Info about Heretical:

Official game description:
Roadmap
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After the initial Early Access release, we have already published two major updates - Celestial Weave (v0.2) and The Bells Toll (v0.3). Our next big update - Mines of Sanctora - is scheduled to release somewhere during Q3 2025 and will bring a new playable character, a new region, and many changes to combat and gameplay systems in general.
About the Game
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**Die. Adapt. Strike back.** _Heretical_ is a punishing Rogue-lite Action RPG with Soulslike DNA. You’re not just fighting to survive - you’re evolving through death. Unlock new characters, master devastating abilities, and rewrite your strategy with every failed run as you ascend Sanctora Mountain to face a merciless demigod.
With deep RPG mechanics, engaging narrative, and countless custom character builds, each run offers a unique experience.
**MAIN FEATURES**
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*   **Unlockable Characters:** Heretical entices the players to unlock new characters, each with a unique set of skills and proficiencies.
*   **Level-Up Mechanics:** The streamlined level-up system allows players to quickly choose which skill to acquire or upgrade, providing seamless gameplay.
*   **Custom Character Builds:** The variety of the character’s main stats, additional perks, collected items, and acquired skills brings endless customization options.
*   **Randomized Items:** Countless different weapons and gear pieces allow for a unique build in every run.
*   **Prophecy Cards:** An achievement system, allowing the player to unlock new game mechanics, skills, and items.
*   **Well of Stars:** Enables the player to improve their character’s skills and perks further, adding variety to the unique builds.
*   **Boss Fights:** To progress through the game, the player needs to defeat multiple bosses, each with its own skill set.
**NEVER THE SAME EXPERIENCE TWICE**
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Although the world of Heretical is based on linear progression, no two play runs are ever the same. Through random item drops, a multitude of skill combinations, and different play styles of each of the heroes, Heretical offers countless variations to the way you venture up to the top of Sanctora Mountain.
**WELCOME TO SANCTORA MOUNTAIN**
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Sanctora Mountain, the crown jewel of Aelyndor, now exists in isolation, locked away from the rest of the world. Its ruler, the mighty Abidan, presides over the remaining populace with an iron fist, making sure he retains control over the Sanctorite mines - the source of all magic.
At the same time, a mysterious entity stands cursed and bound to a crumbling church, a reminder of the lost faith. There, he offers guidance to heroes who enter this world looking for absolution.
**HEROES OF SANCTORA**
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To enter Abidan's realm, first you have to choose one of the heroes and guide them from the Sanctuary of the Forlorn to the gates of Sanctora Manor. On this path, you'll encounter powerful bosses who will test your acquired skills to their very limits.
Should you fail, use that as a lesson for the next encounter, as well as an opportunity to help your hero permanently unlock powerful skills and unique weapons.

Release date: Oct 30, 2024

Categories: Roguelite, Soulslike Combat, Character Progression, Action RPG, Boss Fights, Meta Progression, Unlockable Characters, Procedural Generation

Feature scans:
- Steam Deck: score 70; verdict: Mixed Experience with Significant Issues; summary: The analysis of user feedback reveals a mixed experience with the game on Steam Deck. While some users report a flawless and enjoyable experience, others encounter significant issues such as poor controller support and buggy gameplay. These technical barriers can severely impact the user experience, leading to frustration and difficulty in playing the game as intended.

