About 3 hours in, some more impressions: - Walls definitely need more variatey. The game is repetitive enough, at least try to make the wall textures more diverse. Just changing the wall color scheme from level to level would be good enough and that requires almost no effort. Plus, just seeing what the next level's color scheme would be is motivation enough for me to advance to the next level. Things like rearanged/broken/missing bricks, moss, torches, blood, symbols on the walls would add that extra touch. I think the levels could look really good with a little effort - I'd replace the UI buttons if I were you. I get that they're supposed to stand out a bit, but they should at least be the same (or similar) pixel size as the rest of the game. - I'm not a fan of turn-based combat in modern games, but this game is actually oldschool, so it doesn't bother me at all. The combat is formulaic like almost every turn-based RPG (another quarrel of mine), but it does get interesting enough as you unlock more skills when you level up. And hey, if you make turn-based combat bearable bordering on enjoyable to me, you definitely did something right - I have unlocked 5 classes so far and they actually feel different to play. I'll probably keep playing this game just to get all classes. Good job with that - Storywise there's nothing there. There's one sentence in the manual about defeating some Shadow King. I'd love it if there was at least one short scene each time you create a new character with red eyes staring at you from the darkness with a caption: "I will soon take over the world and you are the one who's trying to stop Me? Mwahahaha..." or you know, something like that. All old RPGs had some silly stereotypical villain like that - Loot, or better said, the lack of loot is one of my biggest problems with this game. Sure, you get the relics and you can select better gear with your next character, but one of the reasons why people love dungeon crawlers is opening a random chest and getting that sweet flaming sword. You won't get that experience with this game. I'd like to see loot added to this game. Any gear that you acquire during the game would of course be lost on character death. But that would only motivate players to get more relics just so they could get that sweet flaming sword permanently, which they once loved but lost - I was quite worried about the upgrade-village-to-get-a-better-character-next-time thing, as this obviously stacks the odds against you in the beginning of the game. And yeah, this does cause a lot of grinding if you want to get somewhere with some early-made character. But I don't think grinding is that bad in this game. Building the village is one of the main features that makes this game unique and, as I said before, I like it. It's not too slow and it's always fun and encouraging to try a new race/class or just start out a bit better in your next run. This game is not made for people who absolutely hate grinding though - That "meow, meow, meow" sound you hear everytime when you bump into an enemy is getting quite annoying. Either replace it with some short sound or remove it altogether. The not-so-subtle music change is impactful enough in my opinion - The minimap could use some work. The levels aren't that huge (at least I haven't been in a huge one yet), but it's still annoying walking into the same dead end 3 times in a row, especially since unnecessary strolling around means that you'll face more enemies. My suggestion would be to color the 3rd square on the minimap from your character black if you haven't walked on that square yet. Could be really helpful - I'm not too fond of the random encounter thing. Well, they aren't exactly random, as you're rather forcefully heading towards a random enemy with every step you take. I'd prefer if there were even static enemies just standing in one spot the whole time (like the mini-bosses) and it would rock if they would chase/run from you. And just have a truly random encounter here and there. Again, I know this is the gameplay style, so it's down to personal preference Great game so far, and I'll definitely play more just to unlock all the classes. I'd say it's well worth the 1.99$ if I hadn't gotten the game for free (thanks again). But with a little more effort and some small changes this could be a really good dungeon crawler, that I'd have no trouble recommending to any RPG fan.
Thank you for your detailed review Elsa, you gave me many ideas for Mazes of Karradash 1.1 In first place: the variety of graphics during dungeon exploration I'll work on it.
The graphic style reminds me a lot of Shining in the Darkness, which is one of my favorite Genisis games. Kinda temped to try this out but the repetitive short dungeons is kinda turning me off to it.
Seems my kind of game... Will wait and see what Wednesday night brings but this will be in my mental shopping cart and already added to my watch list to remind myself! I love me a good ole' fashioned dungeon crawler!
This kind of reminds me of QuestLord, I really like that game. Hoping this one is fun like that. Hopefully the turn based combat doesn't ruin it for me. I'll give it a shot. UPDATE: Got it tried it out for a few minutes. Load times on the latest iPad are not great. I keep feeling as though it crashed, but then see the load spinner in the corner. Next thing, not as bad, but still a little annoying, Way too many different sized 'pixels'. I like the big chunky pixel style, but it's very inconsistant. I know you didn't create it. Also, like in other comments, needs a variety of walls. The combat isn't bad, but I wonder why you need to load a new scene for that, instead of just fight in the same scene. I understand it's new, and will get updates hopefully. Good game for a 1 man dev team.
Is this a kind of might and magic game? Open world or just dungeons? I am really looking for a M&M, but I couldn't find anything really similar and good. I'll keep an eye on this one, seems good
One more thing, I think outdoor levels would be great (forest or whatever) would be so nice instead of indoor only
Yes, I thought so. But I think the color difference is big enough. The red outline only confused me because I wasn't sure if I'm facing some extra evil venomous kind of bats - because that's what colored outlines on enemy sprites usually mean. PS: sorry about those games I listed. It's quite inconsiderate of me, since you could view those games as your 'competition'. If it's bothering you, you should ask a moderator to move those 3 posts in a more appropriate thread.
Cool game. I like the old school rpgs so I think this should be fun for me. I'll write review once I play with this a bit.
Nice work dev, I really like it. I have only one request however Please make this game works in portrait mode. I think it will be more convenient even you are doing things like taking a bus, thanks
Big no to that. Think very few RPG's work well in portrait mode Plus it could be a lot of work for the dev, its in landscape so if its portrait it'll be more 'squashed' etc without doing lots of work. If youre on the bus then surely you can just hold it landscape like 99% of the other iOS games ? Not many games are portrait only
