Brutal Orchestra

After my Hylics obsession, my partner recommended I check this game out. When I had access to his library, I began my playthrough. Words cannot describe the emotions I experience while playing this. I will keep this spoiler-free, but the themes and the dynamic between Bosch and Nowak reminded me so much of one of my favorite games, Dramatical Murder. However, unlike Dramatical Murder's sci-fi fantasy and the glimmers of hope offered by the good endings, this game is dripping with delicious irony and dreadful moments of introspection. This is extremely personal, but I've been pushed back into therapy lately, and have many of the same feelings as Nowak. To see so much of my experience mirrored in an allegory as poignant as it is challenging is enlightening and refreshing. Every failure pushes me to rethink my strategy and reform my relationship with myself. There are very few games that pushed me to grow in the same way this has. The music, ambiance, themes, and story are incredibly raw and arresting. Cannot recommend this game enough. One of the very best I've ever experienced. 10/10.

I first played this game a couple years ago. Played for about an hour, did not enjoy it. Did not understand the rave reviews. Just felt like a typical turn based combat game with an annoying colour pigment mechanic.
Then one day I came across a video of someone playing the game and decided to watch for a bit. They were looking at what the enemy was planning to do, which tile they were going to attack. Then deciding how best to attack with their party and position to avoid damage. How to best get the pigment they needed. Then won the battle, then moved onto to get a new item. A really interesting item that completely changed how they would play. I suddenly found myself super invested watching. Finding myself thinking ok no he should move that guy there, do this etc.
After that I decided to give this game another shot and absolutely loved it. I love strategizing how to handle the fights, where to move who where. how to get pigment I need. I was hooked. There is also a large cast of party members to unlock that completely change how you approach fights, a large variety of different items. Some really great enemies and I absolutely loved working out how to do the boss fights.
The story and setting while quite subtle are excellently done and the art work and art direction is perfectly done to blend everything together into something truly great.
I had an amazing time with this game and highly recommend.

If I had a nickel for every awesome game with enemy designs based on the artworks of Hieronymus Bosch, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