- 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:
- High replay value (weight 0.96): The game offers a high replay value due to its variety of builds, characters, and ever-changing gear. Players find each run unique and enjoyable, with plenty of content to explore.
- Fun and engaging gameplay (weight 0.94): The game combines elements from various genres like Soulslike, Diablo, and Roguelike, creating a unique and enjoyable experience. Players appreciate the mix of genres, smooth combat, and rewarding progression.
- Good value for money (weight 0.92): Players feel the game is worth the price, offering a good cost-benefit ratio and plenty of content for the price. The game is seen as a good investment for the amount of enjoyment it provides.
- Well-designed map and level structure (weight 0.16): The map design is praised for its intricate structure and seamless integration with the game's atmosphere. Players enjoy exploring the well-thought-out levels and discovering hidden passages.
- Variety of builds and characters (weight 0.13): The game offers a large number of possible builds and characters, allowing players to experiment with different playstyles. This variety adds to the game's replayability and enjoyment.
- Challenging and rewarding difficulty (weight 0.12): The game offers a challenging experience comparable to Souls-like games, with a well-balanced difficulty level. Players find the difficulty satisfying and fair, providing a rewarding challenge.
- Enjoyable prophecy system (weight 0.12): The prophecy system is a unique and well-designed feature that enhances replayability. Players find the system engaging and motivating, adding a layer of meta progression to the game.
- Unique visual style (weight 0.1): The game features a unique visual style reminiscent of PS1 with blurred textures, capturing a dark and oppressive aesthetic. Players appreciate the grim and grungy art direction.
- Strong foundation and potential (weight 0.09): The game is seen as having a strong foundation with layered systems and a dense environment. Players believe the game has major promise and potential for improvement.
- Enjoyable Diablo aesthetics and loot-based runs (weight 0.05): Players enjoy the Diablo aesthetics and the loot-based runs, finding the loot meaningful and frequent enough to provide a satisfying dopamine hit.
- Meta progression feels earned (weight 0.05): Players feel that the meta progression in the game is earned rather than luck-based. Characters and builds feel distinct, and items feel rewarding.

Common complaints:
- Game balance and difficulty (weight 0.6): Players report a range of balance issues, from unbalanced combat and overpowered enemies to difficulty spikes. The game can feel unfair, especially with ranged enemies having significant advantages.
- Technical bugs and glitches (weight 0.44): The game is plagued with various bugs, including game-breaking issues, texture penetration, and getting stuck in the environment. These technical problems significantly impact the gameplay experience.
- Frustrating combat mechanics (weight 0.4): Combat in the game is often described as frustrating and artificially stressful. Issues with targeting, lock-on systems, and enemy advantages contribute to this frustration.
- Camera and control issues (weight 0.4): The game suffers from significant camera problems, including erratic movements, nausea-inducing perspective shifts, and lack of control. These issues are compounded by poor controls, making navigation and combat frustrating.
- Save system problems (weight 0.39): The game's save system, particularly cloud saves, is reported to be unreliable. Players experience issues with save synchronization and lost save files, which can be frustrating.
- Controller and keybinding issues (weight 0.38): Players report significant issues with controller support and keybinding. These problems include unresponsive controls, inability to rebind keys, and crashes when editing keybinds.
- Class and skill imbalance (weight 0.19): There is a notable imbalance between different classes and skills, with some classes being significantly weaker or harder to play. This imbalance affects the overall enjoyment and variety of gameplay.
- Unclear quests and prophecies (weight 0.05): Some quests and prophecies are unclear or lack proper categorization, making it difficult for players to understand and complete them.
- Poor audio and music design (weight 0.04): The game's audio and music design are criticized for being sparse and poorly executed. This detracts from the overall immersion and enjoyment of the game.

Gameplay feedback:
- Roguelike and Soulslike blend (weight 0.79): The game combines elements from both Roguelike and Soulslike genres, featuring permadeath, challenging combat, and meta-progression systems. It includes a variety of characters, skills, and items, along with a progression system that rewards players for their efforts.
- Character and build diversity (weight 0.23): The game offers a wide range of character classes, each with unique abilities and builds. Players can experiment with different gear and skill synergies to create powerful and diverse builds.
- Unlock mechanics and prophecies (weight 0.13): The game features a prophecy system that drives unlocks and progression. Players can unlock new characters, skills, and paths through achievements and prophecies, adding depth to the gameplay.
- Shortcuts and exploration (weight 0.12): Players can unlock shortcuts as they progress, which helps in exploration and saving progress. This mechanic encourages replayability and strategic planning.
- Challenging boss fights (weight 0.1): Boss fights are a standout feature, requiring strategy and skill. They often include multiple stages and mixed enemy types, providing a challenging and engaging combat experience.
- Fixed maps with strategic depth (weight 0.06): While the maps are fixed, they offer varying strategies and hidden routes. Players can explore and uncover new content, making each run unique and engaging.
- Visuals and aesthetic (weight 0.06): The game features a unique blend of visual styles, including Soulslike visuals and a PlayStation 1 aesthetic. This combination creates a distinctive and appealing atmosphere.
- Ranged vs. melee balance (weight 0.04): Ranged characters are often more effective and can make the game easier, while melee characters require more skill and strategy. This balance adds variety to the gameplay experience.
- Alchemy and skill systems (weight 0.03): The game includes an alchemy system with recipes and a skill system tied to altars. These mechanics add depth to the gameplay and provide players with various ways to customize their characters.

