Would love to hear peoples experiences with any of the demos out for this Next Fest.
A standout for me is Sea of Stars, and it seems the demo runs perfectly so far!
Let’s collect some recommendations here for others to join in
Thanks for the write ups - I’ll give En Garde a try!
Edit: I gave it a go and it was fun! The setting is lovely and vibrant, and dodging, parrying and kicking boxes at enemies is awesome.
The Steam Deck performance wasn’t great though - I had to turn down a bunch of the settings to get a somewhat stable 50fps. I set the frame rate limit in-game rather than using the SteamOS/Gamescope settings as I’ve heard the latter introduces some input lag. Unfortunately 40fps wasn’t an option in-game, which I would have preferred. Apparently the game will be better optimised for the Deck when it releases though!
I tried Memori, a Celeste-style platformer with some cool puzzle mechanics. Some of the rooms were super-hard, which made completing them feel very satisfying. It has a chunky-pixel look and controls really well. The front-end UI needs a tiny bit of polish, but other than that I really enjoyed it. Can imagine it’ll be popular with speedrunners.
I’ve played the Lies of P demo. Very Bloodborne-ish, hoping to see how the rest of the game fares. The only thing is that dodging initially doesn’t move you much at all and so it can feel useless but you can upgrade that later on
That’s my biggest complaint with it. The dodge feels borderline useless but mandatory. It’s like it wants you to use their perfect parry system but there’s no reward for using it. The timing is inconsistent and it won’t even stagger enemies half the time, and will never stagger a boss until they’re nearly dead anyway. The risk of missing the parry isn’t really worth it most of the time when the only reward is no damage taken. Also the hit boxing against bosses and large enemies is extremely deceptive. Like the first boss had me struggling until I realized that I could dodge most of the attacks easily, even though all his animations still looked like they were hitting me. On the other hand the second boss has attacks that seem to track and connect no matter what, even if they seem like they’re a mile away.
Yeah the second boss made parrying seem mandatory which was annoying as hell. I also had the issue of getting stuck between the bosses with dodging so I couldn’t move anywhere
I realize it’s a demo but I thought about it more and I realized that, at least in the demo version (which is only the very early game), there’s a particular play style that is better. For a game designed to let you build to your play style, it seems to really gear you towards a faster, more mobile, parry heavy play style. Tanking isn’t viable, and the heavier weapon set leaves you too slow and unable to recover against aggressive enemies like the second boss. Hoping that’s not the case for the full game, plenty of other games have OP early bosses (wo long immediately comes to mind) and balance issues before release. It’s got way more positive things going for it than negative so far.
I really enjoyed the demo for Station to Station. It reminds me a lot of Mini Metro in how you connect all the stations, but the aesthetic is wonderful (not that mini metro isn’t)
I wanted to like it, but it’s a little too much puzzle and not enough train.
I definitely want to try the Christmas Carol Metroidvania. I believe it is called EBENEZER AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD. Anyone play it yet? I am always down for Christmas carol stuff for some reason.
I did, I was very into the idea but unfortunately it was pretty disappointing. Reviewed it in more detail a bit down the thread.
Yeah, I ended up reading the write up. It’s too bad. Did you review Heroes of Hammerwatch II? It’s an interesting game, although I think it is a little rough around the edges and with the combat system. But I love ARPGs that are more focused on a tactile combat system. Interested to see other people’s takes on it.
