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Decline Jon Van Caneghem introduces Creature Quest for iOS & Android

vonAchdorf

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Yes, just noticed this - I didn't expect the game to be in the soft-launch phase for this long.
 

Shackleton

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You know, at the risk of gaining some kind of derogatory tag, if you can overlook the art style and incredible amount of 'freemium-ness' that infests this, it's not too bad for a mobile game. Yes, I know that's a lot of qualifiers, but there's definitely the JVC hand at work here.

I'm going to say first off that I have a very low level of experience with these sort of games and it's entirely possible they're all like this, but it's got some good qualities. In a nutshell, you have 'energy' you expend to explore, (lol, no exploring here- you just click a section and it reveals itself), and each section of map has either treasure, an encounter, a shop or an item that unlocks items elsewhere on the map. You have a stable of creatures you form battle teams with and in true rock paper scissors style, each creature is one of 7 colours that is strong to one other and weak to another. You basically uncover the maps and fight the encounters until the mission is done.

The creature upgrade paths is what makes it interesting. Each creature, as well as being a colour, also has 'combo colours' that vary from creature to creature. If one creature goes before another and he has the combo dot colour of another creature, that creature can gain a damage bonus which can be considerable if you can unleash a special move against an enemy mob of an opposing colour. Each creature can also fulfil various roles, from single target damage, healing, (of course), AoE damage, increased damage against flying enemies, increased damage against low HP enemies and etc etc.

The creatures can of course be levelled up with gems you find and their stats changed both through tokens you can find, the class you select for them and by evolving them into their next form. Each creature is varying in power, but some weaker creatures may be useful if the colour of their combo dots boost up a more powerful creature.

The downside for me is, as mentioned, the awful amount of freemium cash grabbing. Energy fills over time, but of course you can buy it. You can buy diamonds that enable you to summon stronger creatures. You can buy booster packs that change time limits and all sorts of other bullshit that morons will throw money at.

(as an aside- Man spends stolen million on Game of War. What the actual fuck?)

It's free to try and, like most games of this ilk, it's designed to give you a lot of time to play at the start so you can see if it grabs you. I must confess I started playing it for 10 minutes while waiting for dinner to cook and ended up spending almost an hour on it somehow! I kinda hope it does make JVC a lot of cash and he gets a hankering to make a proper RPG again, but I fear he's too far gone down this path.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
You know, at the risk of gaining some kind of derogatory tag, if you can overlook the art style and incredible amount of 'freemium-ness' that infests this, it's not too bad for a mobile game. Yes, I know that's a lot of qualifiers, but there's definitely the JVC hand at work here.

I'm going to say first off that I have a very low level of experience with these sort of games and it's entirely possible they're all like this, but it's got some good qualities. In a nutshell, you have 'energy' you expend to explore, (lol, no exploring here- you just click a section and it reveals itself), and each section of map has either treasure, an encounter, a shop or an item that unlocks items elsewhere on the map. You have a stable of creatures you form battle teams with and in true rock paper scissors style, each creature is one of 7 colours that is strong to one other and weak to another. You basically uncover the maps and fight the encounters until the mission is done.

The creature upgrade paths is what makes it interesting. Each creature, as well as being a colour, also has 'combo colours' that vary from creature to creature. If one creature goes before another and he has the combo dot colour of another creature, that creature can gain a damage bonus which can be considerable if you can unleash a special move against an enemy mob of an opposing colour. Each creature can also fulfil various roles, from single target damage, healing, (of course), AoE damage, increased damage against flying enemies, increased damage against low HP enemies and etc etc.

The creatures can of course be levelled up with gems you find and their stats changed both through tokens you can find, the class you select for them and by evolving them into their next form. Each creature is varying in power, but some weaker creatures may be useful if the colour of their combo dots boost up a more powerful creature.

The downside for me is, as mentioned, the awful amount of freemium cash grabbing. Energy fills over time, but of course you can buy it. You can buy diamonds that enable you to summon stronger creatures. You can buy booster packs that change time limits and all sorts of other bullshit that morons will throw money at.

(as an aside- Man spends stolen million on Game of War. What the actual fuck?)

It's free to try and, like most games of this ilk, it's designed to give you a lot of time to play at the start so you can see if it grabs you. I must confess I started playing it for 10 minutes while waiting for dinner to cook and ended up spending almost an hour on it somehow! I kinda hope it does make JVC a lot of cash and he gets a hankering to make a proper RPG again, but I fear he's too far gone down this path.

riveting-story.jpg
 

Shackleton

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Plus it drains the battery on my Note 4 like no other app ever. I've had a crash as well so I think an update or two should be on the cards. Still fun though, for a mobile 'pick up and play for 20 minutes' game.
 

Archibald

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As funny/retarded as it sounds, but there is actually some merit there. Most of these games are designed with an idea that you should buy new shit because progression gets harder and harder. In some of them if you decide to stay F2P well then you are essentially fucked, but others have enough loopholes that you can progress and stay competitive if you put in enough effort and time. So someone being good at these Bejeweled type games without spending money is actually more impressive than someone being good at CRPG that has very little challenge (like for example Deadman's Switch on normal).
 

pippin

Guest
It's easier than you think: women love competitve games, and games where numbers go up and get to brag about it. If you add puzzle games to that, then you've struck gold.
It also helps that women are more willing to buy stuff for their games than men. Or at least it takes less effort to convince them. People who preorder stuff and buy day one DLC are women-minded.
 

