Info about Guild Saga: Vanished Worlds:

Official game description:
  
**Enter the Realm of Aarde:**  
An ancient entity stirs in the darkness, casting a veil of shadows across the land and threatening all of humanity. This growing menace has escalated the already dire situation on the newly discovered continent of Andra, where tensions run high. As a fledgling on your first mission for the Heroes Guild, you will be unwittingly drawn into the heart of this unfolding crisis. The secrets you uncover and the choices you make will shape your path as you navigate this perilous world...  
**Classic Turn-based Combat**  
Guild Saga: Vanished Worlds' tactical, isometric turn-based combat draws inspiration from the classic RPGs of old, offering both depth and strategy. As you recruit and assemble a diverse party, each member’s unique abilities become crucial to your success on the battlefield.  
**Strong Narrative and World-Building**  
Experience a deeply crafted narrative where every choice you make holds weight. The world is meticulously designed, filled with rich lore and vibrant characters, each brought to life through carefully written dialogue and stunning illustrations. The Respite Archipelago is a vast and immersive setting, brimming with optional quests, intriguing NPCs, and hidden treasures. Exploration is richly rewarded in a world where your decisions matter and every journey leads to new and meaningful discoveries.  
**Assemble the Perfect Party**  
Forge your hero with limitless possibilities—choose from five races, define your inclinations, and shape your talents and skills. Then, assemble a team of diverse companions, from noble knights to arcane sorcerers and even the undead. Each recruitable ally brings a unique dynamic to your party.  
**Fully Customizable Companions**  
Your companions are more than just sidekicks; they’re fully customizable characters with their own skills and equipment. Tailor their abilities to fit your strategy, with over 100 skills across 10 disciplines and countless items to explore, you control every aspect of your party's growth.  
**Bonds Beyond Battle**  
Allies in combat and more, your companions are complex characters with rich backstories, personal quests, and evolving relationships. Engage with them deeply as you journey together, and see how your interactions shape their stories. Whether forging unbreakable friendships, sparking romance, or igniting rivalries.  
**Immersive Story Campaign**  
Immerse yourself in a deeply rich and story-driven RPG. The world is alive with a main narrative that pulls you in and countless side quests that expand your journey. Engage with a diverse cast of NPCs, each with their own stories to tell, and uncover hidden lore in every corner—from ancient books to forgotten notes.  
**Culinary and Alchemical Mastery**  
Step away from the front lines and experiment with food and potions. Create recipes that do more than just fill your belly—they’ll give you the edge in battle, whether it’s by healing wounds or enhancing your abilities.  
**Craft Your Combat Style**  
Whether you want to blend the raw power of a warrior with the healing light of cleric magic, or wield dark forces while constructing mechanical defenses, the choice is yours. The game’s flexible system allows you to mix and match abilities from different schools, letting you attack, defend, summon, or support in whatever way suits your strategy best.

Release date: 10 Oct, 2024

Categories: Turn-based Combat, Tactical RPG, Single-player Story, Character Customization, Exploration, Party-based Combat, Crafting, NPC Relationships & Romance


- 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:
- Extensive character customization options (weight 0.95): The game offers extensive character customization, allowing players to create unique builds and hybrid classes. This freedom extends to skills, talents, equipment, and even character backgrounds, influencing gameplay and strategic options.
- Appealing and detailed pixel art (weight 0.93): The game features detailed and appealing pixel art, often enhanced with modern rendering techniques. Many reviewers praise the art style, noting its charm and clarity, and some draw comparisons to classic tactical RPGs.
- Fun and engaging combat system (weight 0.85): Reviewers consistently praise the combat system as fun, engaging, and challenging, often drawing comparisons to classic tactical RPGs. The system rewards strategic thinking and creative play, with a good balance of depth and accessibility.
- Compelling narrative and characters (weight 0.82): The game features a compelling narrative with interesting characters and well-written dialogue. Reviewers highlight the story's depth, engaging writing, and the distinct personalities of the companions.
- Engaging and well-designed quests (weight 0.8): The game features well-designed and engaging quests that encourage exploration and offer multiple solutions. Reviewers appreciate that the quests feel meaningful and contribute to the immersive world.
- Inspired by Divinity: Original Sin (weight 0.78): Many reviewers note the game's similarities to Divinity: Original Sin, citing shared mechanics, talent systems, and a similar sense of humor. Some consider it a spiritual successor or a pixel art version of the popular CRPG.
- Immersive music and sound design (weight 0.77): The game's music and sound design are well-received, creating an immersive and atmospheric experience. Reviewers note that the music complements the visuals and enhances the overall gameplay.
- Well-developed and distinct companions (weight 0.76): The game features well-developed companions with distinct personalities who contribute to the story and world. Reviewers appreciate their interactions and opinions, which add depth to the gameplay experience.
- Detailed and lively game world (weight 0.71): The game world feels alive and detailed, with towns that are densely populated and full of interactive elements. Reviewers appreciate the attention to detail in creating a believable and immersive environment.
- Moderate difficulty and pacing (weight 0.67): The game's difficulty is generally considered moderate, with some reviewers finding it easier than similar games like Divinity: Original Sin 2 on normal difficulty. The pacing and content are also considered solid and satisfying.
- Detailed and appealing character art (weight 0.67): The game's character art is detailed and appealing, with some reviewers noting an anime-inspired style. The character designs are elaborate and contribute to the overall visual appeal of the game.
- Fun exploration and discovery (weight 0.6): Reviewers enjoyed the use of notes and treasure maps to find hidden treasures, as well as the presence of talking animals. These elements add to the sense of exploration and discovery in the game world.
- Promising with great potential (weight 0.14): Many reviewers express optimism about the game's potential, praising its current state and looking forward to future content. The developers' responsiveness to feedback is also noted as a positive aspect.
- Variety of spells and skills (weight 0.06): The game offers a wide variety of spells and skills, encouraging strategic combat and diverse character builds. The crafting system adds another layer of depth, allowing players to create potions and meals for combat advantages.

