Saṃsāra
Overview
SAMSARA® is a next-gen action-adventure RPG that fuses elements of Buddhism with souls-like gameplay — challenging players to meditate on their philosophy, life and death to help them find meaning through discourse, conflict and exploration.
Description:
Saṃsāra is a souls-like that challenges players to meditate on overcoming loss, failure and death through a core mechanic of reincarnation as 9 different avatars. The game is a 3D, third-person, action role-playing game (RPG) in the vein of the ‘Soulsborne’ (FromSoftware, 2009-2019) genre/series, taking cues from the older, shorter but still epic action-adventure game, Shadow of the Colossus (Team Ico, 2006-2018).
In Buddhism, Saṃsāra is the cycle of death and rebirth to which all life is bound. The players goal is to find a way to escape this cyclic existence, to escape Samsara. They will achieve this through discourse, conflict and exploration within the beautiful, deadly and dynamic Desire Realm (Kāmadhātu).
Gameplay Pillars
Core gameplay pillars include:
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Conflict - physical, ranged and magical combat encounters with NPC’s who become enemies depending on which avatar form the player assumes.
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Discourse - impactful, choice-based narratives delivered by cryptic, resolute and wandering NPC’s who are partially based on historical characters and represent Buddhist, Stoic and Daoist worldviews.
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Exploration - uncovering ancient secrets and witnessing spectacular vistas, the player will traverse the Desire Realm: from the isolated circular edge of the Cakravāḍa mountains that encompass the world; across the Four Great Continents of scorching sand, glistening ice, dense tropics and serene lakes, to their penultimate destination; ascending the sacred five-peaked heights of Mt. Meru to reach the Gods domain, or descending beneath to the fiery, dark, gold-laden root of the world where demons reign.
Read More: Best Souls-like Philosophical Games.
Trials of Argolis
I’ve done a lot of testing for this game and nearly every time was a joy (bridge boy frustrates me sometimes!! ;-;). Very fluid and smooth first-person combat with challenging bosses and fast paced action. The handpainted artwork lends a really neat aesthetic and overall it looks gorgeous. A great dynamic in play styles despite the rather simple controls and each boss has a particular gimmick to it. Lots of content and deffo worth a buy! ;_; eek
– Real player with 12.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Souls-like Difficult Games.
Good concept but mechanics and actual gameplay is not polished and ass
– Real player with 3.3 hrs in game
Zealot
Story
You awake in an unforgiving land overrun by mythological Pagan deities and their worshippers. In this controversial and unconventional hero’s tale, it is your mission as the last bastion of your faith to put an end to everything in your way and bring back the old glory of Orthodoxy. In your path stand the various great gods of Slavic Paganism, destroy them and take back what belongs to you by overthrowing this world’s beliefs and reinstating the one true faith.
Adapt to your very own play-style by fine-tuning your weapons through an engaging blacksmithing system and by equipping salvaged relics and prayers that will help you on your journey as you eradicate every vestige of Paganism found in this world.
Key Features
Methodical Combat - Each enemy has different attack patterns that can be taken advantage of through correct positioning, dodging, and by choosing when to strike accordingly.
“Non-linear Progression - The game world is divided into 4 main areas, and it’s up to the
player’s choice where to start and finish their holy quest.”
“Rewarding Exploration - Every area has secrets and blocked sections that can only be
explored with the correct tool, rewarding exploration outside of the beaten path.”
“Multiple Weapons - Uncover various arms from ages past, and reforge them into powerful
weapons through a unique and engaging blacksmithing system.”
“Lost Reliquary - Spread throughout the world are the lost artefacts of the Orthodoxy, equipable
items that bolster your power actively and passively, allowing for a number of possible builds.”
“Nostalgic Visuals - Retro inspired visuals that take influence from 32-bit era systems, with
low-poly 3D environments populated by characters presented as hand-crafted 2D pixel-art
sprites.”
Challenge your beliefs - The path to righteousness is bloody and twisted, fulfil your holy quest, find the truth, and question your actions in this unconventional hero’s tale with a focus on religious conflict.
Read More: Best Souls-like Action-Adventure Games.
Theseus - Mythological Hero
Broken mechanics, invisible walls, and a terribly designed maze with awful lighting plague this asset reliant mess of a game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Q54oaAaAo
It’s just BAD. Nothing more needs to be said. Watch part of my first impressions review video if you need more about it.
NOT RECOMMENDED, even if it were free, I’d tell you to stay far away.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
It runs terribly and looks awful.
For a solo development, it is pretty cool but as a game that I paid $$ for, it is a failure.
