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styl_oh

Fallen One-Winged Chicken Chaser
Member
Nov 24, 2019
2,205
Alberta, Canada
I've always wanted to get into this, especially on the Switch, but with most versions including all the expansion packs I've been intimidated because I've heard that can be overwhelming.
 

slothrop

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Aug 28, 2019
3,876
USA
This series has been milked to death imo... Fun initial concept that has collapsed under its own weight of just adding too much stuff
 

Jerm411

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,014
Clinton, MO
Ahhhhh I need this on Switch, at least it's coming in 2021 I hope...one of my most anticipated things on Switch along with Spelunky 2.
 

SpartyCrunch

Xbox
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
2,497
Seattle, WA
Is the game on switch the latest version available except for repentance? Anyone have a good summary or link discussing everything in more detail?
 

karnage10

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,501
Portugal
I've always wanted to get into this, especially on the Switch, but with most versions including all the expansion packs I've been intimidated because I've heard that can be overwhelming.
I don't know how it is on the switch but on steam it shouldn't be too overwhelming.
The basic gameplay loop is:
  • you choose a char with a certain ability/skills
  • You start in a randomized floor.
  • You explore the floor to find an item that changes your abilities (with many items not being just a direct buff but heavily modifying your abilities)
  • You explore the floor to find the boss room
  • fight a boss
  • get rewarded an item from the boss pool;
  • you go down a floor
The game eases you up into the game by:
  • Most items are locked beyond achievements and reaching certain floors with every char
  • The floor difficulty and enemies appear are related to how deep you go.
  • The deeper floors are locked at the start of the game; so the first time you get a game completed you just reached around half deep.
  • Many enemies and bosses are locked until you beat the easier/simpler variants.
  • Many chars are locked at the start of the game.

The cool part of the game is:
  • items effects can and will combine themselves to make weird combinations
  • Most enemies have a simple attack pattern that is easy to learn but hard to time correctly in mid fight
  • Bosses have complicated attack paterns that take a few tries to master
  • Due to so many items you always feel you are progressing as you keep unlocking new stuff.
  • There are challenges, objectives and secret stuff to unlock. quite a bit of stuff so you can keep your objectives varied instead of just going the deepest you can.
  • Items while droping randomly are gathered in pools. Some bosses drop from special pools, the item room from another pools. Some items exist in several pools. Why is this cool? because it means that it is extremely rare to have similar items drop in consecutive runs. This means that each run should feel fresh dozens of hours.
  • There is a simple local co-op; that IMO is pretty fun.
The bad part:
  • the game has so much content, specially item side, that it feels necessary to have a wiki so you can understand what the item will add to you.
  • IMO the last floor parts of the game and some of the new modes not only require considerable skill but also quite a bit of luck on the items. So much so that if you objective is beating the hardest bosses that if the early 2-4 items are crap then a restart might. although to reach here you will probably have spent 100h. So you might not care about this point.
  • There are some secrets/ objectives that feel that it requires a god amount of luck and/or skill to achieve. IMO game content shouldn't be locked behind this type of actions.
Personally I think it is the rogue-like that fully embraces its genre. it has so much varied that it is insane.
I'd buy the game and refund if you don't like it. in 1 hour you get the gist of the gameplay loop. If you don't find that gameplay loop fun i'd not commit to the game.
 

Kasai

Member
Jan 24, 2018
4,282
This game is probably my favorite game, ever since I played the original flash version before the DLC.


I'm beyond stoked. I also can't wait to see what they add to the Four Souls expansion from this DLC.
 

PunchyMalone

Member
May 1, 2018
2,248
I've always wanted to get into this, especially on the Switch, but with most versions including all the expansion packs I've been intimidated because I've heard that can be overwhelming.

It's really not. Just survive as long as you can and realize you won't know what any of the items do, and that's okay. It gives you a small description when you pick it up so you'll have some idea what it does, and if you pick up something awful you learn to avoid it at all costs (cursed eye!!!).

The more you play it unlocks more items that go into the loot pool so you might not even find them for a long time. Eventually the levels change and more levels/bosses are added. You'll also unlock new characters that have some fun variations. That's about it. Once you reach endgame stuff you'll be looking things up, but by then you'll know a lot so it's not bad.
 
Oct 25, 2017
12,319
It's really not. Just survive as long as you can and realize you won't know what any of the items do, and that's okay. It gives you a small description when you pick it up so you'll have some idea what it does, and if you pick up something awful you learn to avoid it at all costs (cursed eye!!!).

The more you play it unlocks more items that go into the loot pool so you might not even find them for a long time. Eventually the levels change and more levels/bosses are added. You'll also unlock new characters that have some fun variations. That's about it. Once you reach endgame stuff you'll be looking things up, but by then you'll know a lot so it's not bad.
Also there's some AB+ content that makes things go smoother too at the start, at least that was my opinion when I restarted in Switch at release.
 

Quixzlizx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,591
Is there any point to playing the original if that's the only one I own, or is Rebirth more like a remake than an expansion?
 

Igniz12

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,434
Before the single player CCG bug caught me I was playing this almost everyday for years. Excited to get back to this but I'll wait a couple of months before hoping in, AB+ launch was kinda rough.

I hope the item pool is better at giving you a more balanced run this time, after AB+ it felt like it got diluted to the point of most runs being really stingy with decent items.
 

Dyle

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
29,915
Is there any point to playing the original if that's the only one I own, or is Rebirth more like a remake than an expansion?
Rebirth contains everything in the original flash game and much, much more, so it's effectively both a full remake and an expansion. The flash version is great in it's own right, and has the stronger soundtrack of the two, but isn't as well balanced, plays a little worse in general, and has a lot of weird, kind of buggy behaviors. So you can definitely play it but Rebirth will be a better experience
 

shoptroll

Member
May 29, 2018
3,680
Is there any point to playing the original if that's the only one I own, or is Rebirth more like a remake than an expansion?

Rebirth is an remake with an expansion's worth of content added to it. I think there are people who still prefer the original for some of the aesthetics. One of the things the Antibirth/Repentence team seem to be doing is trying to bring as much of that into Rebirth which was lost in the original transfer.
 

Duxxy3

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,699
USA
This series has been milked to death imo... Fun initial concept that has collapsed under its own weight of just adding too much stuff

Yep. Adding more and more stuff to the same game doesn't make it a better game. It just makes it more random.

In some ways I prefer Wrath of the Lamb over Rebirth.
 

timshundo

CANCEL YOUR AMAZON PRIME
Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,156
CA
I have trouble being excited by this due to how buggy their 3DS and switch ports were and how little they cared to fix it. Both would force-reboot the console, 3DS a little more so.
 

Zippedpinhead

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,721
Well shit I was gonna buy the Switch version. How often do these bugs arise?
Switch port is passable better than the vita port even.

it does crash more during breaking runs than the more heavy duty ports, but since the most recent updates (still years ago) it works very decently. Best method of playing the game handheld
 

styl_oh

Fallen One-Winged Chicken Chaser
Member
Nov 24, 2019
2,205
Alberta, Canada
karnage10 thank you for that INCREDIBLY thorough writeup and thank you PunchyMalone for allaying my fears

I have played the game a bit, just not with all the expansions. I liked it but I haven't played enough to know for sure, though I do like roguelike/lites. Thanks again!
 
Nov 4, 2017
480
Can't wait.

Almost 900 hours clocked in (probably another 300 during offline play), still playing on an almost daily basis.

If there was just one game I'd have to play for the rest of my life... probably would be this one.