Operencia: The Stolen Sun - turn-based blobber by Hungarian pinball devs

[User0001]

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS GAY SHIT?!??!

Just beat the game with full difficulty

... and this mega gay ass excuse of a game gave me THIS..

.. lame token cracker award?!?!


Motherfucker, what do you mean AT LEAST two!?!? Restricted save & no map is as commendable as permadeath & harder enemies or everything combined?!?!? GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!!!


Good game up until halfway point. Slowly, slowly went downhill in all regards into full shit from chapters 6 to 12..

 

[cvv]

U rolled with permadeath on it 1st run User0001? First try no restarts?

 

[User0001]

Yes, think I got lucky with choosing mage as starting character as they have some extreme OP damage-over-time spells, and enemies with resistance can be manipulated with a lot of resistance-lowering spells/talents.
There were a few times on the brink of total death. Luckily on those occasions the tank didn't get critted and survived with about 10-20% hp into our turn, being able to reload and tweak character setup.

Spoiler

Got a post-credit end about a Baba Jaga mom, but maybe everyone gets it?
Are there any more "hidden" bosses except Bob in Lake Ann?

What made me irritated about some pointless achievement is the passive-aggressive jab from the developer's against playing it on full difficulty, when it felt like the tension and restrictions helped mitigate the games bad aspects. It's like they're saying that the visual experience was the only important thing they ever wanted to convey. FUUUCK THAT SHIT! That is some wannabe MYST-rpg™ bullshit. Especially when 2/5 of the locations were visually shit and boring.


I genuinely wanted to like this game

 

[Mark Richard]

now you can enjoy the story

The story isn't that bad. Generic, sure, but the main issue is it's an intrusive element ill-suited for the genre. Every few steps is punished by a cast of characters who always have something to say, even when they don't. Reminds me of the time way back when I created a point & click adventure quest for an MMO, regularly bringing the action to a halt so players could drink in the 'brilliance' of my writing.

I do like Operencia. I only wish the writing didn't have such an air of desperation, as if the writer were auditioning for other games. Chris Avellone's contribution on Into the Breach invoked many chuckles, but the guy was secure enough in his nonessential role to not smother the gameplay with overbearing dialogue sequences.

the first map boss is pretty difficult, but yeah, respeccing is vital key of the game. it is unconventional, but works somehow as a layer of strategy. feels like selecting spells or equipment in other RPGs but more fundamental. everytime you get stuck on an enemy or a boss, learn their weaknesses and rebuild your character that accommodate the boss's weaknesses. it doesn't feel decline at all, it feels like integral part of the game because selecting the right build against the right enemy at least require you to understand the enemies' attributes so the bosses are a bit puzzle-y matching your available skills with them.
the first boss in second dungeon works the same way. i got stuck 2-3 times, respec according to their weaknesses got trough and continue and so on.

Changing the party's specialization becomes increasingly unnecessary the further along you get, it's just a glaring annoyance at the earlier stages which is further compounded by those useless default layouts. Nullifying the thief's poison skill the second he joins the party is a travesty of encounter design.

 

[cvv]

What made me irritated about some pointless achievement

I'm an achievement whore and that would piss me off too. The best example of an achievement for uber challenge done right I've seen recently is surprisingly by Ubisoft. If you finish Far Cry Primal on the hardest difficulty/survival mode/permadeath you'll get a fat golden cheevo, some Ubi credits (standard) and a video from devs talking about this diff. a congratulating you.

Anyway props for your run, especially for killing Bob on permadeath, I'd be shitting myself going into this fight blind.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Are there any more "hidden" bosses

Spoiler

except Bob in Lake Ann?

Did you find, when returning to Balvanyos,

Spoiler

The Rator King? IIRC, you need to have acquired the magic boots from the Copper Forest part 2 in order to access this secret.

 

[User0001]

Yes! Guess that's it then.