Shackleton

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture
Flip flop time- it's shit.

Yes, the upgrade paths are nice. Yes, there's a diverse selection of monster skills, weaknesses and passives. Yes, it's easily possible to play without spending a dime and there's no intrusive ads.

However, the bulk of the game consists of running the same maps over and over again in order to get more crystals, to upgrade your creatures more, to run more maps on higher difficulties to get bigger crystals, to upgrade your creatures, to run more maps... etc etc. You get the idea.

There's a semi-PVP section where you plop your mobs in a 'dungeon' and other people try and beat them, just as you're trying to beat other people's so you can climb a ladder that ends in a week and gives you rewards like new creatures so you can run more maps, to get more crystals, to upgrade your creatures.... Zzzz Zzzz. Think of the old system of the PvP ladder in WoW and you get the idea, except this time you can spend real money to get better! Yes, what a great mechanic that is.
:decline:

There's also a 'tower' that is just a path of progressively harder fights that give you rewards to make it more rewarding to run maps, to get crystals, to upgrade your creatures, to run maps...

Did I mention you grind maps out? Yeah, I think I did.

Sorry JVC, but this is worse than Might and Magic Clash of Heroes. (Yes, I know he had nothing to do with that.)
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I think these mobile games aren't meant to be played for long amounts of time in one sitting, so the typical player might not notice the grind and lack of variety over time. For them it's just another ten minutes of Creature Quest.
 
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pippin

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Yeah,mobile games are menat to be played on the way to work or school, be it on the bus or subway. It's not like you *sit down* to play them.
 

Gal

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Hey guys,
I've been playing this game during the last three months for around 2-3 (sometimes 4) hours a day in average and I must say I'm fvcking addicted. It's a bit hard at the beginning because of energy and lack of creatures but in the long term you can outmatch p2w players.

Did I mention you grind maps out? Yeah, I think I did.

It's not that bad, I set a rule for myself to stop after I have enough dupes for the awakening which means around 15-20 times during the week (around a few mns each time), then go with what I got and if I didn't catch the very rare 4 dots so be it, they come eventually in a form or another.
 

commie

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Hey guys,
I've been playing this game during the last three months for around 2-3 (sometimes 4) hours a day in average and I must say I'm fvcking addicted. It's a bit hard at the beginning because of energy and lack of creatures but in the long term you can outmatch p2w players.

Did I mention you grind maps out? Yeah, I think I did.

It's not that bad, I set a rule for myself to stop after I have enough dupes for the awakening which means around 15-20 times during the week (around a few mns each time), then go with what I got and if I didn't catch the very rare 4 dots so be it, they come eventually in a form or another.

'Sup Jon?
 

Gal

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Oct 20, 2016
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'Sup Jon?

Believe me if I were Jon I would have bought the IP back and make a real MM game instead of the shit the Ubi morons have been doing with it. Maybe that will happen if CQ does good enough, what the brand needs is an exorcism.
 

Diggfinger

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Mr. Gal is right on point, this game is awesome:
- Classic JVC 'easy to get in to, difficult to master' gameplay
- Charming visuals with nice hand-drawn maps, (more than 500!) distinct creatures and colorful backgrounds
- Nice TB combat with sufficient depth to keep it interesting
- Addictive grinding to level up your creatures and find new ones
- Nice difficulty spikes - expect regular ass-whooping

only thing ass-y is the very limited energy levels you start out with. You cant even finish medium-sized maps and will have to take breaks for the thing to count back up. Also,the P2P segment (dungeon challenge) occasionally seems arbitrary: enemy players are somehow massively below or above your own level (lack to players?).

Nevertheless, these are small issues which don't distract from the overall satisfying experience.
This is not a new entry in the M&M or HoMM series, and people expecting that will disappointed.
It is, however, proof that JVC is capable of providing high-quality RPG(lite)s on mobile devices, with all the limitations that platform entails.

- Digg
 
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Maggot

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire
I can't resist more JVC even if it's mobileshit. At least it's not SJW shit
jbuwdv.png
 

Gal

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Oct 20, 2016
Messages
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Also,the P2P segment (dungeon challenge) occasionally seems arbitrary: enemy players are somehow massively below or above your own level (lack to players?)

It's not arbitrary, but you need to spend more time thinking than fighting, except during the last hours.
I doubt it lacks players, seems more like a design decision to me.
I still find the defense system rather poor and hope it will improve. BTW energy is not a problem once you progress, and since latest patch you receive +25 free energy for each level up.

Maggot said:
Bad Kitty

Yeah those are quite weak.
 
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Gal

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Yes the creature artwork is really great.

I personally don't like it when units look like prostitutes but really there is enough variety among the +500 creatures for all tastes, and for the most part I find them charming. Visual FX are made by Tracy Iwata and make battles feel lively.
Despite it being of course a mobile game with such bright tones and "vector"-styled interfaces put over hand-drawn images that might repel some I agree the game looks quite good in general. Much better than the average mobile game IMO

Sad that we can't have a mobile M&M game with such creature design instead.

Honestly the UBI shit are the bootlegs and CQ is the actual MM mobile game.
 

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