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\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tRecommended
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t6.7 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(2.3 hrs at review time)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 6\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDirect from Steam\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tAlthough I've only played this game for (at this point) for a little over 2hrs, the game has impressed me thus far, It has obvious inspirations from Darkest Dungeon but they seemed to have fixed every pain-point and allowed for more early-game player choice, resulting in a game that gives a lot of power to the player whilst still being punishing and difficult. If you're a fan of modded Darkest Dungeon and, like me, felt like there was so much more still missing despite modding the game, The Hidden Scrolls may sate that feeling in you.
From the get-go, the biggest differences are as follows:
- 8 Character Placement Slots but still only a 4 man party
- Traversing the map has 2 different paths to the same major node
- Shopkeeper exists within the starter node instead of before the mission
- Bamboo slip system based off RNG after missions as an extra reward
- Arbitrary level limitation has been removed
- Enemies have their own 'sanity' bar called 'frenzy' (in English)
- Greater town and hero development
The 8 party slots and the general strength and strong sense of identity of each character type and their skills gives you the freedom to decide whatever kind of team composition you want with a greater sense of flexibility. You're allowed to make 'stupid' configurations like 4 back-liners as long as you're willing to handle the consequences of enemies that can force them to the front-line. Each retainer has 8 skills already unlocked that you can choose from to decide their identity and how to build them right from the start, with only 4 allowed to be active. Despite having ZERO cooldowns or limits for each ability in terms of use, each ability has such good strengths that it gets difficult to decide and lock-down abilities for whichever character you decide it for. The same retainer can have majorly differing roles just from stat differences from Interests and Talents in the early game.
Allowing 2 different paths back and forth let's the player choose how much risk they want to incur each time they travel, this along with the rations and stamina system also allows for better character customisation because the more specialised the character, the more rations you need for them as they travel. Allowing customisation without overly tedious penalty.
The shop-keeper being in a node was odd at first, but it allows for a degree of back-tracking and also path-planning that lets you make your own best route to figuring the generated map. Anyone who's a fan of the bigger maps mod for DD will appreciate this. Also, going backwards gives NO morale damage so that's one more tedious mechanic gone. Every encounter you face is moreso a chance to obtain extra benefits provided you have the needed resource or successfully accomplish the challenge.
The bamboo slips are an extra reward after completing a mission. Instead of feeling like your reward can range from 50% to 110% if RNG favors you, it feels more like a 80% to 160% reward if you get lucky, just a small feature to make you feel good after finishing expeditions. It's also up to you when you want to burn the bamboo slips, instead of something you HAVE to do every expedition.
In DD one of the dumbest things was having these characters in a grim setting be so prideful for no reason and refusing to go on lower-level missions, ensuring at least one of them would die if you weren't careful enough as you'd be forced to send them to missions under-equipped (no good charms and no upgraded equipment) and facing almost certain death. That artificially 'difficult' though mainly tedious system has been removed here.
Enemy sanity bars. Some reviews have stated that it's pointless to bring skills that target these, but they're such a good part of allowing more complexity for battles. Most enemies in the early game have Frenzy within the 60 to 79 range. Allowing just ONE or TWO Frenzy-based skills to push them over the edge. When frenzied, enemies lose their next turn and lose HALF their health. This with the dynamic initiative system and enemies being rather lethal, forces you to consider their usefulness and I always pack at least one Frenzy skill to take advantage of this. There were multiple times where I have saved a retainer from being killed just because I decided to commit to trying to Frenzy an enemy, a lot of Frenzy skills also have other buffs given to the player so it's not just a worthless skill when it doesn't end up filling the enemy frenzy bar.
Though, the bosses are where this starts to fall off, because they receive less frenzy AND start at 0 frenzy. Which makes the frenzy system only useful for their minions (still quite helpful) but definitely nowhere near as integral to your gameplan when compared to fighting regular enemies.
All the town NPCs and retainer types have certain quests you can complete passively (some harder than others) that let you upgrade certain aspects of them, this is another example of the early game giving players more initiative to do things however they'd like right from the beginning.
Despite obviously being inspired by DD, there's so much in this game that fixes so much tedium from DD as well as establishing its own identity with strong synergies with skills from different retainers and so much more power given to the player from the start without letting you be too strong. No random 'punishments' or debuffs to sell the setting, and instead chances to improve your town and aid your townspeople.
Though, the biggest issue with the game definitely has to be the weak UI and menus. They can feel rather cheap like those in mobile games. It can somewhat break the otherwise amazing aesthetics of the game and the music.
