I need to go back and play Swordigo, but didn't the combat also mirror the combat in Deathbat? I distinctly remember it also feeling weird...certainly nothing to write home about. Also...you've got me thinking. Eli mentioned the hands-on and initial preview of Deathbat got some insane page views. I know this is far-fetched, but what better way to get the attention of the millions of people following A7X on social media than by shitting all over the band and their game. Nice going AppSpy...that right there's a conspiracy theory for ya!
Patience my friend. Get enough coins to purchase a new weapon and you'll be fine. Hell, like I mentioned on the front-page...just get all 3 Deathbats on the first level, play the first bonus level and you should be on your way to unlocking the most powerful weapon in no time. I remember it didn't even take me an hour to do so.
Ok, i've read and watched everything since yesterday, and no, i didn't buy it, yet. The biggest controversy (reviews as well) in a long time makes me curious, very curious. Though my backlog from last week is huge and my brain says no, because... This important part from metalcaskets' post#2 made me hesitate and i went from instabuy to instawait: "...Let's just get the "not-so-great" out of the way: The hacking and slashing is just...alright. It's not really more complicated than holding the attack button down and is generally not satisfying as your weapon feels like it's weightless..." My best reason to Not buy this game. I always like great graphics but what counts are the controls and the gameplay, always ! (Btw, i like this old dated look or whatever you are calling it) ...and yet, downloading as i write... Edit: I maybe missed something, or is it a saying in english speaking countries "James said" (for: that guy, or worse: that moron said ?), but if you're talking about the hands-on-guy, it would be Peter.
I'm guessing by deathbats those are the green bats? I got 1 and I think my sword was swinging faster.
I decided to read the review on TA and then watch the video on Appspy. They both seem pretty legit. One dude liked it, one dude didn't. The AppSpy person said enough to make it clear he played the game before starting the video. This reminds me of Castlevania 64. It got slammed left and right by reviewers and gamers yet I thought the game was pretty good. The only bad part for me was the camera which many games of that time period had terrible camera angles to go with the bad 3D. It's really hard for me to go back to classic 3D games like that from the PS1/Saturn/N64 era. They tend to give me a headache. Still, no doubt I had a lot of fun with those games back then. As for this game, the actual gameplay looks super basic. I mean, attacking then running away and coming back and attacking seems to be all the strategy involved in the game. The graphics are to me the best part of the game. I like the varied environments but the gameplay just seems very bland. Granted I did enjoy the heck out of Soul Fighter on Dreamcast (yes I said Soul Fighter)... but I though the game was so bad that it was actually funny. The opening sequence had me rolling. I kind of see this the same way. The giant hand on that one dude for example... the me from 10 to 15 years ago would have probably found that hilarious. But for fans of this kind of gameplay, this sure looks like it packs a lot of content. It's a shame the main characters are locked behind IAP. Seems like they could unlock characters for free by finishing the game with each one of them. But, that's the option they chose.
Actually, while Swordigo's combat might not be anything fancy, it just feels right and satisfying. There's a sense of weight to it, like everything in the game. I recently finished the game again and it felt as solid as ever.
Beaten the first level and i'm pleasently surprised by the environment, ambience, exploration and diversity of enemies and traps. I really hope they left some "fireworks" for the later levels to come. I didn't know the band before, but i could become a fan, because the music is brilliant and fits perfectly. The controls are very responsive and work great, though i really would like to change the layout, to close together for my taste. The graphics? Each to his own - i love 'em, a lot ! My rating so far...easily 5 stars. I played them all over the last five years, similar games like this one, so i could judge only by the video that the battles and animations looked bland and lifeless, and that's what they are, no doubt on my side. Another big minus are the miserable, well, mostly not existing and desperately missing sfx sounds. No crashboombang slaughtering a foe ? What a big miss, Devs ! My rating for this...easily 1 star. I don't know what awaits me in the next levels, but i'm glad i took the plunge. Period.
To each their own I guess... I consider myself an elder statesman at TA and will give my opinion on game, I have no ties to avenged sevenfold and have no clue who or what they do besides sing, I guess I'm that old and only dabble in classic rock, and I've never heard them. The game, is a good tribute to old scho gaming as someone mentioned prior. Not one crash in 2 hours of gameplay, and not easy either. It is a button masher, but if you are a fan of the genre, most hack and slash games are in fact button mashers.... Touch controls work flawlessly, no issues at all with any of those controls. I can't comment on the music or any of the sounds because I play all games with no audio to not wake the baby or the witch in my house ; (don't tell her that though) I will gladly pay the price tag for this game and others like it, too many companies don't go premium route because people complain about 4.99.. Really? That's not even a biggie sized combo at Micky d's guys... I have gotten much more enjoyment from this game in 2 hrs than I get in 5 minutes of tearing up a number 1 from Burger King and saved myself the 1200 calorie intake as well. It isn't like other games in the hack n slash genre because in my eyes, it is meant to be a throwback and to that it has succeeded. If you .want pretty graphics, daily login rewards, events that you can't win unless you shell out Mega dough or hack, then this game prob isn't for you. But my hats off to the dev team for a job well done. 4/5
FYI, #8 on paid game list in US and #88 in grossing. 127 reviews, primarily 5 starred, a few lower. Faith in gamer humanity restored... For now #
Holy shit...I just noticed. It just shot up the charts. Wow! Also, you and Qwertz's impressions make me a happy casket. I'm so glad people are actually taking a chance with the game. I make it very clear in my first post that beyond a couple of little issues, the game is reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally good. Oh, and for some reason the weightless whacking animation thing doesn't seem as glaring on my Note 3. Odd.
