Drova: Forsaken Kin - 2D action RPG inspired by Gothic series

[HoboForEternity]

This game keep surprising me. Got mugged in the tavern, kidnapped into a whole 2-3 hours questline where you became a slave digging artifacts in ancient ruins.

 

[Shaki]

It's not the developer fyi. It's the publisher's community manager or whatever. I'm sure the developers are shaking their heads at the potential playerbase they're losing because of Deck13's shit.

Devs got pronouns on their own site. So the devs clearly support post modern politics.
I don't like screeching about post-modernism shit on steam forums and other places, but I will be silently picky on what games are worth to give devs money. Drova looks kinda neat, and might be worth checking out, but not sure if its worth giving them money.

I mean, they're German, I don't think you can make it there without hiding your power level and pretending to be at least a little soy.

The game itself doesn't seem woke at all, and I enjoy it greatly so far, so if putting their pronouns on their site is the price of surviving as devs in one of the gayest and most cucked nations in the world, I can live with it. As long as the game itself isn't infected, we're good.

 

[PlayerEmers]

It's not the developer fyi. It's the publisher's community manager or whatever. I'm sure the developers are shaking their heads at the potential playerbase they're losing because of Deck13's shit.

Devs got pronouns on their own site. So the devs clearly support post modern politics.
I don't like screeching about post-modernism shit on steam forums and other places, but I will be silently picky on what games are worth to give devs money. Drova looks kinda neat, and might be worth checking out, but not sure if its worth giving them money.

As long as the game itself isn't infected, we're good.

I agree with you to a degree. Like I said, the game do looks kinda nice... but when it comes to give the devs money, I think there are plenty of games out there (and upcoming ones) with devs that are more deserving of getting a buy.

 

[Jinn]

I agree with you to a degree. Like I said, the game do looks kinda nice... but when it comes to give the devs money, I think there are plenty of games out there (and upcoming ones) with devs that are more deserving of getting a buy.

If you play it and like it, then it's really more of a matter of whether you want to see more games like this made by them in the future. I know I do for a number of reasons beyond it just amazingly carrying on the spirit of the original two Gothics.

8 hours in and the most "woke" aspects I've seen is there's women in the game, and some NPCs have darker skin. Neither of which are at odds with the established setting. The outrage expressed here on the codex is completely disproportionate to what's actually in the game. But whatever, that's just GRPG now.

 

[Vulpes]

People are definitely making an elephant out of a mosquito. The only libshit elements I've noticed so far are the racial diversity and having to pick your own pronouns during character creation. I've yet to meet any actual fags, dykes or trannies in the game. Besides the queen of Nemeton (whom I've only heard of so far) and the brown-skinned head lumberjack at the Woodcutters camp, almost all of the people in position of power I've encountered thus far have been white men. The farm manager? An old white guy. The foreman at the silver mine? An old white guy. The boss of the arena? An old white guy. Captain of the guard at Nemeton? An old white guy. The head shaman in the secluded camp deep within the Primeval Forest? An old blind white guy. The commander of all the fighters at the Remnants Camp? An old white guy. The two gang leaders that work under him? Both are middle-aged white guys. Leader of the secret treasure hunters guild? A middle aged white guy.

 

[Tacgnol]

This game captures the feel of Gothic exploration and progression really well.

The early game is brutal, you are surviving every fight by the skin of your teeth and having to use every tool in your arsenal. Slowly but surely you get stronger and can beat the shit out of enemies that humiliated you previously.

It has the similar thing of being a small but very dense world filled with things to find.

That guy on the steam forums is fucking retarded, but if you aren't giving the game a go because of that retard or "body type" then you are playing yourself.

