Info about Drova - Forsaken Kin: Official game description: "Drova - Forsaken Kin" is a pixel art Action-RPG inspired by the grim dark classics of the genre and the mystical allure of Celtic mythology. Dive into a handcrafted open world where your choices and actions shape the environment. A society has discovered the power of a dead empire: to capture the spirits that govern nature and rule over them instead. However, the anger of the remaining spirits divided them. Where will you stand? **SHEEP OR SHEPHERD, FIND YOUR GROUND** --------------------------------------- Forge your own path around dangerous landscapes, fulfill tasks, trade, gather and craft equipment. You start with nothing and as a nobody. Study your environment, and use the surrounding clues to reveal mysteries and grow stronger. Only your flow of battle stands between you and certain death. **MASTER THE FLOW OF BATTLE** ----------------------------- Join one of two factions, each with their own values and in pursuit of their own goals. Your choice will be relevant for the rest of the game and impact the entire story. Everything comes with a price. Meet teachers and learn numerous abilities, but expect foes and betrayals too. **UNRAVEL THE POWER OF NATURE** ------------------------------- Explore nature and seal the power of spirits that rule it. Learn how to use them in your favor, but be prepared to battle their channeled anger in the world surrounding you. **KEY FEATURES** ---------------- * **Free navigation in a dynamic hand crafted open world** * **Flow based combat system with different combos and weapons** * **Tailored story based on your actions and dialogues** * **Join one of two factions to survive in this world** * **Learn and master various abilities to create your own playstyle** Release date: 15 Oct, 2024 Categories: Action RPG, Open-World Exploration, Real-time Combat, Tactical Combat, Choice-based Narrative, Character Progression, Crafting, Faction Management - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Immersive, Captivating, Gothic-like Experience (weight 0.97): The game is praised for its immersive world, engaging gameplay, and captivating story. Many reviewers draw strong parallels to the Gothic series, citing similar mechanics, atmosphere, and a sense of freedom. The game's pixel art style is also frequently lauded for its detail and charm. - Meaningful Choices, Rewarding Exploration (weight 0.55): The game features a well-developed world with a compelling story, rewarding exploration, and meaningful choices. Players appreciate the freedom to explore and influence the world, with decisions having noticeable consequences. The game avoids common tropes and respects player intelligence. - Challenging, Rewarding, Skill-Based Gameplay (weight 0.25): The game offers a challenging but fair experience that rewards player skill and strategic thinking. It avoids hand-holding, encouraging exploration and problem-solving. The game provides a satisfying sense of progression and accomplishment. - Beautiful, Detailed Pixel Art (weight 0.25): The game's pixel art graphics are praised for their detail, charm, and contribution to the overall atmosphere. Reviewers appreciate the smooth animations and well-designed environments. The game successfully blends retro aesthetics with modern gameplay. - Engaging Quests, Meaningful Solutions (weight 0.22): The game features well-designed quests with multiple solutions and meaningful consequences. The absence of quest markers encourages exploration and independent problem-solving. The quests are engaging and contribute to a sense of accomplishment. - Diverse Builds, Rewarding Progression (weight 0.17): The game offers a variety of weapon types, skills, and character builds, allowing for diverse playstyles. The faction system adds depth and consequences to player choices. The progression system is rewarding, with noticeable improvements in character power. - Fluid, Engaging, Tactical Combat (weight 0.16): The combat system is praised for being fluid, engaging, and challenging. It requires tactical thinking and rewards player skill. The combat feels impactful and satisfying. - Customizable Difficulty, High Replayability (weight 0.14): The game offers customizable difficulty modes, making it accessible to a wide range of players. The game is challenging but fair, requiring strategic thinking and skill. The game provides a variety of options and playstyles. - Living World, Reactive NPCs (weight 0.12): The game world feels alive and reactive, with NPCs having routines, reacting to player actions, and offering engaging dialogue. Player choices have a tangible impact on the world and its inhabitants. - Classic RPG with Modern Touches (weight 0.1): The game combines classic RPG elements with new ideas, offering depth and customization. The writing and humor add a