I don’t know exactly, because all the buzz around it was how much grander bigger better it was compared to the first game, and everyone and his mama recommended to buy the second instead going in order, so I did it…and with the array of options I am blasted with I have fun. In every other aspect, Hades is the better game, but the progression is top-notch in RL2 if you want to chillax and grind a bit during off-time/ podcast-hour.
Neon abyss on game pass. It’s a run and gun game with an exceptional number of items. There’s a level on the mission hub where you can see all the items you’ve left to unlock. It keeps going and going until it seems absurd…then it keeps going.
On a good run you’ll get items and one of many guns, and if they combo nicely together you’ll get through to a number of different bosses. Once you’re fully powered up it reminds me of vampire survivors where youre not trapped in bullet hell, the enemies are trapped in here with you.
Add in some secrets, a meta tech tree that unlocks new rooms or characters, and you’ve got a pretty good mashup of roguelike and run and gun genres
That was really an eye-opening moment for me myself…gotta get back to it someday 
You mention game-pass… Rogue Legacy 2 is on the Playstation Plus subscription added as well recently. I bought it on Switch. The Subscription is getting better and better…I should have held off on so many purchases which are now included in the PSN ;-/
A new free expansion came out for Dawncaster today. I’ll mess around and let you know if I see anything significantly different but as a general rule, Dawncaster is still one of the best in the genre.
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I like what they did here, it is a free expansion, a large one too - and then they ask for a donation to support them, and you get alternate art (and I did, because I still play this a lot).
I have been traveling something like 60% of the time for work recently, and I tend to play this game on planes a lot. I am up to level 32 or 33 on all classes now, just by grinding Sunforge. Sunforge is the only way i play any more. But I do play a lot.
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How do you go in the Sunforge mode? I find that I only get past the first portal maybe 1 in 4 times? Maybe even less?
I find it super tough to balance and approach this mode…
I can make it past the first portal fairly frequently, but rarely finish the 2nd portal. Since I was just grinding out levels, it really did not matter so much.
A lot of success is about gambling during the picking and you need some luck to stack a theme. Overall, the best thing you can do for most of the Sunforge is burn your opponent. It is the most consistent. Any barrier is big, you need some light healing at a minimum.
I just wanted to give a little shout out to the Dark Mist Bugmaster class. With the saturation of the market for these kinds of games it is always nice to see a class that feels a bit unique. In Dark Mist, your life is represented by your cards; when an enemy damages you, they take your cards and you don’t get them back unless you kill said enemy. The Bugmaster has parasite cards that give the enemies all sorts of nasty effects when the enemy has the card so there are some interesting decisions to be made as to how far you can push your luck and keep the enemy alive to reap the benefits of the parasites versus killing the enemy and getting your cards back. I appreciate character designs that aren’t your typical warrior/wizard/thief archetypes.
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I’m been bouncing around on these games on my iPhone and I’ve come to the conclusion that some sort of progression system really adds to the longevity of the games in this genre. Perhaps this just makes me a shallow person, always chasing after a reward instead of a mere victory; I don’t care.
For example, I recently played some games of Dark Mist and then some games of Dicey Dungeons. Both games are fine and have some great elements that I’m happy to pick up and play. Yet both games have no progression - you unlock some character classes as you play but that’s about it.
Compare that to games like Slay the Spire, Monster Train, Dawncasters, etc. where each run I feel as if I have improved a bit and have new builds and options available to me; there is more enjoyment for me in this latter, and there is always something to chase other than a high score.
This can, of course, be taken a little too far like in games like Pirates Outlaws which make the grind for progression so slow that the “pay to unlock” options sometimes look tempting. I despise that model.
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I am actually a little annoyed with Dawncaster - I had slowly been grinding up levels playing just Sunforge Mode, it was slow, but fun. This last patch completely changed the exp gain from a run and I was able to max level every class fairly easily since the patch. Granted, I was already within a level or two for all of them, but it just took one run and complete the first portal to max them all now.