 

[DalekFlay]

What made me irritated about some pointless achievement is the passive-aggressive jab from the developer's against playing it on full difficulty, when it felt like the tension and restrictions helped mitigate the games bad aspects. It's like they're saying that the visual experience was the only important thing they ever wanted to convey. FUUUCK THAT SHIT! That is some wannabe MYST-rpg™ bullshit. Especially when 2/5 of the locations were visually shit and boring.

You could just not give a fuck about achievements and play on full difficulty for your own experience and sense of accomplishment.

 

[cvv]

You could just not give a fuck about achievements

No, you don't understand....it's a thing.

 

[User0001]

What made me irritated about some pointless achievement is the passive-aggressive jab from the developer's against playing it on full difficulty, when it felt like the tension and restrictions helped mitigate the games bad aspects. It's like they're saying that the visual experience was the only important thing they ever wanted to convey. FUUUCK THAT SHIT! That is some wannabe MYST-rpg™ bullshit. Especially when 2/5 of the locations were visually shit and boring.

You could just not give a fuck about achievements and play on full difficulty for your own experience and sense of accomplishment.

You're getting it wrong, it's not about brag right for myself nor to anyone else. I started the game on the difficulty I thought would give me most enjoyment, not for the accomplishment. It's about what that achievement communicated.

I wouldn't be giving a fuck, had the game held up better overall. The indication of the developers thought about their game bothers me. Features they gave focus on (visual exploration and puzzle) became worse and worse, and features they seemingly care less about (tension and struggle) made the sloping experience bearable.
Then came that stinky cherry on top achievement-disguised statement, LITTERELY shoved right in your face when you've just drudged your way through a messy half of the game, telling you the bad aspects were the whole point. I just think it's quite sad and disheartening.

 

[DalekFlay]

Sounds like you just didn't dig the game that much. There was no reward for finishing World of Xeen other than the sense of accomplishment you felt for yourself, and the fun you had along the way. I don't think daddy developer needs to give you that validation, you should just enjoy it or not enjoy it.

 

[User0001]

I don't think daddy developer needs to give you that validation, you should just enjoy it or not enjoy it.

Yes, achievements are bad. Especially when you as developer intrusively tell the player what the game is and isn't about without knowing it yourself.

 

[Whisper]

It's not really like char building in other RPG. So far there is no "optimum" build for everything, it's more like which skills works with which enemy types.

I never changed my party skills in last 2 maps.
On hardest difficulty.


You need only change few times due to "lol immune to fire/poison" mobs at start-middle of game when you dont have enough points to grab all types of damage spells.

 

[Whisper]

Also, Firestorm is OP. Except last battle and few immune to fire mobs it just WINS battle after being used.
It has unlimited duration and hits like for 30-40 dmg per turn to each enemy.

Even if your full party dies (not a problem, Csilla can give full hp to whole party with like 30% mana), your tank can just turtle and spam defencive skills - and you win by skipping turns.

Someone say this game is balanced?

Choose mage and on hardest difficulty game is easy.

 

[User0001]

Also, Firestorm is OP. Except last battle and few immune to fire mobs it just WINS battle after being used.
It has unlimited duration and hits like for 30-40 dmg per turn to each enemy.

Even if your full party dies (not a problem, Csilla can give full hp to whole party with like 30% mana), your tank can just turtle and spam defencive skills - and you win by skipping turns.

Someone say this game is balanced?

Choose mage and on hardest difficulty game is easy.

Totally agree. Any statement I may have made earlier about balance was inb4 firestorm. Mage is op.

I never changed my party skills in last 2 maps.
On hardest difficulty.


You need only change few times due to "lol immune to fire/poison" mobs at start-middle of game when you dont have enough points to grab all types of damage spells.

Even fire-resistance can be negated with a few resistance-lowering talents/skills and items. Think only two bosses were totally immune.

 

[HoboForEternity]

It's not really like char building in other RPG. So far there is no "optimum" build for everything, it's more like which skills works with which enemy types.