charming touch. The game is a modern take on isometric action CRPGs. - Immersive Storytelling, Meaningful Choices (weight 0.07): The game takes a hands-off approach to storytelling, expecting players to piece things together independently. The lore is discovered through letters and notes. The game emphasizes meaningful choices and rewards attention to detail. Common complaints: - High initial difficulty, punishing (weight 0.58): The game's initial difficulty is very high due to weak character stats, limited resources, and strong enemies. This can lead to frequent deaths and frustration, especially for new players or those unfamiliar with the game's mechanics. Some reviewers found the early game to be a tiresome slog. - Convoluted world, poor navigation (weight 0.57): The game world is confusing and difficult to navigate due to convoluted level design, lack of fast travel, and unclear paths. This leads to excessive backtracking, getting lost, and tedious exploration. The absence of a jump button further exacerbates navigation issues. - Repetitive, frustrating combat system (weight 0.56): Combat becomes repetitive and frustrating due to uninspired mechanics, limited enemy variety, and unbalanced difficulty. Enemies often have excessive health, and the player's attacks feel weak, leading to drawn-out encounters. The game's reliance on gear checks over player skill further diminishes the combat experience. - Limited player agency, railroaded story (weight 0.55): The game's story and RPG elements suffer from a lack of meaningful player choice, with many decisions feeling inconsequential. The narrative often railroads players into specific outcomes, undermining their agency and making the world feel less reactive to their actions. This is especially prominent in Act 3, where player choices are often ignored. - Tedious, uninspired quest design (weight 0.54): Quests often feel tedious and uninspired due to vague descriptions, lack of guidance, and excessive backtracking. Many quests involve simple fetch tasks with little impact on the main plot. The absence of quest markers and modern tracking features further exacerbates these issues. - Underdeveloped, useless crafting system (weight 0.51): The crafting system is underdeveloped and largely useless, with crafted items often being inferior to those found or purchased. The system lacks depth and meaningful choices, making it feel like an unnecessary addition to the game. Many reviewers found crafting to be a waste of time and resources. - Bugs, technical issues, unpolished (weight 0.46): The game suffers from various bugs and technical issues, including quest-breaking glitches and soft locks. Some reviewers also noted the presence of minor bugs and inconsistencies. The game's overall lack of polish detracts from the player experience. - Lacks voice acting, localization (weight 0.11): The game lacks voice acting, which detracts from immersion and character development. Some reviewers also noted the absence of localization for certain languages, making the game inaccessible to some players. The game's graphics were also criticized for being outdated and unappealing. - Weak story, uninspired characters (weight 0.09): The game's story and characters are often criticized for being bland, generic, and unmemorable. Dialogue is frequently described as stilted and lacking depth, while characters lack personality and emotional engagement. The writing quality is inconsistent, with some reviewers finding it childish or nonsensical. - Unappealing graphics, tedious quests (weight 0.05): Some reviewers disliked the game's pixel art style, finding it difficult to identify key NPCs and navigate the world. Certain quests were also criticized for being tedious, frustrating, and poorly described. The lack of quest markers and detailed journal entries further exacerbated these issues. - Inconvenient, unconventional magic system (weight 0.04): The magic system is unconventional and can be difficult to use, with limited availability of spells and inconvenient selection methods. Some reviewers were disappointed by the lack of a traditional mage class and the late-game access to rune magic. The game's UI also suffers from issues such as unpausable menus and intrusive tips. - Fails to capture 'Gothic' magic (weight 0.03): The game is often compared to the Gothic series, but many reviewers feel that it fails to capture the same magic and charm. Some found the world-building to be derivative and the characters to be less compelling than those in Gothic. The game's attempts to emulate Gothic's atmosphere and gameplay mechanics often fall short. Gameplay feedback: - Character progression via stats/skills (weight 0.07): The game features a character progression system based on stats, skills, and equipment. Stats influence weapon usage, while skills unlock combat