite’, called Simulated Universe, can be repeated weekly for rewards.

An assortment of currencies and quests serve as the busy work to get you more materials, rewards and the like. Conveniences such as repeatable battles, auto battle and item transmutation all exist. The stamina system recovers at 1 point every 6 minutes.

THE CHARACTERS

How about our colourful cast? As you might expect, they do have voicelines and some story you can read about. They could even send you messages which gets you a pittance of premium currency, like Dan Heng’s ‘dad joke’ message.

I wanted to talk about the character upgrades here too, without overloading the previous segment. To wit, we have:

Their base levels and related Ascensions, where you can also get some gacha tickets at certain Ascensions

Trails which look like a skill tree wherein new passives or skill upgrades can levelled up at unlocked nodes

Light Cones which to me are mechanically more similar to Fate/Grand Order’s Craft Essences to Genshin Impact’s weapons

A 4-Relic system which are like Genshin’s Artifacts

Eidolons aka Genshin’s Constellations by another name

These don’t sound like much, and would certainly be very familiar if you’ve already played Genshin. Doubtless you’re going to be spending plenty of time on the grind for these, though.

GACHA

Ah yes, if you’re going to be a free to start game, there’s gotta be a way to monetize. You have the usual packs and monthly pass for premium currency and assorted resources.

The actual gacha rate is pretty abysmal for Honkai: Star Rail, but at the very least, has a similar pity system to Genshin. The ‘discounted’ beginner pool guarantees at least one 5-star character in 50 pulls, so you could have a better start. Or maybe struggle a little with damage if you get Gepard.

The game has the same system where you have different pools for brand new characters and their associated Light Cone, and a permanent pool. Interestingly, after 300 pulls in the permanent pool, you’re able to obtain an ‘extra’ selectable 5-star ONCE.

C6 Qiqi havers could never. 

STORY

I don’t want to talk too much about the story for a couple of simple reasons:

I’m not familiar with the Honkai universe lore, so things I’m puzzling about could be answered simply by ‘go check the wiki’

As such, I’m not particularly invested and can’t pick up on references, and am just here for the ride

I feel like the story is fairly slow paced in the past 9 hours or so, presumably to pick up once more elements get introduced. 

For the lore hunters, there is a staggering amount of incidental pieces you can find lying around to read, not to mention the trash cans or little secrets you can find by being a dumbass or incredibly persistent person. Whether you enjoy it all, will be personal taste.

CONCLUSION

As an outsider trying out the hottest new game, Honkai: Star Rail is competently made and can certainly be enjoyable. I would think people who have enjoyed HoYoverse’s other titles and or are involved in the Honkai universe in general, would absolutely love this game.

I am merely lukewarm on it as I only have so much time in a day, and another live service game to contend with is something I do not intend to do. As befitting my so-called ‘brand’, I will be a casual here.

By all means, give the game a try and see how much you like it. I am just some guy on the internet with opinions. So go, have fun.

[casuallyyoa]

FIRE EMBLEM ENGAGE REVIEW

WHAT

Fire Emblem Engage is the latest in a series of tactical role-playing games by Intelligent Systems, published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It has an expansion pass featuring four waves of DLC, introducing additional maps, items and story. The series has come a long way since static 2D art and pixel spritework to full 3D models, but is Engage worth playing? This is the spoiler-free Casual review. 

SETTINGS

Much like most games on the Nintendo Switch, the options are basically non-existent, offering only a change in dialogue text and between Japanese and English dub. That said, the game’s performance on the Switch is quite respectable, so it’s mostly only lacking in a more customizable interface.

OPENING HOUR

Before jumping into the game proper, you get to choose your form of Alear. You get to input their name and birthday, which is functionally cosmetic. You have three increasing difficulty options in Normal, Hard and Maddening, then choose if you’re playing in Casual - where fallen units return - and Classic - for permadeath. Outside of profile cards and certain additional modes and stats, online play is mostly limited to some random items you can find on the battlefield.

PRESENTATION

If I had to choose a word to describe Engage’s style, perhaps that would be anime? Not in a bad way, mind; the mostly brighter colour palette is quite pleasing on the eyes, with quite the spread of new eccentric party members to add to your squad. While the red/blue protagonist is admittedly quite jarring on a first impression, I do think it does get quite endearing - fortunately so, considering I’ve spent almost 80 hours on a first playthrough. 

The use of 3D models is alright. There will be many canned animations and certain actions done just offscreen to save on additional details, not especially to its detriment. If you’re really, really nitpicky, you’ll have to live with the various instances of clipping across the board.

