Tales of Lost Ages Vol 1. (2024)

I went straight in to this game after completing the original Diorama Dungeoncrawl. I absolutely adore the art style and find all the design and visuals very charming, as well as the classic pulp short story vibe that feels like the classic D&D adventures I love. Each of the four Tales here is fairly simple and straightforward, but they offer a satisfying amount of exploration that really scratched the isometric platforming itch for me. Some parts were a little rough around the edges but I honestly think the jank is part of Renegade Sector's charm: it all feels very earnest to me and I feel great supporting a solo developer.

If its your first renegade sector game it looks interesting, pick it up! 4 games for the price of a indie one! Its there 17th game made (14th using the same engine?) I was really excited with Renegade sector and have been buying every game they have made, but there starting to be the same things with different storylines. No new mechanics are really added wich is sad. A inevntory / loot system would be awesome! Maybe magic spells to find? then enemies can drop mana and hp, then the difficulty / amount of enemies could be upped. Also adding secrets so theres a reason to explore, The maps look so amazing. Some games had health fruit to find, this one sadly has nothing. Each of the 4 campaigns feels very linear. The storyline in the 4 campaigns is neat, but leaves more to be desired, Theres little lore notes scatterd about, but no solid conclusion given, there was a tablet my character couldnt read and had circles fly around the room, but nothing happend with that. I hope theres a continuation of this game, where all 4 different classes meet up, and you pick your character. That would be insane! Hit boxes for some of the bosses and enemies could be re-worked, There were …

[b]As a disclosure, I am a friend of the dev and provided some balance feedback for the latter adventures of this anthology.[/b] [i]Tales of Lost Ages[/i] is a collection of simple, retro micro-dungeon-crawl adventure games, placed in roughly sequential order of development. This does mean that they're [i]not[/i] ordered by difficulty, which caused me to experience a little bit of friction: if you want to follow what I believe is the best order to tackle them in, it goes [i]Waystone[/i] to [i]Ruby[/i] to [i]Hunter[/i] to [i]Tomb[/i], with the first game in the anthology serving as the best [i]conclusion[/i] both by way of dungeon complexity and boss difficulty (and just overall apocalyptic vibes). Each game feels like a branching contemplation on the same theme, that of a solo adventurer delving into some kind of long-forgotten ruin to smite the baddy at the center of it. The minimalist presentation helps accentuate the little tweaks between each adventure that make them feel fresh and distinct from one another. For instance, the titular [i]Hunter[/i] moves very slowly compared to the other three characters but has a long-reaching spear that promotes a "zoning" combat strategy…

What I wouldn’t give to have more of this style of game, just not as janky and plagued with several glitches. Tales of the Lost Ages is an anthology of very, very short dungeon crawler-esque games that could’ve been straight from a weekend game jam and nothing more. No hidden tricks, no trying to artificially inflate game time with dumb mechanics. Just you, a character and a level to clear. It’s honestly refreshing in that regard. Lacking any sort of skill system or inventory, but at the same time the actual meat is… well, about two bosses minimum and of course said bosses have weird hitboxes and enjoy cycling through their moveset whilst suffering from asthma in between to allow your spunky hero a hit or two in. I like the aesthetic, reminiscent of N64 and early Playstation where polygons could still be counted and a character’s chest looked like it could be a weapon of its own. Each chapter is verifiably short, linear and doesn’t overstay its welcome as far as a “bundle” of games is concerned. A bland midi-tune on loop, enemies haphazardly placed that “mostly” stay dead, and the aforementioned bosses with predictable attack patterns? It’s genuinely fun. With that said, the gam…

Really nice retro vibe, down to the music and sounds. It's a bit janky but if you can look past that it is a really nice package of 4 indie games that feel like games you missed out on back in a time that doesn't really exist. I like the moveset of the last game the most, though all of them just need a bit of practice to get the hang out of them

Love the low poly aesthetic and gameplay is fun too. My favorite: Hunter in the Court of Beasts.