Scourgebringer approaches game design with a scrupulous, or maybe an agnostic puritanism, distaste for elements that are non-combinatronic or against stream in their play matching. The entirety of the skill tree, navigated in the 20 second intervals taken between the game’s 10 minute runs, consists of quilting together elements, which already had interaction across several matrices, further and further into tighter and tighter knit. By the time Scourgebringer runs extend consistently into the final area, extending the initial dives of 2 minutes dashes to 15 minute sprints, every action, every element of the playspace, will engage the player with a mechanical statement that has another verb parenthetically communicated within it: your double jump keeps you off the ground, extending your ‘don’t touch the floor’ damage bonus for the room, which resets your dash, which has within it a smash reflection, which kills an enemy, increasing a different ‘enemies killed within getting hit’ damage bonus, which resets smash, jump, and dash in one button press. It is airtight; it is suffocating; it becomes very boring.
I don’t know exactly how the style of roguelike design became cemented as a map traversed by subsections of pre-laid out rooms, but I always assume that, even if there were games that used the formula previous to, Isaac is the game which any game made after Edmund McMillen’s maximalist manifesto takes as doctrine. There are variations: Gungeon’s “rooms” are environmental more elastic and rely on engagement with enemy patterns more than enemy placement; Nuclear Throne’s connective environment massiveness (comparatively) creates a truncated ebb and flow loop similar to something like Counter Strike’s shoot first or get fucked; Rogue Legacy designed for training exhaustion, trying to create a backdrop for swings of luck and disappointment, which could be denuded by good or bad play, but which really were meant highlight the more concrete elements of class, skills, and equipment - showing the variety the player could have at their disposal instead of what variety of minimally intelligent monster the game could muster. Isaac has such a wide centre that design elements from all three of the games just mentioned, and many more, are contained in some germ within its massive corridors of content, but similarly, all three above take the germ therein to raise and ripen. Scourgebringer, on the other hand, decided that the proper course of action was not to witness the fruit of further growth stifled by so much undergrowth but to prune away everything with thorns, scent, and colour into new shape. It is very manicured, and it looks interesting when driving by, but like any apple tree cut to appear like a dinosaur head, you can’t really enjoy what it’s meant to be with what it is. For every idea that Isaac has had which doesn’t figure in to every run at nearly every moment, Scourgebringer has eradicated it and shorn up the space which held it.
The most frustrating part of looking at how Isaac has been influential is that it seems most designers have some degree of criticism regarding its ‘messiness’. Seemingly, the idea of coins becoming useless later on, hearts being a pointless drop for half the characters, keys having an upper limit use case of about 4 for 95% of runs, and maybe a 10:1 ratio of items which actually excite an idea of playing post their acquisition, is something which designer’s don’t look kindly at. What, you don’t want to overfill your game to bursting over the course of 10 years? For essentially free? I get it - Isaac is unruly, and Edmund McMillen is not the most disciplined designer. Taking the most fun aspect of the most fun run possible in Isaac is a great pitch for branching off from the blueprint; leave out all the times you got a range up from the Bloat, and make it so The Forgotten can smack all projectiles back at the enemies while dashing through them with Dark Arts.
Look! I just designed every Scourgebringer run.
That’s the problem with trying to make a purely antiseptic roguelike: the messiness of the play, which ultimately is the basis of all roguelike games in the action vein, given that you sacrifice with the genre’s any emotional concreteness from encounter design within a significant architectural world, profundity of economy to character state, or explication of cosmology from item placement, is the pantry of the game, not the recipe. Isaac’s vast surplus of mechanics is not a gooey pot of negative mixtures which counteract the flavour they bring - they are the possible spices which can be added to enhance each other, often bringing out flavours and potentialities unrealisable without experimentation. Scourgebringer plays like it's the favourite food of someone who only like chicken nuggets, like it is for someone who only can consume one small and safe idea that cannot come into contact with anything challenging to the palate without tantrum.