 

[notpl]

Before I eat supper:

Controls are good, mood is nice, and music isn't anything special, but does its job. Combat is easy to get into, despite only playing the first 30 minutes of the final release (played a lot of the demo). Two handed weapons (especially the axe) will probably not be my thing. Sword and board feels better for me. Dodging isn't a pain in the neck, and also uses up some stamina. Guarding reduces damage taken. I don't remember if you can perfect guard, as I have mostly been dodging (only met simple monsters at the start). I found the magic missile on a skeleton, but I will probably not focus much on magic. I will wait and see how useful it is. I might use it as a last resort thing, or mostly use buffing spells. Writing is standard fare. Not really great.

Just like the demo, the game seems like it will be a fun ride.

Is it a scroll or a rune? The only runes I've been able to find thus far were Fiery Shout and Misty Step in one of the high-level areas (there's also an Epic two-handed axe there BTW but it's guarded by several harpies), the zone you can only access through a specific cave system that's only reachable going north from the logging camp. Speaking of navigation, that's my biggest gripe about the game by far. The world is too maze-like with too few alternative pathways to reach your destination. There was a map I found leading me to a buried chest in the northern parts of the map. I could see the waterfall where the treasure is the second I reached that area, but I had to take a very long detour around it because there's only one very specific path that can get you to said waterfall. And, yeah, sword & shield and spear & shield feel like the only viable playstyles because they're the only ones that can block attacks, while dodging costs way too much stamina considering how frequently you'll be doing it when fighting groups of enemies. There's a total of 4 perks that give you bonuses when you time your blocks perfectly (like reducing the stamina cost or giving you one guaranteed critical hit), but there's no such thing for dodging as far as I can tell. I've found one craftable trinket and a food recipe that increase stamina regeneration which ought to make it more viable, but that's about it.

The dagger skill tree has a talent that restores your stamina as you attack, so I believe that to be the only weapon which supports dodgy play. Otherwise daggers are definitely the weakest weapon type, since reach is king in this.

Also, the game does not have you "pick your pronouns" in chargen. There is no such field. That is simply made up.

 

[ArchAngel]

Game seems interesting. I might try the "demo" version.

 

[TheKing01]

It's incline.

 

[Zanzoken]

Having only watched the video above and not played the game, it felt un-Gothic-like watching him kite around killing groups of 3 or 4 monsters as a new character. He ran all over the map but at no point did it appear he encountered an enemy that his character couldn't handle due to sheer power imbalance.

I also don't like the fact that creatures mindlessly attack instead of like in Gothic where they try to threaten and scare you off first. It's a small thing but really adds to the immersion.

A 2D ARPG heavily inspired by Gothic is right in my wheelhouse but from what I see here I don't feel super excited to play it. It just looks kind of bland.

 

[notpl]

Having only watched the video above and not played the game, it felt un-Gothic-like watching him kite around killing groups of 3 or 4 monsters as a new character. He ran all over the map but at no point did it appear he encountered an enemy that his character couldn't handle due to sheer power imbalance.

I also don't like the fact that creatures mindlessly attack instead of like in Gothic where they try to threaten and scare you off first. It's a small thing but really adds to the immersion.

A 2D ARPG heavily inspired by Gothic is right in my wheelhouse but from what I see here I don't feel super excited to play it. It just looks kind of bland.

Anyone with even the slightest familiarity with video games can stunlock any enemy in Gothic to death with minimum strength and a tree branch and no weapon skill, so "things are less threatening than in Gothic" doesn't really hold water as a criticism. Creatures in this also don't mindlessly attack and they do in fact bray and bark at you first. This is literally the very first thing shown in the video when you hit "play." Man what the fuck is wrong with this forum

 

[Zanzoken]

Anyone with even the slightest familiarity with video games can stunlock any enemy in Gothic to death with minimum strength and a tree branch and no weapon skill, so "things are less threatening than in Gothic" doesn't really hold water as a criticism.

Fuck off with this bullshit. Yes technically if you do the attack combo correctly dozens of times in a row to keep stunlock you can defeat more difficult enemies. However it isn't exactly easy to do, and if you mess up even once you get one-shot killed.

