ROGUERIA: Roguelikes X Tactics

IN A WORD: MAYBE
IN A NUTSHELL:
WHAT TO EXPECT: Strategy game. Turn-based tactics. Fantasy themed. Dynamically assigned pre-generated levels. Several individually themed chapters. Nodal maps of linked locations. Skill-oriented combat encountered. Small number of tactical factors. Defeat end-of-level bosses. Time-limiting rogue-lite mechanic. Relics provided collective combat modifiers. More complex than it looks. Single-player only. No real deck-building.
ACHIEVEMENTS: NONE.
STATUS: IN EARLY ACCESS.
WHEN TO BUY: BUYERS PREROGATIVE
More info below....
THE LOWDOWN:
Rogueria: Rogue-likes X Tactics (R:RXT) is a game of tactical turn-based combat and simple party management built using Unity. Players take control of a group of one to three characters travelling across a fantasy land on a quest to locate a fallen meteorite.
They must journey across a nodal map of linked locations each containing an encounter such as a battle, a shop, a choice-driven event or a rest area. In order to progress to the next map (or next level) an end of level boss must be defeated. A re-occurring time-limit operates to encourage players not to spend to much time on any one level. Every time this reaches zero a group of powerful enemies called pursuers spawn and begin hunting down the party. Battles have one of three rating; easy, normal and elite. Plus some have time-limited penalty modifiers that negatively affect some aspect of party abilities. These are best avoided until they are rescinded.
Combat takes place on pre-generated battlefields with minimal terrain features. Randomly allocated at the start. Enemies consist of a group of foes of two or more creatures depending on the scale of difficulty. Themed depending on the level. Initiative is determined for all participants and turns are taken using IGOUGO. Players then select one of four skills they wish character in play to execute and against which foe or ally. Depending on its target type.
Tactical factors revolve mainly around the skills the characters and NPCs have. The damage they can inflict. If they have any secondary effects. Working with cooldowns and maximising effects by intelligent use of range areas of effect. In addition alerting dormant enemies, positioning, maintaining distance and alternating characters receiving damage. As enemies are overcome and battles won, rewards such as new heroes, gold, soul-gems and skills are received. Characters also gain experience and level-up if enough soul gems have been collected. On levelling stat rise and the choice of three new skills is presented. If skills are maxed out then one of the three non-core skills must be replaced.
Other locations provide the opportunity to gain or lose gold or soul gems. To purchase or gain new characters with their own skills. Relics are items that provide global modifiers for the party when in combat. Which collectively can augment character's skills and abilities in a major way. In one place usually located near the boss fight is a refuge where the party can rest before going up against the boss.
THE GOOD:
+ Mould a party of three from 12x archetypes. Exchanging characters on the fly as better skilled ones become available.
+ Level their abilities and interchange over 140x skills to suit the preferred tactical playstyle.
+ Extensive tactical model with numerous attack types, status effects, enemy types, and ancillary skills.
+ Over 100+ artefacts/relics to collect. Increase character skill effectiveness.
+ Skill and level randomisation dampen its repetitive nature. Resulting in better replayability.
+ Decent production values. Some good witty humour. and cracking intro.
+ Atmospheric soundtrack and audio make for a light-hearted feel.
+ Can replay the last battle if it ends in defeat.
THE BAD:
- Some GUI quirks. Text out of frames. Hard to click areas.
- Skills cannot be stored or redistributed to other heroes. Needs proper deck-building/management.
- Only supports up to 1600x800 on windowed and full screen modes.
- A tavern instead of a shop where previous party members could be collected would have been a better concept.
- Could really do with some temporary allies, spawned by summoning skills.
- Some writing/translation issues.
- With only five areas, content is short.
AND THE REST:
* Simplistic initiative based IGOUGO combat model.
* Randomly generated levels with differing locations and encounters possess a derivative in nature.
* 120+ pre-generated strategic battleground maps.
* Boost heroes by finding a host of 100+ mysterious artefacts/relics.
* 3x types of monsters; special, henchmen and bosses. 40+ enemies in total.
* 87x choice-driven events with penalty of reward.
* A retry button in the settings allows...
* Capable AI.
ANALYSIS:
Playing R:RXT proved to be a basic affair delivering an uncomplicated experience that may appeal to fans who prefer their strategy to be casual in nature. There was some depth to gameplay and its initial learning curve will likely defeat players unfamiliar with its mechanics.
The game's focal point was without doubt its skills. These were extensive and varied in nature, providing players with a wide range of possible battle strategies. When used individually their effects could be pretty lame. Only when skills were stacked with similar effects, did combat begin to feel effective. The constant availability of new skills through purchasing, events and levelling up characters provided an interesting quandary. Allowing players to switch strategies on the fly. An interesting mechanic. Again feeling overly wasteful.
Management or configuration of a permanent deck was non-existent. Skills were purely transitory in nature. Gone when rejected or exchanged from a character's maxed out skills. More waste. Having a deck of collected skills that the player could switch in and out of for gold or soul gems could be a real game-changer. With dumped heroes, exchanged for better versions. Not having these available to collect from a shop or other location meant that time spent progressing a hero was simply discarded. Having the chance to reconnect with previous party members would allow players to undo any party management mistakes, made earlier in the game.
The other major component of combat; battlefield factors proved important but mundane. Positioning was barely a factor in most battles. Clumsily implemented but vital to limit the enemies alerted by a hero's presence. Utilising a skill's area of effect to maximise damage or buffs was difficult to achieve but vital when pulled off. As was cycling targeted heroes to stop too much damage being inflicted on any one hero. Especially given the limited chances to recover between battles.
Vibrant colours and cutesy graphics gave it an attractive look. While its combined audio generated a jovial, uplifting atmosphere that augmented what would otherwise be an unremarkable ambience.
VERDICT:
In its current state R:RXT remains a simple strategy game with uncomplicated combat. Satisfying in some phases of gameplay. Lacking in others. It badly needs more tactical and strategic depth and the devs should consider adding changes including those highlighted above. Meaning R:RXT could reach the potential its design hints at. As it stands it will likely only attract fans on the casual side of the strategy spectrum.
Thank you for reading. | Follow my curator here. | Key provided by Turn-Based Tactics

