Let's talk about niche appeal.
In the heyday of Flash, during the reign of Kongregate and its ilk, there was a weird sub-hybrid of CRPGs that crawled out of the woodwork. Heavily influenced by classic dungeon crawlers and Diablo-style loot tables, these Flash CRPGs would boast tons of stats, substats galore, unrestricted builds, stock icons and crunchy turn-based gameplay. It's been so long I've forgotten the names of most of them, but the Monster's Den series can provide the curious a solid starting point.
Hellslave is a game cut from the same cloth. You pick a demon to worship - your class, effectively - and then you're off, following a breadcrumb story trail to each new dungeon. These are top-down, full of unique art and little bits of lore. The enemies within are lovingly rendered gothic horror that, thankfully, manages to escape Darkest Dungeon's tremendous influence. Combat itself is, as noted, crunchy, relying heavily on stringing together a series of quickly earned actives and passives to create the build you want. And create you can: you're free to cash out and reset any time, no charge. A delight when you find yourself feeling experimental after a dungeon run leaves you with a surplus of gear that gets the old build box in the brain ticking.
There's problems, though. The tone is mostly consistent, but this is a translated title, and there are times when it stumbles because of it. Or, in the case of one screen, where they forgot to translate it entirely. At least one key ability I had simply did not work as stated. It's difficult to tell if percents are additive, multiplicative or both. There's little use for the money you find provided you're thorough in your explorations. The story is nothing to care about. And so on.
So it's flawed, short. It wants multiple runs from you using the same character when a second or third of its Diablo-style loops would be more entertaining with a different - or second - demon in your pocket. It's fun, but not gripping.
But if you're part of that very specific niche it caters to? Welcome back. It's been a while.
In the heyday of Flash, during the reign of Kongregate and its ilk, there was a weird sub-hybrid of CRPGs that crawled out of the woodwork. Heavily influenced by classic dungeon crawlers and Diablo-style loot tables, these Flash CRPGs would boast tons of stats, substats galore, unrestricted builds, stock icons and crunchy turn-based gameplay. It's been so long I've forgotten the names of most of them, but the Monster's Den series can provide the curious a solid starting point.
Hellslave is a game cut from the same cloth. You pick a demon to worship - your class, effectively - and then you're off, following a breadcrumb story trail to each new dungeon. These are top-down, full of unique art and little bits of lore. The enemies within are lovingly rendered gothic horror that, thankfully, manages to escape Darkest Dungeon's tremendous influence. Combat itself is, as noted, crunchy, relying heavily on stringing together a series of quickly earned actives and passives to create the build you want. And create you can: you're free to cash out and reset any time, no charge. A delight when you find yourself feeling experimental after a dungeon run leaves you with a surplus of gear that gets the old build box in the brain ticking.
There's problems, though. The tone is mostly consistent, but this is a translated title, and there are times when it stumbles because of it. Or, in the case of one screen, where they forgot to translate it entirely. At least one key ability I had simply did not work as stated. It's difficult to tell if percents are additive, multiplicative or both. There's little use for the money you find provided you're thorough in your explorations. The story is nothing to care about. And so on.
So it's flawed, short. It wants multiple runs from you using the same character when a second or third of its Diablo-style loops would be more entertaining with a different - or second - demon in your pocket. It's fun, but not gripping.
But if you're part of that very specific niche it caters to? Welcome back. It's been a while.