Скорошни рецензии на Fokson

I was introduced to this as "the funny furry game that is actually extremely well made", so I decided to take a peek. Turns out I have a lot to say about it, so I'll give a tl'dr here first, and then elaborate below. Bear in mind that this review is for a game that's in early access, so these points may not be valid in the future.

Aesthetic : 9/10
Sound/Music : 10/10
Story : 1/10
Gameplay : 2~8/10 ( Complicated, see below )

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Aesthetic : The game is beautiful, in a Playstation 2 / Gamecube kind of way. If you don't like that kind of aesthetic and you get hung up on "good graphics", then abandon hope here. However, to me this game is gorgeous, very wonderfully retro. My docked point and only complaint is that some of the animations are a little jank, most specifically the walking and running animation for the Chang ( Rat ) player character. The walking is supposedly a little hop, like a bunny, but it looks... very poor. The shoulders still move left to right to left like it's a normal walking gait, but both legs move forward and back parallel to each other, which looks very awkward. If it's supposed to be a hop it doesn't show well, because there's no vertical movement of the model, so it looks more like a glitch than anything. When the Chang breaks into a run it drops to all fours, which is a detail I wish ALL of the player character models did, but this animation too is very janky. The back feet don't ever touch the ground, the knees/spine don't bend, and the body barely moves. I could probably easily overlook other animation weirdness and give aesthetics a 10/10 if not for the Chang's "animation errors".

Sound / Music : No notes here, I love everything that touched my ears from this game. I'm baffled at how many mods exists for this game solely to replace the music, and the reviews saying they listen to podcasts or other music while playing. I would never even think about listening to anything other than this game's music while playing the game, it is an indescribably perfect fit.

Story: What story, lmao. I'm not going to let it ruin my experience or dampen my review because this game IS in early access, but there is quite literally nothing here. A few NPC quest givers that say "Okay the world sucks go kill things to make it better" and some occasional flavour text from other NPCs, but there is nothing at all to get invested in. I do hope this changes in the future, but it's a good possibility that the dev is fine with this game just being an abstract RPG with no real world building or story.

Gameplay: I'm torn on this one. In terms of control tightness/responsiveness and general feel of the game, easily 8/10. Everything is snappy, cancels in all the right places, it FEELS very nice to move and weave and fight. A very good 'inner gameplay loop'. The outer loop, however - the long term - feels extremely lacking right now, and I'd rate that a 2/10.

Personal opinion incoming - the class trifecta we have going on here - fighter, bandit, mystic - this is old, tired, done to death, and I hate it. Please think of something more original here, it's been like this for every RPG and their grandmother, and it's never been a particularly good choice. There are so many unique and interesting things you could do for classes!

Speaking of classes, you don't get to pick one until level 10. This isn't terrible, but there aren't really any abilities you can use prior to getting a class ( and even when you do have a class there aren't many abilities either ), so until level 10 you are doing nothing but a regular attack, which isn't a whole lot of fun.

Also speaking of classes, I said there were three but really there is only one, maybe 1.5. The Bandit... I can't imagine anyone using it beyond seeing what it does. It is completely and utterly outshone by the other two. The mystic is better, but it is also eclipsed by the fighter. The mystic can't decide whether it wants to be DPS or support, and doesn't do either one effectively. The fighter, on the other hand, knows exactly what it wants. It has 3 abilities in particular that feel great ( slam, gash and cyclone I believe ) and I only really started to have 'good fun' when I was able to use all three of these abilities together... which was level 16. That's what, four levels below the current level cap? A very long time to start having fun, I have to say. Everything leading up to that was nice, but it always felt like "When does the game really start?"

Moving onto races. There's only one thing that differentiates them right now, and that's their starting ability. Each race can eventually learn all the other starting abilities, and that is the only thing saving 4 of the 5 races from being completely worthless, because the only racial ability that's useful is the Chang's 'Sturdy'. It makes you invincible for 6 seconds! Compare this to "your next attack crits", or "your next skill is instant and costs no mana ( but using this ability takes 3 seconds and DOES cost mana )" and I have to wonder if I'm missing something important. I would not play anything but Chang until I find a handful of scrolls that teach Sturdy, and then immediately apply them to the other races at level 1.