Take this over to itch.io for some help and feedback.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Boss Rush: Mythology
Right now the game is on sale for only 0.99 euros, which is a steal if you enjoy:
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Side-scrolling combat
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Dark Souls
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Boss fights (that’s all the game is)
If you don’t mind the graphics you see on the trailer and you can put up with the occasional junkyness that comes with indie games, Boss Rush: Mythology is definitely worth a buy.
I’ve only beaten the 1st boss so far but i will update this review once i finish the game. For now i just wanted this to work more as a shoutout for what seems to be a great deal.
– Real player with 35.8 hrs in game
Boss Rush: Mythology feels like a 2D Dark Souls that, like Cuphead, is just boss level after boss level. I highly recommend this game, but with a few caveats. The difficulty bar for this game is insanely high, and without knowing a few tricks, it may seem unmanageable for some players.
Pros:
+Difficulty - If you love difficult games, then this is for you. Cuphead and the Dark Souls series are some of my favorites, and if these games appeal to you, then you will enjoy Boss Rush: Mythology.
+No fluffy B.S. - This game jumps immediately into the action. There is an optional tutorial, and then you have your hub area. This area is small and lets you either buy items with gold accrued, or head over immediately to the bosses. Even though the area is small, you can also warp straight to the items or boss doors, saving you a few more seconds of running. This game cuts out all of the extra fluff, focuses on just the bosses, and has a simplistic setup, which I enjoyed.
– Real player with 28.1 hrs in game
Timo’s Adventures
The game is very dynamic, great art and with the humour being a nice touch. You would need to react fast on certain areas. I wish the player had more lives, coz those finish pretty quickly. I liked the idea of switching the character against fire, jungle and water. The game is very easy to pick up and play, though you would be challenged if you want to progress further.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Full playthrough of NORMAL because I am A lettuce an Absolute Lettuce… here!:
Review:
This game is really fun I enjoy rhythm games even though I’m trash at them, if you like hard rhythm games you will definitely like this. The power downs ESPECIALLY the inverted control one is actually satan and overkill. The dialogue is pretty dope especially when the narrator is constantly making fun of you for sucking at the game. It has a leaderboard as well, even though as per usual I think there’s already people who have used programs to cheat it or the best rhythm game players in the world have already hit all the levels and perfected/near perfected them. I wish there were more normal levels for casual players/songs to play through and the the music is alright nothing super revolutionary, but it’s not bad or annoying.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
ReCurse: Eternal
ReCurse: Eternal is a virtual reality sword-fighting single-player game that is combat-focused featuring only boss-level characters which will be fought one at a time as the player progresses from one stage to another. IT IS NOT AN OPEN WORLD RPG. The game’s progression will work like traditional fighting games such as tower mode or arcade modes where you fight each enemy in a ladder-style progression. The actual combat is inspired by souls-like games that encourage strategic gameplay by punishing rushed and spammy movement and rewarding rhythmic dodging, blocking, parrying, attack patterns.
Story
Really interesting project, even if you just walk for the most of the time, the number of endings is quite impressing, but i can’t find out how i should get this many endings. It’s kinda weird the interaction with the objects, you can just watch them so it’s hard to tell if something changes when you “use” them. I’m waiting the update that should be released in these days.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Good visuals if you remove the gray filters that make it hard to make out objects, more obstacles in the infinitely long pathways and also the controls are very bad also cinematic mode is weird also the skeleton looks funny running and also the enemies die in 1 hit and also the skeleton bowl doesnt accept my ball so i have to rule the tomb until judgement day
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
A Journey Through Valhalla
This is a fun game even if you are playing solo. Playing solo is rough because the game was meant for 3 people to co-op. There are some game mechanics I think it needs such as a way to swap out weapons sets during combat and maybe an easier way to loot items. I would also like to see more way to gain experience than just feats. Maybe making skills level as you use them would be a way to go. But, I still enjoyed playing the game, and would recommend it.
– Real player with 42.8 hrs in game
I think this game is pretty decent (especially for it being created by 3 people in their spare time) and shows a lot of promise. I’d recommend playing the game with at least one other person as it can be pretty hard solo, but it still provides a pretty enjoyable experience when playing by yourself.
I think this game could benefit from some balancing changes (namely the first boss and the chances of getting better gear, especially for the wizard class) and more content. besides that, this is a pretty cool game.
– Real player with 10.7 hrs in game
Firelight Fantasy: Force Energy
Everything is the same as in previous games. Although at this price, quality should not be expected
– Real player with 261.9 hrs in game
Unfortunately, the game works poorly on weak PCs. I had to completely lower all the settings. But the gameplay and stylized graphics are good enough.
– Real player with 6.2 hrs in game