The music has several standout tracks, one of them being the opening vocals. Both the English and Japanese version did not have to go this hard, but they sure did. I do have a number of personal favourite battle tracks, with a large soft spot for the final story battle theme. 

GAMEPLAY

The basics should be familiar to seasoned veterans of grid-based tactical strategy games. You deploy a set number of units, with each of them being in their own respective classes, able to move a certain range, and strike the enemy if they are so capable. There’s no back-attack or individual defend moves, though there is a ‘Chain Guard’ move to have a character soak at least one attack for another.

The weapon triangle - the so-called rock-paper-scissors advantage chart - is here. You could consider it more potent than usual in Engage thanks to the Break mechanic, which prevents a Broken unit from doing a follow-up attack until the end of their next combat when hit by an advantageous attack. Either you or the enemy can wail on the other with impunity at least once. Smash weapons can do something similar, though these weapons cannot strike first nor do follow-up attacks. Incidentally, weapons no longer have durability which I love, because bad RPG hoarding habits are hard to break out of. Staves, whether they be healing or utility, still do, however.

Terrain bonuses or limitations are present. A ground tile can provide +30 bonus to dodge, but Flying units won’t be able to utilize them. Flying units can go to places where infantry or cavalry can’t traverse easily or at all, unless specified to be impassable.

I’ve come this far without mentioning the Emblems. Emblems are powerful utilities that grant an equipping unit that Emblem’s spread of bonuses, skills and weapons. Engaging is a ‘super mode’ that lasts a limited number of turns to use their unique weapons. There’s also an Engage move that is usable once per Engage, typically a robust signature move. Should you not have enough Emblem rings, you can still have Bond rings that provide comparatively minor boosts, but have some other unique skills not found on the Emblems themselves.

Outside of combat, you have the Somniel. Here, you can do a lot of admin or side activities. Gain support with your units to learn more about them and eventually Pact Support them - essentially bonding Alear with the other for life. Alear can Pact Support any playable character regardless of gender, so happy gays! There’s the cafe to gain support and additional stats for the next battle depending on the quality of the food, but I honestly didn’t really find much use out of that.

The fringe case use also applies to the side activities you can unlock. Strength training only grants Alear the bonuses and if you flunk it, you can get nothing for your time. Unless you really enjoy these mini-games or intend to min-max, you can pretty much ignore them. While I do consider even Normal decently challenging especially for someone not well versed in these tactical games, I didn’t have much desire to try out what are ostensibly breaks from the usual action.

For those interested in level grinding, the Arena offers 3 tries after each combat to grind out some more EXP and potentially supports for the chosen character. There are overworld skirmishes or training occasions for more EXP. As I understand it, donating to nations improve the quality/spawn rate of these skirmishes, but money feels tight. I only grinded because that’s how I play, and I didn’t even donate past level 2 on Normal.

Once characters hit certain level thresholds, they can change classes provided you have the seals and the required weapon proficiency. For their respective classes, they can then get its class-specific passive in addition to what their personal skills are, and from their Emblem/Bond rings as relevant. Classes have their own growth rates additive to a character’s, so reclassing to force a certain stat growth could be something you want to do.

DLC

For those deciding on whether to obtain the expansion pass, you get bonus items and more Emblems to go with the new maps. There’s also the Fell Xenologue with more maps and new characters to add to your roster on completion.

The DLC Emblems are definitely powerful in their own right, which I can jokingly dub ‘pay to win’. These Emblems can’t be used to make bond rings though. As additional flavour, these Emblems can have bonus dialogue if you have the Emblems associated with them from the base game. 

The biggest chunk is arguably the Fell Xenologue, what with giving more story and characters. The Xenologue gives you fixed unit levels, classes and inventory, so you do have the option to jump in right away as soon as you can access it without the other base game emblems, characters, or even support / bond bonuses. Its difficulty is also separate from the base game and nobody dies permanently in it, so feel free to bald like I did.

STORY

I’ve seen criticisms of Engage’s story being less complicated, or even too simple. However, I strongly believe it’s told competently, and I think that’s much better than trying to clumsily weave in too many nuances. I do understand if people think certain complexities are hidden far too deep into support chains, but I see that as a way to get you invested in the overarching story.

It’s Not That Deep, but I think if a story has gotten you crying positively over certain beats over rubbing your temples regarding what you see as plot holes, the former is more preferable. I enjoyed it myself.

That said, this is one thing I find important enough to mention to ‘spoil’, so to speak: Engage lacks paired endings between characters who aren’t Alear, which is disappointing considering the dynamics the rest of the cast have.

