Info about Kingsgrave: Official game description: Arise, mighty monarch, from your prolonged slumber. A dreadful disease has struck the kingdom and taken away people's lives. Your lands have wilted, the rest of the subjects have abandoned their houses, and monsters created by fragments of diseased souls have come in their places, swallowing up all living beings. It is time, king, to awake and unite the fractured lands, vanquish the darkness, and lead your people to prosperity like old times. The fate of your realm depends on you! Restore the Kingdom ------------------- Unlock new abilities by collecting resources, building houses, and slaying enemies to bring the smallfolk back home. The true power of the king lies in his domains and members – the more you restore, the mightier you become. Banish the Shadows ------------------ Destroy the plague creatures to save your subjects and clear the lands of rotting monsters to bring life back to the wastelands. Sharpen your combat skills and obtain more powerful equipment to overcome formidable adversaries. Explore a World in Ruin ----------------------- Go through traverse woods, deserts, volcanoes, and other biomes in the handcrafted interconnected world. Solve cunning puzzles, uncover hidden paths, and navigate treacherous terrain. The path is filled with challenges and wonders, a journey worthy of a true king. Release date: 17 Apr, 2024 Categories: Metroidvania, Action RPG, Exploration, Puzzle Solving, Resource Management, Base Building, Single-player Story - 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: - Appealing pixel art, satisfying progression (weight 0.95): The game features appealing pixel art, a satisfying sense of progression, and rewarding exploration. Players found the world engaging, with well-designed puzzles and a good balance of challenge and relaxation. The game effectively blends familiar elements with its own unique style. - Nostalgic, Zelda/Metroidvania-like experience (weight 0.67): The game is often compared to Metroidvania and Zelda-style games, with some reviewers noting similarities to Graveyard Keeper and Dark Souls. It offers a nostalgic feel and a classic sensibility. - Well-balanced and engaging puzzles (weight 0.26): The puzzles are well-designed, striking a balance between being engaging and not overly difficult. Players found them logical and interconnected, leading to satisfying 'aha' moments without requiring excessive time or effort. - Good value for the price (weight 0.18): Many reviewers felt the game was worth its price, especially when purchased on sale. The short length is acceptable given the low price, and the game provides a good playtime-to-price ratio. - Blends puzzles, combat, exploration (weight 0.15): The game blends puzzle-solving, combat, and exploration elements, with a vast world to explore and a liked region-capturing mechanic. Combat is initially tricky but becomes easier as the player acquires new weapons and upgrades. - Varied weapons and upgrade system (weight 0.06): The game features a varied arsenal of weapons designed for different types of enemies, and the hero can be upgraded by acquiring new weapons and enhancing stats. - Short, fast-paced with fast travel (weight 0.04): The game is short and fast-paced, with a fast travel system that allows players to quickly warp around and explore the map. - Keyboard/mouse controls are good (weight 0.04): Some reviewers found that playing with a keyboard and mouse is more comfortable than using a gamepad. Common complaints: - Lacks guidance and clear direction (weight 0.92): The game lacks clear direction, tutorials, and guidance, leading to aimless wandering, frustration, and a reliance on trial and error. Progression is hindered by unclear directions, resource scarcity, and the need for excessive grinding, making it difficult to understand how to progress or locate essential resources. - Underdeveloped, unengaging story and puzzles (weight 0.71): The story is underdeveloped, minimal, and unengaging, with a weak ending and little to no world-building or character development. The plot feels sparse and serves only as initial motivation, failing to explore the lore and characters beyond basic interactions. Puzzles are also uninspired and lack depth. - Short, repetitive, limited content (weight 0.65): The game is short, lacks sufficient content, and has limited replayability. The overworld feels repetitive, and the game structure can feel monotonous, with access to most upgrades being granted very late in the game. - Clunky, unenjoyable combat system (weight 0.44): The combat system feels clunky, unresponsive, and