Recent reviews by KaristonsWrath

**Early access review**

I had high hopes for this game... and on early access launch it exceeded them. This is a mo-fo'ing sequel done right. I will outline some stuff for the devs that dont feel right. This comes from the following type of player:
- Highest I have gotten is 12 fear to the underworld (and victorious)
- I am someone who enjoys responsive combat of this game
- I would like to think i have an understanding of how things work (both hades 1 and 2)

Boss design:
- Polyphemus: Kind of annoying design even if you know what your doing. The sheep being random each time can catch you off guard and this boss hates all-in close quarters builds and some channelling builds. The ads he summons is far too strong given how he he is meant to be a "1st" area boss (long range bombard types and horde meat shields). I have an easier time with charybdis than poly.

All other bosses I feel are in a good place. Chronos has something unique I despise I will mention in Hexes

Boons:
Hera- Born Gain: Way too overtuned, allows you to pretty much ignore the magic system with enough upgrades and rarity. Allegedly (never got it to this point) you can get into the negatives even.

Aphro (strike/flourish) - A visual indicator for close range would be nice.

Demeter (Cast cyclone with local climate) - Cyclone doesnt follow the cast.

Hepheastus (Vent) - Useful as a curse but easy to stack with the sprint buff and a low enough attack boon cooldown. It shouldnt just refresh, it makes the level/rarity useless.

Hepheastus (Attack/Special) - Good for niche builds but more often than not I forsake these or go for other gods if I really am not feeling it. I do feel the blast itself should benefit from attack/special damage up

General (damage/attack/attacks): You should really specify more all of these. I expected aphro/demeter duo boon to be a massive power spike but not alot. There is a few others like this where its hard to know if its global or attack/special/cast damage up. Reccomend making the ones with more conditions (ie duo boons/infusions) the global type.

Infusions: Most of the time just doesnt matter, Only a few can matter (Wispy Wiles, Martial art) but majority of the time dont matter at all. That being said there a few that matter alot I will list below

Infusion (Coarse grit): applies to more than you would think... including chronos 999 damage hit. Dont think it should be nerfed but maybe add a threshold that makes it block unblockable attacks

Infusion (Hera, forgot the name of it): Increasing the rarity of all common boons is great

Keepsakes
General: There is a lack of straight up "I would enjoy this alot" types. In hades 1 some noteable examples were:
- Red collar, if I felt I needed more hp than current on the last leg
- Charons hourglass, stacking buffs has never been easier.
- Megearas earring, til the death!!!!!
- Dusas' duster, gotta sweep sweep sweep.

Either way you get the point. Alot of keepsakes in this are very temporary which I havent decided if I like. I kind of wish we had a few straight lace benefit type keepsakes.

Hexes
General/Chronos...: Hexes were a good addition... however alot are useless. Its fine if they are not good at the start but alot are very lackluster or straight up busted in the case of moonwater. You also do this big windup in slowed time that whilst good for dramatic effect.... chronos however ignores stopped time... so he just bonks you during that wind up unless you time it well. I would expect melinoe to be more serious and just use the shortcast when confronted like this... Anyway will start listing off the hexes I feel fall short.

Dark side: Way too underwhelming. Damage is abysmal and is useless against chronos. It should have a Hidden aspect that scales with your current equipped aspect. Additionally it should also just benefit from your boons (but keep the dark look, maybe with unique effects based on the god). It also is far too short to get meaningful use of.

Lunar ray: Very vulnerable while casting. An idea from me would be shorten the duration but keep the damage (however remove the automated casting). This way its a quick beam that gets its damage over with so you can go on.

Polymorph: Wierd as 10 seems too excessive. maybe lessen the amount and lower the cast cost. This should be a dedicated mob clear type. Fun concept tho.

Comet: Very good but its annoying against certain enemies that block damage (eg scylla, hermit crabs)

Moon water: By far the best in the whole group as if you get the stockpile effect early on.. you can just stockpile water for the final fight and just win with 16+ charges of moon dew. Definitely needs a nerf, butI am not good at suggesting nerfs

Anything not mentioned here I feel is in a good place (except the speedrun staff, but you have probably heard it to death). All in all... I now hibernate til full release. Ilook forward ot the full game, as you drove through the metaphorical window that was my expectations

If it were last year before the major update, I would be posting this as Reccomended. I will summarise the strong points and weak points of this game before. Just note I have more hours than listed and beat the previous final boss.

