Ampersat
Ampersat is a shooty, slashy, RPG-y game mixing old-school/retro and modern sensibilities. A blend of influences from Gauntlet and Smash TV to Zelda and a dash of Angband, this is a handcrafted adventure with much appeal to fans of Roguelites. A labor of love from a solo developer, Ampersat distills some favorite childhood gaming experiences into a fresh, fun hybrid that sees you killing a lot of monsters, finding a lot of loot, freeing captured letters (um, what?) and growing from a world-weary warrior mage into a powerful smashing/blasting machine!
Main Features
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More than 50 handcrafted levels, many with exploration and light puzzles
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Optional endless procedural area
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Original gameplay elements based around freeing and capturing letters
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Flexible character progression with extensive skill tree
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Hundreds of unique pieces of loot find, buy, sell and augment
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Upgradeable town hub
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Tackle stages in the order you choose
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50 unique creature types with individual AI, 10 fiendish bosses
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Drop-in local async co-op (and online using Steam Remote Play Together) - suitable for young players to team up with their parents
You may notice the main character and enemies are ASCII letters - yes, this is an aesthetic throwback to the original Rogue games, and the blending of these with colorful 3D top-down environments was the idea that first spawned Ampersat. Likewise, Commodore 64 SID chip sound effects are used alongside real-world music for a distinctive experience. But just what is an “ampersat?” It’s the leading contender for the official name of the @ symbol, of course!
Overview
Gentlheim has been invaded by Lord Z, who has surrounded the village with 5 extraplanar towers and the dungeons beneath, filled with evil creatures. Even worse, he has stolen language itself from the townspeople! As the warrior mage Ampersat, you must venture deep into the dungeons and high above the land in the treacherous towers, defeat countless minions and restore language to Gentlheim so the townsfolk can communicate properly and help you defeat Lord Z himself.
Gentlheim
Gentlheim has shops to buy and sell goods; an Inn to heal up, level up, and stash gold to retrieve after death; and a deep Well leading to randomly generated procedural levels. There are various structures you can pay to upgrade and, as language returns to the village, townsfolk who may need something… Gentlheim hides a few surprises for the inquisitive gamer and provides a hub area to approach different stages in any order you like, or revisit levels you’ve already beaten.
The Well is where the “roguish” aesthetics are turned up to 11, providing short, sharp, loot-gathering deep delves once you repair it. There’s an old rumor that something very special is buried at the bottom of the well… but no one has ever reached those depths.
Co-op
Ampersat’s async co-op is true drop-in, drop-out at any time. The second player controls a fairy that hovers around Ampersat and also launches attacks. Will you trust them with your best spell? No? They might steal it anyway… While the fairy’s shots aren’t as powerful and contribute to overheating, it has the huge advantage of being invulnerable. The perfect partner… if you can get along.
Read More: Best Retro Action RPG Games.
Adeona
Arkadia is an unrefined world set centuries after a disease has destroyed humanity. To survive humans went into hiding, banding together in the darkness to create factions all their own. Now humanity has returned to rebuild civilization with the help of their cruel and sometimes malicious gods. The wilds of Arkadia are divided between five tribes: The Noctua, Ferox, Leifield, Nil Garden, and Marmis. Each group has its own quirks, beliefs, and reasons for division but all tribes fear and worship the same technology possessing Gods.
Read More: Best Retro Atmospheric Games.
Darkstone
I want to start this review off by saying I am biased to it. I used to play this all the time on the original Playstation and loved it. I do recommend the game, but I want to warn potential players that it is a difficult and frustrating experience. The game is not easy, and you will often find yourself aggravated.
You cannot use the arrow keys or WASD to move. You have to use the mouse. You click a spot on the screen with the left mouse button, and your character moves to it. Or you can click and hold it down to auto move. Your character will walk or run wherever your mouse icon is, though it’s not perfect and they’ll often stop if something is in the way.
– Real player with 71.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Retro Action RPG Games.
The fact that you are here on this store page, reading this review, likely means that you played this game back in the day, are interested in getting back into it, and are maybe worried about things like compatibility.