unenjoyable, with limited options and unimpressive mechanics. Weapon balance is wonky, and the attack and dash mechanics lack impact and feel unsatisfying. Some reviews mention long, unnecessary cooldowns. - Poor controller support/mapping (weight 0.32): The game lacks controller remapping options and has poor gamepad sensitivity, making it inconvenient to play with a controller. Some players recommend using a keyboard and mouse instead. - Tedious resource grinding required (weight 0.23): Resource management is unbalanced and requires excessive grinding to unlock abilities and upgrades. There's a lack of feeling of progression, and later stages lack unlockable content. - Poor map design and exploration (weight 0.14): The game features large, empty areas and excessive backtracking, making exploration feel like a waste of time. The in-game map is unhelpful and lacks zoom functionality, making it inconvenient to use. - Buggy and missable achievements (weight 0.14): The game has buggy and missable achievements, with some achievements becoming unobtainable after making too much progress. Some achievements spoil what's ahead, and save data corruption has been reported after achievements were added. - Inconvenient death/respawn system (weight 0.11): The death menu presents unclear options for resurrection or returning to the main menu, often leading to unintended menu exits. Some players have reported losing progress due to game crashes and bugs. - Clunky movement and getting stuck (weight 0.1): Movement feels clunky and unresponsive, and the character frequently gets stuck on small environmental details. The left stick sensitivity is too high when viewing the map, making it inconvenient to use. - Weak and glitchy sound design (weight 0.06): The game has sound glitches and weak sound effects, indicating a lack of attention to detail. Some sound effects are repetitive and uninspired. - Save data loss due to crashes (weight 0.04): Some players have reported losing save data due to game crashes. This can be frustrating, especially after several hours of gameplay. Gameplay feedback: - Zelda-like Metroidvania ARPG hybrid (weight 0.45): The game blends elements from multiple genres, most notably Zelda-like puzzle-solving and combat, Metroidvania-style exploration and progression gated by abilities, and ARPG resource management and character progression. Players explore a 2D world, collect resources, solve puzzles, fight enemies, and rebuild their kingdom. The game uses a top-down perspective. - Simple, linear progression; easy puzzles (weight 0.19): The game features simple, linear progression with puzzles that are not overly difficult. While the map has some secrets, arenas, and puzzles, the overall structure is straightforward. The puzzles and combat are acceptable but unremarkable. - Exploration is key; small map (weight 0.08): Exploration is a key aspect of the game, with players pushing map boundaries to find resources and unlock new abilities. The map, while relatively small, is hand-crafted and offers enough to explore. Thorough exploration is required to collect all lights of hope. - Excessive resources; one final boss (weight 0.05): The game features only one boss at the end, which may come as an unpleasant surprise. The amount of resources needed feels excessive for the game's length, potentially requiring grinding before the final encounter. - Resources improve skills/stats (weight 0.05): Rescued people and found resources can be used to build improvements and buy upgrades. The hero's skills and stats are upgraded by activating special points of interest through construction. - Shield is mainly for interaction (weight 0.05): The shield is mainly for map interaction and is rarely useful against enemies. Defense is a button-activated timed cooldown ability. - Weapons have varied utilities (weight 0.04): Weapons have different utilities via upgrade trees, such as bleed, stun, charge attack, or hybrid damage types. Weapons are also useful as tools for puzzles or exploration; for example, the ax breaks barriers. - Capture regions; torch teleportation (weight 0.04): The world is divided into regions that must be captured by defeating enemies around large torches to enable recruitment and interaction with points of interest. Open columns allow players to start a new day to heal and respawn some monsters, and also enable teleportation between torches on the global map. - Forgiving death; respawning enemies (weight 0.02): Death is forgiving, with no punishment beyond respawning enemies and advancing the day count. Performance notes: - Good performance on Steam Deck (weight 0.06): The