Scarlet Tower

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[h3][b]When a gameplay loop is built well, it becomes very hard to leave the next run for later[/b][/h3] I liked Scarlet Tower because it does not settle for just copying the formula of surviving waves and stacking upgrades. The foundation is familiar, yes, but the gothic tone, the day and night cycle, the classes, and the familiars give it a much stronger identity than I expected. What stood out most to me is the constant sense of growth it builds, the kind where every run leaves me with a different build in mind and the urge to push a little further. I enjoyed it mostly because of that balance between chaos and planning. Even when the screen is full of enemies, I usually felt like I was building something instead of just surviving on autopilot. It is still a loop driven game, so if I play it for too many hours in a row, the repetition starts to show. Even so, I recommend it to players who enjoy progression, builds, and games that are easy to get into but have enough depth to keep them around for a while.

Kirby's Take: PROS - Fun game and good value for the price. - Gameplay is similar to VS and similar "survivor" titles. - Day and night cycle is a neat mechanic - each playable character feels unique with an interesting variety of powers and Ultimate attacks - The addition of loot is a neat idea opening up build options for characters. - presentation is nice great music and visuals - overal game is fun and easy to pick up and play CONS - Unfortunatly inventory system is extremely clunky with no sorting or bulk options. - limited weapon pool and combinations means most runs feel similar. - Each level has 11 levels of difficulty, which is a bit excessive for a game like this. - one in game misson where you have to collect 3 gobletts, doesnt give you enough time to complete it.

Once I found that the stats were not just a display and they could be upgraded, then everything else fell into place and progression made sense. After that the game was pretty great!

fun and good

Feels like it was trying to be a hack and slash rather than a Vampire Survivors clone as such, the upside of which being that you can loot grind your way to victory even if you suck (guilty), but there are better games out there even at the same price point. Thumbs down is mostly because of a couple nearly game breaking bugs (time stop/invincibility on everything randomly with Amelia and enemies disappearing for minutes at a time if I ran around stages too much), but also because whoever thought the underwater stage with air bubbles (use Ninn to ignore this) and the darkness in Ashen Woods (too lazy to see if there was a character that can ignore this or not) was a good idea needs to stop making games.