Circuitous 最近的评测

I'll lead with the stuff that might turn people off:
- The visuals are nothing to right home about. The cel shading around models looks pretty good, but textures are pretty low-res and pixelated, and the model quality is highly variable.
- The story is kind of all over the place, a mix of very familiar tropes and the occasional off-the-wall moment or lampshading. This is made worse by the extremely questionable translation. I'm pretty sure I understand the broad strokes, but a lot of the details are kinda lost on me. This didn't really hurt the experience, though.
- Occasionally, one of the playable characters leans a bit too far into her perversions, including one scene of outright groping. It's always played as a joke, but if you're sensitive to that kinda thing, keep it in mind.

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With those out of the way, I gotta say, this game was a lot of fun. You start off solo, but quickly get a second playable character, and eventually a third, who you can swap to with a key press or the right analog stick, and can even call in as an assist by holding another button first.

Each has different weapons they're able to use, and you can equip two weapons of different types at a time, one on X/Square and one on Y/Triangle. Each character can do a four-attack string, and you can use either weapon for each strike (so 1 > 1 > 1 > 1 or 2 > 2 > 2 > 2 or 1 > 2 > 1 > 2, etc.).

Additionally, you can find Skills as you progress that function similarly to fighting game special moves, with inputs like [↓ → Attack] or [→ → Attack] or [↓ ↑ Attack]. The command interpreter is pretty lenient (perhaps too lenient in some cases, but if you're accidentally getting a certain Skill that you don't want, you can disable it individually), so it's easy to use them on a whim. They cost a little MP, but do massively higher damage than your basic attacks, so it's worth implementing them.

You can cancel into them from your normal attacks, and even cancel them into each other. In fact, you can cancel basically anything into anything except itself. Jumps, dashes, and special moves can all be interrupted with one another at any time - so don't mash your inputs too quickly, or you'll interrupt a skill before it can land! On top of all that, the two spells you can equip can be cast in the middle of other abilities without interrupting the animation, so it's an easy way to tack on some extra damage. The freedom this offers for making combos and tackling different foes in different ways is a lot of fun, at least to me, though it does make for a high APM requirement; if you're not used to fighting games, you might have difficulty getting the most out of the system, but you can still beat the game without optimizing this stuff - you just may need to grind more.

Since it's a metroidvania, we gotta talk about the map. It's big! I wasn't rushing the game, but I wasn't just slacking off, either, and I completed the game with 101% map completion in 99 hours. That's some bang for your buck, right there. I'll admit, though, that individual rooms weren't always well-designed. Occasionally you'll find platforms tucked away in corners that have nothing on them and serve no purpose, or awkward arrangements of platforms that have you accidentally climbing up higher when you mean to go down. But on the whole, I think they did a good job as far as level design is concerned, and there are some parts that are truly excellent in terms of how they interconnect and make use of your skillset.

Like any good metroidvania, you unlock traversal skills at various points, and of course you'll do some backtracking to access stuff you couldn't before, though not really all that much compared to some other examples of the genre. The game does give you map markers you can place yourself, to a cap of 20 ( which I would've liked to be a bit higher ). Also, there are some parts where you can use clever platforming to access areas early, and the game actually acknowledges this with a "That's Cheeky!" notification and some bonus XP, which is pretty cute.

Speaking of XP, the game does include the typical level-up structure of a metroidvania, and without explicitly farming I ended up around level 90 when I finished the game. The difference a few levels makes is pretty significant, but your equipment is even more so. You can equip two weapons, as mentioned, plus two spells, an armor, and two accessories, with the bonuses of new gear getting higher and higher as the game progresses.

The game also has a system similar to certain Castlevania titles where enemies have drops that can be used to gain new abilities. In Frontier Hunter, they're Cores, which take the form of groups of blocks ( always squares or lines, no Tetrising here ) that can be slotted into your equipment, granting various passive bonuses. Most of these are simple stat buffs, but some have unique named passives that grant special bonuses, like inflicting or resisting status effects, extra XP, movement speed, and more. Two buffs with the same name won't stack, even if they're different levels, so it pays to mix and match. Each piece of gear has its own grid size, including some locked slots that can be opened up by spending materials ( but in my experience, it's not worth it until the very endgame since it costs so much to do, and even then, you can probably get by without it ).

There's a crafting system that lets you combine materials you find in the world and from enemies into new equipment, based on blueprints you find while exploring, either Rank # Weapons, Armor, or Accessories. One blueprint will teach you how to make every item of that type and rank, and they tend to be found early on in an area, though some are missable. That said, most of the items you could craft can be found with a bit more exploring, so there isn't a great need to make use of the system. Similarly, there's a cooking system where you can make and consume meals at save points that give you timed buffs. Annoyingly, the timer ticks down even while paused, so I didn't make much use of this system, but the buffs are quite significant, so they may be a big help if you're having trouble with a boss fight.

