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Game News Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest Released

Infinitron

I post news
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Tags: Ctrl Alt Ninja; Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest

Back in 2014, Almost Human released the modern classic Legend of Grimrock 2. Having perfected the genre they set out to revive, its developers scattered to the four winds. Nobody was expecting them to resurface two and a half years later as a new studio called Ctrl Alt Ninja and with a game that couldn't be more different. You've heard the story before. Within less than a year, Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest had transformed from a procedurally generated forest exploration roguelike into a deterministic set piece-based tactics game inspired by the likes of HeroQuest and Into the Breach. With little hype and marketing fanfare, the game went through alpha and beta and now it's out. Instead of another trailer, Ctrl Alt Ninja have recorded an official 15 minute gameplay video, which is always a good idea. Watch it here:



Evil is afoot in Menhir Forest. The druids, the caretakers of the woods, are troubled: their archdruid has disappeared under deeply suspicious circumstances, and a cancerous growth of purple cysts is spreading, carrying corruption and sickness wherever they appear. It takes a special kind of hero to save the day. Or maybe more than one.

Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest is a labor of love from the co-creators of the critically acclaimed Legend of Grimrock series. Druidstone is a tactical, single-player, turn-based roleplaying game, which combines the best qualities of modern RPGs with the elegance of tactical boardgames. Every action, every turn counts as you control your party of heroes through handcrafted, challenging missions with varying, and often surprising, objectives.

Set in a unique fantasy world, Druidstone is filled with ancient lush forests, standing stones, snow-topped mountains, deadly creatures and puzzle-ridden ruins. And somewhere in the middle of all of this, caught in the flow of events, are Aava, the archdruid's daughter, who must now shoulder his responsibilities, Leonhard, a warden with a mysterious past and a lethal destiny, and Oiko, the failed Red Priest who is living proof that one may be very smart without being particularly wise. Along the way, they meet companions and villains, whose unique personalities and abilities make every encounter memorable.

Key Features

  • A tactical turn-based and tile-based battle system where every action and every turn counts.
  • Upgrade the abilities of your heroes – your upgrade choices have a dramatic impact on the characters' capabilities!
  • Obtain upgrade gems by completing missions and discovering hidden treasures.
  • 35 challenging, hand-crafted missions with playtimes ranging from 15 minutes to 45 minutes.
  • Solve devious non-combat puzzle levels to gain extra upgrade resources.
  • Find lost shipments to gain access to the best gear in Steelface's Emporium of Curios.
  • A gripping, fantastic story of love, death and responsibility centered around the main characters of Aava, Leonhard and Oiko.
  • A unique fantasy setting that combines the best elements from western RPGs, JRPGs and tactical boardgames in unexpected ways.
  • Play custom missions created by others, or make your own campaigns with the Druidstone Level Editor (available as a post-release update).
  • Total playtime ranging from 15 to 20 hours.

These guys are clearly professionals who know how to make a polished game, but have their design instincts successfully transferred to this new genre? Early reports tell of a simple yet remarkably difficult game with challenging optional objectives and punishing countdowns. There's only one review that I can find right now, but we hope to have one of our own in the not-too-distant future. If you'd like to offer your own opinion, you can grab Druidstone now at Steam or GOG for $25 with a 5% launch discount until next week.
 
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ikarinokami

Augur
Joined
May 5, 2013
Messages
109
Not the TOEE successor I thought it was gonna be. it's an OK game. guess I'm back to counting the seconds until the release of Beyond the Realms, and killing time with Deadfire turn base mode, a little xcom 2 and sprinkles of BattleTech.
 

Feyd Rautha

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while you should be expecting to restart things when playing on hard, this is still bullshit, because it doesn't feel like it's your fault that made you screw up and restart
Just checking, why are you playing on hard? The game explicitly states that the game is very difficult on hard and not recommended when playing for the first time. Sounds like Normal difficulty would be more fun for you. Maybe we should have named Hard 'Challenge Mode' or something, because we intended it for people to play after finishing the game once.

btw. you can change difficulty any time. Saying just in case you haven't noticed...

Hehe Darth Roxor thought he was good at gaming and played on hard when he obviously should have played on medium (protip: read the descriptions of the difficulty settings). Maybe it's because he usually plays Skyrim or whatever where "hard" means easy.
 

Gwendo

Augur
Joined
Aug 22, 2004
Messages
989
This game is all aboue infinite spawning of enemies, making you have to rush to do the right moves or you'll just die. It's about repeating the levels again and again until you find The Right Way to pass that level.

