Inkbound

With Monster Train, I consider it the best roguelike deckbuilder. So obviously I had pretty high expectations with Inkbound. I did initially try the demo before early access launched, and it was looking like some MMO-ish thing with a town hub including other players so I wasn't really sure where this game was going. With 1.0 announced, I finally decided to jump in and buy the game. For the amount of the time I've put in Monster Train, I do feel that the dev deserved a proper chance.

And well, I've tried to like it and it's just not clicking much. At least far from my level of expectations. So for this game it's not a roguelike deckbuilder, but it does use many of its systems. It's still a Roguelike and it works with runs. But instead it's turn based tactics. You pick one of the several classes and the goal is defeat waves of enemies until you reach the eventual boss. In between battles you have a choice of paths (just like in most roguelike deckbuilder games) where you can select harder enemies or different rooms of upgrades. Each class starts with 3 preset skills which are called bindings, and there is room to add 2 more. Along with these new bindings, you can also upgrade them in various ways. Passive bonuses are given with "vestiges" items which are the equivalent of trinkets in most other games (this game also has trinket however, 1 big passive bonus you equip before your run if you have it unlocked). So far these systems aren't bad.

However the battle system is not something I really enjoy. You are alone and there's like 4-5 enemies popping off each turn, and you must really use well all your actions in order to kill the most enemies so you take the least damage possible. The issue is that you can't, and your positioning is key into not taking a total beating. However it's very hard to telegraph how far the enemies attack ranges are, there are a lot of visual indicators but I seem to get screwed everytime. Rogue games do have this sort of "fail and learn" approach to it, and wants you to get better. I do want to get better. That's why I like them. But here my failures are most of all what the hell happened, and why did I take so much damage? It's not very clear to me where I screwed up, or how did I build wrong. I don't know, it's for sure some people are mastering this game, but it just leaves me confused most of the time.

I am not a fan of the artwork in the game. It's not a huge point and doesn't affect my enjoyment much, but it's not super pleasant to look at. The game does have a storyline (even voiced) but I couldn't care less about any of it. It will have you doing quests, go collect this in that area and whatnot. Usually unlocks a vestige or a new class or something. It's a little tiresome to do those, and not really great systems (the 1.0 release did remove some of the RNG related to it, but it's still not good). Some people praised the multiplayer which I have tried and doesn't appeal to me more than the single player, it's essentially the same thing but with extra people on your side. I always hope that playing one more run and I will finally enjoying and see what's great about it, but that didn't work out well and makes the game feel redundant with the same annoyances. Overall it's not terrible, but it really going to depend if you can enjoy this battle system or not. For me I will stick with Monster Train. A game that was much less ambitious and wasn't trying to do so many things at once, but what it did it was doing great and made it addicting. This certain addictive feeling and desire to improve isn't there here for me, unfortunately.