Crusaders of the Lost Idols

this remains the best idle/incremental game i've ever played. completely free (the things you can pay for are things you can, 99% of the time, get in the game yourself, and are such a small boost that you're not even really incentivized to buy them. i sure never did) and has thousands of hours of content.

of course, that's mostly idling content, but the design of this game provides a really perfect blend of "idling" and "active participation." the game has a pretty simple setup–you run the game progressing through area to area, using in-game currency to recruit crusaders and place them in your formation, and then using that same currency to upgrade them with new abilities. once you reach a point you can't go any farther in a route, you reset, collect "idols", which can be spent on permanent buffs and naturally provide a buff in themselves (hence fueling the main incremental progress), and then you start a new run, unlocking your crusaders again and their upgrades (though gear maintains, providing a permanent boost for a crusader). so.. pretty typical for an idle game. what makes it so good, then?

well, diversity mostly. currently, the game has countless crusaders with tons of different abilities, and deciding what to use at any given time requires a lot of thought. the abilities themselves are usually pretty complex and heavily depend on position. as well, many crusaders use up the same "slot" in your list, meaning two crusaders of the same slot can't be used at the same time–and, of course, the formation has a limited amount of space. managing your formation and maximizing your dps, gold gain, and other elements is really what keeps the challenge rolling–every new crusader, every new upgrade, every new piece of loot provides a new element that you can consider in terms of making a "perfect" formation.

another thing that livens up the game is its use of countless challenges, which usually feature special rules (a limited character pool, a limited number of slots in the formation, or some other difficult to mitigate feature)–most of them reward rubies, which is a not-so-important added currency for certain things, but the real draw is when you get to events. events provide an innumerable amount of added challenges, which themselves may allow you to earn new crusaders and new skins, going up in certain tiers. these events rotate yearly with new tiers and crusaders available each time, meaning there's no way to miss out on a crusader. if you happen to miss an event, it'll be back–and even then, there are alternative ways to earn crusaders–and all of this is possible without paying real money.

the game continues to improve in terms of balance and features. when i last left off, skins started to become an exciting new element in the game, with some skins even changing the tags on certain crusaders (for instance, one skin may turn a human character into a plant character), and due to how many abilities depend on these skins, this provides another new aspect of how to perfect your formation. from what i saw there was a strong level of feedback, with the developers continuing to hold weekly q&a's where they discuss new features, speak with the audience about what they want to be changed, and then.. y'know.. actually do it!

there's surprisingly a lot to talk about when it comes to this game–there's a lot i haven't even really mentioned, such as how legendary gear works, how idols work, how the game maintains its interest even with so many resets.. but hey, you can play it yourself to find out! i had nearly 7000 hours in this game before i stopped, and i only really stopped because my computer didn't seem to handle it well, something which seems to be my fault rather than the game's. if you want an idle game you can stick with for multiple years and still find something new to enjoy and new goals to reach, i really can't recommend this game enough.