CONCLUSION

In summary, what are the pros and cons?

Pros: 

Engaging (ha ha) story and characters

Can be still fairly challenging even on the lowest difficulty

Pretty stunning visuals and music

Cons: 

Unfortunate that further paid DLC can enhance the experience but at least it’s decent value

Lack of paired endings for non-main characters

If you do like tactical strategy RPGs and have yet to take the leap into anime, Engage is a pretty good starting point. I give Fire Emblem Engage a Highly Recommended.

[casuallyyoa]

OCTOPATH TRAVELER 2 REVIEW

WHAT

Released on 24 February 2023, Octopath Traveler 2 is the numeric sequel to 2018’s Octopath Traveler. This title from Acquire and Square Enix uses the more ubiquitous “HD-2D” graphical style, giving this JRPG’s pixel art more ‘3D’ definition. After throwing in a worrying 100 plus hours into this game, here’s the Casual review, spoiler free.

OPTIONS

Playing on the Nintendo Switch, there isn’t really much you can tweak. Text language aside, you have Japanese and English dub. I played with the Japanese dub, because I need to establish my weeb status. Unfortunately, there’s no option to resize the text on the console, which I know was a problem with its predecessor. 

STARTING THE GAME

You once again have a choice to start with one of eight Travelers in the new land of Solistia. Their starting classes are also the same, with Ochette the Hunter, Castti the Apothecary, Temenos the Cleric, Osvald the Scholar, Partitio the Merchant, Agnea the Dancer, Throne the Thief, and Hikari the Warrior. Once you’ve selected your protagonist, you are thrown into their Chapter 1. They cannot be removed from the first slot of the party until you complete all their associated main story chapters.

PRESENTATION

The game has gotten even prettier, with more dynamic camera usage and cinematics / cutscenes. On that note, the cutscenes are also voiced, though any travel banters and majority of NPCs remain unvoiced outside of certain occasions. 

Both the playable characters and NPCs have more varied animations. Additionally, characters have different voices for the same skills, giving them even more character.

Yasunori Nishiki returns to compose the music. Despite the mostly horrendously bland names for the tracks, they’re nonetheless absolute bangers.

GAMEPLAY

The mechanics are essentially unchanged, with tweaks and balances as they saw fit. I’ll cover the out of combat stuff first.

Each character has their own Path Action with which to further interact with NPCs. Introduced to the game is a pseudo Day Night cycle, where in-game time passes both naturally or when you trigger it. This gives each character two Path Actions which provide similar results but through different methods. NPCs available can also change with either time, so each Traveler is already immediately more relevant where you may only stick with your main 4 in the first game.

In combat, the Break and Boost returns. Enemies have Shield points you Break when you identify their weaknesses to make them become vulnerable and prevent them from acting the next turn. Boost makes skills stronger, either by hitting multiple times, lasting longer, or just big damage.

Latent Powers are unique to each Traveler, giving them even more relevance and utility. We have Castti who doesn’t use ingredients for her concoctions - now also handily separated into offensive and defensive options - or Partitio, who simply gives himself max Boost to unleash Hired Help hell. They can later get unique skills to further set them apart even when they use the same job.

You get to use the Travelers solo for their respective Chapter One stories, so you are made to become more familiar with their respective gimmicks. In the first game, Chapter Ones could be scaling nightmares or simply harder with a solo character due to their skillset.

Special mention to Ochette: she can capture monsters which can be turned into consumables, then sold for a decent amount of money. They still do have random targeting, but there are also more monsters with All attacks that hit either multiple weaknesses or provide buffs.

EXP and JP grinding is a little easier this time, thanks to the Day Night cycle. ‘Tougher’ enemies spawn at night, so go wild and unlock all those Support skills. The base classes can now have up to 3 people equipping it at the same time, so you could run a whole team of Merchants.

Of course, there are secret jobs. Only one character can have them equipped at a time, and they’re much more involved this time. This means more exploration, or relevant quests.

STORY

The Travelers arguably felt quite distant in the first game, which they have rectified for 2. Besides the travel banters - now viewable in their entirety in the Journal - there are character pairs for Crossed Path stories to explore their dynamics and flesh out the world more. 

The story does feel more overarching this time, though admittedly some branches felt cut abruptly to be tied up in post-game.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Pros:

Mechanically improved from the first game

Story feels more connected

Absolute banging music again

Cons:

Side quest solutions can still feel quite arcane

Getting additional tavern banters also hit or miss

Still lacking in options

That said, Octopath Traveler 2 is this Casual’s…

 Highly Recommended.