This is baked into every facet of play: the room layouts are variations of surface to emphasise wall running without actually compromising the ability to wall run; the enemies are all variations of bullet hell enemies that emphasise tight dodging and parrying without actually offering any difference in possible strategic play; the items are all tightly engaged with the highly integrated mechanical verbset but they change the verbset not at all, essentially negating any use other than to bookmark the fact that you’ve been playing for X minutes.
Of course, to use the food analogy, chicken nuggets are tasty (or in my case, tofu nuggets). They are cheap, and they are easy to eat, and mostly everyone likes them at some time or another. So is Scourgebringer bad? Maybe it's bad for you? At least if it’s all you eat, but McDonalds doesn’t sell them because they're trying to create food art. Nuggets are for when you either are on the road to something more substantial and worthwhile, maybe on the highway from Pentiment to Skin Deep (plllllleeeeease release this year). If that’s the case, then enjoy a bit of deep fried hack n slash. But if nuggets are one’s entire diet? You might look a bit sweaty.
I don’t know exactly how the style of roguelike design became cemented as a map traversed by subsections of pre-laid out rooms, but I always assume that, even if there were games that used the formula previous to, Isaac is the game which any game made after Edmund McMillen’s maximalist manifesto takes as doctrine. There are variations: Gungeon’s “rooms” are environmental more elastic and rely on engagement with enemy patterns more than enemy placement; Nuclear Throne’s connective environment massiveness (comparatively) creates a truncated ebb and flow loop similar to something like Counter Strike’s shoot first or get fucked; Rogue Legacy designed for training exhaustion, trying to create a backdrop for swings of luck and disappointment, which could be denuded by good or bad play, but which really were meant highlight the more concrete elements of class, skills, and equipment - showing the variety the player could have at their disposal instead of what variety of minimally intelligent monster the game could muster. Isaac has such a wide centre that design elements from all three of the games just mentioned, and many more, are contained in some germ within its massive corridors of content, but similarly, all three above take the germ therein to raise and ripen. Scourgebringer, on the other hand, decided that the proper course of action was not to witness the fruit of further growth stifled by so much undergrowth but to prune away everything with thorns, scent, and colour into new shape. It is very manicured, and it looks interesting when driving by, but like any apple tree cut to appear like a dinosaur head, you can’t really enjoy what it’s meant to be with what it is. For every idea that Isaac has had which doesn’t figure in to every run at nearly every moment, Scourgebringer has eradicated it and shorn up the space which held it.
The most frustrating part of looking at how Isaac has been influential is that it seems most designers have some degree of criticism regarding its ‘messiness’. Seemingly, the idea of coins becoming useless later on, hearts being a pointless drop for half the characters, keys having an upper limit use case of about 4 for 95% of runs, and maybe a 10:1 ratio of items which actually excite an idea of playing post their acquisition, is something which designer’s don’t look kindly at. What, you don’t want to overfill your game to bursting over the course of 10 years? For essentially free? I get it - Isaac is unruly, and Edmund McMillen is not the most disciplined designer. Taking the most fun aspect of the most fun run possible in Isaac is a great pitch for branching off from the blueprint; leave out all the times you got a range up from the Bloat, and make it so The Forgotten can smack all projectiles back at the enemies while dashing through them with Dark Arts.
Look! I just designed every Scourgebringer run.
That’s the problem with trying to make a purely antiseptic roguelike: the messiness of the play, which ultimately is the basis of all roguelike games in the action vein, given that you sacrifice with the genre’s any emotional concreteness from encounter design within a significant architectural world, profundity of economy to character state, or explication of cosmology from item placement, is the pantry of the game, not the recipe. Isaac’s vast surplus of mechanics is not a gooey pot of negative mixtures which counteract the flavour they bring - they are the possible spices which can be added to enhance each other, often bringing out flavours and potentialities unrealisable without experimentation. Scourgebringer plays like it's the favourite food of someone who only like chicken nuggets, like it is for someone who only can consume one small and safe idea that cannot come into contact with anything challenging to the palate without tantrum.
