Path of the Abyss

Just beat the main game. I really enjoyed it. The combat is a main draw for this, as it really incentives understanding the systems. Admittedly it took about 10 hours to realise some basic things like I need to actually pick the passives off the stat screen, but that was a skill issue on my half. What really made this game click for me was having my physical DPS jump into a strange puddle, and suddenly develop laser eyes which meant she couldn't function as my sword anymore. It took me an hour to realise this after struggling wondering why I wasn't killing anything anymore. I realised laser eyes were actually really rad and I respecced her just becoming Cyclops. This entire event really just made the game for me. Also the soundtrack is amazing and gives me the same feeling as the DS Etrian Odyssey games. Definitely going to support hasu and buy the soundtrack and the arranged soundtrack on their bandcamp. There is a post game, and I enjoyed my time enough with this to see how much further Laser Eyes and team will go.

This is very close to 50/50. Going with "Yes" because the unique mechanics (the skill grid, skill synergies, targeting via the grid, the class/stat approach) are quite cool, and the early game rewards experimentation and using them in varied ways. As you approach endgame/postgame, however, it turns into the sort of grindfest where you have nested tiny chances with tiny grades of outcomes, which are compounded by a UI that just can't keep up with the volume of stuff. Racial choice is basically 1 Dwarf for a tank and 3 Karin for everything else. Humans truly have nothing to recommend them. Elves are an OK alternative to Karin, but faster cooldown is almost always preferable to an additive bonus and a little HP. At very early levels, poison, burn, and sleep (MT from Medicine 1 and Witch 1 respectively) are extremely strong. Those skills also have great synergy effects and can apply other synergy effects well due to being MT. However, direct damage quickly outpaces them, and DoT statuses don't become relevant again for quite some time. There are different strategies you can use for dealing damage. Dealing damage more effectively is nice, because battles go faster. But it isn…

7.25/10 A Strong Unique System Trapped in a Familiar Crawl I grew up loving first person dungeon crawlers like Lands of Lore, Eye of the Beholder, and Menzoberranzan. That said, I’ve struggled to enjoy the genre for a long time. It feels like it hasn’t evolved much in 25 years. Too often it’s repetitive corridors, minimal storytelling, and a heavy reliance on grinding the same environments for hours. So take my criticisms with that bias in mind. Path of the Abyss actually does a lot right mechanically. The core systems feel closer to a PenNPaper D6 game than most blobbers. Staying in the dungeon too long builds up mana corruption, fatigue, and sickness, but also improves loot. Campfire skills add meaningful passive choices, and dungeon modifiers like fog or darkness affect accuracy in ways you can counter with torches or camp skills. The standout system is the combat skill grid. Your party shares nine total skill slots, and those slots double as positioning for melee and ranged targeting. It creates constant tradeoffs. Do you stack your frontline to soak damage, or give up space for support skills like blessings and healing? I found myself adjusting my setup multiple times per…

Great game. Devs clearly loved Wizardry.

good

Initially I got an only partially localized display with a mix of English and Japanese. I tried to follow guides for changing localization in the Japanese menus, but that did not help. I revisited, it looks ok and I just edited this. I don't have much else to say yet but it wasn't a great start.