mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
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Soulestination is another Magic Tower game that came out earlier this year, which I just learned about from another forum.

It appears to have a classic JRPG look and feel, with familiar equipment menus, fantasy characters, story, and settings.

If you haven't fallen entirely down the endless rabbit hole of Tactical Nexus, but haven't had enough Tower of the Sorcerer-like experiences, this may help scratch that itch.

There's a demo to try out. Though I haven't played it yet, I wanted to call attention to it now, because it's discounted this week on Steam. Not that it needs it; the base price is cheap! I grabbed a copy just to keep supporting developers who make this type of game.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

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[Last edited by mrimer at 08-10-2021 07:38 AM]

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I tried this out for ~30m. Immediately, some new mechanics were shown off that were novel to me, and potentially complicated to optimize for. Not sure optimization is a thing in this game yet.

There are green shield points you can gather. Each permanently decreases the damage you receive from each combat by 1. So, a weaker, subtler kind of DEF.

The soul/rage system is an analogue to leveling up. Each enemy you defeat gives you one soul point. Each soul point you have gives you +1% to your ATK and DEF. Once you max out your soul points (it starts at a max of 5 soul points), then you enter a rage state, which basically gives you one berserker attack. Your soul power modifier is doubled for the next attack, and you automatically attack the next enemy you step next to. In fact, if you step next to multiple enemies, you will automatically attack all of them with your doubled soul power (in sequence). Then your soul points reset, and your soul point max increases by 1. So, you get stronger, then weak again, over and over. This pattern substantially impacts routing considerations.

One other very nifty detail is that projected monster damage is constantly displayed above each monster (with graded color coding showing a damage % heuristic, i.e., green for minimal damage, red for huge damage, etc). I want to have this display option included in RPG 1.3 for sure. It is such a convenience!

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

---

[Last edited by mrimer at 08-10-2021 09:31 PM]

Someone Else
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1300
Registered: 06-14-2005
IP: Logged

One interesting feature of the shield points is that some monsters heal a portion of the damage they deal, but damage done to shield doesn't count. I agree, though, the floating damage is super handy.