Since I mentioned the boss fights, I'll say that their quality varies quite a bit, with some that are genuinely fun challenges, some that are cakewalks, and some that are just kinda BS, mostly due to sudden super armor phases. When an enemy glows blue, they have super armor and can't be staggered by your attacks, but they can enter this mode in the middle of your combos, and there are almost always too many effects going off from your attacks for this change to be noticeable. With enough fighting of a boss, you'll learn when they like to activate super armor and can play around it, but it remains an annoyance to the very end.

One cool thing I didn't expect was the boss arena, where you can challenge previously defeated bosses with boosted stats. Winning the fight lets you fight them again with more stipulations ( harder > no status effects > ban a character > ban two characters > faster reactions from the AI ), and there's also a Zero Mode where you have preset stats and equipment and can't use consumables, for a more intentional challenge.

I think I've written more here than the entire game's dialogue, but I really do like it a lot. If you're on the fence, I hope you give it a try.

It's good stuff and it keeps getting better.

Neat little tactical turn-based RPG. You control a hero who has been turned into a die, and must see them through the gauntlet that is the Dicey Dungeon: part magical nightmare world, part game show.

Each class has a gimmick that defines their playstyle. Even the simplest of these gimmicks is flavorful enough to make the class feel unique and interesting, and the more advanced gimmicks present both a genuine challenge and immensely fun opportunities.

Gameplay revolves around initiating combat encounters with creatures that are mostly puns. In these encounters, you'll roll a number of six-sided dice (determined by your class, level, and other factors), and must then apply these dice to your various skills, abilities, and equipment. Some abilities are simple, like a Sword that does as much damage as the value of the die you place inside it; some have specific requirements, like only odd/even values, or no values higher than four; and some have to be activated first by getting specific rolls. Furthermore, you can only have six "slots" worth of abilities equipped for a given battle, with some abilities taking up more slots (but generally being stronger to compensate). In the end, combat is a mix of luck and tactics that rarely, if ever, feels unfair.

Enemies have their own abilities and equipment that they have to roll for, and can do damage or apply debuffs to you based on their results. You'll quickly get a feel for how each monster plays, and it becomes easier and easier to approach these enemies (though some, like the Loud Bird, are just bastards).

Though I haven't gotten past Floor 3 yet, I've had fun each time I've played, and it's great to come back to for an hour or so every once in a while. If you like tactical battle games, especially dice-based ones, you can't go wrong with this.

This review is from the standpoint of a competitive player already familiar with the game, intended for those who are also familiar with the game, but unsure about the quality of the port.

• Offline gameplay is smooth and runs at full-speed easily.
  
• Mechanically identical to the most recent arcade and console releases.
  
• AC+R mode is toggled on by default. If you want to go back in time, switch to AC mode in the Game Options menu.
  
• Adds arcade-only sidebars!
  
• Dev team seems committed, some issues already patched out in the first 24 hours.
  
• Self-published, adds a glimmer of hope for future releases.
  
• Controllers and arcade sticks recognized by default, and full keyboard bindings are available as well as a separate menu.
  
• Netplay allows inviting via Steam friends list.
  
• New: Team French Caliburst was contracted to implement rollback netcode, and it's really good.
  
• New: There's now a Quick Play lobby you can join and challenge anyone, without making your own room first.

• Connections always read as 4-bars, and delay is significant across the board. Connections that were acceptable on PS3 are slower here. (Upside: connections are significantly smoother, no bursts of delay. Hopefully the standard delay is fixable.) Fixed by TFC's rollback implementation mentioned above.
  
• Not much in the way of resolution support, and playing in fullscreen has issues. (If your monitor is >60Hz, the game will read 60fps but run faster. Fullscreen also seems to add additional input delay.) Resolved by TFC's updates.
  
• Windowed by default, and resolution options are limited. (Default is 1280x720, native res, good enough imo.) Resolved by TFC's updates.
  
• Game reads controllers, but assigns buttons incorrectly - though prompts will read "B" to cancel, you need to press "X", for example. Minor issue ultimately.
  
• Windows decides who is Player 1 and who is Player 2 - the game does not ask you to select a side when you start. This also leads to issues like Windows treating you as Player 2, forcing you to bind keys for that side, while netplay only uses Player 1's binds. Only a serious issue re: netplay, since every offline mode works fine as 2P.
  
• Tabbing back into the game if it wasn't on top causes brief (1-2s) slowdown.

It's AC+R on PC with rollback. As things stand now, it's only good for offline play, but netplay stands a decent chance of getting fixed. Keep your expectations realistic (we won't be seeing GGPO, for example) and it's absolutely worth a purchase.

Still the most fun I've had with a sandbox game in a long time, now with multiplayer.