I thought that revisiting Bad North a year later would make me like the game more, but my opinion barely changed. I still think that the game is wonderful when it comes to extreme condensation of RTS-trappings into a roguelike formula, and for what it's worth, the bones of a great roguelike are very much present here. Calculating how many commanders to send on which islands to get which results is very fun, in the same way that a simple puzzle game or a quick math quiz can be fun, with the added bonus of a great visual style and servicably crunchy sound-design.

However, the game is also still extremely unbalanced. I mentioned in my first review how basically 80% of a regular playthrough will either be a cake-walk or impossible to have any fun with, and I still think that, basically, Bad North has 2 general states: easy beyond belief and hard beyond reason. For the "Hard" difficulty, the ratio is somewhat scewed towards the latter, but the amount of times a player enters a true flow-state with Bad North's gameplay loop is still abysmally low. I wish that more thought was given to enemy types and how items work, because the game we got is more akin to rock-paper-scissors with some nice micro and item cooldown-managment.

This game is, like many roguelikes, pretty damn addictive, so I might return to it just for the hardest difficulty, but at this point I feel like I have well and truly reached the limits of the complexity and challenge Bad North has to offer

Um bom jogo de estratégia roguelite pra passar o tempo.

A gameplay é bem simples, mas bem simples mesmo, tendo apenas 3 unidades principais, o espadachim, o arqueiro e o lanceiro, e por isso o jogo tem um sistema de pedra papel e tesoura atrelado as três unidades (espadachins ganham dos arqueiros que ganham dos lanceiros que ganham dos espadachins), por causa disso sempre é bom organizar seu time baseado nos tipo de inimigos presentes na ilha, por exemplo, se tiver arqueiros e brutos (normais e besteiros) é bom levar espadachins e lanceiros, e por aí vai, e repete isso indo de ilha em ilha que as vezes também podem conter tropas (as vezes com perks especiais tipo dano extra ou itens custarem metade do preço) ou itens como recompensa, além das moedas que tu ganha dependendo de quantas casas foram destruídas, e as moedas são usadas para upar suas tropas ou itens. Enfim, a gameplay é bem simples como deu pra ver, e esse é fácilmente o apelo do jogo, a sua simplicidade, e nisso o jogo acerta bem, porém, mesmo com isso ainda tem alguns problemas de balanceamento notáveis até, por exemplo, mesmo tendo apenas 3 unidades no jogo, o arqueiro é muito ruim no primeiro estágio por sua péssima precisão, errando a maioria dos tiros, isso também se estende aos itens e perks das tropas, alguns são ridiculamente apelões como a taça de dinheiro extra (que é essencial para o hard mode por sinal) e o knockback extra (lanceiros e arqueiros com esse perk trivializam quase todos os inimigos exceto os besteiros) mas outros são completamente inúteis como o Fearless (literalmente impede as tropas de fugirem) e alguns dos itens do jogo. A dificuldade do jogo também é meio zoada, as vezes algumas ilhas são muitas vezes trivial e outras são quase impossíveis de passar sem perder pelo menos uma das casinhas. No geral a gameplay é boa mas tem certas coisas que impedem de ser excelente, assim como a pouca variedade do jogo.

A trilha sonora é nada demais, funciona pro jogo e são bem atmosféricas, mas nada que eu ouviria fora do jogo. Os visuais por outro lado são bem legais por terem esse estilo mais minimalista neles, e as artes dos ícones dos itens e dos líderes das tropas são legalzinhos até.

Posso ter pego um pouco pesado com o jogo, e eu concordo um pouco, mas ainda recomendo o jogo se estiver numa promoção, sua gameplay minimalista apesar de não ser das melhores ainda é bem legal.

6.5/10

I quite liked this, but there's a ton holding it back from being great. I played on hard with level resets enabled, for reference.

The game has a quaint, simple aesthetic, but the action all has some heft to it with some cute action. It's satisfying to watch the little guys go at it in the same way you'd enjoy Totally Accurate Battle Simulator.

