Never Ending Beyond

Enjoyable little game bogged down by being too easy, short, and a lackluster storyline. Not to mention poorly optimized and very buggy. The gameplay overall is quite fun, with the traditional roguelite standard mechanics and base customization. The real joy comes in collecting and finding all the different animals you can house. With 36 different unique animals, it is quite a joy to find new ones. Some, however, seem pretty overpowered (such as the vampire bat healing and the swinging flail). The real qualm I have with the game is that I beat the final boss and concluded the storyline on my [b]second run[/b], same as another reviewer. It is simply far too easy for a bullet hell roguelike. Even HP is easy to accrue and I was basically facetanking everything with the vampire heal + flail + the one million passives I got throughout the run. I wish there was harder difficulties unlocked after you beat your first run or something, because then builds would actually matter and you'd have to make deeper choices aside from just choosing whatever sounds good. By the last zone, the game itself also visually becomes chaos, meaning the only real way to survive IS to just facetank and heal th…

PROS - Strong aesthetic and visual identity. - Interesting overall theme. - Simple and accessible roguelite gameplay. CONS - Not a particularly unique roguelite. - Some animals feel noticeably overpowered. - Too easy and lacks meaningful challenge. - Gameplay could use more depth and variety. - Story is fairly average. VERDICT Never Ending Beyond is a game where I genuinely love the art, aesthetics, and animal-vs-robot theme, but unfortunately, I don't think the gameplay itself lives up to that presentation. The roguelite mechanics feel fairly generic, the game is too easy for my taste, and some animals feel noticeably overpowered. I kept wishing there was more depth, more challenge, and more nuance to make the experience as interesting as its visual identity. I don't regret playing it, but I ultimately walked away feeling that the concept and presentation had much more potential than the game itself managed to deliver. 2.5/5

A great roguelite that allows unlimited customisation and buffs based on the cute animals that comes across your way. At the start of each round, you will get to place your animals and plants to gain upgrades which allows your base to grow (look much better) after each round. Gameplay wise, it offers unique weapons and passives that make you want to try new builds after each round. I particularly like that there's no cap to how many passives you can have so you really get to see your character get really OP towards the end. The boss fights are really unique as each 'arena' fits its environment and the boss moves are 'fair' in a sense that they are lightly telegraphed so you have a chance to dodge it. The story itself is interesting enough for you to want to read the every dialogue to really see how it unfolds, with the ending being 10/10.

Pros: -Lots of cute little animals -Pretty fun gameplay -Lots of potential combos Cons: -Pretty buggy with clunky controls, especially in building the garden. -Very easy, I beat it on my 3rd try -Pretty short/lackluster story. It was over so quick Honestly, I absolutely love the concept and this has so much potential, but it just falls short. If this game had a long, in depth story, was much more difficult, and had all of it's bugs fixed, this would be on a completely different level. Still, having said all that, for what it was worth, I still enjoyed what it had

Highly recommend getting this game if you're looking for something unique compared to your daily run-of-the-mill slops which are pushed by big budget studios. A very niche genre of game which blends both minor homesteading on one side and fast-paced combat levels which are guaranteed to reel you in and leave you asking for more. I truly wished this game could be longer but it is not a bad thing considering this game falls into the category of "short & sweet". Really looking forward for more releases from the talented team of One More Dream Studios in the near future!

Get this game if you: - Are a fan of its art design and visual effects - Appreciate smooth animation and input response - Love roguelite mechanics - Support the indie dev scene