abilities and spells. The 'Focus' system adds a strategic layer to combat, and different weapons offer unique combat approaches. - Crafting and side activities (weight 0.07): The game includes crafting, fishing, lockpicking, and mining as side activities. Crafting allows players to create consumables, traps, and accessories, while other activities provide additional resources and gameplay variety. However, some reviewers found the crafting system to be underwhelming. - Manual map, no quest markers (weight 0.05): The game features an old-school map system where players must purchase maps and manually mark locations. There are no quest markers, requiring players to pay close attention to the environment and NPC dialogues for navigation. This design choice encourages exploration and a sense of discovery. - Exploration-focused, non-scaling world (weight 0.04): The game world is designed to encourage exploration, with diverse environments, hidden treasures, and challenging enemies. Enemies do not scale with the player's level, creating area barriers and rewarding progression. The non-respawning enemy system emphasizes thoughtful level design. - Magic: limited early, powerful later (weight 0.04): Magic is available as a combat option, but it is often limited early in the game and may feel overpowered later on. Some reviewers noted that a pure mage build is not viable for a significant portion of the game, with magic serving more as an addition to other combat styles. - Simple but fair combat system (weight 0.04): The combat system is described as relatively simple but fair and skillful, requiring reflexes, precision, and maneuvering. Some reviewers found it to be mediocre, while others enjoyed its action-oriented nature. Stamina and posture management are important aspects of combat. - Meaningful, non-scaling progression (weight 0.04): The game features a simple leveling system focused on stats and skills, allowing players to overcome equipment restrictions and overpower enemies. Enemies do not scale with the player's level, providing a consistent challenge. Progression feels meaningful, with each experience point being valuable. - Skills learned from trainers (weight 0.03): The game features a unique skill system where players must find trainers to learn new skills and abilities. Learning points are invested at trainers to improve stats and combat effectiveness. This system extends to crafting and hunting skills, requiring players to seek out specific NPCs. - Branching dialogues, faction choices (weight 0.03): The game features branching dialogues and NPC reactions to player choices, leading to different outcomes. Side quests offer variety and choices with consequences, but the main story may be linear. Joining one of two factions can significantly impact the main quest. - Two factions required for progression (weight 0.03): Players must join one of two factions to progress in the game, each with its own quest lines and story cores. While some quest lines are shared, the factions offer distinct gameplay experiences, settlements, and armor types, adding replay value. - Exploration and investigation focus (weight 0.03): The game emphasizes exploration, with quests that often involve investigating objects and surroundings to uncover clues. There is no party system, and the player primarily controls a solo character. Exploration is rewarded with valuable items and side-quest content. - Mini-games and varied activities (weight 0.02): The game includes fishing, mining, and lockpicking mini-games that can be disabled. Players can choose to hunt, mine, steal, help, or hurt people, adding variety to the gameplay experience. The game also features a quest log, maps, and an extensive inventory. - Stamina-based dodge mechanic (weight 0.02): The combat system includes a stamina bar for dodging, blocking, and strong attacks. Dodging provides brief invincibility frames and is a crucial mechanic for survival. Enemies have a poise bar that, when depleted, stuns them. Performance notes: - Good performance on various hardware (weight 0.09): The game generally runs well, even on lower-end hardware and the Steam Deck. Many players report smooth performance and good battery life on the Deck, though some have experienced frame rate drops. Some players have reported the game running well on M2 Macbooks. - Minor bugs and glitches reported (weight 0.07): While many reviewers report a stable experience with few bugs, others have encountered minor to moderate issues. These include softlocks, animation glitches, and inventory menu bugs. Reloading the game often resolves these issues. - Pausing during attacks is quirky (weight 0.01): The game's pause function has some quirks. Enemies may continue their attack animations while the game is paused, though the player character becomes invulnerable during this time. - Southern