What a disapointment.
 

Fred

Learned
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Messages
128
while you should be expecting to restart things when playing on hard, this is still bullshit, because it doesn't feel like it's your fault that made you screw up and restart
Just checking, why are you playing on hard? The game explicitly states that the game is very difficult on hard and not recommended when playing for the first time. Sounds like Normal difficulty would be more fun for you. Maybe we should have named Hard 'Challenge Mode' or something, because we intended it for people to play after finishing the game once.

btw. you can change difficulty any time. Saying just in case you haven't noticed...

Hehe Darth Roxor thought he was good at gaming and played on hard when he obviously should have played on medium (protip: read the descriptions of the difficulty settings). Maybe it's because he usually plays Skyrim or whatever where "hard" means easy.
Seems he's enjoying it tho from his latest post.
I enjoy it too, just trying to get the bonus objective in the first stage was fun for me.
Also, you can prevent spawns by positioning yourself on the spawn point (which was necessary for the first level bonus objective).
You can replay the levels with half XP gain (which imo is necessary for some bonus objective, like killing the basilisks), and upgrade some abilities/change or upgrade equipment between stages. It's not at all a xcom like, and as some said it's more of a puzzle game, but still I really like it. (btw from what DR said he was still in the first hour of the game, the basilisk mission is the first real one, so those were really early game impressions).
 

Fred

Learned
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Messages
128
You can skip the level intro dialog by maintaining space (useful when you retry a lot :D)
 

Fred

Learned
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Messages
128
Now that I'm a good 10 levels into it, the puzzle part faded, it's only puzzle like in the first 3 levels, after that it's a lot more tactical/ressource management.
Also, the first bonus objective necessitate planning and very precise actions, but sadly after that the goals are more common and a lot easier to do.
Still enjoying the game a lot. It isn't really a spoiler but I'll spoil it anyway.
After the 4th mission you unlock a merchant and by doing one of his task it unlock an item that summon 3 chars (you have 3 yourself, so even if they have little HP they're still very useful, borderline OP imo, especially for the price). Should be nerfed fast imo.
 

Darth Roxor

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while you should be expecting to restart things when playing on hard, this is still bullshit, because it doesn't feel like it's your fault that made you screw up and restart
Just checking, why are you playing on hard? The game explicitly states that the game is very difficult on hard and not recommended when playing for the first time. Sounds like Normal difficulty would be more fun for you. Maybe we should have named Hard 'Challenge Mode' or something, because we intended it for people to play after finishing the game once.

btw. you can change difficulty any time. Saying just in case you haven't noticed...

Hehe Darth Roxor thought he was good at gaming and played on hard when he obviously should have played on medium (protip: read the descriptions of the difficulty settings). Maybe it's because he usually plays Skyrim or whatever where "hard" means easy.

hehe whoa you got me here old bean

fn5jb6.jpg
 

thesheeep

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Doesn't look too bad. I just hope it's not just another puzzle disguising as combat, as Into The Breach is.
Anyway... is it just me or does the music sound like the most generic jRPG music possible? I expected some anime girl flashing a victory sign into the screen at any moment.
 

luj1

You're all shills
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Nobody was expecting them to resurface two and a half years later as a new studio called Ctrl Alt Ninja and with a game that couldn't be more different.

Yeah, it's so incredibly mind-blowingly different *drumroll* ...that it uses recycled Grimrock assets, but with an isometric perspective and dressed in JRPG tripe.

Could you be more dramatic about it?
 
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*-*/\--/\~

Cipher
Joined
Jul 10, 2014
Messages
909
Damn, what a disappointment. I really wanted to like it, but the mobile trash vibe is just too strong.

Shame on me for naively expecting some sort of ToEE Lite I guess. ;/
 

Thalion

Novice
Joined
Aug 2, 2017
Messages
16
Doesn't look too bad. I just hope it's not just another puzzle disguising as combat, as Into The Breach is.

It feels like a simplified D:OS2 combat system. Attacks deal the exact damage they say they do, there is no missing attacks, but it still feels like a turn based RPG rather than a puzzle game.
 

*-*/\--/\~

Cipher
Joined
Jul 10, 2014
Messages
909
Petrification effect doesn't stop characters for moving and acting. :decline:

It does. You first get a "Petrifying" effect for one turn so you can do something about it. If you don't, it turns into "Petrified" and you're fucked. :D
 

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