Common complaints:
- Lacks depth and content (weight 0.44): The game is criticized for lacking depth and content, especially compared to similar titles like Divinity: Original Sin. Reviewers note the story, quests, and interactions feel weak and disconnected, with limited choices and uninspired dialogue.
- Technical issues and lack of polish (weight 0.39): The game suffers from numerous technical issues, including a lack of polish, bugs, crashes, and poor optimization leading to lag. Many reviewers mention the game feeling unfinished and unpolished, impacting the overall experience.
- No skill respec option (weight 0.38): The game lacks a respec option for skill points, limiting build diversity and making mistakes permanent. This is seen as a major issue, restricting player experimentation and customization.
- Missing quality of life features (weight 0.37): The game lacks essential quality of life features such as controller support, quicksave/quickload, and inventory management. The absence of a minimap and one-click inventory management adds tedium to exploration and item handling.
- Content is too short (weight 0.36): Several reviewers mention the game being too short for an early access title, with limited content and low replayability. The slow pacing, due to slow movement speed, further exacerbates this issue.
- Poor UI design (weight 0.35): The game's UI is poorly designed, with issues such as small text, confusing navigation, and poor visibility. This leads to a frustrating user experience and eye strain.
- Unclear stat and skill descriptions (weight 0.34): The game lacks clarity in explaining the effects of stats and skills, making it difficult for players to understand how to allocate points effectively. This lack of information hinders strategic decision-making and character development.
- Class and stat imbalance (weight 0.32): The game has balance issues with class options, equipment restrictions and stat distribution. Some classes are less useful due to restrictions, while others have no equipment restrictions.
- Underdeveloped crafting and food (weight 0.32): Crafting and food systems are underutilized and feel incomplete, with useless items cluttering the inventory. The benefits provided by food are minimal, making them not worth the inventory space.

Gameplay feedback:
- Flexible class and skill system (weight 0.32): The game features a flexible class system reminiscent of Divinity: Original Sin, with extensive character customization options. Players can freely combine classes and skills, creating unique builds and playstyles. There are no fixed character classes.
- Strategic turn-based grid combat (weight 0.23): The game employs turn-based combat on a grid, emphasizing strategic positioning and tactical decision-making. Character stats determine turn order, requiring players to coordinate their team's actions. It has foundations of good depth and nuance.
- Crafting, trading, and buffs (weight 0.06): The game includes crafting and trading systems, allowing players to create food and potions with buffs. Players collect loot after battles, which can be used for trading and resource acquisition.
- Environmental combat interactions (weight 0.05): The game encourages environmental interaction, allowing players to use terrain and elements to their advantage in combat. This includes setting traps, using cover, and exploiting elemental combinations.
- Action point based combat (weight 0.04): Combat actions are governed by movement and action points, allowing for multiple actions within a turn. Players can spend action points to move further or execute skills, adding a layer of resource management to combat.
- Character skills and talents (weight 0.03): Characters possess skills and talents that can be developed, with some having unique abilities that lead to special interactions. This adds depth to character progression and provides opportunities for diverse gameplay experiences.
- Dual armor system (weight 0.03): The game features a dual armor system, which some reviewers suggest may be better suited for teams focused on either magic or physical damage. This system may influence team composition strategies.
- Improve character positioning (weight 0.02): The combat system could be improved by allowing characters to switch positions, as the back row can have difficulty targeting enemies due to being unable to pass through teammates.
- Character skill synergies (weight 0.02): Synergies exist, such as using an engineer's teleport to get behind enemies and backstabbing with a rogue.
- Varied starting equipment (weight 0.02): Starting weapons and equipment have different attributes and skills, allowing for diverse character builds like berserkers, mages, or thieves.
- No enemy respawning (weight 0.01): Enemies do not respawn.
- Customizable team configurations (weight 0.01): Team configurations can be customized based on player preference, such as a melee-focused team or a heavily armored team.
- Turn order display (weight 0.01): The battle interface displays the turn order for both allies and enemies.
- Missing Larian-like features (weight 0.01): The reviewer notes the absence of certain features found in Larian games, which creates a frustrating experience for players familiar with that style of gameplay.
- Inventory slot system (weight 0.01): The game has no weight in inventory, but there are a lot of slots.