There is a big difference between that and this game, where he was kiting a group of 3 or 4 enemies and absorbing several hits while stopping to heal mid-combat. You try that against a group of wolves in Gothic as a level 1 character and see how far you get.

Creatures in this also don't mindlessly attack and they do in fact bray and bark at you first. This is literally the very first thing shown in the video when you hit "play." Man what the fuck is wrong with this forum

I rewatched and yeah it looks like I missed that. I see the little symbols coming out from the wolf's head and hear it growling.

As far as what's wrong with the forum... that's a skill issue. Try being a little less triggered and butthurt and you'll have a better time.

 

[notpl]

"There is a big difference between that and this game" from someone who has not played the game in question. Good lord. How many hits do you think a level 1 character should be able to take from a wolf? In this game, it's 2 or 3. Does it need to be 1? There are things that will 1-shot you at that point, if that calms your nerves somewhat.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Having only watched the video above and not played the game, it felt

At this point you should probably stop writing and focus what others - who actually played the game - are saying.

 

[Harthwain]

Fuck off with this bullshit. Yes technically if you do the attack combo correctly dozens of times in a row to keep stunlock you can defeat more difficult enemies. However it isn't exactly easy to do, and if you mess up even once you get one-shot killed.

There is a big difference between that and this game, where he was kiting a group of 3 or 4 enemies and absorbing several hits while stopping to heal mid-combat. You try that against a group of wolves in Gothic as a level 1 character and see how far you get.

Even when fighting wild dogs SplatterCat had to constantly dodge or heal up, and he was down in 3 hits or so, which is less generous than Dark Souls. At the same time the wild dogs took a very long time to kill. Mosquitos and beavers(?) took less effort, but that's understandable considering they are weaker enemies. Bandits also took considerable effort (including healing) to bring down. For a character that had 1,5 hour of play total (some basic spear and no armor to speak of) it is not as easy as you make it sound.

Also, SplatterCat purposefully avoided going into the area with the stone that "indicates danger" or near the ruins, so who knows that kind of enemies were there.

 

[Zanzoken]

Fair enough, I admit I gave a hot take that may not be correct. I am still underwhelmed by what I saw but maybe the game is more fun to play than it looks.

 

[Geckabor]

I was up until 4 AM because closing the game was impossible. I think incline is back on the menu boys.

 

[Tweed]

Dev sounds like a bitch.

 

[Shaki]

I was up until 4 AM because closing the game was impossible. I think incline is back on the menu boys.

Yup I can't stop playing it for the last 2 days, extremely pleasant surprise, potential RPG GOTY that just came out of nowhere.

 

[Modron]

Came out of nowhere? Hell even the demo was 2 years old: https://steamdb.info/app/1585800/

Release Date

30 September 2022 – 16:15:13 UTC

 

[Shaki]

Came out of nowhere? Hell even the demo was 2 years old: https://steamdb.info/app/1585800/

Release Date

30 September 2022 – 16:15:13 UTC

Still, I never heard anything about it before it got released. Skill issue I guess

 

[Konjad]

Does it have a lot of bugs? I wonder if I should get it now or wait a month or two for patches.

 

[ArchAngel]

Does it have a lot of bugs? I wonder if I should get it now or wait a month or two for patches.

That was my inner question as well but considering this is 2024 there is zero chance that waiting a few months can hurt.

 

[Jinn]

I haven't seen a single bug in 10 hours of play. The progression balancing and economy has been impressive too. Solid release, great game, and sad that the majority of the codex is sleeping on this.

 

[Litmanen]

I haven't seen a single bug in 10 hours of play. The progression balancing and economy has been impressive too. Solid release, great game, and sad that the majority of the codex is sleeping on this.

How is the game structured? Is it focused on combat? Not that it's a bad thing, but as interesting as it seems, the fact that it's an action-RPG needs to be balanced by gameplay that also involves dialogue, C&C (choices and consequences), and things like that, for me.