Hey guys - A little side note on the Combat Sounds... Initially we had the game ready to go about a month ago and when ios 8 came out it provided us with a few major problems that were not present before. When we resubmitted the game to apple we noticed that some of the changes cause other problems such as no combat sounds, no sound when your character was struck and also glitchy cut scenes. We scrambled to get the fixes in before release but that just didn't happen. (They have a 10 day approval process) Fortunately the android version never had these problems and that is why you hear the combat sounds on your device. Luckily our update got approved this afternoon so everything is fixed on ios moving forward.
Yea I can see how having to use skill to dodge enemies and attack strategically can be more frustrating than just blasting mindlessly with magic. The green deathbats are "Kingstones." Get 3 in each level and it opens up the Bonus Level where you can get a ton of coins & purchase health/mana potions or stronger weapons.
It's tough to say for certain without knowing what device is being used but the newest build released today should have this issue fixed. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
I have no problem with this in principle, but the controls are a little off for being able to do it well. I have problems reliably picking a precise direction in this game, for some reason. Makes aiming magic way hard too. Generally I like the game, allowing for what I hope is an intentional level of cheese and a slightly antiquated visual presentation (old 2d==retro; old 3d==old). The A7X soundtrack arrangements are excellent. Wish the fight music was more varied, but really, no complaints big enough to matter. But the controls, those will take some getting used to.
My last post here, i guess, because almost everything is spoken out, and the people made up their mind anyways. Yet, i'd like to mention the gorgeous cutscenses, the bonus levels to make easy money and the very helpful but mostly one-time-use powerups to help you out (hell, i need them hard), because it gets harder and harder, in a very good way for me. If this dodging the enemies would equal a real body workout - big Arnie in no time. The stages grow with more colors, length and variety. Only in the middle of stage 3, but i haven't seen it all, quite sure about this. The update (thanks!) gave us some battle sfx sounds, finally. Honestly, they're not the best ever, but this might come from the unbalanced mix with the compared too loud background music, imho. I hardly hear nor feel them. Possible to get us bgm/sfx volume sliders, dear Devs ? Would help a lot to dig even more into your great adventure. I'm closing up to TA's review with a 4/5 (though not rocksolid, yet) Edit: no battery draining game, exept you play for hours. No lag and not one crash, as well. Edit2: actually, the sword alone is louder than any banging oomph slash dang. Playing Afterlife where the bgm is pretty quiet.
I'm expecting to get a lot of shit for this http://toucharcade.com/2014/10/17/toucharcade-game-of-the-week-hail-to-the-king-deathbat/ BUTÂ… it really was far and away my favorite game this week. And it's one of my favorite games this YEAR. It sucks because it's hard to describe exactly why. A lot of the negatives people have stated do hold true. The combat isn't the greatest, though it's not terrible either. It's a simple game with no upgrades or skill trees or anything, but I'm actually totally OK with that. A lot of people have been harsh about the graphics, but this is one thing I just don't understand. No, they're not the most impressive graphics ever, but I don't think they look bad at all, let alone terrible. In fact, I think they've done a tremendous job of matching up the art style with the music and type of game they were going for. I'll even go so far as to say I LOVE the graphics in this game. But hey, it's a touchy subject. The thing is, there's just something incredibly fun about playing Deathbat. I actually like the simple combat. It's fun to hack hack slash hack and then blast an enemy with a spell to knock them back, then get back to hacking. Yes it's incredibly simple but I like it. It's fun. I also love the levels themselves. Exploring every inch, finding the hidden bat symbols to unlock the bonus levels, the crazy environmental traps you have to make it through. This is very much an old-school feeling game, and again, I totally love it. It's the kind of game I find myself getting lost in, and when I'm not playing it I'm thinking about playing it. I felt the exact same way about Wayward Souls. Now, I think WS definitely does a lot of things better than Deathbat does, but just in the feeling you get playing they are very similar to me. That's a game that I crave playing, and I feel the same way here. Anyway, yeah I don't expect the comments section on the GotW to be very kind, but we'll see what happens. I just wanted to at least TRY to describe what it is that makes me love this game so much, both here in the forums and the GotW, so take that for what it's worth.
I hate those rolling spikes! They're the most annoying thing in the game so far. And being able to lock on to your enemies would be helpful! The rest is ok. The graphics are primitive, I've seen better on a ps1.
Agreed. Your choice to make this GOTW (and possibly Metalcasket's enthusiasm) convinced me to give this a try even though the gameplay videos did not capture my interest and I was very skeptical that I'd enjoy it. I'm glad to say that once I started playing I couldn't put it down -- but I also can't put a finger on just why I like it so much. I am an old-school gamer (I mean like NES and quarter machines), so maybe that's the chord it strikes. I will say that (at its core) this game feels like Swordigo meets Wayward Souls, which is definitely a good thing.
Ok what about weapon costumization, and skill? Does it affect gameplay. And are item in full 3d or just stats.?