Performance notes:
- Performance and optimization (weight 0.08): Performance issues range from constant lag and terrain loading problems to good optimization and fast loading times. Some players experience smooth gameplay on low-end hardware, while others report bugs on specific platforms like the Steam Deck.
- Game stability issues (weight 0.08): Players report frequent game freezing, critical crashes, and various interface bugs. These issues significantly impact the gameplay experience and need urgent attention.
- Camera and movement problems (weight 0.07): Several players have noted issues with the camera perspective, including jerky movements, screen shake, and frame dips. Camera angle issues during boss fights and uncomfortable camera shifts are also mentioned.
- Controller support issues (weight 0.02): Players have reported that vertical aiming is clunky and overall controller support is poor, affecting the gameplay experience negatively.
- Menu and keybinding bugs (weight 0.02): There are reports of random actions occurring in the menu and crashes when editing keybinds, which can be frustrating for players trying to customize their controls.
- Character frame rate issues (weight 0.01): Some players have experienced issues with character frame rates, which can affect the visual quality and smoothness of gameplay.
- Infrequent patches (weight 0.01): Players have noted that patches are far and few between, which can be problematic for addressing ongoing issues and bugs.
- Enemy attack bugs (weight 0.01): There are potential bugs with enemy attacks that can affect gameplay and player experience.
- Frame rate claims (weight 0.01): Some players have mentioned claims of 110 fps, which may or may not be consistent across different hardware setups.
- Hub exit issues (weight 0.01): There are reports of the exit from the hub not opening, which can hinder progression and gameplay.
- Cloud save problems (weight 0.01): Players have experienced issues with the cloud save system not working properly, which can affect game progress and save data.

Recommendations:
- Highly recommended for fans (weight 0.25): The game is highly recommended for fans of ARPG, roguelite, and Souls-like genres. Many players find it engaging, fun, and worth the price, especially when on sale.
- More content requested (weight 0.05): Players are asking for new professions, characteristics, dungeons, biomes, and an expansion of the storyline. Additional heroes and unique items are also desired.
- Worth following for updates (weight 0.04): Players are looking forward to future content updates and believe the game is worth playing even in its early access state. They see potential in the game's development.
- Bug fixes needed (weight 0.02): Some players find the game not worth playing in its current state due to bugs and design issues. Fixing save synchronization is crucial for a better experience.
- Camera and control improvements (weight 0.02): Suggestions include allowing the right joystick to control the camera and using triggers to switch targets, which would enhance the gaming experience.
- Longer game progression (weight 0.01): There is a request to increase the game progression to at least 20 hours, providing more content and extending gameplay time.
- Equipment retention feature (weight 0.01): Players suggest allowing the retention of a few pieces of equipment for other characters to use in new progressions, adding depth to the gameplay.
- Enhanced compendium info (weight 0.01): Players want more information in the compendium relating to stats, strengths, weaknesses, etc., to better understand the game mechanics.
- Adventure mode suggestion (weight 0.01): An adventure mode has been suggested, which could add a new dimension to the game and attract more players.
- Wider beginner area (weight 0.01): Making the beginner area wider with different directions to explore could improve the initial gaming experience and provide more exploration opportunities.
- Improve audio design (weight 0.01): Enhancing the audio design with more feedback is suggested to improve the overall sensory experience of the game.

Other player notes:
- Game in Early Access (weight 0.03): The game is currently in the Early Access phase of development. Players should expect ongoing updates and potential changes as the game evolves.
- Localization issues for Chinese (weight 0.01): There are notable localization problems affecting Chinese players. This could impact the gaming experience for users who prefer or require Chinese language support.
- AI for level generation (weight 0.01): The game utilizes AI for generating levels and enemy behavior. This feature aims to enhance gameplay by creating dynamic and unpredictable environments.

