Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands
Deathbulge · 2023 · Party-Based RPG, RPG, 2D, Funny, Story Rich
PC
Very Positive99% · 424
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About Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands
You play as Faye, Ian and Briff, a 3-piece band of dysfunctional friends who unknowingly stumble into a cursed battle of the bands contest, where all entrants can attack with music and must fight to the death.
Kick down every single door you come across. If you're gonna rudely enter every RPG house despite lack of invite, might as well enter in style.
Customise the band with 9 musically-themed classes to choose from, each with their own attacks, perks and COOL OUTFIT. Inspire your bandmates as a BUSKER or recklessly deal huge damage at the cost of damaging yourself as a HEADBANGER.
Fancy combat system that focuses on MEASURE EFFECTS. What happens BETWEEN turns makes all the difference, combining real-time elements with turn-based combat in a way that we're ALMOST CERTAIN has never been done before. (It's been over a year since release and no one's said otherwise yet!)
Other features:
Kick down every single door you come across. If you're gonna rudely enter every RPG house despite lack of invite, might as well enter in style.
Customise the band with 9 musically-themed classes to choose from, each with their own attacks, perks and COOL OUTFIT. Inspire your bandmates as a BUSKER or recklessly deal huge damage at the cost of damaging yourself as a HEADBANGER.
Fancy combat system that focuses on MEASURE EFFECTS. What happens BETWEEN turns makes all the difference, combining real-time elements with turn-based combat in a way that we're ALMOST CERTAIN has never been done before. (It's been over a year since release and no one's said otherwise yet!)
Other features:
- Roughly 15-20 hours of game time.
- Late game dating segment.
- Sew patches of band logos onto your BATTLE JACKET for extra perks in battle.
- No Random Encounters! Monsters will be shown on the field for your avoiding leisure, and 3 different FIELD ABILITIES with which to avoid them.
- Unique item system. Say good bye to individually stocking up on consumable items! Once you get a piece of MERCH, you keep it forever, and it simply costs STOCK to use, a refillable global resource for all your merch.
- Original soundtrack that'll make you say things like SIIICK and OH RIGHT ON.
- Incredibly rich world boasting a wide variety of colourful characters whose dialogue changes as you progress through the game. Every single NPC is unique, armed with their own dialogue portaits to express themselves TO THE MAX.
- Even the ITEMS have personality. Say bye bye to the generic "health potion". Local NPC Barry Friendly is taking care of the soothing beverages around here. Sink into a warm cup of BARRY FRIENDLY'S TEA whenever your health is low. Maybe you'll even have the pleasure of meeting Barry at some point.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Found about about this game via YT shorts (vids were of a dev talking about the game). Had a blast start to finish (which includes going for all the achievements). Love this one.1 found this helpful
Just finished this game (on the PS5 version) and blimey what a superb effort from everyone involved. A passion project full of love, detail and polish throughout, and best of all, it's a lot of fun! It was bittersweet getting to the end of this as it just kept getting better and better, with a surprising amount of turning points in the plot. I really enjoyed the memorable cast of characters (every NPC has a unique sprite & portraitS, unreal effort!) and I'm honestly gutted knowing there's no more charismatic interactions to get into. The game is full to the brim with many genuine laugh out loud moments and some conceptually preposterous moments that end up being super memorable. Some RPGs suffer from a bit of a DRAG in pacing at times but Deathbulge knows to keep the momentum going, amping up the stakes and knows when to wrap up nicely as well. A must have, especially if you enjoyed the original Grandia games, it scratches that itch in a lot of ways and not just the combat! A real treat from start to end, games like this don't come often.1 found this helpful
This game just so unbelievably charming. This delightful turn-based RPG is clearly a labor of love. It's reasonably challenging, the combat mechanics are flavorful, and there's a great deal of customization available to tinker with. It's also consistently hilarious and has a great soundtrack to boot. It's an easy recommendation if you're even remotely interested. If you're reading reviews and considering it already, take the plunge. A friend watched me play for about half an hour and promptly picked it up herself.1 found this helpful
To put it simply, this is an amazing game and a true hidden gem. I would love to see this game get the attention it deserves. The humour is great and works perfectly wether you know the comic made by the artist or not. The combat mechanic is really interesting and kept me engaged throughout the whole game. I usually am not a fan of turn based combat, but this was really tight and had a huge amount of builds you can do for your characters and no grind whatsoever (You even have some moves in the exporation map to help you dodge entounters if you don't want to do them). The fact that these mad lads made custom sprite for all the animations to reflect your main MOD is insanity and I am here for it! The difficulty was a great balance as well. I know they recently added a Easy mode, and I do think it's good to give options, but for me, the game felt really balanced and offered a really high challenge only in the optionnal encounters. All and all, really loved my time with the game and will 100% be backing up their futur project if they go with a kickstarter or something like that. From a fellow game dev, congrats guys!!
Peak
Deathbulge is SUPER funny and interesting. It's one of those games I think everyone should try at least once, just to see if it clicks. The writing is amazingly funny, all the characters are unique and fleshed out and the combat system is pretty unique. However, I have to be honest that I'm writing it while taking a break from playing it - there are some rough edges that will likely alienate more players than endear. I recommend it, but reco trying the demo or getting it on sale if you're on the fence. THE GOOD: -Runs like a dream on the Steam Deck! -The writing is beyond good. It's so funny and alive. Each character, including NPCs, all feel unique and different. The actual narrative is so silly that you can't help but be pulled in. -The artwork is super fun. There's a muscular skeleton in your party. The forest is filled with flexing trees. The bus driver is a luchador. It goes on and on, really. -I'm a sucker for Earthbound and this honestly reminded me of it a lot. THE BAD: -Levelling up can feel pretty meh overall. I never felt like I was actually getting stronger, I felt like I was doing 1 more damage per level while the new enemies were doing 10+. -There's a class syst…
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