Pros:
- Engagingly fun combat.
- Alot of fun unlockables, all of them being different in some way.
- Dungeon crawling
Cons:
- You rarely see your high tier weapons in the current dungeon crawl iteration (or even many magic items)
- Game is very skill reliant and requires a moderate degree of physicality (aka, follow through with your strikes and standing vr reccomended)

Then...:
Back before the current iteration of dungeon crawling (which was the main endgame I ferverently enjoyed), it was split between the different zones then a final long dungeon featuring all 3 biomes and a unique boss (with save points between). Additionally you started with any unlocked weapon ranging from the chad Flachion to the fun Gunblade. Sometimes you just started with a magic item like Fireball gem and just had to scavenge a weapon from an enemy. It was also completely procedural so exploring the side paths to get an upgrade or stat boost/curse was optimal.

...Vs Now:
These days its alot less procedural and the first *weapon* you got was from a limited pool. Gone are the days of getting a fragile magic item as your first weapon or a shield even (shields were useable as you can just shield punch to knock over/kill enemies). Enemies also just feel sturdier, you cant even impale an enemy and lift them up by your weapon anymore as the just stand while impaled on your weapon (No joke, you can lead them around via impalement). This has negated my enjoyment of dungeon crawling a bit. The more streamlined generation also makes it harder to get more powerful as well as limiting the variety of builds in dungeon crawling. Especially with the new perks (I prefer the old method of getting more powerful via stat boosts). The rarity of health potions make absorb hp via melee a must have. The lack of shields also makes it harder to deflect throwing knives (I have tried deflecting them via Blunting [Ox] stance and they still damage you even if you deflect them with your weapon, done with the irish longsword). Overall the old dungeon methods

Overall, if you can ignore the annoying late game and are just after initial fun, I would reccomend this game.}

Otherwise, its just feels like they are trying to control the level of power the player has which annoys me alot. I will take an explorative dungeon with more to do over the streamlined hardcore play. It also just feels like your are more mortal in general in the current patch.

Side note: Can someone confirm in the comments if weapon upgrade shrines exist anymore? I miss my iceblade sorceror builds.

I may be reccomending but pay attention to the below:
Immersion: 9/10
Combat: Crispy 7/10
Player Agency: 8/10
Complexity: 3/10

I will explain the lowest point first. Alot of things are watered down for the sake of the game or merged to take away complexity. I will explain this with a build I am doing in a friends game.

Zariel Tiefling, Cleric of Life (Originally cleric of gluttony in my idea, but bahamut was a close second)
What I expected (as in how it would have played out in normal DnD) - A certified bonk boy who goes around partying and encouraging people to not only look after themselves but also others. Mechanically this would be improvised weapons with a high strength stat and using Zariel smites to imbue these attacks. In addition later on Divine strikes would have only escalated this. Entertainer background as rock and roll and inscribing your holy symbol on a Lute/Guitar
What I got: Turns out not alot stacks in this game. The Zariel smites, divine strikes and weapon skills is now a class action and therefore doesnt stack with each other which takes away the feeling of cohesive builds. Granted alot of this was research after I realised I could not scorching smite into a heartstopper (morningstar). And reasearching further divine strike also falls into this category of being a "special attack".

I will include a list at the bottom of weird stuff that cannot stack but for now, let me complement this games immersion. It does a great job making you feel like your character and its culture have an impact. Even granting free rerolls that you can stock up on if you fulfill a characters ideals... of course entertainer is the most busted and can stock up easily which leads to the point of why dont the backgrounds have much impact. In my game I didnt go entertainer as two others did so already. All they had to do was perform and they got an inspiration, but why cant a sorceror who has entertainer play a musical instrument proficiently (Even if only 1 type). Backgrounds can have a massive impact mechanically in normal dnd (Eg Urchin warlock who not only sneaky but can pick locks). But on the other hand as a Cleric of Bahamut I had alot of unique dialogue with Volo. So the immersion is a mixed bag. I wont count dialogue but its noteworth as race, class and background have an effect on dialogue and actions.