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.28): Players experience frustration primarily due to unbalanced combat, camera issues, and repetitive gameplay. Specific complaints include unfair enemy encounters, lack of healing mechanics, and bugs causing immersion-breaking moments. Additionally, difficulty spikes, poor controls, and progression loss contribute significantly to this emotion.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.13): Players enjoy the game due to its unique and varied gameplay mechanics, including different builds, characters, and weapons. The engaging gameplay loop, challenging yet rewarding combat, and the satisfaction of progression and unlocks are also major contributors to this positive emotion.
- Excitement (weight 0.13): The excitement stems from the game's unique blend of Roguelike and Soulslike elements, offering a variety of builds and characters. Players are also thrilled by the engaging gameplay, intense boss fights, and the prospect of future content updates and additions.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.07): Players feel satisfied with the game's progression system, permanent unlocks, and clever map design. The value for money, smooth performance, and the depth of character mechanics and skill choices also contribute to this sense of satisfaction.
- Disappointment (weight 0.05): Disappointment arises from various gameplay issues, including bugs, performance problems, and unbalanced mechanics. Players also express frustration with the game's identity crisis between Soulslike and Roguelike elements, as well as poor UI design and combat mechanics.
- Anticipation (weight 0.05): Players are anticipating future updates, content, and the full release of the game. The excitement about upcoming developments and the potential for new characters and gameplay mechanics contribute to this feeling.
- Hopeful (weight 0.03): Players are hopeful about the game's future, citing its potential to become a gem with further development. The promise of new content, improvements, and the belief in the game's design influencing future titles contribute to this optimism.
- Joy (weight 0.02): Joy is derived from the game's fun and engaging gameplay experience, appealing visual style, and atmospheric experience. Players also appreciate the shared progression and high replay value, contributing to their overall enjoyment.
- Surprise (weight 0.02): Players are pleasantly surprised by the game's quality and enjoyability, which exceeded their expectations. The game's ability to captivate players with its 'just one more run' vibe and positive experiences contribute to this emotion.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0.02): Enthusiasm is driven by the game's high replayability, unique gameplay mechanics, and detailed praise for its design. The combination of different game elements and the art style also contribute to this positive emotion.
- Excited (weight 0.02): Players are excited about the progression system, unlocking new hero classes, and future updates. The enjoyment of gameplay and character abilities, along with the discovery of new mechanics and strategies, also contribute to this feeling.
- Hope (weight 0.01): Hope is centered around future updates and improvements, with players believing that the developers are moving in the right direction. The potential for future fixes and enhancements contributes to this optimistic outlook.
- Appreciation (weight 0.01): Players appreciate the depth and complexity of the gameplay, the skill and loot systems, and the solid art style and atmosphere. The dedication put into the game's design is also a significant factor in this emotion.
- Frustrated (weight 0.01): Frustration is caused by specific issues such as controller bugs leading to skill disappearance and lost save files. These technical problems significantly disrupt the gameplay experience.
- Love (weight 0.01): Players love the game for its ability to capture the vibe of Dark Souls, its clever design, and the easy-to-pick-up yet stylistic rogue-like elements. The straightforward action and dark, dreary atmosphere contribute to this strong positive emotion.
- Disappointed (weight 0.01): Disappointment stems from the lack of healing/saving mechanics, repetitive gameplay, and the current size of the map. The use of AI art assets and changes to random altar spawns also contribute to this negative emotion.
- Nostalgia (weight 0.01): Nostalgia is evoked by the game's ability to remind players of Dark Souls 1, particularly its atmosphere and the feeling of playing it for the first time. This emotional connection to a beloved classic enhances the gaming experience.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion arises from unclear saving systems, missing classes, and confusing map design. These issues can disrupt the gameplay flow and cause frustration among players.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger is primarily caused by the lack of convenience features such as waypoints and safety zone exits. Frustration with gameplay mechanics and design also contributes to this intense negative emotion.
- Concern (weight 0.01): Concern is centered around worries about future updates potentially making shop visits take longer and the game becoming too repetitive. These apprehensions can affect the overall enjoyment and engagement with the game.}