This is baked into every facet of play: the room layouts are variations of surface to emphasise wall running without actually compromising the ability to wall run; the enemies are all variations of bullet hell enemies that emphasise tight dodging and parrying without actually offering any difference in possible strategic play; the items are all tightly engaged with the highly integrated mechanical verbset but they change the verbset not at all, essentially negating any use other than to bookmark the fact that you’ve been playing for X minutes.
Of course, to use the food analogy, chicken nuggets are tasty (or in my case, tofu nuggets). They are cheap, and they are easy to eat, and mostly everyone likes them at some time or another. So is Scourgebringer bad? Maybe it's bad for you? At least if it’s all you eat, but McDonalds doesn’t sell them because they're trying to create food art. Nuggets are for when you either are on the road to something more substantial and worthwhile, maybe on the highway from Pentiment to Skin Deep (plllllleeeeease release this year). If that’s the case, then enjoy a bit of deep fried hack n slash. But if nuggets are one’s entire diet? You might look a bit sweaty.
Lacks much variety for its genre, but that allows Scourgebringer to craft the most challenging yet fair roguelike experience with an insane killer "DOOM" soundtrack to match the intensity of the gameplay and some of the tightest 2D gameplay.
Its precise movement is often compared to Celeste, but an equally strong example is to Furi with how each basic move affords so many different options. Your firearm reloads by dealing melee damage to enemies, so you have to mix it into your melee combos strategically. Your dash has no i-frames but it resets on enemy kill, and drags enemies along with you. Your heavy attack isn't just an aoe, but it stuns almost all enemies, so you can combo it with the dash to corral enemies together. And yet by being risky and chasing enemies, you increase your survivability since hitting enemies resets your double jump too. Like Furi, all of these simple mechanics feed into encouraging you to play aggressively yet intelligently.
And you feel like a Gamer God
Its precise movement is often compared to Celeste, but an equally strong example is to Furi with how each basic move affords so many different options. Your firearm reloads by dealing melee damage to enemies, so you have to mix it into your melee combos strategically. Your dash has no i-frames but it resets on enemy kill, and drags enemies along with you. Your heavy attack isn't just an aoe, but it stuns almost all enemies, so you can combo it with the dash to corral enemies together. And yet by being risky and chasing enemies, you increase your survivability since hitting enemies resets your double jump too. Like Furi, all of these simple mechanics feed into encouraging you to play aggressively yet intelligently.
And you feel like a Gamer God
A pretty solid roguelike. Best part is the movement and combat and the way the two go hand and hand. Honestly more repetitive than a lot of other roguelieks I liked tho, and def maybe a little too difficult/frustrating
ScourgeBringer consegue ser o jogo mais difícil que já joguei, logo eu, um amante de Dark Souls e Cuphead...
É um excelente jogo e combinação de ideias (Roguelike com mecânicas de metroidvania e bullet hell), gostei bastante de jogar mesmo tendo morrido 32 vezes em 4 horas e 6 minutos, diria que é um jogo muito gostoso pra jogar nas horas vagas, mas tentar zerar seriamente durante várias vezes se torna bem complicado e frustante.
Mesmo eu não tendo passado além da fase 3, gostei bastante do jogo, queria que tivesse mais upgrades que facilita-se o jogo, alguma forma de pular áreas pra quem fazer x e y coisa, seria de enorme grado.
Para masoquistas fãs de dificuldade, este é sim um excelente jogo no qual eu recomendo bastante. Ainda continuarei jogando de vez em quando.
É um excelente jogo e combinação de ideias (Roguelike com mecânicas de metroidvania e bullet hell), gostei bastante de jogar mesmo tendo morrido 32 vezes em 4 horas e 6 minutos, diria que é um jogo muito gostoso pra jogar nas horas vagas, mas tentar zerar seriamente durante várias vezes se torna bem complicado e frustante.
Mesmo eu não tendo passado além da fase 3, gostei bastante do jogo, queria que tivesse mais upgrades que facilita-se o jogo, alguma forma de pular áreas pra quem fazer x e y coisa, seria de enorme grado.