Performance notes:
- Pink square font/number bug (weight 0.02): Some numbers and fonts are replaced by pink squares, requiring a full restart to fix. This bug severely impacts the user experience, as it disrupts gameplay and requires a complete restart of the game. Addressing this issue is crucial for a smoother and more enjoyable experience.
- Inconsistent loot highlighting/interaction (weight 0.02): The 'alt' key for highlighting lootable objects is inconsistent, and sometimes items are unclickable. This makes looting more difficult and frustrating, hindering player progression and enjoyment. Fixing this would improve the user experience.
- Battles slow and prone freezing (weight 0.02): Battles can become slow and prone to freezing over time. This performance issue can disrupt the flow of combat and lead to frustration. Optimizing the battle system would improve the overall gameplay experience.
- Obscuring map selection UI (weight 0.02): The map area selection UI obscures the map itself, potentially hiding important locations. This UI issue can make navigation difficult, especially at certain resolutions. Adjusting the UI would improve map usability.
- Teleport after saving slime girl (weight 0.01): The game teleports you after saving the slime girl. This is a very specific and isolated issue. It is hard to determine the impact without more context.

Recommendations:
- Strongly positive; promising potential (weight 0.57): Many reviewers express strong positive sentiment, recommending the game and praising its potential, even in early access. They highlight the engaging story, tactical combat, and rich world-building. Some suggest supporting the developers and eagerly await future content and updates.
- Wait for future updates (weight 0.45): Several reviewers recommend waiting for updates or the full release before investing heavily in the game. They cite a lack of content or the need for more polish as reasons to hold off, while still expressing interest in the game's future.
- Try the available demo (weight 0.29): Reviewers suggest trying the demo to get a feel for the game. This allows potential players to experience the gameplay and determine if it aligns with their preferences before purchasing.
- Improve battle controls/speed (weight 0.03): Reviewers suggest adding hotkeys for checking enemy attributes and confirming turn endings to improve the battle experience. They also propose an auto-battle option or increased game speed to address the length of normal battles.
- Address text/grammar issues (weight 0.03): Reviewers emphasize the need to address text issues, as they detract from the excellent plot and world. Fixing these minor details is crucial for maintaining the quality of the game's presentation.
- Add non-gendered romance options (weight 0.02): The reviewer suggests including non-gendered romantic options with teammates. This would allow for more inclusive and diverse relationship options within the game.
- Introduce unique gameplay systems (weight 0.02): The reviewer suggests moving away from imitation and introducing unique systems or incorporating elements from other games to surprise players. This would help the game stand out and offer a more novel experience.
- Add time display toggle (weight 0.01): The reviewer suggests allowing players to choose whether to hide the time display in the log function settings. This would provide more customization options for the user interface.
- Consider playing other CRPGs (weight 0.01): The reviewer suggests replaying Divinity: Original Sin 1 or 2, or Pillars of Eternity instead. This indicates that the game may not meet the standards set by these established titles in the genre.

Other player notes:
- Anticipation for future development (weight 0.07): The game is in early access, with developers actively working on improvements and additions. Reviewers express anticipation for future updates and continued development.
- Incomplete story, early access (weight 0.06): The game is in early access with about 10-30 hours of content available, focusing on story and lore. The main story is not yet complete, with more content planned for future updates.
- Inspired by CRPG classics (weight 0.04): The game is a pixel art CRPG drawing inspiration from titles like Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity: Original Sin, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Ultima. Some reviewers specifically noted references to BG3 within the game.
- Mixed feedback from Chinese players (weight 0.02): Some negative reviews from Chinese players mention disliking the art style and lack of Windows 7 support. The game includes Chinese voice acting and a second translation, showing consideration for the Chinese market.
- Unclear or niche references (weight 0.02): These points are difficult to interpret without further context. One mentions the game being a substitute for something else, another references a 'dual-armor system', and the last notes the game's connection to an NFT project. Due to the lack of specific details and potential for misinterpretation, these points are given a low importance score.
- Gamepad support needs configuration (weight 0.01): The game supports keyboard and mouse controls. Gamepad support is present but requires manual key binding configuration by the user.
- Good teammate design (weight 0.01): The game features well-designed teammates, both in terms of their personalities and visual art.
- Acknowledges indie status, review date (weight 0.01): The reviewer acknowledges the game is an indie title and the review was written on October 21, 2024. These points provide context but do not offer specific feedback on the game's features or gameplay.

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