Children of Zodiarcs
Children of Zodiarcs is a story-driven, tactical RPG set in the fantasy realm of Lumus; a world divided by affluence and poverty. Take control of Nahmi and her fellow outcasts, utilising a brand new deck and dice based combat system to strike a blow to the noble Lords’ and Ladies’ unquenchable thirst for profit. Professional thieves on the trail of an ancient relic, the group infiltrates the glittering halls of a corrupt noble’s private chambers in pursuit of their target, narrowly escaping the wrath of the city guards at every turn. Desperate to find an escape, they seek refuge in the city’s seamy slums and brave the sunless pits of the underworld. Out to get them are heavily armed city guards, rival gangs and psychotic families of subterranean cannibals. Abandoned by the system and used by selfish criminals, these young companions will be forced to come to terms with their own reality. But be warned – in the world of Children of Zodiarcs, no one escapes unscathed!
Steam User 141
If you're looking for FFT / Tactics Ogre / classical 'tactics rpg', this isn't it. There is little to no squad building, character development is linear, and customization is limited. Your party appears to be limited to 3 characters which is fairly small in srpg terms.
While interesting ideas on paper, I personally am not a fan of the dice or the cards system. Personally I find rolling the dice more of an annoyance than anything else. I am aware there is an auto-roll option, which I have turned on. The main reason I find it annoying is that it slows down the speed of battles in a genre where the speed of battles is already very slow paced. Especially annoying is staring at the enemies dice roll for 5 seconds before they do their ability animation; there should be an option to speed that up or skip it altogether. I don't care what dice the enemy rolls; just let me get on with the battle. When a battle takes 13 turns, and there are 5 enemies, you end up spending 5 * 13 * 5 seconds (6 minutes) staring at enemy dice rolls waiting for them to do their ability. I think the dice are an interesting twist on the RNG formula, but I think the implementation just gets in the way and needs some work. I don't care about the dice at all... get the dice out of my face and let me play the game faster please.
When it comes to the cards system, I'm not a big fan either. The cards system replaces a traditional "mana" or "mp" based resource system, and your cards in your hand dictate which skills are available to use. I have two issues with this system. First of all is that my character has abilities that sometimes I am unable to use. In a strategy rpg, I would prefer to have my skills available to use as long as I have sufficient resources. Pretty much all of the "strategy" in strategy RPGs is making the decision of which ability to use. The second issue is that it slows down the pace of battles, since drawing cards requires a unit's turn. I think you start with 4 cards in your hand, and you draw 2 cards at a time. So basically after 2 or 3 turns you have to spend a turn just to draw 2 more cards.
The cards and dice systems kind of remind me of the "laws" in final fantasy tactics advance. It was an annoying game mechanic that is not enjoyable at all, you just have to put up with it.
I would agree with the sentiment of many other reviewers who have mentioned the pace of battle is way too slow. In my opinion this is a pain point for strategy RPGs in general. I think the card and dice mechanics in this game made the battles even slower.
The game is lacking reward schedules. Usually your core loop in a strategy rpg is battle, gain exp + loot (reward), squad management & character customization (reward), progress through story (reward), rinse and repeat. Since there is no equipment, very little squad management & character customization, and character stats development is linear, the main "rewards" of a typical strategy rpg are nonexistant in this game. Making an addicting / enjoyable game is all about reward schedules, and there's just not much in this game that I find rewarding.
No offense but the writing style / humor in this game doesn't really mesh well with the game. A lot of the dialog sounds very immature and childish to me, its almost never serious, always joking around, like I'm hanging out with a gang of little kids. The main character has this ebonics thing going on, which gives me a headache. There was some other character with a southern sounding accent that didn't work at all either. I'm pretty much skipping the dialog at this point because i know it's not going to get any better.
I will still recommend this game, I kickstarted the game, I understand an indie team of about 6 people made it. I don't think they misrepresented the game they were developing. I knew from the start they were doing the cards/dice systems and I wanted to try it. I totally understand the limitations and constraints when working on a small indie team. So even if my review sounded negative, my intention was for it to be constructive criticism and help other gamers decide whether or not they would like this game.
I think the main reason for mixed reviews is that lots of people just want someone to make a modernized classical strategy rpg. If you come into this expecting a classical strategy rpg like FFT or Tactics Ogre, you'll probably be disappointed. If you market your game and compare it to FFT, i guess prepare to expect lots of disappointed people.
