Inkbound

This is a fun turn-based tactical game with a roguelite framework. It's really fun to start, although my impression is that higher difficulties are frustratingly restrictive. Granted, this is how Slay the Spire was to an extent, but I don't think that game is nearly as restrictive in its higher difficulties. In STS, most of my losses feel like skill issues, whereas in Inkbound, most of my losses feel like instances where I just got bad luck. Certainly, there are instances where I could've chosen a better vestige or binding, but most of the time if I lose, it's because the run starts me off in a battle where I need to take 10 unavoidable damage (25% of my HP) and then offers me no damage mitigation or healing. Or, it's because the run gives me several vestige choices in a row that have no synergy with each other whatsoever. Or, it's because the area boss spawns 5 enemies despite the tooltip saying he'll spawn 2. Because of how punishing the game is and how high enemies scale on Rank 20, most of the time, I feel like I'm playing a game of "I need to get lucky and choose very specific options if I want a chance of winning." Again, I don't remember Slay the Spire ever feeling like this. But maybe I'm misremembering things. At this point, I can win probably 20% of my Rank 20 runs. Maybe I could improve that statistic, but I'm just not having much fun in trying to do so. So what else is there to do in the game? Well, there's a quest system with abysmal UX, and you're better off doing those tasks on lower difficulties anyway. There's a Co-Op mode, but nobody's online to play it. I might put this game down for awhile. It was a decent amount of fun, but I've now hit a wall where I don't really want to play much more. That said, it's obviously not a bad game; I think it's a good recommendation and competent game, although it doesn't feature the same depth as Slay the Spire, the game from which it clearly draws the most inspiration.

This came *really close* to making me give it an unrecommend, because of one thing, which I'll come to at the end. First, the game in general is pretty good. The graphics are nice, there's solid voice acting throughout, the story holds up, the music is good, the turn based combat mechanics works, most of the powerups also can work with the right synergies. The ramping difficulty as you go up the difficulty levels is also pretty reasonable, and would be a great way for the game to remain playable and fun. And now we get to what's wrong - instead of the ramping difficulty being the path that leads to the story progressing, it's instead completely irrelevant. You can progress the story much faster by staying on the easiest difficulty level so you can go through runs more quickly. And you'll want to go through runs quickly because the way the story progresses is by single action quests like "talk to this guy in the middle of a run" followed by "talk to this guy between runs" followed by "talk to this guy at the end of a run", so you have to do three entire runs to do one story advancing event. This story unlocking by drips makes it take (so far) 47 hours to get to what I *think* is nearly the end, but I also thought it was nearly the end after 27 hours. To get the story you have to play the game until you're utterly sick of it and no longer enjoy it at all. So I would recommend this game, but I would strongly recommend *not* trying to finish the story because that makes it become an unfun time-sink. (Also for some reason none of the achievements are working for me, I have zero unlocked achievements despite having completed many tens of runs.)

Tons of combinations and replayebility. I wish devs game it a bit more attention and content updates, but i guess they moved on to Monster Train 2

This game is incredible. Simultaneous turns with co op buddies makes for some strategy and/or chaos! The abilities are nearly all viable for different reasons. Fun, varied builds that work on multiple characters. One of my favorite rogue-likes ever.

I just discovered this game and it makes me sad that it's no longer being supported. I suspect this game will be more popular in death than it was in life and might even wind up being picked up by some long time fans and developed independently in the mould of the way Age of Empires II or Heroes of Might and Magic III were for many years. I'd recommend picking this game up and having a go. The screenshots in my opinion wrongly vibe like it's going to be a cookie cutter real time roguelite in the mould of Binding of Isaac or Tiny Rogues, but it's not like that. The game play in reality very much more in the turn-based tactics category, and between combats there is wonderfully creative character building, such as the set matching from Autochess games but in the form of items you collect having different category labels rather than heroes in a roster having them. Besides the set-building itemization, the characterization is great too - you also get to pick your class, then in turn select two different abilities from a wider generic pool - all of which mix n match to fun and different results - and after that every ability moreover has several special upgrade pips and an ascension choice when fully upgraded. There's just a lot of different angles of exploration taken all together and however else you might fault the devs it's very clear they know damn well what they're doing in terms of the game design mechanics nuts and bolts of keeping builds fresh, varied and fun. I did have a few criticisms. Firstly, the runs themselves are too short. I'm always having the most fun right when big bad rolls around and run is over - it always feels too soon and I always find myself wishing there was a few more floors of content. Secondly, the game is no longer being supported besides absolutely bare bones maintenance (servers) - no content patches incoming - and one can see that there is all sorts of stuff that was going to be fleshed out more that didn't make it, and that's a shame. In summary, Inkbound is a great game and I wouldn't sit it out just because the Devs put it on ice. You can worry about that after you have fun enjoying what's there, which is already a fairly complete experience even if the original vision probably contained a little more and found itself pared back due to issues with sales.

It's awesome, but it excels when you're not alone, for sure. The classes complement each other obviously, but in MP, juggling enemy agro and being able to trade trinkets to suit each others' build better is where it shines. Playing solo isn't a bad experience, but it's sub-par to playing in a party, mostly because you lack the previous points. Additionally, you have to tank 100% of the hits 100% of the time (outside of dodging AOEs) and the reduction in trinkets to play with means the RNG is more punishing. A single player can also only obtain two skills beyond their starter kit, so while MP allows you to pull off crazy combos and gives you flexibility, in SP you get railroaded into only one or two consistent combos. That all being said, if you have someone to play it with, do it! It's such a unique blend of turn-based roguelike and multiplayer and manages to scratch the itch for both. If you're solo there are better options (like Barony which is great solo or in MP) but if you've got a friend willing to try it, you're in for a very good time after the initial learning curve!

This account is not the only one ive played this game from, so don't be fooled by the low amount of hours. i've mainly played one asepect and even with this the game is entertaining. It is hard for me to notice something that bad, that is worth mentioning. i guess this game could do with more bosses and enemy variety, but it's not really bad atm, too. it has a relatively low population and you could help fix that problem, makeing a far more fun place to be. So here is why you might wanna join in on the fun: + i haven't played that many roguelikes, but this game offers a lot of options and variety and the turn-based aspect of it makes it very relaxing too. + Characters are charming and are all voiced very well and have their own personalities they stick to. + i have not finished the story, but it has has kept me invested so far and i am interested to know where it goes. + idk about the future, but right now the dlcs for this game are cosmetics only. While cosmetics are a big part of the game, there are not that many games out there that don't lock content behind a dlc. Inkbound seems to be fully available once purchased. + Tons of cosmetics that impress even a player that is not interested in cosmetics that much.. give it a try and help it grow

The definition of a missed opportunity IMO. Turn based roguelike w/ coop.