Interesting Turn-based Roguelike With An Incredible Motif
At first I was only drawn to Brutal Orchestra by its goofy art style. What I didn't expect after some playthrough is that this game is quite a gem. Brutal Orchestra is made by the same people behind Perfect Vermin and Swallow The Sea, two of which I consider cult-classic. The unique turn-based mechanic is enjoyable to play around. I have a better understanding of who Hieronymus Bosch is and how his works, mostly The Garden Of Earthly Delights, have inspired the dev team. On top of all, a decent story that connects everything easily makes this game a recommend from me.
Things I Like About Brutal Orchestra:
1. Gameplay
Gimmicks that set the game apart from others.
There are two parts of the gameplay. The first part is easy to understand. Every battle takes place in a five-lane grid, with party members each occupying one lane while the enemies can occupy multiple at once depending on their sizes.
Since players can freely move each party member once per turn, it is important to move the members out of enemies' attack range, as well as placing them at the right place to deal the most optimal damage.
The other part of the gameplay can be tricky to juggle but rewarding to master. Color pigments are the main resource. All the characters have three abilities and each of them requires a different amount of pigments. Players can generate new pigments by attacking the enemies of the same health color(red health spawns red pigments, etc).
Players can still use abilities with the wrong pigments at the cost of a percentage health loss. If the players generate too much pigments and reach overflow, each exceeding pigment will also grant a percentage health loss to the whole party.
These rules naturally create some really interesting dynamic and strategical thinking. Players needs to know which pigment your party will use primarily and chooses the encounter wisely. Keep the relevant enemies alive until you can secure the victory, waste abilities on purpose to burn some pigments to prevent overflow, and optimize party members with items to fully take advantage of their kits are essential in this game.
Because of the pigment interaction, this game also has some interesting characters in the cast. Some focus on color manipulation, able to deal damage and alter enemies' health color; some can use abilities at a lower cost, but excessive usage may easily lead to overflow; some are designed to counter overflow, burning extra pigments when triggering their abilities.
2. Other Compliments
Every boss is designed with a clear purpose and a pattern to match said purposes. Also, bosses also have cool animations when triggering their special attacks.
A story of an artist who had failed to meet his unrealistic goal, finally finds peace and confidence for what he already has.
This game has some really solid writing.
The soundtracks are quite good, albeit crossing multiple genres in a sudden.
Thing I Like And Dislike About Brutal Orchestra:
Limited Upgrade And Tight Difficulty
This game operates on a "controlled difficulty".
Like
This kind of design choice ensures that players can still have a decent chance at winning the run even if they fall short at certain part.
With enemies having non-scaling health and damage, players can easily calculate the number and manage the limited resource to either buy new items, recruit new members, or upgrading current teammates.
Dislike
The only gripe I have for this game is that the sense of getting-slightly-stronger-after-each-encounter is heavily thinned out. You can only upgrade each character once per level, and everyone can only equip one item at a time. I wish the latter can be loosened a bit since not every item is equally strong.
"If a broken clock is right twice you'd be surprised by what a broken person can do."
中文小簡評
→Perfect Vermin和Swallow The Sea的製作團隊所做，是一款還滿特別的回合制roguelike。
→遊戲身受耶羅尼米斯·波希的畫作影響，有興趣的可以先去看看。
→古怪畫風配上獨特遊戲機制，再加上值得深思的故事，不推也難。
→戰鬥主要有兩個特點：角色佔位和色素管理運用。前者較簡單，戰鬥主要有五格，將隊伍成員從敵人攻擊範圍移開，同時找出最佳位置將傷害最大化。後者較複雜但極為重要，攻擊敵人會產生相對應顏色的色素，所有角色技能都需要靠它驅動。這裡就需要注意色素的生成及運用，累積過多容易造成溢傷，技能用錯誤的色素驅動則會造成使用者受傷。
→如此設計讓遊戲流程變得很有趣。玩家除了要注意隊伍主要用哪種色素外，也得留意將對應敵人保留到最後在解決、適時用技能消耗多餘的色素、以及裝備道具讓角色特性更加靈活。
→遊戲也針對這些要點設計角色，讓整個陣容意外的很新鮮很有趣。
→至於Boss方面當然不在話下，每一隻的技能都有針對不同遊戲機制設計難題，考驗玩家熟練度。
→故事簡潔有力，時不時還跳出一些不錯的金句。
→音樂雖然一次跨很多領域但還是很好聽。
→個人覺得唯一的缺點大概是以roguelike而言，這款角色升級幅度非常不明顯。由於固定難度的關係，敵人所有數值都是固定，玩家的確能靠這點去運用有限的金幣，看是要買新角、買新道具還是升級舊有角色，但角色一關只能升級一次，每人也只能裝一項道具，即使打倒Boss也有可能面臨無從升級或道具過多無處可用的情況。

An absolutely fantastic game, mixing Comedy, Strategy, and Serious discussions about psychology, mental illness, and much more. The gameplay loop never feels repetitive, especially with the(as of review) recent update "Human Canvas" that makes the modding scene much easier to get into. With the discord being so active, you can always get any question asked answered and any ideas you may have quickly reviewed and commented on.
Despite the unlimited praise I could give, there are always things that can be improved, that's just how everything is. One thing that I feel like would be the biggest point of grief is the attack animations, they are insanely cool, you just can't have them on if you want a fast game. Though I can barely say that's a complaint, most animations and sounds with the animations give the player feelings of power, discomfort, fear, or even disgust. The animations pair well with the VERY unique art style the game uses, Hieronymus Bosch.
Overall cannot recommend the game enough and love to see this game succeed.
Little bonus for anyone that made it this far, this is the only game I have 100%'d, I am that passionate about it. Favorite song is The Other Escape, look it up on YT
Edit: Add the ghostwriter mod to steam please Funkin please

"You hear that, it's music"
this is one of the best games ever made. 10/10 music 10/10 story 10/10 combat. thank me later.

Gameplay and soundtrack slap harder than my alcoholic uncle when I'm in the way of the fridge full of beers.