I found it much more difficult. And there's less permanent progression, so you can't even just keep grinding the way you can in Hades.
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Curse of the Dead Gods |OT| Curse of the cel-shaded dungeon crawler
- Thread starter Frustrated_Grunt
- Start date
m
Ok, maybe I'll steer clear. Thanks for the impressions.
I love these types of games. Hades, Dead Cells, Children of Morta, etc. etc. I've only done two runs so far as I just picked it up and have developed an unhealthy addiction to Outbreak mode in Cold War (excellently excellent fun, btw) -- but I'm struggling a bit. Maybe it's because I'm not partial to parry/dodge mechanics. Like I played 100 hours of Dead Cells and picked up a shield maybe twice.
But it's something else I can't put my finger on. Maybe it's being cursed all the time? Maybe I don't like the negative effects as much as, say, being too underpowered to beat a boss? Not being good enough vs. having a superimposed weakness is more appealing to me? Dunno.
Obviously will give it more of a go, but I can't remember a time I would stop a game after two runs. I'm usually the guy who's like "I will play you until I beat you on the hardest level my old man reflexes are capable of, so help me."
But it's something else I can't put my finger on. Maybe it's being cursed all the time? Maybe I don't like the negative effects as much as, say, being too underpowered to beat a boss? Not being good enough vs. having a superimposed weakness is more appealing to me? Dunno.
Obviously will give it more of a go, but I can't remember a time I would stop a game after two runs. I'm usually the guy who's like "I will play you until I beat you on the hardest level my old man reflexes are capable of, so help me."
I agree with a lot of what you posted.
I get heavy darkest dungeon vibe when I play this game. I can see how a lot of the gameplay aspects and environment can increase a player's anxiety/stress. The curse aspect reminds me a lot of darkest dungeon's stress mechanic; the environments are very dark and ominous the majority of the time. The torch(light/dark) gameplay plays very similar to darkest dungeon too .
The enemies hit like a truck! This too could also add to more of a foreboding experience... The stamina gauge can makes engaging in battle feel like work.
Overall I love the change of pace and have really enjoyed the gameplay.
I think it's easier than Hades personally, at least overall.
The game starts of by getting you to complete the dungeon piece by piece. The first tier only asks you to complete the first floor of each area. The second tier asks you to complete the first two floors. It's an interesting approach to this style of design and I think makes the difficulty feel much more incremental.
I beat Hades on my second go, but after that I found the game quite hard (I stumbled upon a very good set of items in Hades). I feel like in Hades there are some really steep difficulty spikes that require your build to be up to par (the poison rooms with the rats) or else you can get overwhelmed too easily. Here I feel like there's less variation in loot and you can orchestrate a good build more consistently.
I imagine the difficulty of the final temple is similar to a complete run of Hades though, so if you were happy with its difficulty then I think you'll be happy with this. I also think if you got on well with games like Dead Cells, then you shouldn't be afraid of the difficult here. I find Dead Cells to be very difficult, particularly the end boss, much more so than Hades.
What do you mean entirely negative? I haven't found that to be the case. Even the curses that continuously activate traps are actually useful if you build with them in mind. For instance if you get curses that activate traps, these synergise well with relics that give you life steal on trap kills, as it becomes easier to get enemies killed with traps.
Many other curses are helpful too. For instance I got a curse that continually increases your curse passively, but then that's offset against a benefit that you no longer gain curse when entering a room. The thing is, if you clear rooms quickly you gain less than 20 curse passively, so if you lean your playstyle into the curse (fast room clears), you're actually gaining far less curse than you were before. I've found a way to benefit from the majority of curses.
The only curse I really dislike is the one that prevents you from seeing the effects of your curses, because I think that just prevents the player from adapting in the ways that I described. Then curses become entirely negative, and that isn't very interesting.
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I just cleared my first second-level temple with a pretty well realized darkness/lightning build and am starting to see a lot more of the build potential with curses. The difficulty is far easier than most rougelikes I've played, or more accurately as GungJoe put it above, the ramp up is a lot more slow. Now I'm wondering about an alternate universe spelunky that only asks you to clear dweling, then dwelling->jungle, and so on.
FWIW I cleared the second level on my first try, so I do still think the earlier game stuff is a bit easier than most others in the genre. Having a lot of fun so far.
FWIW I cleared the second level on my first try, so I do still think the earlier game stuff is a bit easier than most others in the genre. Having a lot of fun so far.
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Took fourteen tries, but I finally beat the Jaguar. Got a build that healed a ton through critical hits, still messed up, but had a ton of health to make up for it, lol.
I got a health through crits build and also health through greed kills with the rune that extends greed time by 200% - just barreled through to the boss.
I actually got a final curse too, right before the boss - it caused me to lose health constantly, so the boss fight was a total slugfest. Really pleased with how devastating the final curse was.
I actually got a final curse too, right before the boss - it caused me to lose health constantly, so the boss fight was a total slugfest. Really pleased with how devastating the final curse was.
Yeah that's the one that normally gets me. I just get too greedy with the weapon upgrades. I just added the blessing that increases the curse gauge to 120 to help get me over the hump.
I hope this game gets a bit more attention, I almost missed it myself but its a truly fantastic roguelike, after 10 hours Im still loving the combat.
Apart from the combat being really engaging you get to make so many interesting decisions each run when it comes to your build and balancing the corruption meter.
Apart from the combat being really engaging you get to make so many interesting decisions each run when it comes to your build and balancing the corruption meter.
The game is selling really well on Switch in NA, according to the eShop charts, so there's that.