I never changed my party skills in last 2 maps.
On hardest difficulty.


You need only change few times due to "lol immune to fire/poison" mobs at start-middle of game when you dont have enough points to grab all types of damage spells.

Yeah it was basically for the frog boss, then the fire resisting skulls in reka's tomb. I have been doing it for less now that i got more skill points and new party .

 

[cvv]

There's one fight with 5 or 6 ice skulls in the Attila tomb I had to respec for. They always stacked so much ice AOE on my dudes on turn 1 that my party was totally wiped on turn 2 once the ice splosions kicked in. It's an optional fight but I couldn't do it without high Wisdom.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

There was no reward for finishing World of Xeen other than the sense of accomplishment you felt for yourself, and the fun you had along the way.

 

[newtmonkey]

I put a few hours into this game yesterday, and my initial thoughts are that it is basically a Bard's Tale IV clone that is better than BTIV in nearly every way that counts.

First of all, I'm willing to cut even a poor turn-based blobber slack just because blobbers are my favorite types of games. That means I could forgive a lot of the worst stuff in BTIV and enjoyed it enough to complete it. Having said that, I'm quite pleased with Operencia almost right off the bat.

I was pleased to find that even the very first dungeon in Operencia is larger and more "complicated" than any dungeon in BTIV. It's also nice that each puzzle seems to be unique so far, whereas BTIV just reused the same 3-4 puzzles throughout its 45+ hour quest. The puzzles make more sense too, in that you are typically solving some puzzle to unlock a door; contrast with BTIV where you would be strolling along a path in the woods and have to solve a sliding block puzzle just to get from one settlement to the next... that's just dumb.

There's nothing exciting about the combat yet, which makes it pretty comparable to BTIV in that respect. I was also pleasantly surprised to find treasure chests with actual treasure in them and to see enemies dropping actual loot in the form of useful equipment; in BTIV, you'd often solve a puzzle and open a chest only to get literal garbage (weeds, pieces of wood).

The only thing I miss is party creation, which even BTIV (eventually) gives you.

The worst aspect of the game by far is the dialog. The characters are not interesting at all, and I don't know if something was lost in translation, but reading their dialog puts me to sleep. It doesn't help that the game was clearly made for consoles as the game is capable of displaying only a single sentence at a time and you need to click after every fucking sentence to advance the dialog. It's tiring.

This is all wrong, this game is actually worse than BTIV!

 

[DalekFlay]

There was no reward for finishing World of Xeen other than the sense of accomplishment you felt for yourself, and the fun you had along the way.

...

I'm sure tons of people bought and finished World of Xeen so they could be on a random list in a drawer somewhere at New World HQ, not because they had fun playing it.

 

[cvv]

my initial thoughts are that it is basically a Bard's Tale IV clone

Eh, not really. BT4 is a full-fat RPG whereas Operencia is fundamentally a simple dungeon crawler in the Dungeon Master vein. Nothing wrong about that mind you, more complex doesn't necessarily mean more fun, of which BT4 is a great example.

 

[V_K]

What on earth is """complex""" about BT4?

 

[cvv]

What on earth is """complex""" about BT4?

You think it's not more complex than Operencia? Or you just WANT to be a lame edgelord here?

Seriously dude, lately whatever I post in anywhere you always take a jab at it. Did I fuck your sister? Or not fuck her? Or what's your problem?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I liked bt4 more than operencia tbh

 

[V_K]

What on earth is """complex""" about BT4?

You think it's not more complex than Operencia?

Oh, I haven't played Operencia, it might be simplistic as fuck for all I know. But seeing "complex" and "BT4" is a single sentence triggers me. The only thing less complex I can think of is Progress Quest.

Seriously dude, lately whatever I post in anywhere you always take a jab at it. Did I fuck your sister? Or not fuck her? Or what's your problem?

I'm a simple guy: I see something jab-worthy - I jab. It's not my fault you're posting a lot of WTFs lately.