Steam User 62
Children of Zodiarcs is an SRPG where instead of just picking basic attacks or skills, you use cards and dice to change the outcome of your attacks. This mix of card game, dice game, and strategy game make for interesting dynamic battles. There is a bit of a luck factor with the dice and card draws, but I never felt like I had to roll the perfect thing to do well. Thus, I think RNG is handled well.
The probably greatest strength to this, however, is how much customization there is in the cards and the dice. This allows for many different play-styles, and there is so much to experiment with. I'm sure no 2 people will have the same idea or build.
The maps are difficult (in terms of hard mode), but not head bashing difficult. This is a nice balance that makes me think, but allows me to keep going forward.
The music of the game is beautiful and feels like it fits. The visuals are unique, but not quite the best I've seen. Still, they are pleasing to the eye and aren't jarring to look at.
I haven't payed too much to the story, but the characters seem to not have cliched personalities.
Overall, I would rate this game a 9/10, and I think is a must for those who love SRPG's and want a taste of something new and fresh.
Steam User 54
Children of Zodiarcs (CoZ) is a tactical, turn-based RPG featuring a motley crew of young thieves who find themselves caught up in a dark conspiracy involving ancient powers and spoiled nobles. Take these underdogs to the top of the food chain with a unique mix of card and dice mechanics and overcome overwhelming odds.
Kickstarter backer here.
The hierarchy is immediately made evident in CoZ--and more importantly the fact that you're somewhere near the bottom of it. The game does a good job of explaining the fantasy world it's sent in without bogging you down with irrelevant details and names, building atmosphere and immersing you in it. Yours is a dark and dismal world where violence us a constant and meals are not guaranteed, but somehow the battlefields still manage to be interesting to look at with little details and particle effects to add a layer of realism.
Combat in CoZ is a bit slow paced, though in response to complaints the developer, Cardboard Utopia, added a fast forward function. In typical turn-based fashion, you and the enemy have your own phases during which you'll move your units and use abilities. Abilities are tied to the card system: you select the skill you want to use, after which you're taken to the dice roll screen where you essentially affect the effectiveness of your attack. Dice dictate which end of the range--shown when you highlight an enemy to attack it--your damage will fall into and also what additional buffs/snuffs will be applied. There are a few different markings on your dice: crystals add power, stars activate the special effect listed denoted on the card, shields protect you from counter attack damage, if applicable, and hearts recuperate health. You can reroll up to two dice should you not agree with the outcome of your initial roll.
CoZ is combat-focused, meaning there's no over world to explore and you'll never have control of your characters outside of a combat situation. This means that you'll be fighting back to back battles and learning the story through dialogue exchanges before, during, and after combat. There are also quiet moments after you've cleared a battle node where you can view an oftentimes humorous discussion between your party members.
In lieu of equipment, your party management boils down to crafting and equipping dice sets and deck building. Each dice set has six dice and the ones that aren't marked with a lock icon can be upgraded or traded out for a different one if you so choose to.
Crafting is a matter of consolidation. Depending on what die you want to craft, you need to select sets to meet an icon threshold. Please note that the entire set of the dice used to craft will be destroyed, so this is a good way to get rid of low level or cursed dice sets. Sets with cursed red dice can be totally reborn by crafting to replace the negatively effected die.
I don't want to spoil the story, so I'll just comment on the quality of the writing. The story is a bit cliched in some parts, but the exchanges between characters are believable and oftentimes humorous. The narrative is delivered via character dialogue on and off the battlefield with a few still images--hand drawn, by the look of it--sprinkled in. The music is orchestral and suited to the atmosphere, bouncing between quieter, more melancholic tunes and lively, adventurous scores.
.Pros.
Battle precision. There's no lucky critical hits because you control (to a degree) exactly how much damage you do to the enemy.
The writing is very good, which I feel is important to an RPG.
Character design. From your ragtag group of heroes to the elaborate armour the elites' guard dogs wear, every outfit is a detailed, not to mention cool, affair.
Deck and dice management are unique and allow for tailoring your gameplay experience.
Regular developer support. Cardboard Utopia hears feedback and uses it to make the game better, which is always a huge plus.
.Cons.
Long battles. The "us against the world" thing gets old very quickly when it makes battles take longer than they should.
For battles that don't require you to kill all enemies, you'll be running from point A to point B. This feels far less tactical and more of a headlong rush/lash ditch effort.