While the game worked fine for me, I would still recommend playtesting it yourself immediately after buying to make sure it actually boots up and functions, as this is a game designed for a much older version of Windows, and IIRC there have been some threads in the forums about having difficulty running the game. It comes with the territory. I would also recommend against installing mods that scale up the game’s resolution beyond its original capabilities. As enticing as it is to play this boomer game in 1080p or 4K, I could not get it to work, and nearly bricked my copy in the process. So maybe don’t do that.
– Real player with 21.8 hrs in game
Temple of Apshai Trilogy
I love this game, but not the bugs. The Temple of Apshai is definitely a retro/nostalgia game for 70/80s gamers – or those who want to see what the first “legitimate hit” RPG game looked like. Unfortunately, they simply released the IBM version of the Temple of Apshai Trilogy (1985) without dealing with the bugs. The Trilogy features three different dungeons with four levels each. I’ve put 9+ hours into the game and unfortunately discovered a bunch of bugs. The biggest? It fails to track your experience, so while you gain money and weapons by killing monsters and retrieving treasures, you don’t get better at fighting. This becomes immediately apparent when you run into the tougher Level 3 and Level 4 monsters.
– Real player with 24.6 hrs in game
This version of the game is broken an unfortunately that seems to have always been true of the DOS build. Issues:
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No experience is ever earned meaning character progression is completely broken
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Combat is broken, the enemies do very little damage. Temple of Apshai is a punishing game and it’s fairly common to die without a proper build and paying attention to health.
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The item values are broken. For example, there’s a Copper Ingot in a hidden room on the first level that’s normally worth 20 silver - this version gives 450 silver. With the combat system broken as well, it’s trivial to walk in, pick up that copper ingot a few times and have enough money to get maximum equipment. That’s not supposed to happen.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Clan N
This game is fun to play. Gorgeous environments with a variety of enemies and bosses to combat. There is a awesome feature where you lock-on to the nearest enemy. This is a must-have if you’re into beat-em ups although there is platforming thrown in to add something different.
– Real player with 9.3 hrs in game
Clan N:
Japan, the land of the rising sun, has seen its fair share of trouble throughout centuries. During Medieval times, Japan had one of the most fearful combat units, known as the Samurai. Well, one of the Samurai lords during that time was spreading terror throughout the land by destroying all the villages and killing its people in order to acquire their lands. His name was Akuji! But a group of four skilful fighters, known as Clan N (of which Akuji was once a part) would face the tyranny of the Samurai Akuji and take back their lands. You are one of these amazing fighters, and we will be right behind you (a few miles behind you), cheering you on every time you take back a piece of our land. All hail the fantastic four of the Clan N!
*– [Real player with 7.7 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198003030375)*
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## Retro Classix: Wizard Fire
Data East 3
*– [Real player with 0.1 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970705552)*
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## Sir War-A-Lot
Love it, love it, love it. This game is the physical manifestation of the word FUN. What you doing still reading reviews? go and get it! XD
*– [Real player with 7.7 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197983613059)*
Such a Rad Platformer. Epic sword bouncing fun!
*– [Real player with 6.9 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198153789740)*
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## Dire Vengeance
steamソフト群の中に埋もれた良作アクションゲーム
・感想
当初よくあるメトロイドヴァニア風なゲームだと思ったが、違った。
初代悪魔城＋ロックマン風ステージにグラディウス風パワーアップ要素を足したという感じ。
オールドスクールらしいゲーム性に快適な操作性、作者がそういった古いゲームが好きということが何となくわかる仕掛けも多数あり、中々おもしろい。
パワーアップの進捗に伴って鎧の色が変わる演出はとてもGOOD
ただし一発死の場所が多く、操作キャラゼロでロックマンをやっている気分になる。
（主人公は剣による近接攻撃のみ、サブウェポンが飛び道具となる悪魔城方式）
サブウェポンも全20種類のうち持っていけるものは１つ、入手のたびに切り替え＆一度やられるとロストでとても厳しめ
つまり、難易度はインディーらしくとても高い
特にボスはステージ4以降パターンを覚えて対処してもなお厳しいものがある
実質的にステージ内でのパワーアップを持ち越してボスを倒すのは厳しいと想定
グラディウス方式のため一回やられると初期状態での再開となりさらにきつくなる。
※ボス時のみ最低限のパワーアップは可能な部屋へ戻される救済処置あり
*– [Real player with 11.5 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197968416316)*
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Review by [Gaming Masterpieces](https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34633003-Gaming-Masterpieces/lists/) - The greatest games of all time on Steam.