Para masoquistas fãs de dificuldade, este é sim um excelente jogo no qual eu recomendo bastante. Ainda continuarei jogando de vez em quando.
Faltou um pouquinho de vida do último chefe, não aguento mais kkkkk.
É um jogo mediano, só tem uma boa durabilidade por você morrer mais de 50 vezes e ter que ficar repetindo as mesmas 5 fases, o que acaba irritando bastante kkkk, mas não é ruim, é bem viciante e o modo de dificuldade adaptativa te impulsiona a sempre tentar mais uma vez pois você sente que está chegando cada vez mais perto.
É um jogo mediano, só tem uma boa durabilidade por você morrer mais de 50 vezes e ter que ficar repetindo as mesmas 5 fases, o que acaba irritando bastante kkkk, mas não é ruim, é bem viciante e o modo de dificuldade adaptativa te impulsiona a sempre tentar mais uma vez pois você sente que está chegando cada vez mais perto.
The ScourgeBringer Says: the combat system feels very intuitive for a room-to-room roguelite. parrying is the best part
Mecânica muito boa
Pretty neat roguelike but its a little late on the bus for the style it's trying to achieve and doesn't have much content as of today
yo this album comes with a free game????
great game, looks flashy as hell, movement is fluid, combat is satisfying when you chain together moves and perfect platforming. gets very difficult though.
god bless the vita
great game, looks flashy as hell, movement is fluid, combat is satisfying when you chain together moves and perfect platforming. gets very difficult though.
god bless the vita
bacana
I’ll admit that I was unable to beat this game. It is hard and stingy with its healing items and I had too much pride to use the game’s beneficial accessibility options for aid lol.
This is a solid roguelite with light platforming and bullet hell elements. Combat is fast, fluid, and challenging, but the hit boxes are occasionally inconsistent, which lead to a few cheap shots. Also, for a game where you’ll die often, the amount of guns, mods, and upgrades was underwhelming. It made the game feel repetitive pretty fast.
Despite my failure, I enjoyed this game a lot. I was heartbroken by a few of my deaths, but even then I retried instantly. Definitely try this if you are a fan of roguelites or 2D action games in general.
This is a solid roguelite with light platforming and bullet hell elements. Combat is fast, fluid, and challenging, but the hit boxes are occasionally inconsistent, which lead to a few cheap shots. Also, for a game where you’ll die often, the amount of guns, mods, and upgrades was underwhelming. It made the game feel repetitive pretty fast.
Despite my failure, I enjoyed this game a lot. I was heartbroken by a few of my deaths, but even then I retried instantly. Definitely try this if you are a fan of roguelites or 2D action games in general.
Another game that I can recognize as probably quite good to others, but that I just can't get into. I love the art style, attitude and core gameplay concept, but there's just something small but off with nearly everything for me. Combat doesn't feel quite right because I don't like how the lunge while light attacking feels about half as long as it should and that it feels like the auto-targeting isn't as good for attacking as it is for dashing, or maybe that's just compounded with another thing I don't like; that the character's most defining aspect which you use to guide yourself as you play is their flowing, whipping white hair, but it's the same shade of whites and greys as the attack explosion animation that pops up when you hit things, making it needlessly difficult to navigate through the clusterfuck of enemies and animations. It doesn't help that the unlock system is miserable and of the kind that forces you to spend a dozen hours or two playing a beta version before you can play with all features available as intended. I was a little shocked when I noticed that you have to unlock even the combo system, which just seems like taking unlocks too far. If that's the best you can come up with, don't even include unlocks in your game.
This game isn't terrible, I just couldn't get along with it as much as one should and I just couldn't shake the feeling that something felt constantly off and as such wasn't enjoying myself. I forced myself to stick with it for another few hours even though I had never had any fun, since I always feel like I have to beat a game to get my money's worth, but now I'm deciding to check out of this one and move on to the next game.