The grind. I'm no slouch at tactical games, but I still had to go back to the skirmish battles and level up more often than I would have liked because the enemy overpowered me. There's an easier difficulty for those who just want to enjoy the story, but the difficulty wasn't the issue, just the balance between story battles.
.Bottom Line.
Children of Zodiarcs is a solid strategy RPG with unique gameplay elements and an interesting story. It isn't perfect, but with continued support from the developer, it's getting better and better every patch. Personally, I would have liked for there to be more to do between battles, even if it meant going to a battle field and searching for points of interest using the same turn-bases formula, sans enemies, but the game is still fun in short sessions. I recommend this to fans of the genre, though those who aren't as enthusiastic about it may find themselves losing interest.
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Steam User 20
As a big fan of tactical games like FFT, Fire Emblem and Shining Force, as well as card games like Baten Kaitos and Lost Kingdoms. This game was a dream come true, unfortunately it has it's flaws.
+ Tactical battles with cards and dice
+ Decent amount of different cards
+ Dice crafting
- Very linear
- No character choice
Despite the flaws it was still a very enjoyable game.
Steam User 26
On paper, it sounds like a game that's cashing in on what's popular in the contemporary indie scene: a game inspired by old tactical JRPGs with deck building and dice rolling combat mechanics. In practice, this results in a wonderful blend of tactical strategic gameplay that improves on the formula set by its predecessors. My favorite thing about CoZ's gameplay is how the RNG is relegated to your card draw and dice rolls, completely removing accuracy as a factor. This places a greater importance on positioning and decision making, which allows the game's strategic strengths to shine through.
But what I imagine people's biggest concern will be how it stacks up to older Tactics games. In that regard, I can best sum this game up as shifting the focus away from micromanagement in that you don't have a huge amount of stats, skills, or an inventory; the gameplay focuses more on pruning your deck and dice to your playstyle. It places what I feel is a pretty big emphasis on game theory and maximizing your rewards by finding the most optimal ways to minimize risk.
For example, it’s definitely far more gratifying getting through a mission on the first go, but the option to easily restart and try a different strategy / loadout is definitely a nice feature. This is something that may not necessarily have been as easy in older titles like FFTA where in-depth stats, jobs, skills, and items are very much an involved part of your team’s combat effectiveness. The deck and dice, in that regard, are much easier to manage.
All in all, if you enjoy classic JRPG tactics with mechanics that are on the arcadey side, definitely check this game out.
Edit 2: As of Story Mission 10, this game has ramped up in difficulty. I've had to restart several times and readjust my thinking on the map, which I like!
Edit 1: Have reached the beginning of Chapter 2, and will be commenting on the four important elements of a game, as outlined by Jesse Schell in his book, "The Art of Game Design." I'll be treating this review as a sort of living journal as I progress through the game, largely for my own benefit but I hope you'll be able to find some use out of what I write!
For reference, I'm playing and commenting on the game's Hard difficulty.
Aesthetics
This game is rather gorgeous and a good example of "less is more." The color palette, by and large, tends to stick to strong primaries set against a backdrop of browns and yellows. In spite of the dominant presence of this tan spectrum, the shading and lighting design throughout the game serve as an excellent way to make the brighter colors stick out. In addition to the minimalistic color palette, the UI, overworld, and mission maps are sleek and laid out well such that you always have a clear idea of where and what you're looking at. For an isometric text-heavy game, that's no small feat.
My only gripes with the game's aesthetics are that the overworld map is rather bare bones (I would have appreciated some sort of avatar or clearer landmarks) and the 3D models in-mission, while well done, don't necessarily match up super well with the detailed portraits of the characters.
Mechanics
The Tactics genre is already pretty solid, and true to form CoZ sticks to what its predecessors did well: grid-based and positioning tactics, specialized units, interesting maps, and objectives that aren't always the same. Where this game shakes it up really well is the additions it adds to this Tactics formula, the deck building and dice. I have only reached Chapter 2, and as such have unlocked slightly over half of the available cards and only just gotten access to Dice Crafting. That said, the decks and dice add a fantastic element of surprise in that the RNG behind both is far far far less frustrating than percentage based stats like Accuracy and Critical Hit. The game also allows you to mitigate RNG's bullshittery with mechanics like drawing, milling, rerolling dice, and changing what sides you have on your dice. All in all, the combat is a fresh take on what has traditionally been a very numbers heavy genre, allowing the player to have more direct control on the strategy being used in-game.
