Hero Soul: I want to be a Hero!
Taken from the banned texts in the Imperial Library
Long ago, on the small continent of Altaria, two races mastered the art of magic. The first were the elves mastering the magics of life known as astral magic. The second were the demons mastering the magics of death known as umbral magic. The elves, fearing umbral magic, banded with the the other races on a crusade to wipe out the demon race. The crusade was all too successful, leading to the extinction of the demon race. The elves no longer contested, ruled Altaria forming the Altarian Empire.
Present Day
Knowledge of the demon race and umbral magic have all been forgotton. The elves rule over Altaria and occupy the nobility of the empire, while the humans and beastmen that helped them remain commoners in the empire.
Cecilia Grey is your less than average human commoner. Her father is a member of a civilian organization known as the adventurer guild, and unlike many girls her age, she wants to join the guild to follow in his footsteps. How will her adventure unfold?
#### Mixing Roguelite and JRPG Genres!
Ever wonder what would happen if a story driven JRPG mixed with a rouge-lite? Does that even work? Hero Soul started as an experimental project to explore this concept where I tried smashing the two together, and the result… well you’ll have to judge for yourself.
#### What can I expect?
Hero Soul is a 2D pixel ARPG, which incorporates traditional RPG/JRPG gameplay with rogue-lite elements. Like traditional rogue-lites, gameplay is broken into runs or small sessions. Each session will be similar but not the same as the last. The story will progress as you do more runs and Cecilia will grow stronger as well!
#### Features
- Procedurally generated levels
The landscape of Altaria is always shifting, and no two levels will be alike. Experience increased replay-ability with procedurally generated levels, quests, and monsters! No level or run will be exactly the same and no story will be either!
- Customizable spell system
In Hero Soul you can cast spells in addition to your normal attacks. As you play you will discover spell cards to add to your collection. You may then pick and choose which spell cards to use. Spell effects vary so experiment to find which cards suit your play style.
- Modular skill trees
While the game’s name is Hero Soul, the Hero Soul also refers to the modular talent tree system that handles your character’s skills and talents. This system allows you to mix and match different hero archetypes to create your ideal hero. Heroes are are discovered randomly as you progress thorough the game.
Read More: Best Early Access Hack and Slash Games.
Karma City Police
After playing all the content available in Early Access twice, I asked myself if I should do an analysis on the available content and if I should recommend the game to others and the answer is absolutely yes!
The pixelart of Karma City Police is very beautiful and crafted. Impressive how only a developer can deliver a competent job.
I really enjoyed the two main aspects of the game: resource management, where you must make your decisions wisely to take care of the population of Karma City, and the pinball mechanics in the clashes that makes a perfect contrast to what was presented previously, moments of more action.
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Early Access Exploration Games.
Shaping up to be a really good game. Only took me about 15 minutes to complete (I forgot to exit, hence the hour and a half playtime). I enjoyed my time though, the premise of mixing a pinball battle system with the 911 operator role is an innovative one and I think will be really cool once it’s more fleshed out. A “shake” feature would be nice during battle, with maybe a tilt feature too so you don’t abuse it too much to hit your target. Some of the text overflows from the boxes, and there are some grammatical/spelling errors (off the top of my head “you loose” comes to mind). Native gamepad support would be great too, or at least the ability to remap the controls. I played using JoyToKey though and it worked fine. I enjoyed both aspects of the game, so really my only complaint is that it’s too short! Hope to see this updated soon.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Hearts of the Dungeon List
incredible art and monster design, fun gameplay, and tumby. 10/10
– Real player with 6.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Early Access Roguelite Games.
Simple and fun game. Very short, unless there is more stuff to do Im not aware of, but I found it enjoyable for how laid back the game is. The controls were hard to get used to, but once I did there wasn’t really any issue. Definitely an early access game as certain things don’t seem to be there or got weirdly cut off, but from what I see the dev updates the game often so Im sure it will be fun to keep up with. :)
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
Neverspring Chronicles
Far across the Northern Sea, as the crow flies, past the smokey coasts of Serpatia Trade City and over the sodded old ramps of Bridgeton lay the sprawling untamed wilds of the Frontier. Moss covered stones, wet with the mist of babbling brooks, line the creeks and rivers that run like veins through the upthrust mountains and rolling hills. Or so it was before… in the days when Mit and Manava were still just distant warring factions. Way out in the Frontier, no one ever expected they would be a threat to anyone but each other. The Twin Kingdoms had fought for 1,000 years… until the day the sky was wounded.
Their reckless magic could not stop the sun, but the moon and stars were lost behind a scattered strata of bruised clouds. Reliable navigation ceased, crops withered to dust, and the world plunged into despair. It was then that the Twin Kingdoms came together in a joint effort to preserve the status quo, harnessing the fading power of magic into Mana Machines collectively known as Thaumatechnology. With that power they waged war to bring the world under one rule, for the good of all. But those who had settled the Frontier found their freedom replaced with nothing but service to a greater power. For three long years, they dared to fight for their freedom.