This game isn't terrible, I just couldn't get along with it as much as one should and I just couldn't shake the feeling that something felt constantly off and as such wasn't enjoying myself. I forced myself to stick with it for another few hours even though I had never had any fun, since I always feel like I have to beat a game to get my money's worth, but now I'm deciding to check out of this one and move on to the next game.
raw?
Super snappy and fun, it's very hard but it just works super well and runs on a laptop. The music can get repetitive but it's hella fun. If you want a brutal but fun roguelite, it's a game worth considering.
Didn't bother beating the final boss, but overall a lot of fun to interact with.
This is a very run rouge lite, it has some interesting upgrades that can make things go easier (and sometimes harder) on each playthrough. I really liked the permanent upgrade system and how it works out (also love the idea that its based on the tree on the main screen).
I'm just so bad at these games that I can't find myself to get to the end everytime I play, and it doesn't feel like I'm making any progress or learning too much on the why...except for the bosses, they feel great to beat once you figure out the patterns of their attacks.
I also love the pixel graphics here, so crisp and very nice on the eyes!
I'm just so bad at these games that I can't find myself to get to the end everytime I play, and it doesn't feel like I'm making any progress or learning too much on the why...except for the bosses, they feel great to beat once you figure out the patterns of their attacks.
I also love the pixel graphics here, so crisp and very nice on the eyes!
Wie ich es hasse...
Ich war mir 100%ig sicher, das Spiel nicht mehr anzufassen, wenn die Credits laufen..
Credits liefen, direkt von der Festplatte geworfen :D
Was ne Sucht und was ne Tunnelvision dieses Spiel erzeugt.
Anfangs wirkt alles schwammig und viel zu schnell um reagieren zu können.
Aber nach 2-3 Stunden merkt man eine stabile Lernkurve.
Leider ein kleiner Glücksfaktor dabei, da Schwertschaden wichtiger ist als Nachladen der Schusswaffe, aber welche Upgrades kommen, kann man kaum beeinflussen.
Alles in allem ein nettes und wirkich knackiges Roguelite, das man hätte Glasscannon nennen sollen.
Man ist so übermächtig und dennoch wird man im 30. Run noch von ner Raupe getroffen, weil man einfach nicht aufpasst.
Ich war mir 100%ig sicher, das Spiel nicht mehr anzufassen, wenn die Credits laufen..
Credits liefen, direkt von der Festplatte geworfen :D
Was ne Sucht und was ne Tunnelvision dieses Spiel erzeugt.
Anfangs wirkt alles schwammig und viel zu schnell um reagieren zu können.
Aber nach 2-3 Stunden merkt man eine stabile Lernkurve.
Leider ein kleiner Glücksfaktor dabei, da Schwertschaden wichtiger ist als Nachladen der Schusswaffe, aber welche Upgrades kommen, kann man kaum beeinflussen.
Alles in allem ein nettes und wirkich knackiges Roguelite, das man hätte Glasscannon nennen sollen.
Man ist so übermächtig und dennoch wird man im 30. Run noch von ner Raupe getroffen, weil man einfach nicht aufpasst.
this game feels like it kills your wife and kids in front of you if you get hit
Al menos esta vez lo he terminado.
El ejemplo perfecto de como no hacer los loops en un roguelike, cuando cada loop varia entre 0 y nada, los upgrades de las habilidades son simples numeros y no hay nada nada de variedad, un roguelike se vuelve un toston, y los ultimos 10 runs a esto han sido ya porque veia el final y lo queria acabar despues de dropearlo hace un par de años, pero vamos, que lo poco que se salva es lo fluido que se mueve el personaje.
El ejemplo perfecto de como no hacer los loops en un roguelike, cuando cada loop varia entre 0 y nada, los upgrades de las habilidades son simples numeros y no hay nada nada de variedad, un roguelike se vuelve un toston, y los ultimos 10 runs a esto han sido ya porque veia el final y lo queria acabar despues de dropearlo hace un par de años, pero vamos, que lo poco que se salva es lo fluido que se mueve el personaje.
