Banquet for Fools - party-based RTwP in Serpent of the Staglands setting - coming to Early Access on September 30th

[buffalo bill]

This is Banquet for fools:

Imo looks like a low rent Baldur's Gate with more cartoony character models. Mainly my issue is that the atmosphere this evokes is a generic fantasy game like I've seen 1000 times before.



Here's SitS:

Has a unique and non-generic atmosphere and nothing is cartoony. Way better imo.

Also, here's Mechajammer to remind you that THAT is what they settled on for the art style after tons of art direction changes.

 

[Jaesun]

I like the art style they are using and I'm ok with the RTwP. Will keep an eye on this. Good luck

 

[Lyre Mors]

looks like a low rent Baldur's Gate with more cartoony character models. Mainly my issue is that the atmosphere this evokes is a generic fantasy game like I've seen 1000 times before.

If that's really what you see, I don't know what to tell you man. There is literally no game out there that looks quite like how this looks, particularly in motion. I agree that I loved the look of Serpent, but calling this "low rent Baldur's Gate except cartoony" shows an aesthetic blind spot on your part, or an overwhelming bias towards the first game's style. I hope they stick strongly to this style and simply refine it through EA.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I'm okay with the art style but they removed the most humanoid race of SiTS and replaced it with a goddamn green gorilla.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

This is Banquet for fools:

Imo looks like a low rent Baldur's Gate with more cartoony character models. Mainly my issue is that the atmosphere this evokes is a generic fantasy game like I've seen 1000 times before.



Here's SitS:

Has a unique and non-generic atmosphere and nothing is cartoony. Way better imo.

Also, here's Mechajammer to remind you that THAT is what they settled on for the art style after tons of art direction changes.

To me, these Stagland and Banquet screenshots evoke almost exactly the same atmosphere. Personally, I prefer the new art style, but I admit that the color palette is reminiscent of PoE, so in that sense a bit generic.

However, by far the biggest thing that needs to be vastly improved here is the gameplay. Stagland had atrocious gameplay.

 

[Darkozric]

Art style is ok, not that I'm crazy about it, but I prefer it over something like this for example.

I agree with Humanophage in this one, the more zoomed-out levels they add, the more beautiful it will look, this claymationy style can often be good but also can produce

faces.

In a weird way it reminds me of the dream machine game

As for the combat I have to say, Staglands is the first game that put me to sleep with its RTwP combat, which is quite an achievement.
Since they chose real time again, it fucking needs to be faster and fun this time, the point of real time is to give you some thrills not to put you to sleep, we have turn-based for that

 

[almondblight]

Whalenought_Joe should get input from Dhaze.

 

[Sensuki]

Demo has received a few updates. Looks like the game will be in a higher resolution than the 1024x768 - the latest version runs in 1080p at least (although it bugs out if you change a graphics setting back to the 1024x768).

They've added the ability to change party members while paused in the combat dome (action select state) and combat flows better now.

 

[ArchAngel]

Demo has received a few updates. Looks like the game will be in a higher resolution than the 1024x768 - the latest version runs in 1080p at least (although it bugs out if you change a graphics setting back to the 1024x768).

They've added the ability to change party members while paused in the combat dome (action select state) and combat flows better now.

Since you are supposed to click for each attack what do other companions do while you control one character?
I do not see a point in such combat if you also have companions unless they are going to be like in Mass Effect where they do almost nothing.

 

[Sensuki]

The AI controls them. Currently I would say the worst thing about it is switching companions during combat. It is better now that you can switch in the combat dome, way less disorienting. The problem is, say you initiate combat and move a little bit with the currently selected character and want to change, chances are the AI has already issued the first action for the companions, so when you change party members, you need to change back to the previously selected character to be able to issue an action 'this turn', or just suck it up and wait for the next one. The AI will control the previously selected character but it feels like a waste of the player's time a little bit.

The new update does play nicer than the original though, combat as it is, feels a bit better.

I've provided that feedback on the Steam forums, so we'll see what they say about it.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Is this yet another case of the devs not being able to get the fundamentals right?