I am normally one to not go for a game on how flashy but this game is and looks stunning (great job on that not much else to say) and the fact you can smuggle items as improvised/thrown weapons is hilarious. (Like using a brain jar to kill a gnoll or an intellect devourer corpse to kill a harpy). Either way this game does well. Also the triggers or stuff are far too sensitive in multiplayer

TLDR If your looking for the immersion of dnd this game is for you. If your looking for the fun of making a cohesive build that should synergise with all your other stuff, not reccomended, better off playing normal dnd for that.

Wierd Nerf/Buffs I noticed:
Spiritual weapon - Is still just a bonus action to summon but no longer requires more bonus actions to command as you control it like a player. (and can even take hits from enemies, solidifying it as a must take spell)
Sleep - It only lasts two turns. It may not roll dice instead being 24+8 per level, but its a dumbly short time as sleeping some to deal with them later or just ignore them is a good strat.
Find familiar - It can now attack. This diminishes the value of pact of the chain when you have a crab walking up to enemies to bite their toes.
Any type of Spell-based Smite: Takes a bonus action... and an action to make the attack as part of the spell. This a solid nerf as if you miss you just waste a spell slot. Considering this applies to the next melee attack you make while concentrating. Also you cant do many fun shenanigans anymore since it falls into the realm of a "special attack".
Two weapon Fighting - You no longer need to attack to offhand strike anymore. Dual weapons are mandatory on casters as you can for example Scorching rays and then offhand strike with a dagger with it being just enough to kill.
Shove - Is now just a bonus action.
Thrown weapons - Can no longer benefit from stuff it would have before as its a special attack (Eg Divine Strike, Battle master bs, Eldritch smite[does affect ranged attacks of pact weapons] etc)

Stuff that dont stack (even tho it should):
Divine Strikes, Offhand attacks, weapon skills, Battle Master stuff[still the best subclass], Any type of smite [spell or feature], All hunter maneuvres (except colossus slayer), sneak attack, College of swords flourishes (why does this have ranged, its defined as melee)

Here is how I would layer attacks if I were to redo this:
- Main Attack or Offhand attack
- Ranged, Thrown or Melee
- Weapon skills or maneuvers (Can only choose 1)
- Class Features (Sneak attack, Divine Strikes/Smite)
- Active Effects (Eg Searing smite, hail of throns, if they ever get added Holy weapon or spirit shroud)

This game is fun but in need of tweaking with being so fresh. My "not Reccomended" review is mostly due to a lack of polish (will likely change in time).

The mechanics are engaging and interesting enough where I enjoying thinking about them more. The art style while simplistic is easy on the eyes and you can always tell whats happening on screen (even when I was watching it on Splattercat).

Upsides:
- Environments are nice. Some environments are reused frequently (forgivable).
- Weapons and stats are clear and tell you what each does with a tooltip (and what each weapon classifies as).
- The world is flashed out lorewise nicely having recogniseable NPC's at a glance (♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Aard, stop gambling)
- The overmap is nice often allowing you to "pick your poison" on what to encounter.

Now keep in mind with th ebelow I want to see this game flourish. Keep in mind, this is from the standpoint of someone who thinks Hardcore is the best way to play:

- Normal playthrough is non ideal. When you die, you have an option to come back with more weapons/healing at the expense of enemies getting more threat. This does not work as if your stuck on a boss, there is little you can do as the more you die, the worse the boss making an infinite problem for yourself.
- Early game sucks. If you are funnelled into skill checks before the first inn, more often thannot its a 50-50 unless you go with an option related to the one you first give a personality trait to. This isnt fun. I do have some solutions like making it so adopting a personality gives a minor stat boost (+1, nothing too big but it makes a difference). Another one is making some starting jobs giving a +2 in one area.
- Underutilised arsenal. 3 particular weapon types are exceeding rare which annoys me. The ability to get a Rogue, Artistry or Ancestry (sometimes see more of those) is rare. I have only ever used 2 Artistries and rogue weapons feel they only drop from certain events. Ancestry weapons I occasionally get but ehh. Keep in mind I am yet to beat the Blood Baronness.

