Lol, sounds like a perfect option to have a donation unlock.
I really enjoyed the art. It was effective, and unique.
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Exactly!
It has been talked about as nauseum so nothing I say is new, but I’ll add my two cents: I haven’t played it and likely won’t until the art changes. It may sound shallow, and I may fully understand and appreciate the reason the art is what it is, but there is enough entertainment out there that I don’t need to bother with something that looks like a bad prototype. In what other medium would this be acceptable? Would we all be in love with a car that has the most comfortable drive but looks like a rusted-out Reliant Robin? Would we all yearn for a house with a great floor plan that looks like the Addams Family mansion on a bad day? How about a Casablanca remake starring Johnny Knoxville and Miley Cyrus?
Substance is certainly more important than style to me, but not exclusively.
Yes to the first two hypotheticals; if a car rides great and a house is huge and comfortable, why would it matter that it wasn’t pretty? The third is a bit of a stretch.
I won’t pretend to be completely beyond shallowness. But it’s a shame to let surface impressions keep you from something.
It counts, though. And it’s silly to pretend otherwise.
The guy released a game with absolutely embarrassing art. That was his choice — and he doesn’t get a free pass for it.
That being said, I’ll agree that the product itself rises above it and is worth trying. But it took me a while to get there, even at what was/is a pretty reasonable price.
Beyond the art, I actually had some gameplay issues once I got into it. Heresy, I know. I just kept waiting for this slice of perfection that others were experiencing — and it just wasn’t happening.
I’m glad it was such a hit, though. If nothing else, we need success stories from independent publishers who can make a dent in what is otherwise a landscape mostly full of F2P garbage.
For me, it’s more than a surface thing. It plays in heavily to my enjoyment. And as @Mirefox said, there are sooo many options out there. To give a different example, there are many games I’d love to play on iPad that I refuse to buy because they don’t support landscape (especially infuriating when they have a pc or console version formatted that way). In case it isn’t clear, I’m thrilled the game is getting updated and hope to have a new reason to throw money at it.
To put this Dream Quest art thing in to perspective a bit, and well this is coming from just me but I’ve seen it said numerous times elsewhere; Dream Quest is arguably better than StS if not at least just a different flavour, while all the other deck builder rogues are second tier imo. Dream Quest has what the others have, but it’s ultra tight in design (a good thing), and subtly offers it’s own tight gameplay edges. I won’t list all the things it has because these days they all have it (branching pathways, Card synergies, events etc), but with all that, DQ has it, and it’s just done it right. You are rewarded greatly for getting intimate with the game. Sure others do that, but not in the way DQ does it, and not with so many different heroes on offer and not with such a range of differences to those heroes decks.
Also, the Art. What’s funny, is that the art serves its purpose so well. Cards are instantly recognized without having to be picked up from the hand. Unlike other games where a card might just appear like some red card with some generic art until you zoom right in.
Anyway, art or not, it’s simple that those that don’t want to give it a go (yet) are missing out on a great game, closest rival if we had to put it that way is yes, StS, but like I said DQ has its own gameplay.
Hopefully an art update comes for you guys, and looking forward to hearing how you find it then when you really get in to it.
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I would just like to say I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I grabbed it on Humble Bundle recently.
In terms of art… yes, it’s taxing. I do, however, know people who appreciate the style. It’s certainly unique enough to distinguish it from other games of the genre. The game is also better than the other card-based dungeon crawler rogue likes.
So overall Ugly/10 would recommend.
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I think it’s interesting that Dream Quest continues to inspire discussions like this a few years after its release–I don’t know of many other games that do that. It might be nicer to be acknowledged as an unquestionably great game, but there’s something to be said for being a game that inspires a strong reaction from everyone.
I agree with @Shadowfax–DQ does what it does better than most, maybe all, deck building roguelikes. That’s pretty impressive considering DQ was there before most of these games. DQ may not have quite created the genre (I don’t know my gaming history well enough to know), but it certainly elevated the genre.
I get both sides–I was in the “this art’s too damn ugly” camp for a while but loved the game as soon as I played it. To each his own, though. There’s more than enough games out there for people to concentrate on stuff they really like.
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Didn’t he have his kids help with much of the card art in order to get them involved during development?
It’s amazing how good the underlying gameplay is that is spawned so many other games as card rogue-likes. I still have yet to beat it will all the classes.
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What do you mean beat it? If you mean complete all three floors I have definitely done that. But if you mean actually defeating the LoD that would be a massive undertaking. I have only done that with Professor, Dragon, Wizard and Bard.