My final and largest complaint to the gameplay/controls is trying to lock-on to enemies. Locking on is a mechanic that is supposed to aid the player in keeping track of an enemy. It does a great job of this - if you can manage to actually lock on. As it is now, you have to have you cursor dead, pixel-perfect center of the enemy you want to lock onto before pressing the lock-on button will actually target them, which is atrocious when both you and they are zipping around. I'd really like to see pressing the lock on button snap you to the enemy that's closest to the center of your screen to alleviate this frustration. For now, I just don't bother locking on.

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Conclusion:

All this criticism aside, this game is very good for what it is right now, and has immense potential to improve. I'm hoping that some of the things I've outlined above will be reviewed and possibly addressed in the future, but even as-is I'd recommend people who like snappy action RPGs to give this game a try. You don't have to be a furry or whatever to enjoy it - I'm not, and I still had a blast =)

Very much in its infancy right now, with hardly two hours of content. I loved those two hours, though, and can't wait to see how this game takes shape in the future =)

I'm probably going to hell.

It's a nice homage to an old classic I played as a kid. I'd definitely recommend picking up some mods for this game ( a guide can be found in the community pages ) for some much needed QoL like cutting down on time-wasting repetitive animations and better camera control, but the game itself is fun enough despite all of that.

This game is a masterwork; I don't have a whole lot else to say. Truly unique concept that never fails to surprise me with a new twist every few levels. Some of the answers are a bit oblique, but nothing is impossible. Don't stubbornly try to solve a level for hours on end and burn yourself out! If you can't get it in a few minutes, go try a few other levels and come back. Almost every time I've done this, I returned with some new perspectives and insights that made a previously impossible-seeming level trivial, and it feels absolutely amazing when you have that 'a-ha!' moment.

My issue with games like this is that I tend to feel forced onto a path I didn't want because there isn't a choice that reflected what I would have chosen if I could. This game seems mostly immune to that issue, except when it means to not be. Solid 10/10!

I recently reviewed another game, claiming that it was a wannabe-game that handled more like a visual novel due to its lack of compelling gameplay. This game, however, is the opposite - it looks like a visual novel, but it adds just the right amount of something extra, something to differentiate itself from others. Its music is easy-listening, its story compelling, its art polished, and it adds enough interesting gameplay to keep one thinking about their next move without overcrowding it or making it inaccessible to those who just want to relax with a good story. A well-deserved positive review from me!

Personally, I didn't have a lot of fun playing this game, but I really appreciate the concept and want to support it anyway. I'd describe it as "What if Spore was a board game"; a neat take on evolution and selective breeding that isn't too hard to follow. I'd recommend it if that sounds interesting to you, but be advised that the game does feel a bit unpolished and 'empty', maybe? I didn't feel like there was enough to grab onto, or maybe that what there was there wasn't exactly easy to grab onto because it feels like I'm being rushed. Either way, it's a fun little diversion that I'm sure a lot of people will love, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

I don't dislike Potion Permit, but I'm not really enthralled by it either. There is no difficulty curve, no sense of urgency with anything, and very little in terms of novel concepts. The art is gorgeous, the music is very pleasant, and I'm quite fond of the characters. In terms of compelling game design, however, I'm sorry to say this game could have done much, much better. I would say this is about half a step removed from a visual novel, rather than an actual game.

My utmost respect to the development team for making something so beautiful to look at, and I wish them luck in their future projects. Anything that looks and sounds this good that also had a compelling gameplay loop would be an easy 10/10 from me. =)

This game has the potential to be fun, but in terms of general game design it falls flat pretty early on. Everything, including the player, moves so awkwardly and trivially that there's no real challenge when it comes to learning patterns and predicting enemy movements (which is where a lot of fun in games like this comes from), but there's a large amount of (unwanted) challenge in trying to move normally and avoiding enemies/hazards coming in from off-screen where you couldn't see them.

Health doesn't regenerate, so damage you take is permanent, a good design by default until it's completely undermined by a healing spell that, for no cost other than your regenerating mana, pretty much fully heals you. This turns the aforementioned good design into terrible design - now the game has to choose between you having a terrible time surviving without healing items, or you having a trivial and boring experience since you can never be hurt. Roguelands chose the second option here, since anything actually hitting your character is pretty rare and most enemies tend to just flail around randomly with no intent to kill. I cruised through the majority of the game without ever seeing my health in a critical spot.

Crafting felt inane; was gifted an axe by an NPC on the first level that made every other weapon seem like a joke. Overall, I liked Magicite much more than Roguelands, which is a shame because I looked forward to playing it for a while.