The structure works well enough, it was obviously intended to be replayable, though I felt no desire to do so. Each scenario felt like it went too far in one direction; either it was a walk in the park or a waking nightmare. Where the game excelled is in the micro adjustments you can make to your plan when re-doing the levels. The final level was crushing me, to the point I was about to give up. But, I made some slightly different decisions and suddenly I was trouncing the enemy. It was intense and the most fun I had with the game.

The game's simplicity is its downfall. It feels difficult to carve out meaningful strategies as the play space is so limited. There's little room for creativity so I imagine you'd need clairvoyancy in order to beat the game on harder difficulties without resets.

I had a good time with frustrations aplenty, was happy to be finished with this one.

Consider buying if it's on sale for <$5. Great premise and idea but heavily flawed.
• Very little content, you've seen basically everything after a few runs—you don't even have to get far in the game to see all the content.
• Randomly generated levels are decent but limited, with pretty much all levels being just a square with terrain raised or lowered in some spots. Occasionally a more unique level will be generated though, so it's not too bad.
• NO mod support at all! This hurts the game a lot due to just how little content there is.
• The second (and, I believe, last) tier of enemies you encounter every run are very frustrating to fight against.

Bad North was super fun and addictive when I was still figuring it out and trying to get as far as possible, but after a while you start to notice that 80% of your playthrough is either piss-easy or literally impossible to have fun or win. That 20% is super enjoyable and shows how this game can be great at simplifying the RTS genre into something everyone can have a blast with, but it's spread very thin over your playthrough. I really wanted to love this, but the balancing and the shallow tactics let this one down A LOT

I liked the art and the core mechanics, but it BADLY needed some streamlining. The roguelike elements don't work very well, because the first 2/3rds are SO easy and there's really only one 'ideal' strategy. To mitigate that, they patched in the ability to replay islands indefinitely, so you basically can't lose unless you find yourself so overmatched that you literally can't win.

Interesting ideas, some great design, but would have benefited from ditching the roguelite elements and leaning into a slightly more narrative experience.

Let me start by saying that Bad North is one of those 'easy to learn, difficult to master' games. The goal is simple: use your soldiers to defend your island from the invading vikings.
Sounds easy, right? Well, the first few islands are, but then once you have come across the different enemy troops, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, you realise there is osme depth to Bad North. You have access to three different types of soldiers: warriors, archers and pikemen. Like with the enemy, each of these soldier types have their own strengths and wekeness, such as the pikemen are great at holding a gap but cannot attack whilst moving. Your limited choice in troops, combined with the varied enemey troops, are what helps create the challenge for the player.

Bad North has a high level of replayability as each campaign has a randomly generated set of islands, which can have a huge impact on your game. I found that I was better at defending islands that high ground for my archers and narrow paths that my pikemen could defend but I struggle with the flatter islands, taht required more manoeuvrable troops to defend them.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing Bad North. Its simplistic visuals and gameplay hide a strategy roguelike game taht will offer a decent challenge for strategy fans.

Bad North tem como maior característica seu minimalismo e simplicidade. Com uma proposta que mescla RTS com tática, é graças a detalhes como sua redução de tempo real que o jogo ganha traços no gameplay que se somam ao visual para construir sua identidade única.

Seu gráficos são um equilíbrio perfeito de funcionalidade e design, e o sistema de upgrade é complexo o suficiente para não ser raso demais nem profundo demais, mantendo o game design enxuto e direto.

Cada fase tem seus percalços, desafios e recompensas, com uma duração satisfatória que torna as sessões de jogo rápidas e sem muito estresse.

Uma pequena dose de procedural confere a cada jogador uma experiência mais pessoal, com diferentes bônus e objetos encontrados.

E pra quem curte desafio extra, o modo hard oferece aquela frustração que se transforma em conquista, após o triunfo.

A short experience for me, but the game itself is really great.

The visual style and sound design is good and definitley worth the money.

All in all, a good minigame.