Phantom Relics

Potential is a dangerous thing. Twenty years ago, I was young, handsome, had a few literary awards under my belt, and was one of the most popular bloggers in my country. Everyone kept saying how much potential I had. Now? I’m a balding middle-aged guy with a mortgage and chronic back pain... reviewing indie games. I’m saying this because Phantom Relics is a game with a lot of potential. At its core, it’s an action RPG with puzzle elements and a combat system that mixes melee, ranged weapons, blocks, and magic orbs. Sounds great, right? Yeah… on paper. In reality, none of these otherwise promising features really work as they should. Let’s start with the design—it’s a total mythological soup. Creatures from every possible pantheon show up together, and while there’s some kind of story trying to hold it all together... honestly, ChatGPT could write a better one. Combat is a mess. Your melee weapon (a tiny axe you can’t replace) has a weird hitbox—you basically have to shove your face into the enemy’s to hit them. Your ranged weapon, a double-barrel shotgun, reloads on a fixed timer (you can’t choose when to reload), which almost never lines up with when you actually need it. Neit…

Temu version of Hades in which a hero has to fight the most dreaded enemy in the history of video games: terrible controls.

Phantom Relics surprised me in a good way. It mixes fast-paced dungeon crawling with relic hunting and puzzle elements, and I had a blast slashing through enemies while uncovering secrets. The isometric combat feels responsive and rewarding, and the relics add a nice twist to the gameplay loop. It is already addictive and full of potential. It's challenging and quite stressful at times if you are into that so If you enjoy dark fantasy, action RPGs, and the thrill of looting, this one’s worth keeping an eye on. I’ll definitely be diving back in to see how far I can push my relic-hunting runs.

This game is pretty much impossible due to rage quitting every time I play. Too many enemies, not enough power t even kill them. If you like constantly dying in games, you'll love this. If you like getting through most of the game, you won't. Luckily, I got this game really cheap, because then I would be REALLY pissed. This game actually became a phantom relic in my games list.

Meh.

So the game is a very by-the-numbers roguelite, obviously written and performed by AI. But the creator had the right idea of the structure and what feels good as a gameplay loop. It is a good few hours of content for the price.