Trash of the Titans

i'm struggling to write a concise review here because there are so many facets that delight me. the higher difficulties keep you riiiight on the edge of snowballing and i love it for that. a steal for the asking price, honestly. i do need to gush about my very favorite mechanic because it's SO CLEVER AND CRUNCHY I LOVE IT okay stick with me now. by securing trash in each level, you earn falling block puzzle pieces to increase the stats of your party. each scavenger has stats they most benefit from, but all stats are useful. optimal play encourages balanced party configurations since there's only so much of each stat to go around. but the REAL clever bit is that you get more stats by clearing rows (in typical falling block puzzle fashion). this is not only fun to plan and master BUT it makes dumping [i]all[/i] your stats into a single party member a unique challenge. BUT by more evenly distributing the points, your whole party benefits, which then makes for an easier time securing more trash. a wonderful little positive feedback loop. BUT THEN it'll tempt you into scuffing up your perfect lines by offering bonuses on certain reward blocks, which you'll need to pivot and strategize around it's elegant, it's clever and i can't stop admiring it.

This game is super fun and not dead. Just a slow development. The stat system is unique and has great depth, the skill system is great and causes a need for planning on higher difficulty. The gameplay is a mix of classic with new things that cause you to have to plan turns properly or lose trash. Excellent title. I have already played so many runs just because its a good time, and I could see myself playing it randomly for years if it had a mode that was just random level campaigns with no story.

No updates, abandoned almost immediately after early access began it would seem.

Love this game, but it's far from complete and seemingly abandoned. The last bit of news we got was over a year ago. Play the demo until we get more news, don't buy it just yet. Edit: There are updates happening in their discord server, which can be found on the itch.io page.

I'd call it "cute and compact", and if you like these short casual strat games you'll probably like this one too. The playthroughs are short, the maps are small, the art is charming, and the gameplay is simple. I would NOT call it deep though; there isn't much to it as far as I can tell. I wouldn't buy it unless youre prepared to get another game in about 10 hours. The biggest limitation to me is the lack of character customization options. Technically, you have a leveling system and an original trash-tetris style stat system, but in practice they don't really do the trick. The leveling system gives you a fixed drip of skills that you can pile onto one character, or spread out, but youre always just picking between two choices and you have to advance the characters within their intended build lanes, you cant change them. You dont even have enough control to focus on one character over another, because you get two choices FROM AMONG THE WHOLE PARTY, and only once or twice per level. At most you can level half your party, and if your luck is bad you can go levels without getting the animal you want to improve. You can go an entire run, without seeing the skill you want to get, or see it one fight before the run is over. The stat system WAS fun, because eating trash tetris and finding tunafish cans that give you stats is really cool, but it shifts your attention from stat building to clearing lines efficiently, and I always just ended up with roughly even stats on everyone. By the end, everyone has about 70-90hp, everyone has about 3 or 4 mp/turn, we all have enough mana to use all our skills comfortably... movement is extremely limited in the first few stages, but by stage four or five, I forgot it was a stat; I always have extra movement after the first two rounds. Also, the short runs meant i had to keep dropping my level progress and start over on each new stage. There were 10 stages in each of the acts I played so far, and each time the progression went: were slow and tougher than the enemy --> now were moderately powerful and faster --> were overpowered and maybe one fight will be hard --> the run is already over --> all my characters get wiped and i have to start new ones --> :( All of the characters I have unlocked so far have been fun and unique, and the atmosphere of the game is great. Good art, good vibe. I actually really would love this game, if I had more control over my characters and more time to explore their builds. Its really fallen out of favor these days to present the player with a character sheet and let them pick stats and skills, but that's what i would have loved in this game. I recommend it as a casual dip that you'll play for a few hours. I cant imagine anyone getting three digit playtimes out of this. I have enjoyed it, but i don't feel very challenged or hooked and Im already ready to move on.

Great game! Wonderful graphics, you can really tell the amount of love and attention to detail that went into every aspect of this game. Huge variety of characters and abilities with some really interesting stuff. Even with the game exactly as it is I would absolutely recommend buying it but it's worth checking out the beta branch on the discord because they're working on some great stuff including a new character. One of the early access games I have the least trouble recommending.

Good game, I enjoyed the hours I put in, but it's currently abandoned, so I would wait until updates resume to buy