There have been a few missions I was able to cheese by skirting the edge of enemy units' movement, and whether that is by design or something I was able to take advantage of I'm not sure. In a departure from previous Tactics games, the missions and skirmishes (optional side missions that allow you to farm XP and dice) do not allow you to deploy in specific zones. While this was rather jarring at first, the decks and dice allow for enough leeway that I was usually able to figure out a way to get through the mission with smart positioning and ability use.
The only real problem I have with the mechanics are in the dice rolling segments. Dice are rolled using physics, and this means that your dice can and will physically interact with each other when rolling. This is especially frustrating during rerolls where one of your rerolled dice can mess with one of the dice you had set aside. Overall though, not enough of a persistent problem to detract from the gameplay.
(As a side note, skirmishes randomly generate enemy units and their positions, so in some cases, like the skirmish where I spawned in the middle of a group of heavy bruisers with ranged enemies on the outside, this gets mildly annoying.)
Story
CoZ is relatively standard JRPG fare: ancient technology passed on to a society that is unaware of its history, scrappy parent-less protagonists, and divisive class conflict. By Chapter 2, this hasn't changed too much and is pretty par for the course for typical JRPG stories. The dialogue is very loose and fun; some people may take issue with the rather frequent swearing by kids, but given the context and their past I'd say it fits the characters (for the moment).
Taking a page out of Fire Emblem and the Tales series, there are optional dialogues available in-between missions where you can see more casual interactions between the cast. It allows for some levity in a world that is, thus far, cruel and unforgiving. Story is one aspect of the game that I will give some leeway towards, as there seems to be quite a bit of setup in the first chapter that will hopefully develop further.
Technology
Developed in Unity, this game is quite smooth and sleek. The load times are minimal and there is a nice amount of polish to everything. The 3D assets handle well, and when physics are involved it's usually implemented well (aside from the dice rolling, as I said above).
(I had a bit of a laugh when one of my party members died and their ragdoll went limp, draping over the side of the staircase he was on.)
TL;DR
Pros:
Very strong synergy between Aesthetics, Mechanics, Story, and Technology
Visually pleasing color palettes, architecture, lighting, UI, and character designs
Interesting and fun direction for the Tactics genre with the inclusion of deck building and dice rolling
Quick, snappy, and sleek presentation
Neutral:
Standard JRPG story, setting, and characters; a lot of setup that I'm interested to see developed
Dialogue is atypically crass; this will hopefully change or get fleshed out as the story progresses
Cons:
Slightly lacking in the 3D model and overworld departments
Can potentially cheese missions by baiting out enemies and waiting outside of range
The game's physics can disrupt a potentially good roll you had
Overall, very happy with this game. If you found these comments to be helpful or interesting, let me know! I'd love to discuss the game's design with you and hear your thoughts. Will ideally be back soon for Edit 2!
(And no Edit 2. Steam character limit ayyyy. On the offchance someone managed to get this far and wants to continue reading my inane ramblings, I'm posting my entries on
Steam User 32
Pros:
+Great Soundtrack
+Insane Boss Fight
+deck building and unique play style.
Cons
-You need to grind skirmish to get passed certain boss fight.
-dice rolling will get old and is unessesary.
-Unbalance XP distribution.
Conclusion : Mixing these genres offers lots of interesting possibilities, but Children of Zodiarcs frustratingly constrains options to the point where you don't get to explore the system. the game isn't awful, the new concept is a bit hard to play by since the dice is what plays the main part of the game that decide the fate of your character. If This is not the type SRPG you are looking for , then wait for the sale and buy it.
Steam User 11
In short? A must have for any Turn Based Tactical RPG fans!
After playing the game for a while I understand why Square Enix decided to publish it.
The card and dice system is an interesting combination and I love it. I wish more games could use this system. The customization of the decks and of the dice adds some nice variation to it without being cumbersome. I've found in some games that this can seem more of a chore than a feature, but here you can put as much time into customization as you want without it feeling like it interrupts the flow of the game too much.
The best part of the game in my opinion is the smooth battle system. The art looks great. The character design is great. The arenas are about as varied as these kinds of games can allow.
The one bad thing is that the story, so far, is a bit predictable and not overly compelling. It's not bad and it makes a lot more sense than most Final Fantasy games, but nothing has really made me gasp or laugh or really emote at all. Just a tad bland really.
I've bought some dumb Kickstarters before and regretted it, but this one was well worth the money. I love the feel of the game and I can't wait to see what this studio does next.