In a sea of roguelite video games, its turning into more and more arduous to search out video games that actually differentiate themselves. Shared mechanics are frequent inside the style and even when new subgenres seem, equivalent to deck-building roguelites, they’re usually fast to be copied. It comes all the way down to how properly a recreation manages to undertake and implement these mechanics, whereas managing to maintain issues feeling and looking out good.
That’s the reason it’s so spectacular to see Rogue Spirit adopting a mechanic that I actually haven’t seen in roguelites earlier than. The core gameplay loop is constructed round the truth that your character is a spirit with the power to posses the our bodies of warriors which have been vanquished.
The sport begins with you being summoned to battle brokers of chaos. You’re given a physique, and the fundamentals are defined to you. There are forces of evil to battle. You’re the just one geared up for the job. You already know, the usual speech all new heroes get.
What’s distinctive is that the physique you obtain is just not the one you’re compelled to occupy. Every enemy you defeat will be possessed. There are a number of various enemies too, every with their very own play model. Earlier than possessing them you will note a small pop-up that shows their stats relative to your present ones.
It is a actually neat idea, however sadly the execution leaves a bit to be desired. The fight simply doesn’t really feel good. Only a few of the characters have movesets that I personally loved, and the pool of characters I favored enjoying as solely consisted of melee characters.
The ranged fight doesn’t have a satisfying method to intention. It primarily entails mechanically locking on to an enemy after which holding the assault button till it’s correct sufficient to hit them. It feels extra tedious than something and it makes it arduous to ever need to possess a ranged attacker.
The range between melee attackers isn’t a lot better. Lots of them have gradual assaults and dodging solely actually works the way in which you’re going through; it feels clunky to assault after which attempt to dodge. There’s a parry mechanic, however it will be extra correct to name it a block because it doesn’t create any sort of opening like a standard parry mechanic would. It negates harm when correctly timed with regular assaults, after which can scale back or eradicate harm from charged assaults relying on how properly timed it’s.
It’s not a forgiving system and the fight isn’t the smoothest to start with. It’s made worse by the truth that the one actual method to heal in Rogue Spirit throughout a run is by gathering spirit from defeating enemies or discovering spirit wells, after which possessing a brand new physique. It hasn’t been unusual for me to get a very good character early on in a stage, just for each enemy I encountered afterwards to have decrease stats.
There are elite enemies that are a lot stronger than commonplace enemies, however even their stats are sometimes decrease than the character already in play. It makes it arduous to need to have interaction in fight since there’s usually no reward for taking the danger.
In the course of the runs you may swap between your bodily and spirit type, which lets you sneak previous enemies to keep away from that situation. Enemies all have a reasonably slim cone of imaginative and prescient which turns into seen within the ghost type. Getting into that cone slowly fills their consciousness and in case you keep in it for too lengthy, then you’re compelled again into your bodily type and should battle. That is once more one other distinctive selection, however it’s a pretty fundamental stealth system.
That’s my most recurring gripe with Rogue Spirit – there are many cool mechanics however all the things feels a bit simplistic. Issues start feeling redundant rapidly and even after progressing by means of some unlocks and getting new talents, it by no means fairly develops right into a passable gameplay loop.
There are few different bitter notes the sport hits, together with the music. Every stage’s track is redundant and relentless, which makes every session really feel for much longer than it’s. And never in a great way.
Rogue Spirit is a recreation that I nearly loved, going backwards and forwards on how I felt all through the sport. There are numerous cool concepts included and it’s definitely a novel roguelite that provides one thing that hasn’t actually been seen in different video games. Whereas there are a number of complaints, lots of them are forgivable, however the fight system is what I actually wrestle with.
Too most of the characters are simply not enjoyable to play as, and even those which are respectable, nonetheless by no means really feel nice. The possession system is cool, however it might put you able the place you are feeling the necessity to play the sport otherwise than the way you need. It’s a very good problem, however not one I personally loved.
That being mentioned, in case you are a fan of roguelites then don’t rule out Rogue Spirit. It’s not a recreation for style newbies, however in case you want one thing totally different, Rogue Spirit could also be for you.