I hope this game gets traction, its scratching an odd itch for strategy roleplaying games.
Good luck developers

A game which story writing is something that does better than most drivel today. A gem from biowares early days. And most improtantly: proof that singleplayer games are still good these days.

I replayed this gem on master difficulty and i was suprised when i got iron palm as that wasnt in the version i played. The game feels great when you strong attack a person activating focus ust before impact, then dodging over their still flying body to kick them ther other way and to finish it off with a toad demon transformation strong attack as you end the focus. The gameplay is still solid as anything.

My favourite part int he game is the imperial arena for the backstory on yuor companing, the stuff you can earn from the arena and a few other pluses among it.

Biowares current games suck and i am writing this before anthems release as a tribute to what they were.

"Shine on you crazy diamond"

So to start with, I have beaten the end boss a few times before posting this.
I will start on positive notes:
+ Spells have great audio and visual design for the pixel design they had, as do the enemies.
+ Punishingly difficult. A great break from easier games where you want think on your feet.
+ Can be played in any way you see fit (Defensive, Basic buffing, Damage etc)
+ The final boss takes you off guard with what he can do on your first meeting him
+ Balances difficulty and fun really nicely. If you die you know why and you try again and learn from it
+ Good amount of spells and artifacts (more in negatives...)

- This games items are too specific and you can get entirely screwed if unlucky (6 shops containing 4 items [24] with an item pool of 144)
- Half the cursed items are things i would never bother with unless i was having a great run.
- Projectiles are annoying, nothing new there tho.
- Poison interrupts spells where as flames dont. I hate poison.

I do have thoughts on how to fix the item pool dilution problem. There is only a few flat stat up items. It just feels like over half the items i find are too specific or situatiuonal for what i want.

This is a Revised Review.

I genuinely wanted to like this game at first. But I cant reccomend this for new players. If you can power through the early game and enjoy the power later on, go for it. I will break it down section by section starting with:

Combat (Engaging but has problems 6/10.)
- Its not made with multiple combatants in mind. Being surrounded is easier and unless you lock on properly, NPC's will tackle you with their swords if you lose sight for the shortest time.
- Even though you do get prompts for those withing roughly 60 degrees of your vision, being surrounded is easy and sometimes it will feel like they are just walking into your hitbox.
- Even when fighting you will notice some enemies go into this Sync-Grab type attacks either while pummeling you or when you attack (that annoyed me alot). You can learn these is the thing you are never told except by a small load screen tip. Having half your combat mechanics hidden away irked me.
- As mentioned in my initial review, Archery is finicky to aim. But its also highly abusable once you have a horse. Before Level 5 Bow, make sure you wear some form of arm plate or you will flay yourself. No Perks in Bows, but I wish there was
- The melee combat is incredibly engaging... if its a one on one fight. Although for the reasons of the whole sync grab mentioned earlier, unless you have learned those, better of sticking with horseback archery or sneak attacks.

Stealth (Dumb, highly exploitable. Talking about Hunting and Thievery here)
- This was the first thing I tried, going town to town robbing and when caught, moving on. In the early levels its so dumb.
- Pickpocketing is just not worth it. You have to do so much grinding in the early game and its way too easy to get caught. Even against sleeping folk like the "thieves guild" suggests. Once you have 7 levels in it, I found that to be the breaking point but its just not worth it.
- Lockpicking is interesting as it actually feels like a co-ordination based task. Time doesnt freeze while you do it so make sure your quick. Levelling this is very worth it.
- Actual thieving heists perplex my mind a little. On one hand if it goes off perfectly and untracabley, it makes me feel crafty. But if spotted the owners may just follow you until you are off their property. Where is it considered their property? Their entire yard. This is exploitable. They tend to follow you and even if they know you are there, you can knock them out and even sneak attack them. If its only one owner.... it becomes a complete success with no repercussions.
- Hunting is just disapponting. Animals dont run far making it an easy source of money. Just sell your meat at the "Thieves Guild". It is considered stolen property unless under certain circumstance. I wish you could just buy a hunting licence, even if its only for one province and expires with time.
- Stolen property can lose the stolen tag with time, scaling with groschen value. Coins are instantly clean on stealing so thats the only exception

