This game shows what would happen if games maintained their complexity despite graphics technology not evolving past 1981. The combat system takes a little getting used to but it is, overall, a very accessible game and one I would recommend to anyone who enjoys RPGs and roguelikes in particular.

JUST BRILLIANT!! Kudos to the developer from a gamer who played CRPG for a long long time.

I have only played the game for less than an hour I know but ,,,however, I cannot resist writing a review of this terrific game (this is RPG +roguelike anyway).

If you remember Ultima 1,2,3 or 4 or Wizardry, or might and magic (not heroes), you will love it, for sure.

Unlike those old classics, this game has even a very well designed TUTORIAL as well. Combat was fun and when I first defeated Blue Slime, I felt that same feeling when I played old classic CRPG in those days from apple computer in 1980s or 1990s.

Just looking at graphics and listining to music reminds me of good old days of gaming.

From the forum, I read a guy posting (thanking to the developer) that he played this game more than the inquisition and I understand why he did that.

Even at full price, this is a great buy since it is dirt cheap.

Just Brilliant and keep up the good work Dev!!

would love to run the tavern again. I LOVE BEER
11/10

+fancy ASCII art style
+well-suited background music and sound
+strategic battle with linker skills
+rogue-like
+perks
+character customization including appearance and gender
+intro cinematic
+humorous dialogues
+secrets in the background
+crafting by your own choice
+mining
+endless battles and items
+factions and reputation

You might overlook the game by its "classical look", but it is addictive.

I strongly recommend this game for the people out there that don't give a flying duck about greyphix and all that other lame stuff that people think that gaming is about today, the entire game is beautifully made in ASCII art. This game has excellent design and lots of nice easter eggs and references and I hope the developer puts more of them in the game considering it's still on Early Access.

The gameplay is extremely simplistic, you'll choose one of the available options and type it in the prompt and hit enter, then pretty stuff will happen. But don't let simplicity fool you, for this game is rich and has tons of nice features for you to tinker with, like crafiting and salvaging, bartending and mining, and a well-made battle system with a lot of possibilities to influence the outcome of the battle.

You can choose the appearance of character, gender (3 options, for some it's important so hooray to the developers), name, class, race and then the adventure will begin. But considering it is a roguelike game (there is an option to play without permadeath) I wouldn't get too attached to my carefully created character. But fear not, for after you die a horrible death you can always create another and you'll be wiser and that's the beauty of the roguelikes.

I didn't play it that much yet, but I can assure you that if you like games that have a spoon of funny, ASCII art, RPG mechanics, crafting mechanics all bundled up in a nice simple package that you can play basically on any computer, then you'll have invested your hard earned money in a real work of art. Hope you all buy the game and can have tons of fun with it, just like I had.

An extremely intriguing game full of equallly interesting characters and differing personalities. The combat is extensive yet easy to understand, the art style is simplistic and beautiful. This game is not only a fighter, but you can do other things on the side that keep your interest. Though the character customization is not TOO extensive, the class customization is, as well as the upgrade system. The story so far is interesting and has kept my attention throughout my playthrough.


PRO:
Beautiful art design.
Extensive upgrade system.
100's of weapons with unique upgrades.
Interesting story.

CONS:
Not enough character customization.
The in game home screen's music is a bit jarring.

lots of keyboard clicking.

good music

its alright if you like these kinds of games.

eazy.

i just randomly clicking the keyboard without looking at it and died at level 3. LOL.

I didn't quite like this game at first because it wasn't very difficult. I did enjoy the music though and the graphics were a lot of fun so I decided to keep playing. Even though it's still not very difficult for me, probably because I've played a ton of roguelike games, I have to say this is one of the most charming little games out there. You can craft things, beat things, find secret rooms hidden in the ascii art, experience random events and pretty much do all sorts of goofy things.

The game feels like a bunch of little mini-games taped together. I'd almost describe it as D&D meet WarioWare only with ascii graphics.