I would recommend this game to anyone who wanted more from DD.
TLDR:
DD but better. Better player-choice, town management, more rewarding, cooler unit synergy and a better dungeon system. Enemies not being tedious and annoying. Basically all obnoxious design decisions gone without making the game too easy.\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\tFrom the get-go, the biggest differences are as follows:
- 8 Character Placement Slots but still only a 4 man party
- Traversing the map has 2 different paths to the same major node
- Shopkeeper exists within the starter node instead of before the mission
- Bamboo slip system based off RNG after missions as an extra reward
- Arbitrary level limitation has been removed
- Enemies have their own 'sanity' bar called 'frenzy' (in English)
- Greater town and hero development
The 8 party slots and the general strength and strong sense of identity of each character type and their skills gives you the freedom to decide whatever kind of team composition you want with a greater sense of flexibility. You're allowed to make 'stupid' configurations like 4 back-liners as long as you're willing to handle the consequences of enemies that can force them to the front-line. Each retainer has 8 skills already unlocked that you can choose from to decide their identity and how to build them right from the start, with only 4 allowed to be active. Despite having ZERO cooldowns or limits for each ability in terms of use, each ability has such good strengths that it gets difficult to decide and lock-down abilities for whichever character you decide it for. The same retainer can have majorly differing roles just from stat differences from Interests and Talents in the early game.
Allowing 2 different paths back and forth let's the player choose how much risk they want to incur each time they travel, this along with the rations and stamina system also allows for better character customisation because the more specialised the character, the more rations you need for them as they travel. Allowing customisation without overly tedious penalty.
The shop-keeper being in a node was odd at first, but it allows for a degree of back-tracking and also path-planning that lets you make your own best route to figuring the generated map. Anyone who's a fan of the bigger maps mod for DD will appreciate this. Also, going backwards gives NO morale damage so that's one more tedious mechanic gone. Every encounter you face is moreso a chance to obtain extra benefits provided you have the needed resource or successfully accomplish the challenge.
The bamboo slips are an extra reward after completing a mission. Instead of feeling like your reward can range from 50% to 110% if RNG favors you, it feels more like a 80% to 160% reward if you get lucky, just a small feature to make you feel good after finishing expeditions. It's also up to you when you want to burn the bamboo slips, instead of something you HAVE to do every expedition.
In DD one of the dumbest things was having these characters in a grim setting be so prideful for no reason and refusing to go on lower-level missions, ensuring at least one of them would die if you weren't careful enough as you'd be forced to send them to missions under-equipped (no good charms and no upgraded equipment) and facing almost certain death. That artificially 'difficult' though mainly tedious system has been removed here.
Enemy sanity bars. Some reviews have stated that it's pointless to bring skills that target these, but they're such a good part of allowing more complexity for battles. Most enemies in the early game have Frenzy within the 60 to 79 range. Allowing just ONE or TWO Frenzy-based skills to push them over the edge. When frenzied, enemies lose their next turn and lose HALF their health. This with the dynamic initiative system and enemies being rather lethal, forces you to consider their usefulness and I always pack at least one Frenzy skill to take advantage of this. There were multiple times where I have saved a retainer from being killed just because I decided to commit to trying to Frenzy an enemy, a lot of Frenzy skills also have other buffs given to the player so it's not just a worthless skill when it doesn't end up filling the enemy frenzy bar.
Though, the bosses are where this starts to fall off, because they receive less frenzy AND start at 0 frenzy. Which makes the frenzy system only useful for their minions (still quite helpful) but definitely nowhere near as integral to your gameplan when compared to fighting regular enemies.
All the town NPCs and retainer types have certain quests you can complete passively (some harder than others) that let you upgrade certain aspects of them, this is another example of the early game giving players more initiative to do things however they'd like right from the beginning.
Despite obviously being inspired by DD, there's so much in this game that fixes so much tedium from DD as well as establishing its own identity with strong synergies with skills from different retainers and so much more power given to the player from the start without letting you be too strong. No random 'punishments' or debuffs to sell the setting, and instead chances to improve your town and aid your townspeople.
Though, the biggest issue with the game definitely has to be the weak UI and menus. They can feel rather cheap like those in mobile games. It can somewhat break the otherwise amazing aesthetics of the game and the music.
I would recommend this game to anyone who wanted more from DD.
TLDR:
DD but better. Better player-choice, town management, more rewarding, cooler unit synergy and a better dungeon system. Enemies not being tedious and annoying. Basically all obnoxious design decisions gone without making the game too easy.\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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