game appears to run well on Steam Deck and when docked. However, one reviewer noted that the FPS on the OLED Steam Deck seemed to be locked slightly above 60, even with Vsync disabled, which may be an issue for some players. - Low PC hardware requirements (weight 0.02): The game has very low PC requirements, making it accessible to players with low-end hardware. This is a positive aspect for players who may not have access to high-end gaming PCs. Recommendations: - Generally enjoyable, worth playing (weight 0.45): Many reviewers recommend the game, citing its enjoyable gameplay and addictive qualities. However, some suggest it's not amazing or spectacular, but still worth picking up and playing. Some reviewers highly recommend the game, while others temper expectations. - Worth buying on sale (weight 0.38): A common sentiment is that the game's value is tied to its price. Many suggest purchasing only on sale or at a discounted price, with some specifying acceptable price ranges. Some reviewers felt that the price was fair. - Mixed fun, unfriendly elements (weight 0.34): Some reviewers mention the game having both fun and player-unfriendly elements. Some reviewers enjoyed the game despite its flaws. - Appeals to specific players (weight 0.32): The game is recommended for players who enjoy specific genres or gameplay styles, such as puzzle-solving, exploration, grinding, or classic adventure games like Zelda. Some reviewers highlight similarities to Zelda: Link to the Past. - Needs more polish, bug fixes (weight 0.31): Some reviewers encountered bugs and a lack of polish, leading to frustration and a decision to postpone playing until updates are released. This impacts the overall enjoyment and recommendation of the game. - Short playtime, quick experience (weight 0.25): Multiple reviews mention the game's short length, with some estimating completion times of around 4-6 hours. This makes it suitable as a short, fun experience or a palate cleanser between longer games. - Desire for future content (weight 0.04): Some reviewers express interest in future content, such as DLC or a sequel, indicating they enjoyed the game and want more. They are looking forward to seeing what the developers create in the future. - Temper your expectations (weight 0.02): The reviewer recommends tempering expectations going in. - Price lowered after release (weight 0.02): The developer attempted to attract buyers by lowering the price by 10 yuan two months after the initial release. - Suitable for speedruns (weight 0.01): The reviewer is likely to play the game occasionally for speedruns. - Great pastime (weight 0.01): The game is a great pastime. - Surprising game (weight 0.01): The game was one of the first surprises of the year! - Praises Alawar (weight 0.01): The reviewer praises Alawar for the game. Other player notes: - Basic story, good setting (weight 0.08): The game features a resurrected king who must rebuild his kingdom by fighting monsters. However, the story is simple and setting is good, but lacks depth and detailed explanation. - Enchantable boxes unlock doors (weight 0.04): The game includes a puzzle mechanic involving boxes that can be enchanted with weapons to open doors. Floors with a specific symbol can clear the enchantments on these boxes, adding a layer of complexity to puzzle-solving. - Upgrades may trivialize challenge (weight 0.04): Players unlock and upgrade weapons during exploration. However, one reviewer suggests avoiding weapon upgrades, as it can make the game too easy, potentially impacting the challenge and enjoyment. - Genre mix, not purebred (weight 0.03): The game blends elements of arcade, puzzle, adventure, and crafting genres, but doesn't fully commit to any single one. It's a mix of Zelda, crafting, and puzzles. - Nice aesthetic (weight 0.02): The game has a nice aesthetic. One reviewer supported the domestic game producer. - Weapon types matter strategically (weight 0.02): Experimenting with different weapon types is crucial, as some weapons have special effects and deal significantly more damage to specific enemy types. For example, explosive fruits are very effective against treants. - Unconventional area access methods (weight 0.02): Some areas, like the desert island, require unconventional methods to access, such as remotely killing monsters to activate teleportation. This encourages exploration and creative problem-solving. - Unnecessary mechanics present (weight 0.02): Some of the game's mechanics feel unnecessary, suggesting potential design flaws or features that don't contribute meaningfully to the gameplay experience. Emotions: No emotions}