Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch

There is a special agony in recognising a game is mastercrafted while also resenting the experience of playing it. I recommend Lost Eidolons: Lair of the Witch, but I don't particularly want to play it again.
It's not you, it's me.
The real tragedy is what this brutalist architecture is hiding. This game has some of the charm of things like Wartales, but with its own vibe and shtick. The art style is dope, the characters are excellently voiced, and the character work is ... I mean, it's just really good. I want to be there with this team. I want to fight the good fight! But man, I'm not going to live that long.
The game is a run-based roguelite with tactical flair. As a whole I don't mind the roguelite genre - some of them work (for me) better than others. The problem with this take is that I find Lair of the Witch weaponises your time by stacking the deck in ways that Vegas card sharks would do a double-take on. You can see just how high that tower is before you start to climb it on your second run, and you'll know in your toes that this one won't take you there. It's 20 minutes in the hole, so you can get +2 health for your next shot, and you know +2 health isn't going to do it, chief. It's this certainty of failure, a sort of slow-motion execution which rewards you with the opportunity to take another beating next time.
Take the zone one boss. Your five-person squad is pitted against a horde that refuses to stay down - these charmers come back as the undead when dropped. If the constant resurrections weren't enough, there's a bonfire steadily vomiting fresh reinforcements onto the field. You've got no real hope of getting to it as the game locks down your movement, and you watch your dudes die to a withering hail of spells, swords, and arrows, but remember: it took you 20 minutes to get to the point where you watch this.
You're not really meant to outsmart it. You're supposed to die, over and over, until the game's internal spreadsheet decides your incremental stat boosts are (finally!) high enough to grunt through.
Two decades ago, I would have loved this. The grind, a time-based currency I had a lot of back then, would have been a feature rather than a bug. I'd sacrifice my weekend and be proud about it. But time is the fire in which I now burn, and it changes the math on what I find makes a game feel rewarding.
Which means: too much grind for me, in the end, and not enough of that amazing character work and story. If you're more time-available than I am, I recommend this - it's really well made, it's got a good story, and it's well constructed. For anyone else, the view from the top isn't worth the blood on your boots.

It is a nice tactical RPG with roguelike elements. It is pretty tough with quite a lot of grind, but with a lot of different weapons and skills plus artifacts. Furthermore, it takes the same principle of their first game but enriches it.
The bosses are fun to discover and to beat. (You are going to get crushed the first time if you don't read enough about the passives.)
I am looking forward to seeing the end of the story.
My only gripe with the game is that you have to sacrifice the efficiency of your run to get resources to upgrade your town and that maxing takes quite a long time. I am 80 hours in, and only my main character is friends with everyone. Also, I wish I could switch greater blessings without paying resources.

Nearly perfect roguelike tactical game. I have been thoroughly enjoying it...only feedback would be that the runs feel kind of short. Wish there was more content.
One feedback - add a break between dialogue and when you have to select a choice, dialogue, or option. Often times I find myself clicking to skip through the dialogue only to then randomly select an option that I did not want. Or make it so that skipping dialogue is with a different button than the option selection.

Game released officially today, I came back to it, started a new save, and the game crashes when I choose my first path (a battle offering gold). Didn't have crash problems before, but as of right now, it's unplayable for me.
Edit: If anyone else coming back from EA has the problem: verifying game files fixed it for me. I'm changing the review to positive and leaving it up in case anyone else is having trouble and could benefit from it.

If there is a Medium rating comment option, i would go with that. Since i got this game since the EA stage, i've gone through 87 hours till this day.Even with a little help of CE, i still can't win enough resources to unlock optional class for my ASHE. This is insane, because you have to upgrade relationship with certain teammates to at least level 3 to unlock a new class, and the only way to upgrade your relationship with your teammates is playing the game over and over again(80+ hours only get me 3 level 2-relationship teammates) and choosing the comping paths.
So generally speaking, if you like repeating tiresome quests, this will suit you. The first 20 Hours play is good, and the stories in memories of Ashe are decent too.
Some suggestions:(Forgive me, i'm not a native English Speaker, so i make suggestions in my mother tongue)
EA期间就3章，正式版加了1章+1Boss， 我EA玩了80小时，估计不用CE再刷80小时也不一定能凑起首饰进入第4章，然而刷玩80小时真不想再刷了。
几个建议：1，战斗中需要能存档；2，战斗开始人物该能一定能区域内选择上阵位置和队友；3，换主角职业这种东西该一开始就能直接选择，不该在这上面增加肝度，谁有时间为了换个主角职业刷几十个小时队友好感啊？

it's an alright game taking in account the low price point, good combat and diversity of the characters playstyle, with multiple and fun ways to build them, , but, it has a low quantity of content, story aside(its ok), around 15h you will probably see every possible combat encounters and to be fair repeated a bunch of them and yet if you really want to see all the story, you will be need too grind more currency to unlock story vinjetes, it gets repetitive too fast, there a low diversity on enemy types, must win conditions are "kill all enemies".

A fantastic roguelite take on the tacitical RPG genre! If you've played Fire Emblem or any other turn based tactics RPG then this should be right up your alley. I think it really takes the many of the strong points from roguelites and does a great job of building upon a good fundamental tactics game. The turn based gameplay provides a stellar and crunchy combat that can be challenging. The roguelite aspects add such a fun spin quite literally making every run a unique experience even if you bring the same exact party members. Tons of decision space both in gameplay, teambuilding, and choosing relics/skills/upgrades during a run. What really seals it all together for me is the amount of things you can unlock and work towards for the main hub/your account. New hub stations, new characters, plenty of permanent account upgrades. I truly enjoy the randomness and uniqueness of each run but I absolutely love having some overarching goals to unlock and work towards.
I find myself struggling emotionally with only being able to bring 5 party members, as each have a unique class and pool of skills they could potentially acquire so teambuilding really becomes a tough decision between all the fun characters and builds...I want them all lol where's the Revelations route lol.
You'll find the traditional branching paths maps typically associated with many roguelites, relics, characters can gain passive or active skills upon level up as their stats will increase and so on per run. It can be really fun to see a character's build come together or seeing one your favorite skills or spells pop up as a choice! Like count your prayers answered if you bring along one of the mages and see one of the AOE magic spells upon level up lol. On top of randomness per run you'll see, you'll also find plenty of upgrades and unlocks for the main hub. There's quite a few characters, many of which you will have to complete pre-requisites to unlock. There is a protag, I believe you can choose male or female for but not much else for appearance customization beyond that I think. The protag will have a starting class but as you progress you can eventually unlock the classes that exist in the game from other chars for the protag. Every class will have upgraded versions that will have upgraded/additional starting skills as well as an expanded pool of active/passive skills that can be found in subsequent runs once unlocked... Before I keep droning on if you've read this far then I really think there should be no doubt from you and this game is well worth the full asking price, it's fantastic value (of course even more so on a sale!) and truly at this point a labor of love from the developers