map area lags (weight 0): One specific area in the far south of the map is reported to cause significant performance issues, especially during the end game. - Machine translation quality is mixed (weight 0): The game's localization relies on machine translation. While most of the text is understandable, there are occasional errors, such as mixed-up gender pronouns. - Clunky controls (weight 0): Some players find the game's controls clunky, which makes the game difficult to play. - Unexplained stuttering issues (weight 0): Some players have experienced significant stuttering issues, but the cause of the stuttering is unclear. - DualSense controller support (weight 0): The game supports PlayStation DualSense controllers and displays PlayStation icons, which is a nice touch for players using those controllers. Recommendations: - Strongly recommend overall; very enjoyable (weight 0.73): The game receives overwhelmingly positive recommendations, with many reviewers considering it a must-play and a potential game of the year. Reviewers highlight the game's overall quality, fun factor, and satisfying experience, often emphasizing that it exceeded their expectations. Many reviewers express strong enjoyment and satisfaction. - Looking forward to more content (weight 0.03): Reviewers express excitement for future content from the developers, whether in the form of a sequel, DLC, or new games. This indicates a strong appreciation for the studio's work and a desire to see them continue creating similar experiences. - Desire for a sequel (weight 0.02): Many reviewers express a desire for a sequel, indicating a positive overall experience and a wish for the game's world and story to be expanded upon. This suggests that players are invested in the game and eager to see what the developers create next. - Not for casual players (weight 0.02): The game is not for everyone; some reviewers recommend it for players who enjoy challenging experiences without hand-holding or quest markers. Conversely, it may not appeal to those seeking a streamlined, modern ARPG experience. - Potential game of the year (weight 0.01): Several reviewers consider the game to be among the best releases of the year, with some even declaring it their personal game of the year. This highlights the game's exceptional quality and impact on these reviewers. - AAA quality at indie price (weight 0.01): The game is compared favorably to AAA titles, with reviewers noting its high quality and the amount of content it offers, especially considering its price point. This suggests that the game provides a comparable or even superior experience to more expensive, mainstream games. Other player notes: - Intriguing faction-based narrative (weight 0.05): The game features a faction-based narrative where players start as outsiders and uncover the story through exploration. Choices matter, and the detailed story manipulates the player's emotions. - Detailed, explorable game world (weight 0.04): The game features a detailed and explorable world with hidden secrets and varied biomes. While the world map provides a general overview, players must find and purchase maps, encouraging exploration and discovery. - Active development and support (weight 0.02): The developers actively engage with the community, responding to feedback, fixing bugs, and providing support. The game receives regular updates, demonstrating the developers' commitment. - Good content-to-price ratio (weight 0.02): The game offers a substantial amount of content for its price, with playtimes ranging from 30 to 80 hours. The detailed pixel art style contributes to an impressive visual presentation, despite the small install size. - Well-done English localization (weight 0.02): The game's English localization is well-done, though some reviewers note that it may remove some grittiness from the original language. The game relies heavily on text, and some reviewers found the language difficult to understand due to obscure words related to Norse mythology. - Developed by small indie team (weight 0.01): The game was developed by a small indie team, which is evident in the game. This is a common observation, but doesn't provide specific feedback. - Varied difficulty and endings (weight 0.01): The game offers multiple difficulty settings, enemy types with varied attack patterns and multiple endings. This adds replayability and caters to different player preferences. - Story starts with magic crystal (weight 0.01): The game starts with the character following druids into the fog to investigate a magic crystal. Druids manage the crystal, which is rumored to be related to 'Nemeton' in 'Drova'. - Enemy corpses decompose over time (weight 0.01): Enemy corpses decompose over time, enhancing the world's consistency. Dead enemies stay dead, preventing grinding. Emotions: No emotions}