Dynasty Feud

I had a chance to round up my TowerFall buddies last night and play Dynasty Feud in my living room using Steam Big Picture and a bunch of PS4 controllers. This game rocks. Dynasty Feud combines the sustained, tactical tension we love about TowerFall's one-hit-kill mechanic with the stage and character diversity of a Smash Bros. The "dynasty" mechanic--coming back to life as a new character with a different move set each time you die--is brilliant. It constantly shifts the feel of each match, and adds an almost Overwatch-like strategic layer to "hero selection" as you attempt to counter the other player's current fighter in real time. One of my friends is an illustrator, and he was blown away by Dynasty Feud's character design, to the point where he was wishing there was a single-player campaign. I myself could care less about story modes in brawlers, but it speaks to the strength of the characters that they make you naturally curious about their back stories. The art style and overall tone reminds me of Guacamelee!, another favorite.
We're looking forward to our next play session. We unlocked all of the clans except for the aliens! Right now I'd say we're in that fun discovery stage of a fighting game, learning each fighter's moves. Because the pace of the game is so fast (that's a good thing), you may initially experience some frustrating spawns, where you basically die right away before you figure out what's cool about your character. But when you do have that Eureka moment, like, "I can move around as this devastating tornado!,", "I can reflect projectiles with my stubby punches", or "I have a shield instead of a dodge!", it's very rewarding. At first we thought the supers were OP, but after some experimenting we realized you can dodge, and in some cases shield-block, the ultimate abilities. If the game is this fun now, I can only imagine what it will be like when we know what we're doing.

A really interesting surprise. I expected a fun experience, but it turned out to be deeper than that. The variety that the 40 characters offer and the nuances each of them have can make the combat more complex that it might seem at first.
It is the kind of game I like to play with my friends, fun for beginners and deep for more harcore fighting players. Only having one life gives dynamism to the battles, because as soon as you lose a character you need to think about who will be the next one. The movements and attacks of each character are simple to execute, but timing and deciding which one to use can be crucial (this is where the hardcore gamers shine).
This is the game that perfectly meets the "easy to get, hard to master". It might seem overwhelming at the beginning with the amount of characters you need to learn about (and maybe there is some of that), but for me the initial learning process was really smooth.
The main flaw the game has is the lack of a single player mode. I did not miss it much, but I think it needs to be pointed out.
To sum up I really recommend this game for those who like to beat their friends!

Dynasty Feud is the best platform arena fighting game steam has to offer, and one of the best local multiplayer games as well.
While games like Towerfall and Samurai Gunn rekindled interest in this style of game, years later other developers have managed to surpass these games. Kaia Studios have done just that with Dynasty Feud.
It is therefor a shame that some of the newer entries to the genre have not been able to gain as much traction as the earlier releases. Dynasty Feud deserves a similar following.
The twist offered by Dynasty Feud is that instead of picking a character, you pick a team. Each team is balanced, has their own playstyle, and has stronger and weaker characters.
Each game starts with a spawn countdown, in which you can select the character on your team that you wish to spawn, and after death you can also select your new character (as well as cast a team-unique taunt before spawning).
This gives some extra tactical depth as well, as you can select a character well suited to dealing with a particularly difficult enemy.
Combat is relatively simple, with only two attacks per character - however each character is different so in any one match you get to use a range of different skills.
The fact that you have a suit of characters means that the game modes are centred around survival rather than kills. However Dynasty Feud deals with this by issuing stars when a character scores a kill or dies. At five stars you can cast your team's super attack - which is a very effective tool.
With 8 teams and 40 characters, the game has a lot of playability. If you like this style of game, Dynasty Feud is a must have.
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It was a dissapointing start when I realized Dynasty Feud wasn´t exactly a brawler but a team based mini fighting game, but once you get in you cannot stop playing. I played for more than 30 minutes to feel confortable with all at least four characters of the same dynasty :)
All dynasties are not available from the beginning, but it´s about playing and winning matches and after playing more than an hour I unlocked almost all of them.
Losing a character unfairly or just a second after respawning may be frustrating, but this is also what makes Dynasty Feud different and a real challenge.
Some online matches with 4 dynasties playing are lagged and sometimes unplayable, but in general I was able to play correctly.
Awesome music and art style!

Game to play with your friends hmmmm… What if my friends are mostly interested in shopping and gossips? Well. I’m interested too, but this game makes me forget about everything. It’s funny and well-drawn, different cards and dynasties, a lot of movement. Opportunity to play with another team of real people is great! Weather plays a big role, sometimes can even help you. I liked the sound! Well, as a summary – game is perfect for the company, it’s not really long, it’s beautiful and makes your fingers work hard :D
9 broken nails/10

The game is certainly entertaining and well done. I definetely recommend this to play with your friends. When you kill someone you really feel how much have annoyed him. And you see how his ghost is haunting you trying desperately to fight you.
I really love how you can use the environment in your advantage. For example, I was going to be killed by a players final movement, I foreseed it, so when he activated it, I threw my character to the train rails, so I could escape and come back to hit him with my viking spear!
Also the music is awesome, I would like themed music depending on which Dynasty wins, that would be great.
I only wish I could pick up props/corpses from the environment to throw them and hit my friends with the corpses of their ancestors.

Dynasty Feud seems like it has achieved what it set out to do, create a fun and chaos-filled multiplayer battle experience. There is enough variety in the teams that players will find it rewarding unlocking each one, and should easily find the teams which match their play style. At the moment the game has a limited lifespan, one which may make the USD$15 price tag seem unreasonable to some players. But if you are looking for a bit of stupid multiplayer fun then you could do a lot worse than spend a couple of hours in Dynasty Feud.
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