DreamHack Dallas 2019 Games Evaluation (Role-Playing Games)

For the RPG genre of games at DreamHack Dallas 2019, I played four and at least studied one other. I must stress that there was too much for me to cover it all in one day, but I want to spotlight the ones I’ve discovered, regardless if I got the chance to play it.

Popup Dungeon (Published By Humble Bundle)

I actually want to start off with the game I didn’t get a chance to play as this was something I’ve been looking forward to for a while. Popup Dungeon is this intriguing rouge-like dungeon crawler RPG, where you get to create your campaign, characters and items, then set fourth on that adventure, battling custom enemies in a turn-based game of magical chess.

There’s a lot of neat elements in this game with curious questions regarding the rouge-like elements or what you’re exploring for. There’s also going to multiplayer, where you can raid dungeons with up to four other party members. The level of promised user-generated freedom is admirable…I just wished that I had an open spot to try this game out.

Well, the developer told me this would go into an Early Access release by the end of this year, then officially release into 2020. I look forward to this one however it gets out…and I hope there’s no porn dungeons in the Steam Workshop page, since some gamers will find a way…

Excitement Level: Medium

Site Link: https://www.popupdungeon.com/

 

Bound By Blades (Published By Zeth)

We’ve got an interesting game here. Bound By Blades is a specific take on Monster Hunter, in that while the goals are the same (killing monsters and using their parts to craft gear to fight bigger monsters), the core combat is actually a mixture of rhythm and timing. The demo I’ve played showed me how the game works, and set me up for a couple of fights.

How it works is that there’s four points to stand to wear you can unleash your attacks, but the monster will usually throw out projectiles or slashes towards the direction you’re standing and you can either time your blocks to reflect those attacks, or try to move towards the other points. It’s a neat twist to things, and supported by some creative flash animation.

There’s also a side mini-game to collect other crafting materials, normally used for things like potions, again going into the timing and rhythm of things. Out of all games to simplify the Monster Hunter formula, Bound By Blades feels like its got an interesting spin to warrant such simplification. Currently, the game is going to be a Kickstarter campaign. I hope it gets funded!

Excitement Level: High

Site Link: https://boundbyblades.com/

 

Witch (Published By Heartstrings Studio)

You look at the trailer with excitement, seeing how breathtaking the 2D/3D anime artwork is and all of the dazzling production behind this trailer. In fact, I’ll say the trailer is far more exciting then the demo I played regarding the game, Witch. All what was playable happened to be turned-based combat against practice dummies.

Now, the presentation of the game is all there, but without enemy types to help get a full sense of what the combat is like, it just makes the game seem like all those RPG Maker projects on Steam, only more visually appealing. I’m not going to be too hard on this as it won’t be coming out until 2021, although, Bound By Blades had more to show and that isn’t releasing soon either.

I did ask what the game was going to be like when you aren’t fighting, and was assured there’s so much more, including city-building mechanics. I’m going to be nice and believe him, because I got so much out of that teaser, despite getting so little from the demo…or maybe was it all just the visuals?

I wish I was really excited for this game like my peers are, but having tried the demo, I just don’t have a reason to at the moment. I’m interested in seeing more, and maybe by then, it’ll be an incredible game to look forward to. Right now, I have no idea what to think of it, and that’s either the best or worst thing to say about Witch, if you think about other indies that have sold themselves primarily on big ambitions and/or beautiful graphics.

We’ll see how this shapes up down the road! I will keep my eye on it!

Excitement Level: Low-Medium

Site Link: http://www.witchrpg.com/

 

Heartbound (Published By Pirate Software)

It’s clear that Heart Bound draws heavy inspiration from Undertale, from the oddball sense of humor, to twisted story bits. The demo I played was the very opening of this game, showing the cute bound between a boy and his talking dog, which lets face it, we all think we communicate with our pets. Of course, the protagonist named Lore, loses his dog Baron one night as a shadow creature takes him away.

Throughout the demo, there’s a lot of simple puzzles to solve for Lore to get from point A-B,  things to commentate on for jokes, items to collect in your inventory and then some monster fights, which play out in a “QTE” battle, meaning you’ve got to deflect attacks or attack, using your mouse clicks when prompted. The other big thing about Heartbound is that while Undertale builds up to crazy territory, Hearbound immediately goes there once Baron is missing and Lore gets trapped in a dark realm, having the rest of the game be him finding his way out, hoping to save Baron as well.

I liked what I played, but I don’t know if the quick time event combat is going to hold through, or if the story is going be its own thing, instead of just hitting the same style beats as Undertale. We’ll see when Hearbound gets out of Early Access later this year. At the very least, I’m enlightened to see it through!

Excitement Level: Medium

Site Link: https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/games/Heartbound/

 

Last Epoch (Published By Eleventh Hour Games)

What you have in the Last Epoch is essentially a Diablo-type game with a traditional medieval setting and from what I’ve played…yeah, that’s pretty much it. I created a warrior character that had the ability to call out a pet wolf to attack enemies and a crowd-control ability, throwing daggers in multiple directions.

There’s an endless amount of skills to branch off and build on, which is cool, but what I’ve played just didn’t grabbed me. The environments do not look that exciting and the game definitely did not feel like current-gen. I wouldn’t mind that if there was something to the gameplay, but so far, it just felt like every junkfood-level RPG. I didn’t even feel the need of using my abilities that much since I could just slash away the creatures like they weren’t much of a fight, especially the boss battle.

It’s got the necessities in an existing top-RPG, but it doesn’t do anything exciting with it. There’s something I read about the game having time-travel mechanics, but none was explored in what I played. While not an awful game by any means, I have played other top-down RPGs that are exactly like this one, but better. Maybe the full game can give the story, gameplay and exploration some more context, but for now, this plays like those fantasy RPGs you could even find on your browser.

Excitement Level: Low

Site Link: https://lastepochgame.com/