…they failed.
A disgraced soldier and his magically gifted sister must confront the shadow of their estranged father to survive in a world where technology feeds on the death of magic. Hunt down fading magics to customize your combat abilities and explore a world on the edge of death and rebirth as you navigate a dynamic narrative toward multiple endings in this old school 90’s style JRPG.
Features:
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A rich and dynamic narrative designed for replayability through exploring the permanence of consequences.
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Choices matter in a branching storyline with multiple endings that change depending on the who, what, when, where of how you play the game.
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A simple yet meaningful Day/Night and Weather cycle that effects combat, NPC spawns, and exploration opportunities.
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Lots of easter eggs, hidden secrets, and optional content.
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Traditional sideview RPG combat with a renewed focus on party organization and resource management.
Rising Spire: Prelude
From Roguelikes to Darksouls to Skyrim, I have played many RPGs. This is one I am extremely excited for. The are style is great, the music is catchy, and I am anxiously anticipating what new moves and attacks future combat has in store. If you havn’t seen the trailer, give it a look on youtube. The hype for this game is real and I am excited to see what else is in store!
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
Not a huge fan of jrpgs generally, but I was looking for something short and this is also free, so I gave it a shot.
Quite fun to run around and kill / avoid enemies - story not long enough, but it’s still an early access title, so I’m looking forward to find out more about Atlas’s journey. Also a map would be really nice so I don’t get so lost hehe.
Visuals look cute, I dig. Will most likely come back after a couple of updates. Give it a try.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Time Break Chronicles
Greetings one and All,
For those interested in this game here is my review on it.
Time Break Chronicles plays like an old school rpg game. Those who have played older rpgs would enjoy it but it’s not your typically rpg. Those fans of Final Fantasy VII or VII New Threat mods or Final Fantasy VI Brave New world would find great enjoyment in the challenges of this game. Most fights are about thinking. The balance of the game is rather well done despite how many characters you can choose from. As writing this review we are at 48 characters available. My highest loop on my best save is loop 20. This game is about planning stuff out. Learning enemies and bosses strategy and how they react to certain attacks.
– Real player with 194.0 hrs in game
Excellent game even in early access
It’s basically a JRPG meets rogue lite. You’re stuck in an endless dimensional loop and travel from node to node towards the end boss. Think Slay the spire map layout except horizontal instead of vertical. Entering a node drains stamina from each character in your party and lower stamina equals lower character stats
Your main character Claire is stuck in an endless loop in a strange dimension. From her own little pocket in this dimension, she travels the map, rescuing characters to strengthen her party while fighting a nefarious cult. There are 24 characters at present with more to come. While there is some overlap between characters, each offers unique abilities and you’re free to form your party in any way you like with the only requirement being that Claire is present. Claire has 3 forms, tank, dps and healer and while she is not as good in each role as more specialized characters, her jack of all trades and her ability to switch form at will even during combat, makes her very valuable
– Real player with 114.1 hrs in game
Tropicalia
O jogo tem uma temática bem divertida, com elementos culturais do Brasil o que torna bem satisfatório de jogar. O que eu acho que poderia melhorar é a história ser mais relacionada, questão dos NPC’s darem dicas de onde você deveria ir para completar a história.
– Real player with 6.5 hrs in game
Worth trying out, and definitely suggest buying, but expect to face some frustrations (not shocking given the nature of early access).
The Pros:
Combat is pretty easy to figure out.
Fresh setting that stands out from similar games
Definitely feels retro.
If you feel you hit a wall, pretty grind-friendly.
Nice use of crafting and skill learning.
Needs Improvement:
Equipment relies heavily on crafting, which is nice, but it looks like your material inventory limit is 4, which feels way too low given how much you are expected to make/use while traveling.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Monsters of Kanji 2
The sequel to MONSTERS OF KANJI raises the stakes. MARTY and his friends are on a new mission that will decide over the fate of the entire galaxy.
Find out the truth behind the events of MONSTERS OF KANJI.
Grow stronger and defeat dangerous bosses.
Discover tons of secrets on 8 completely different and unique planets.
And in the end… face the IRONASHI!
FEATURES
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No more vocabulary in this one, but there are 150 Monsters of Kanji now…
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All of which can be brought into your team, levelled up and upgraded with a simple yet addictive skill-system
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8 huge planets to explore in whatever order you like
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No more random battles! All enemies can be seen on the field
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Emotional story that builds on the events of MONSTERS OF KANJI, but can also be experienced without knowing anything about the first game
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MARTY’S SUIT can be upgraded to give him new methods of traversing the game world. Jumping off ledges? Swimming through water?
Find out what new skills MARTY will be able to use!