If you want a fun, lightweight game to play pretty much any time then this is one for you. I might dump hundreds of hours into more 'hardcore' games but I don't think many other games would be as fun to play on a rainy day than this one.

I dunno what's with this game that makes me quit every 30 minutes and and find myself playing again 5 minutes later.

If you like exploration, witty dialogue, loot whoring and good music then you owe it to your self to try this game out. It has more depth than you might expect just by looking at it.

- Crafting system? Check
- Run a tavern? Check
- Eat hobos? Check
- Go mining? Check
- Wrestle dragons with your pants down? Check

Hate ASCII graphics? Well I hate you too, this game is easily the best $5 I've spent on a game this year.

Great writing, Excellent Gameplay and a Great developer with community involvement.

PLUS it's the perfect game to play while you make dinner for the kids (no joke, ive set up a PC on my kitchen bench just to slay leg's, robots and blobs between dicing vegies and straining pasta while my daughters scream "NERD" at me across the living room).

This may be the one ray of sunshine in my otherwise tired afternoons :)

This game is absolutely fantastic and hilarious, but until they make hyper trample at least semi-close in damage to any other mechanic in the game, then this game really doesn't have to right to have perma-death.

A normal enemy many levels below you can do 5 times the damage of a bosses ult with a hyper trample and insta-kill you at any point, it is the only thing that seems to ever kill me or anyone else I know who has played this game. It is ludicrously powerful, seemingly possible for any enemy, and even if you ONLY upgrade vitality it can and will kill you at full life in one hit.

If I'm going to lose I want it to be from the game, not just hyper trample. It's a dinner plate sized blemish on the face of a game that is amazing in nearly every other way. Until this type of attack is overhauled, it changes the whole game to focus around making damn well sure you attacked in the right rhythm to be able to dodge it, and if you can't or if you are snared, then you instantly lose everything you've ever worked for. Period. The game in its current form revolves around avoiding this singular mechanic far and above anything else, and it trivializes the game in its entirety.

*Edit*

The game has been patched since I wrote the above review, and although hyper trample still poses a massive threat there are now more appropriate means of mitigation. That being said, even later in the game when you are decked out it won't be uncommon for it to hit for 50% of your health. But at the very least you can eventually achieve the ability to not die in the event you are forced to tank a hit from the attack.

Due to the dev's close attention to the issue and the fact the game is utterly fantastic in every other quality, I would consider this game worth buying despite a few of the more annoying combat mechanics.

Do you enjoy roguelikes? Do you enjoy Hack n' slashes? This game is just for you! The game is chuck full of content. Do not take its early access label, as something bad. It has hours upon hours of gameplay, and in the 50 or so hours I have played (played it before steam), I have not seen a single bug.

The game also has a humor that may and may not be for you. It is very hit and miss.

I can only reccomend this game to anyone who is a fan of murdering stuff and picking up loot!

If you've ever enjoyed a DOS RPG, a MUD, a text adventure, or even Candy Box, you should definitely check this game out. It's not an identical experience to any of those things, but it blends elements of all of them to create something far more entertaining than you can convey with screenshots and videos. For example, you wouldn't expect the battle mechanics to be very complex, but I found myself having to think about my next action more often than not. There's no one thing that you can mash to always win, and that's a kind of balance that you don't see in many turn based RPGs. The ASCII art is also surprisingly dynamic - you will see a good amount of motion in this game that doesn't come across at all in screenshots.

If I really had to pick a negative out, the HP numbers are very large and damage has a pretty wide range of fluctuation right at the start. It makes it a bit hard to make a snap judgment on how effective a given attack was and slowed down my turns a little. But that's a pretty minor issue, and if the worst problem with a game is big numbers, I call that a pretty solid game.

If you were interested enough to read this far into the review, grab the demo and try it out. It's a rush of nostalgia and feels like something unique at the same time.

"Your name is Bobbo. You are a Barbarian, of Jotunnar descent...Smacking kids with frozen celery has been your biggest regret."~SanctuaryRPG
This game is endless hours of fun, and though it looks simple on top because of its ASCII graphics, this game carries so much charm, quirkiness, and so much joy that it holds attention better than most AAA games I have played. It's classic RPG ideas made new, and made unique in such a way, you can only find an experience like it in this game.