Movement and combat feel smooth and satisfying, music is also high-energy to fit the fast-paced tone of the game. Visuals are good but the different areas lack some identity. What kills it for me unfortunately is the repetitiveness of runs, which is something a lot of these indie-roguelites struggle with. I'm not asking for Isaac-levels of variety but some more modifiers besides the same stat upgrades and guns (which aren't immensly useful) would really elevate this game above the dozen other roguelites available. That being said, there's still a good few hours of fun to be had here, despite it's drawbacks.
Only problem is there isn't more of it
By that I mean there is only one of each floor-boss so once you've mastered them it gets a bit boring doing it over and over.
By that I mean there is only one of each floor-boss so once you've mastered them it gets a bit boring doing it over and over.
very repetitive.
you can just kinda button mash through the first 3 or 4 areas if you vaguely know what youre doing
you can just kinda button mash through the first 3 or 4 areas if you vaguely know what youre doing
Pish
DEFINITIVAMENTE, esse estilo de jogo nao é minha praia, roguelike ? Acho insano o fato do jogador morrer indiferente se seja 1º ou na 5º fase e ter de voltar tudo do zer, claro tem os upgrades, entretando nao é meu estilo, ainda fico com os jogos de plataforma 2d ou pixel art, o jogo é bom, sonora tbm é bacana, jogo relativamente rapido, vale a pena jogar se vc tiver bastante costume com esse estilo de jogo ou habilidade suficientes, oque claramente nao tenho, a nota 3/5 foi por conta dos combates que 90 é resolvido punhetano maximo de botes kkkk
Good but slightly too many meta progression stuff
Es muy rápido y de acción pura. Si estas tocando el suelo, algo mal estás haciendo. O eso debería ser, pero hay enemigos que es mucho mejor sentarte a esperar a que se acerquen o a que hagan su ataque y luego si eso ya vas tú a matarlos. Además, es un juego difícil (lo cual está genial), pero no tiene demasiados enemigos, cansándote de matar siempre a los mismos, así como a los mismos bosses una y otra vez. Las mejoras del árbol, algunas son clave para poder jugar (no entendiendo como no vienen de base), mientras que otras son super anecdóticas.
Lo considero un buen juego, pero el ritmo es irregular como poco, variando entre frenética acción y boss/enemigo de ascensor. Además, los enemigos quizás tengan un pelín de vida, pudiendo estar genial una mejora de que a más desbloquees el árbol menos vida tienen, estando menos tiempo en los primeros niveles, de los cuales te vas a hartar.
Digo muchas cosas negativas, pero que el juego está bien. Quizás no para acabarlo porque se puede hacer bola, pero cada vez que lo quitaba tenía ganas de echar una run, sobre todo por lo ágiles que son todos los menús.
Lo considero un buen juego, pero el ritmo es irregular como poco, variando entre frenética acción y boss/enemigo de ascensor. Además, los enemigos quizás tengan un pelín de vida, pudiendo estar genial una mejora de que a más desbloquees el árbol menos vida tienen, estando menos tiempo en los primeros niveles, de los cuales te vas a hartar.
Digo muchas cosas negativas, pero que el juego está bien. Quizás no para acabarlo porque se puede hacer bola, pero cada vez que lo quitaba tenía ganas de echar una run, sobre todo por lo ágiles que son todos los menús.
Very well made well designed and fun, but it does get old and really doesnt have enough variety, still a good lil time tho
Un gameplay ultra nerveux accompagné d'une ost épique qui nous pousse a chercher le risque, la vitesse, l'agressivité. Trop peu de variation dans le gameplay pour un roguelike.
An action-packed roguelite experience, the soundtrack is great and I love the visual style of the game. I just wish that runs could have a bit more variety in them - after only 3 hours I'm pretty sure I'd encountered almost every potential upgrade and weapon type, plus you'll be running into the exact same rooms pretty often on a floor.
Reminiscent of Hyper Light Drifter and Bastion, just not compelling enough to dedicate a lot of time to.