I guess I will try to win with each maxed class now, but nothing really left for me to unlock. On to a new game soon.
The new builds are very strange actualky.
I did finally get to the last boss of sun forge with an all blue deck, which was fub
Will put this here instead of the What are you Playing thread since it fits in here.
I recommend Breach Wanderers: Deckbuilder - I am playing it on my iPad Pro, but I think it is also on android and PC.
This is a Slay the Spire inspired game with a bunch of interesting twists, but more importantly for me, with most of Dawncaster unlocked, a hell of a lot of things to unlock.
It is Freemium, but I have seen nothing in about the 5 hours of play this weekend that suggests there is anything to buy other than unlock acceleration. I bought the $2.99 new player pack after about 3 hours of play to support the game, but other than that, I don’t think I need money.
There are a lot of cool twists to the StS formula, like you can edit your starting deck, but also the pool of cards that you find along the way. Related to that twist is that you must take a card after each battle, but there are more opportunities to remove cards.
Really enjoying it so far.
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Thanks for the info. This is one I’ve looked at a couple of times in the store but have thus far skipped in because of all the currency bundles listed as IAP. If it isn’t necessary I might just give the game a go.
I’ve started to dive into Breach Wanderers and I agree that so far, so good. It doesn’t seem that the IAP does much other than maybe accelerate how quickly you grow your pool of cards and buffs and the such.
The only thing about it is that with the deck building it becomes a whole different beast than other games like StS and Dawncaster. It isn’t a complaint, but Breach Wanderers really isn’t as pick up and play for me as some others; this one requires a little more deliberate thought sometimes.
Once you get to level 3 or 4 with a character you can use drafting for the deck and that will make it a little easier.
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Ok, having played Breach Wanderers for a nice chunk of time over the weekend I can definitely see where the grind comes in to play. It is, of course, expected for a f2p game, and grind isn’t necessarily a bad thing, either, in roguelikes; but it looks to be heavy. I paid the $2.99 as well because the game seems solid and the gem boost means I’ll unlock characters faster. After that, though, there is another tier of boosts you can buy plus you can buy one of the currencies at any time.
None of this distracts from the core game, which is good. There are numerous things to unlock and upgrade, though, and the grind for the currency to do so is certainly looking hefty. The game gives you daily (hourly?) challenges to earn extra currency and has a quest system to work through as well, so there is plenty to do.
If this sounds like a complaint, at this point it is minor, other than the general statement that I would so much rather buy a premium game than pay for currencies, even if they end up being more or less the same experience; the latter just rubs me the wrong way.
I paid $10 for Slay the Spire, more for Dawncaster plus the expansions, and am happy to have done so. I’d so much rather have had this game cost $10 up front with a more reasonable grind than have it structured in a way where the grind looks to be such a slog that paying for currency boosts seems worth it.
All that said, this is a good one and since it is free to try, it is easy to recommend.
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What is funny is that it is the unlock grind that appeals to me most, as this is primarily a business travel game for me. Getting all classes to max level in Dawncaster is what led me to seek out something new to work on grinding out when I travel.
Oh, I agree that I like an unlock grind. I me stunned in that last that there are some good games - I think I mentioned Dicey Dungeon - that don’t have much of a progression system and my interest wanes a bit.
My point is just that this one seems a little heavy with, presumably, the intent to make you want to buy currencies.
It’s splitting hairs; it’s subjective; it’s not a game-breaker. I just find it a little more in your face and noticeable. C’est la vie.
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This one is beating on me. I can’t get past depth 3.
One of my bigger complaints is the sometimes overwhelming status adds. I can’t stand going in to some of the boss fights and having them dump 80 stacks of leech on me at the start and then piling on poison. I don’t know how to counter stuff like that and when I get a card with cleanse it takes away 1-2 out of a stack of dozens.
Maybe I’m doing something wrong but I’m definitely finding this harder than others like StS, Dawncaster, Monster Train, etc.
Was everyone else’s Dawncaster progress completely reset with the latest update?