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Is this game a masterpiece? No, but it is a fine time-waster for anyone who likes the genre. It plays fast and satisfying, the visual presentation is good and magic spells and bossfights require a bit of thought during the mayhem.
It is a platformer on speed. You play a heroine with a long reaching sword which she can use very skilled (and fast), slicing through weak enemies like pudding while guitar riffs provide the musical background. There is no stamina bar, so you can slash as much as you want. You can also use a magic weapon (only one of the 20 that can be found can be equipped), as long as you still have magical energy (which regenerates over time). Killing enemies and destroying the picturesque environements (hanging corpses, gloomy lightsources) often yields you pickups. The sword can be used fast and has a far reach, so it is not too difficult to defeat your foes, also you can (double, later triple) jump rather far, which makes the platforming a joy. So, with a little bit of training, you slice through the levels quite fast - until you reach the boss at the end, where a little more concentration is necessary. With enough pickups, you can upgrade your heroine's powers, when you die (you start with only one life but quite a few health points) you restart at the last checkpoint (without the upgrades). Game progress is saved when you complete one of the eight stages.
*– [Real player with 10.5 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198019466684)*
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## Milford Heaven - Luken's Chronicles
I wish there was a 'meh' or 'take it or leave it' or just, it's 'okay' option. At first the game froze and wouldn't even let me play it and apparently that's common so be prepared for that possibility. When it finally did play (I did nothing to fix it…), it was okay. It combined a dungeon crawler with a clicker game which is a pretty cool idea. But after a couple hours and I haven't found the three things I need to kill one vampire a down on his luck bartender was complaining about slowing down his business. (So typical, do I look like Van Helsing or the town stock broker?) So I'm kinda giving up due to lack of interest. Maybe it's just not for me (not enough storyline or puns to make up for the lack of actual story).
*– [Real player with 4.6 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198211520780)*
Simple game but could be nice if it would be well polished, right now it have some flaws that can ruin experience. No map so after some time you can get lost easily especially when you have to backtrack. Interface is bad designed and doesn't give you enough information, sometimes you can't place item in right slot unless you remove one that is already there, shops are mess, no sorting just big pile without any logic behind it, buying and selling is also more clunky than it should be, way to many clicks to get things done. You have quest log with some information like find this and that on that floor, the problem is that game not always inform you on what floor you are, sometimes when you use stairs it display floor number sometimes it don't. At some point I stucked trying to fins one item in order to progress, after countless walking back and forth I finally give up, map could easily help with that but there is none, I could draw one but it is not 95 anymore so no I'm to old for this and don't have that much time to waste. So in the end for me it is thumb down, it have potential but it have to many flaws and design choices I don't like.
*– [Real player with 4.3 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198023666926)*
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## Songbringer
Do I recommend "Songbringer"? With some time thinking, yes. Yes, I do.
Honestly, it took me some time to get warm with it. The selling point of the game is the gameplay and as a beginner it is really hard to get into it. And as further the story goes, the more unfair passages, where it is impossible not to get hit, you encounter. However, after the first playthrough you might change your opinion, like I did. Give it a shot.
The most obvious game on Steam you can compare it with is probably "Hyper Light Drifter" as it looks and feels the same way. Beyond Steam you'll see more similarities with the very first "Legend of Zelda" though.
*– [Real player with 29.4 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198053251883)*
TL;DR - Songbring exceeded all my expectations. Normally Zelda-esque games disappoint me and make me sad. Songbringer won my undivided attention even though I was working on a paper for my Master's. Revelling has never been more fun, and with multiple ways to solve various problems, procedural world generation, and alternate endings, Songbringer is a no brainer. Buy it. 8.2/10
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Graphics: Songbringer is retro... but retro in the style of retro on crack. The visuals at first seem kind of interesting but nothing special. Then as you progress in the game, you start to see all the added effects. Particle effects are done extremely well. Night to day effects, death effects, use of special items... all effect the game in a great way and help set the mood.
*– [Real player with 20.7 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197985759517)*
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