I want to get it but 'skill based' is really turning me off. I suck at roguelikes and I really don't think I need another one that I will struggle and bang my head against over and over again while making zero progress due to simply not having great reflexes or snap decision making skills required for this sort of action game
It's not really just skill-based, you can unlock better quality weapons and bonuses as you play.
Yah CaseyExplosion is really stoked about this game so I almost picked it up but I think I'll hold off and maybe give hades another crack before I get into yet another one of these games lol
I'm at the top three dudes before the last guy. So far I've fought the flamelurker looking dude and he's tough. Haven't beaten him yet and haven't fought the other two. The combat is what keeps me playing. The mechanics are super fun. I hate getting that last curse.
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Holy crap, I finally beat the final boss
...before realizing it just unlocks a hard mode, but still, so satisfying
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Yeah, the meta progression is similar to Dead Cells, you spend currency you collect in the runs on more weapons and abilities you can use.
The replayability comes from unlocking increasingly difficult run types, and there's also daily events as well with unique modifiers for the run.
according to this thread the performance is "not very good" on PS4 while the game "runs very well" on Switch, which is weird if true but I'm skeptical since the phrasing is subjective and from two different posters.
I usually buy 3D games on PS4 over Switch for the performance boost but now I'm just straight up confused.
I usually buy 3D games on PS4 over Switch for the performance boost but now I'm just straight up confused.
This is me. I went into this game thinking I was going to love it, but ended up dropping it already. Hades ruined it for me, without a doubt. This game has no story, no details about the player characters, or anything to motivate you. The progression is not as fun, since each weapon you unlock adds to the pool you can find in the dungeon; which has two problems. First, you (usually) can't immediately use the cool new weapon you just purchased. You have to wait for it to appear in a future run. Second, the more weapons you unlock reduces the chances of you actually finding the ones you want when you want them. That combined with the random runes you find during a run means its loadout system is not as easy or satisfying as Hades was to create a good build with. It is way, way more RNG reliant than Hades, which to me is just not as fun. All that, and it's harder with some (IMO) cheap AI mechanics in the later dungeons.
Honestly, I could deal with all of the latter issues if there was a story. But there is literally none to speak of.
Personally i think this game does everything better than Hades except for story which is not something i really care about. If you liked Hades gameplay then you probably like this.
I don't think comparing this to Hades is a good comparison. This combat reminds me more of souls games and the RNG reminds me of Slay the Spire and Dead Cells. It's a different game that does similar things but I think there are more differences than similarities.
Is everyone still enjoying this? It's $15.99 on Switch as part of the Indies Sale. I love Roguelites and Hades so I've been interested in this one. It seems to be getting updates as well since it just got a collab with Dead Cells today.
EDIT: Ooohhh reading through all of your impressions it seems this is like Hades' isometric view with Dead Cells unlockable weapons and RNG. I love getting different weapons each run!
EDIT: Ooohhh reading through all of your impressions it seems this is like Hades' isometric view with Dead Cells unlockable weapons and RNG. I love getting different weapons each run!
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I've been meaning to jump back in. It reminded me more of Dead Cells than Hades. Combat is super nice, story almost non-existent.
The Dead Cells DLC released today or last night. It's interesting.
I think they added the bombs with this DLC? I tried those out for a run and I kind of hate them. They have quite a specific area that they effect, and that can lead to them missing a lot of bosses which dash quite far (for instance I found The Jaguar was rarely at the right position to be hit by the bombs). They do stun enemies with every hit, which is cool, but not altogether important if you're confident with any other weapon type, and the stun applies very inconsistently to bosses which can cause issues. Further, each bomb you throw locks you in place for a short while, which leaves you more vulnerable than some other weapons.
I also bumped into the Dead Cells cursed chest, but I didn't get to open it because I got hit.
I think they added the bombs with this DLC? I tried those out for a run and I kind of hate them. They have quite a specific area that they effect, and that can lead to them missing a lot of bosses which dash quite far (for instance I found The Jaguar was rarely at the right position to be hit by the bombs). They do stun enemies with every hit, which is cool, but not altogether important if you're confident with any other weapon type, and the stun applies very inconsistently to bosses which can cause issues. Further, each bomb you throw locks you in place for a short while, which leaves you more vulnerable than some other weapons.
I also bumped into the Dead Cells cursed chest, but I didn't get to open it because I got hit.
This game just released on GamePass PC. I figured now is the time for an old thread to be bumped.
I started playing this on Friday and I really like it. I don't find it super difficult, especially the end bosses of temple segments are a lot easier than I expected (if you abuse 2h hammers, pretty much all of them can be stunlocked to death).
Looking forward to Hades next week. For the people who played both, how does Curse compare to Hades in difficulty?
Looking forward to Hades next week. For the people who played both, how does Curse compare to Hades in difficulty?
I think the parrying is pretty tough too, but tbf if it was easy then you'd never get hit
I love this game but man, the final dungeon is no joke. It's a total slog and will take at least 50 minutes to get to the end of it. Once you make it through all of that, the game pulls the rug out from under your feet right before an end boss fight that is a huge step up in difficulty compared to any other boss in the game.
Some weapons really help to trivialise the dungeons though. Any time you see a whip with the perk that does crit damage for off hand combos, pick it up and go nuts. Clearing mobs will be a breeze.
Some weapons really help to trivialise the dungeons though. Any time you see a whip with the perk that does crit damage for off hand combos, pick it up and go nuts. Clearing mobs will be a breeze.
Easy really. You're just finishing off your main weapons combo with a different button press.
So let's say you have throwing knives for main, the complete combo would be three presses of the square button. In that instance, an off hand combo would be two presses of square followed by one press of triangle.
Give it a try next time you're on, it's a game changer.