Full play through here (we beat it thank the lawd) once it uploads (cursor disappearing glitch 3:01:57) at :
Game is amazing a super pleasant surprise I literally bought this to have steam points for the ox and it looked semi interesting. The music/sound effects/art style are super pleasing and keep the game really enjoyable throughout your whole play. The difficulty ramps up greatly in boss fights as you progress through the zones and the game will take quite a bit to beat I got to the third zone on my first play through and the boss graped me in the mouth. There's different characters and upgrades you don't get anything when you lose it doesn't seem sadly, but there seems to be a lot for me to explore still. Some nice changes would be if you have enough movement to make an attack work if you could just use the attack and the character auto moves vs having to move then attack that'd be a nice quality of life change. Getting something unlocked for failed play throughs would be nice as well since this game gets really difficult

EDIT: Be warned, Rogueria in its current form is quite easy to beat. Enough so that I'm spending more time goofing around with mechanics than trying to clear (which I did in my first two runs).
* I've seen worse Google Translate. The English translation is perfectly serviceable, meaning is rarely hard to figure out. Sure, there's plenty of grammatical and spelling errors, but they don't significantly take away from the experience, and the developer does have a Google Doc where native speakers can suggest corrections. Its certainly better than limiting the audience to Korean players!
* The interface is...decent. Responsive, simple, but lacking in some quality of life improvements. Panning the camera/map is still limited to mouse edge movement, and too fast at that. I'd like to see WASD/Arrow-key panning and the ability to turn off mouse panning, which is a liability for multiple-monitor users. On the plus side, 1440p is supported, and Borderless Windowed seems to be supported. Unity engine, so the usual Unity support applies. In-run saving exists and works, a nice plus for a game where successful runs can go for several hours.
* There's a few too many screens that like to fade to bright white. Please dim or change the color of these screens, they're a bit blinding in a way reminiscent of Chrono Ark's bright white screens.
* It'd be nice if the damage calculations were visible. There's some hidden calculations at play that aren't entirely clear to the player.
* Early to tell, but balance seems to favor chaos over stability. I pulled a skill early on that lets me control the moves of target enemies for two turns over a large area of effect, including bosses. Still in my first run so maybe this isn't as broken as it sounds later on, but so far...actually, the rest of the run was easy. As of this review, four of the five intended zones are implemented.
* No meta-progression! A developer that respects my time, wow! On the other hand, a single difficulty in a single mode means that there's not much to play for once you've cleared, and the game is easy enough to reasonably blind clear first try, as I did.
For a coffee break style Roguelike that has some depth but doesn't take itself too seriously, mildly recommended, provided you can deal with a lot of Google Translate and don't mind an easier difficulty. Consider waiting for more content, as the $14.49 USD price point is steep for the current content on offer.