Explorations and Game Flow. (Main Quest, side quests, random encounters and just general locations)
- This is a weird category but ultimately indicative of unintended game design. Its more optimal to ignore the main quest, you arent timed or segwayed into it. No sense of urgency to begin it after the prologue.
- Alot of the side quests have full cutscenes making it fun to just find and do them. Especially if you just want a shorter play session. I do count training (learning riposte/comboes), archery contests and the Rattay Tourney a part of the side quest category.
- Random encounters in the wild can either be pleasant or very unbalanced because of the reasons stated under combat. Having a horse can fix the unpleasant easily.
- The main quest itself is not bad but due to how much freedom you can have at the start makes it hard for the developers to know what power level you might have. Player skill is also a big thing with combat. As mentioned is Stealth section, you can sneak attack following NPC's. This becomes relevant at some points when hostile NPC's are left to keep an eye on you.
- Story moments can it hard sometimes, but I wish you had more freedom than just playing "Henry, the wannabe swordsman, former blacksmith apprentice of Skalitz". I have played many RPG's and as such this felt very restrictive of a game.

Overall, this game does some things right but alot of things wrong or unpolished. The Late game of this can make you feel a one man army, but thats only after grinding (see memes on Henry feeling Hungry)

A fun adventurous game that mixes the tedious but satisfying feeling of building something from nothing, with literal farming and Legend of zelda style spelunking

Great for those who are looking for a game thats satisfying and filled with character

Things I have liked the change of since the alpha:
1) the Characters.
2) Bariks new frontline playstyle [tho.. negative 3]
3) The new maps [tho neg 2]
4) The new art for some things
5) hi rez's collabs with social media and other gams to give ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and mounts

Now the negatives....
1) Bucks cannon is no longer a cannon and his ult is now so underwhelming
2) What happened to the old map conditions [portals, tall grass etc]
3) Bariks current playstyle would make more sense with a projectile launcher that has a high damage fall off
4) Seige mode is now payload mode [sucks]
5) Kinessas Transport drone sucks for her original playstyle as its no longer escape and feels dumb
6) Everything feels so dumbed down to "appeal to everyone" and it pretty much throws away all drybear talked about over the course of development
7) Its free but such wasted potential... potential that was already there in alpha.
7.5) Ying is disabled :c [not a negative but a sadness.]
8) I wish grover still had melee as he was good at keeping dps safe when he had that. He also feels more like a frontliner to me

I would reccomend this game still [even in its dumbed down state] but you threw away a perfectly good build that was its own thing but now just feels like you want to outdo overwatch

Get your ♥♥♥♥ together plz Drybear/Hi rez as i see wasted potential

If anyone thinks I am writing this because i hate RWBY, just to clarfy i love RWBY [rip pyrrha :'c ]
Will keep this spoiler free by putting [REDACTED] at points to censor the spoilers

Now what I find good first:
+ Beautiful environments, feels like I am in the world of remnant
+ Characters look good, as do the enemies
+ Fluid combat system but... [will put in negatives]

Now... Those were the only good things, bad things now
- Every character play nearly the same except weiss which she can be upgraded to range spam
- There is no immersion in the characters as their semblances dont exist here [eg Yangs rage, Blakes decoys that take the hit for her etc]
- Enemies are repetitive as well and once you learn their patterns its easy to get around their guard [if i could learn in my playtime, something went wrong]. Even the [REDACTED] is stupid as you can pratically stand still most of the fight and wait fo [REDACTED] then attack the weak point.
- Short and easy campaign. The defense missions are a joke as you can just let the ones attacking the centre to attack it and it wont matter at all
- All the projectile shots do the same damage
- Boils down to the same comboes on most enemies [eg. Yang, Ruby and Blake use Light, Light, Heavy to take out the lightest enemies in one combo]

Bugs t_t
# Playing singleplayer will cause you to lose the levelling progress on your character
# Counters and Finishers wont register properly sometimes leaving you vulnerable

Overall: This game was not what i was wanting in a RWBY game. If they release a huge patch I will check it out and rewrite this review. At this point on a scale of 1-10: 4/10, Not worth it