Been playing this game since April and have put in many, many hours. Buy it. Support the developers. Become Barbarian. Kill dragons and slimes. Get murdered by critical hits. Do it all over again as a wizard.

Awesome ASCII art, amazing music, awesome humour, awesome mechanics, awesome potatoes.

Potato/10

I was very surprised by this game. I didn't know fully what to expect when I loaded it up but what I've played thus far I find enjoying. A nice mix of bizarre humor and fun gameplay with cool music and ASCII art. The combat is what I particularily enjoy, it's not just hammer the attack button and win like a lot of RPG's, you have to link your attacks appropriately and reposition yourself to defend against attacks or get totally obliterated. Anyone who looks at the game and thinks they might like it I am sure you will. If you require flashy 3D graphics to enjoy a game then that is unfortunate, but there is a free vanilla version of the game to play on Black Shell Games' website so do yourself a favor by trying it out first and seeing for yourself. I'm sure I've only scratched the surface of this game while playing it as far as what to expect and I can't wait to delve deeper.

I don't write many reviews as I am more of a gamer of actions and less of words, but I had to write one for this game as its an example of a rare gem in the crop of many many games out there (and I have quite a few). I'm also deliberately reviewing it low in the playtime so I can cleanly state the facts as a fresh player, without the bias more hours would bring.

What's the game like? Well simply put, its an old skool RPG Rogue-Like tactical combat game. It has the feel of an old adventure game from the 80s meshed with a TBS from the 90s, a sort of cross between a Rogue and Final Fantasy, with a hint of Douglas's adams Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy for whimsy and charm and a 1st person Ultima game played in ASCII first person for the map. The mix of games sounds like a mess, it should not work, but in reality it holds together well as you have an interesting non-cliche RPG story with humour and a quest to finish, but is fleshed out with other elements like crafting, town base building by using cratables to upgrade the town, random procedual generated dungeons on the map and in the arena in town, all of which ties into the whole experince.

If you are a fan of the old school, early 90s rogue likes and your ultimas and final fanstasy games, please buy this game, as it has this vibe in spades. Also would highly recommend buying if your interested in combat tactics and not just pressing 1 to cast spell or 2 to drink potion, as like MMORPGS and some offline RPGS, your number keys do your class actions (of which there are many) but there is quite alot going on screen at any point, and any tactical errors such as forgetting to heal when bleeding out in one of the rounds, or forgetting to dodge at certain points will lead to death.

In terms of downsides, it does get hard later in the game and you really do need to know how your class skills interact and behave to survive later on and not be dispatched in quick order (but this may also be seen as a positive) and there may be some intitial getting used the interface needed as there is alot going on the screen per turn and when wandering around landscapes and towns, but if you willing to stick with it you get used to the ASCII style quickly.

In summary it's a game that is packaged in a unique, old skool style but it's one that understands the flows of a more modern tatical TBS game while not sacrificing what it means to be old skool in the first place, presented in great quality. That last scentence may not make sense unless you play it, but it is as it is.

I've only played an hour, but what fun I've had. Brings back memories of the early days of PC gaming. Amazingly done with ACSII characters. Old school gamers will enjoy this title.

Games have been released on Steam and described as 'Old School' so is a new tag needed?
Welcome to 'Ancient School'.
This takes me back to a bygone era where good writing with humour fleshing out a game where looks count for little.
There is however a good deal of skill involved i creating recognisable pictures using nothing but the characters on your keyboard.
If you want Call of Duty go elsewhere, if you want intelligent writing then give this a go.
I for one will be following development with interest.

This is what I've been waiting for. A true retro game. This game has no downfalls as far as I can tell. Not one bug, many classes, great ASCII graphics, well written, deep combat, heavy roguelike, I mean, the list goes on and on. For a $5 price tag, I can't see why you shouldn't buy this game. (Unless you dislike text adventures.)