Vambrace: Cold Soul
The King of Shades has cursed the great city of Icenaire. Now cast under a permanent blight of frost fall, its former residents have returned from the dead as mad Wraiths. Survivors take refuge deep underground where they lead a desperate campaign against this unearthly power. Woefully outmatched, they are forced into hiding as the King of Shades amasses an army of the undead above them. One fateful day, a mysterious stranger appears in the city with an enchanted vambrace. She may now be their only hope… You are Evelia Lyric, bearer of the Aetherbrace and the only human capable of entering Icenaire. The survivors now look to you as their best hope against the King of Shades. Only one problem…you’re woefully outmatched, and survival is not guaranteed. Vambrace: Cold Soul is a narrative-driven game filled with memorable characters, brutal challenges, and deep strategy. To succeed, you must choose perceptive party leaders, camp to recuperate, navigate strange encounters, and survive deadly combat. Will you scavenge for supplies to sell or use them to craft new items for your next expedition? The surface of Icenaire is cold and unforgiving. So, prepare your party well before departing…lest you join the cursed city's undead.
Game Discussion
Steam User 10
i played while not having experienced darkest dungeons.
i read there were lot of issues when the game first launched, but as i played this on august 2024, no particular balance or RNG issues (game was a bit on the easy side, i played on normal).
i had fun playing this, really liked that the devs put extra arts to go with the different costumes (the columbo and sailor moon were funny).
Steam User 8
A decent RPG with very slight roguelike elements. The story and world building is interesting. I really enjoyed it, but I can't recommend it without some caveats. There's just not enough room for experimentation with team bulding with being forced to bring along the main character in every run and not having space for extra units. I mostly only played the same team composition during my playthroughs. Event variety in runs is also a bit lacking and gets repetitive. Other than that, I enjoyed the game fine, it's a fun adventure, but it could have used some extra juice in the form of DLC or an expansion that added content, or a new game plus mode so you could make the main character super OP for fun. There's really no point in putting points in anything other than damage at first, since the other relevant stats can get taken care of by team members.
I love the art style, and I'm thrilled the game is being followed up on with a sequel of sorts, even if tower defense is not really my cup of tea, I'm interested because I enjoyed this game enough.
Steam User 5
Lovely 2D dungeon crawler with light survival elements. The strongest aspects of the game are its visuals, atmosphere and worldbuilding. The artstyle is fantastic, everything looks gorgeous and detailed, and most characters (from playable to NPCs and enemies) are beautifully designed. The writing is good, and even if the overall story is not something super special or unique, it's still above average because the dialogue is well written. What really kept me engaged though, were the tons of interesting characters that appear throughout the story. The effort put into the lore of the game's world is also very impressive. Sometimes you'll have to make decisions that will actually affect some of the characters storylines, unique items you unlock and the ending you get.
The game absolutely does not deserve the current "mixed" review score. I see a lot of players giving it a negative review just because, in their opinion, this is not as good as other games from the same genre, which I don't think is fair at all. This game might not be the best of its kind, but it's still a good game, with a lot of love put into it.
Steam User 4
What a beautiful game. To those who are on the fence. Buy it. Enjoy the story, enjoy the torture of making choices you can't save scum. Enjoy it for what it is. If you're looking for a battle sim, look elsewhere. Otherwise, enjoy getting all her outfits!
Steam User 5
A short, exploration-focused dungeon crawler with turnbased combat. The story was deeper than expected, and there's many interesting mechanics that may come as a surprise. The worst thing you can do is go in thinking this plays exactly like a different game just because of how it looks. Accept it for what it is and you will find the mechanics are very streamlined and forgiving, with no minmaxing or number crunching, and combat is extremely simple and fast. Many side quests with decisions that determine your ending. Most importantly - changes to the protagonists outfit are reflected in their dialogue CG as well as during gameplay, and you can unlock a lingerie outfit after the first dungeon. Many other tasteful character & armour designs to be found too :^)
Steam User 3
This is one of those games that's not amazing but does the job well enough to be worth the time, especially considering the deep discount when it's on sale.
The gameplay is a position-based turn-based RPG with a story that you progress by talking to NPCs and beating stages. The lore is pretty cool, the artwork is fantastic, and the overall aesthetic is very good. There's 3 endings influenced by the choices you make at a few key points. There's a selection of characters with different abilities for each class so you can customize your team to your liking.
Most of the negatives are QOL things. Some complain about character balance but i would argue that every character being interchangeable would just be boring. Min-maxing is boring. I play the Hedge Mage and had no problem beating the game. The QOL things for me were just not knowing what the status effects are actually doing, how to cure them, and figuring out what each character's abilities actually do without going to their character sheet all the time.
Positives are most definitely the artwork. It's absolutely beautiful. I also love the overall aesthetic, the lore, and the main story. I find it very interesting and there's a lot to read in the in-game codex.
The combat is a bit mid for me; not bad but also not great. My biggest problem with the combat is there just isn't a lot of variety to each battle. It can be a bit frustrating at times when you get too many debuffs on your team or keep getting critical fails. But it's good enough overall.
The absolute biggest disappointment with this game is that they didn't make a proper sequel. There's a new game in the same universe but it's a completely different genre of game. This game deserves a true sequel since there's tons of player feedback for them.
The TLDR is maybe a 6/10, just above average and carried by the artwork.
Steam User 2
Decent enough game. They did really good for the art, characters and the atmosphere. Gameplay wasn't amazing or awful, just functional. The story as well was kinda meh but the lore building was pretty interesting.