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Choose how to develop MARTY with the new CLASS-SYSTEM
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Meet old friends in the game’s hub area
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Over 20 hours of oldschool JRPG goodness
![[Neolithic]To the End](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1519140/header.jpg)
[Neolithic]To the End
TL:DR
This may be the weirdest fever dream you’ve ever had.
Life is full of absurdity
Some Features:
Everything in a classical RPG plus…
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Bizarre adventures.
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First-person gunfight during battle.
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Convert supernatural (or not so supernatural) enemies to be your pets.
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Deployable traps, barricades, and furniture to decorate your home.
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Your very own home with a map editor. ALL MAPS in the game can be edited during the gameplay. Support import/export map to RMXP.
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Magical items and anomalies with their own mechanisms.
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Crafting items from 3D printers.
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Plant and harvest food and…something else.
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Endless procedurally generated quests from mission boards.
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A powerful cheat console that can run Ruby script.
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Minigames! The awesome part of an open-world RPG is, you can get all those minigames for free!
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Frequent updates. Who knows what you can find in the future.
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DRM-Free!
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Highly customizable playing experience.
Risks: (I will be totally honest with you. Thus, I put it here)
1, The game is made with a very old game engine. (For memories' sake)
2, There is only one developer.
3, I am terrible at 2D art.
4, I am not a native speaker of English.
Thus, I provide an honest demo for you. The demo version will update all the way till the game release.
It reflects the current stage of game development in almost real-time.
As the game is one of the first and last RMXP games that’s ever being developed, I’m not exactly aiming to make it something great. (or even sane.)
Instead, it needs to be unique and fun in a way that people can rarely see nowadays, to make people laugh maniacally even in a grimdark world where both the in-game world and the life circle of RMXP are coming to an end.
Story
Welcome to our secret society of [redacted]. We are among the most ancient ones in our line of work.
For a long time, we have witnessed the rise and fall of many others.
The situation is grim, the world almost ended in 2008, 2012, 2015, and 2020.
Some people predict it will keep ending this year, next year, and the year after.
But, well, even if that’s true, even if the ending is inevitable, it is tragic, we are still alive.
So, cheer up! We shall carry on.
As long as we stand, the world shall never fall!
To the end…
Features:
Unbalanced and Unfair
Beneath the facet of the beautiful life people called “normal”, lurks the truth that this secret struggle is never fair.
There are things that can hardly be killed. They may come in great numbers to overwhelm us.
Even when not facing such a supernatural entity, a well-trained Kung-Fu master can still be killed by just a bullet.
But, We Fight on With All We Have!
We have guns and our own magics. We even learned to bind supernatural entities to our wills.
We have tools and artifacts, we have skills ranging from combat to conversation.
If there is a lock that can hardly be picked, try blowing it.
There are always solutions.
You Are Different.
Your arrival was not expected. You were not on any lists. We know little about you.
Show us, who you are and who you will become with all the perks/skills/proficiency you may develop.
We may still stand a chance against all odds with your help.
Lead us…
In This Vast World
Your loyal companions will follow you from ancient ruins to modern metropolis, from east to west.
You will meet common folks we swear to protect, watching them live their “normal” life.
You will discover mysteries, solve them when combat evil forces lurking in the dark.
The Secret History
The story behind this game:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1519140/view/2986431641632413538
It’s the first Neolithic game with English localization that comes to Steam since 2004 when the first game of Neolithic was published in a dark corner of China.
_Comparing to a commercial game, this is more like a memento to the old golden age of RPG Maker XP (when indie games are really indie; when updates are free instead of being paid DLCs; when developers update games for years, even decades instead of abandon projects as soon as it’s no longer profitable; when games are made with passion instead of money-hunger; And, when RPG Maker was not used to just make those cheap adult-only games.)
This is NEOLITHIC!
There are many games out there, made with modern tools and more than 1 developer. They are supposed to be better than mine.
But, they are not. Why?_
Unauthorized Edit Detected!
We also have cats! They are cute. :3
Entity Researchers
turn based dungeon crawler featuring weird zoomed up and oddly named creatures who invaded earth
you’re going to annihilate them, grind them into paste, and reap the rewards of currency and new abilities
get to work. bit of a grind but freedom isn’t free
plays like SMT + mother with a pinch of cruelty squad and rpg maker goodness
im having a nice time
dev is active and improving the game, a rarity these days woah Thank You For Your Service
hardcore mode is hardcore you will die if you aren’t paying attention to being on fire or having zero iq
– Real player with 32.5 hrs in game
This game is deceptively simple when you begin, but, there are a lot of hidden little things that go on that never get told about, like Luck being important because you’ll get more uniques that can outclass your stat mods, or affinity affecting not only your defense against that element of entity (hint, stack at least 3 ore of 1 type per element you’re facing, and include the one that the faced element does less damage to because the entities will use both info on="" that="" is="" in="" the="" pause="" menu="" under="" affinities="" ). /info
– Real player with 32.1 hrs in game