Bastard Bonds

[i]Bastard Bonds[/i] is a shallow RPG with numerous homoerotic images, wherein players are tasked with escaping a penal colony while battling standard fantasy enemies (hags, minotaurs, ghosts, skeletons, et cetera). Many key gameplay mechanics and other useful knowledge in a game that is already undeservingly cryptic are hidden behind tooltips that flash across the screen for a brief moment during loading sequences before disappearing. Getting past the tutorial area is a miracle in itself, while the rest of the game is either trial and error or excessive backtracking to a specific area after finding a specific item or items, which could easily be written off as sellable junk if it were not for certain NPCs reminding you of their importance in dialogue and never again. With no user interface, quest markers, or discretionary measures in case the player sells something important, you either have a picture-perfect memory or have a notepad of every request or special companion/NPC. The only redeeming quality that can be mentioned for this video game is the fact that you have the option of recruiting hesitant/negotiable enemies, but this, too, is half-baked, as the moment they are rec…

Actually great RPG experience, still haven't seen any sex scenes yet

To be honest, I got hooked on this game. I'm currently on my 2nd run of the game on it's third act, and I'm still enjoying it a lot. The gameplay has actually interesting mechanics with the risk system and positioning units, especially if you were to have a unit with the Nightmarish trait. The art style in the CGs are very well done. From the campfire scenes to some of the other event CGs in the story, CaptainGerBear did a great job on them. And Lukatt has some very interesting worldbuilding, with some solid environmental storytelling! Came for the beautiful men, stayed for the gameplay and characters as well. Though if there was one thing I wish the game had, it's more trusted scenarios between 2 characters, and more character interactions as well. Let me bond with them and get to connect with them better in the game. Also I wish all the characters got more love.

"Hey hey people, Seth Here..." Jokes aside, this game surprised me, the combat is simple yet addicting, exploring feels nice and challenging. I really enjoyed the characters and I would honestly say that this is a solid rpg game.

Simple yet elegant mechanics that create surprisingly tactical combat. My favorite part of my first playthrough was having gay sex with a ghost. On my most recent playtrhough, I noticed that instead of the regular "Recruit" dialogue option when recruiting one of the early-game beefcakes, the option reads "I want you." This game scratches my nostalgic itch for Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and improves on the experience with all the shirtless men. Lots of lore and world-building is done with the environment design and makes the world feel more alive. Note: I switched from PC to Mac since buying this game, so I've been re-playing the game on a borrowed Steamdeck. I have two complaints about the transition. First, the commands for R1 and L1 are inverted from right-click and left-click. Second, it really strains my hand to hold the button for taking reckless actions in combat. There is an in-game option to have that triggered by holding down the click/trigger instead, but the downside is you can't easily change your mind, but save my hand this is how I play now.

... you can softlock... the tutorial. ... ??? if you use the ordinary key on the wrong door and can't learn the spell, you just have to restart from the beginning, it would seem. this is... not told to you at all.