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

[Konjad]

Gothics controls were intuitive, so good that anyone who's not physically and/or mentally challenged can sit back, relax and literally play one handed using only keyboard. That is an objectively good control scheme

One-handed? No, but they are my favoride TPP controls up to this day. No other game came close. Of course, it does require 5 minutes of learning and had no pop-ups, so most of the 'dex gets filtered.

You can 100% play one-handed, everything I did was with one-hand on the keyboard (used my other on the mouse to control camera but I could've played without)

Touching mouse while playing Gothic is just disgusting. Be ashamed.

 

[Jinn]

The controls of Gothics were perfectly fine you philistines.

Not only that, they were fun and rewarding to learn and master too. Gothic tapped into a classic way of gaming with its control scheme, where learning how to control the game became an immersive part of the experience along with the deeper systems. That's the key feeling you get from a game like Gothic once you get going and have a handle on everything at play: rewarding. Patience and understanding are rewarded in Gothic 1 and 2, which is the main reason why your average ADHD gamer dismisses it as "clunky" and gives up after 1-2 hours. They'll never know the joy of using their learning points to level up their two-handed ability and discovering that it makes your attacks more fluid as a result.

When it comes to Drova's progression, I still find it weighty and satisfying. But I honestly think Prowess - the combined total of your stats - as a requirement for using weapons was a mistake though. They should have been tied directly to specific stats, IE strength for heavy weapons, dexterity for light and ranged weapons, and focus for magic/there probably should have been a magic based weapon either ranged or melee. It would have made stat progression choices more meaningful and created more replayability.

 

[Marat]

Speaking of magic I really like the look of the spells, for some reason they are very satisfying - makes me wish for a game centered on druidic magic and celtic-like mythos. And the design of the druids is cool, they really look like magical powers are coursing through them, barely contained. Dunno what it is, but something about them in this game appeals to me.

 

[ArchAngel]

I finally got some magic and finally got the fire circle around you spell, it is good. Also tried Thunderstorm scroll to kill two big worm things, that spell seems powerful.

 

[jackofshadows]

You find ruins by exploring (duh) and they are only guarded by some harpies. You can kill those easily with just a couple bombs.

Have you played recently? I'm level 11 at the moment and still struggling with them, cluster bombs take something like 20% of harpy's hp at best.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

You find ruins by exploring (duh) and they are only guarded by some harpies. You can kill those easily with just a couple bombs.

Have you played recently? I'm level 11 at the moment and still struggling with them, cluster bombs take something like 20% of harpy's hp at best.

Harpies are most dangerous with their ranged attacks.

If there's only 1, you can beat them at pretty low level by forcing them into their very telegraphed melee/charge attack. It's doable but much more tricky when there is more than 1 and your armour isn't good enough to stop you from dying after 2-4 hits of ranged attack.

You can also just run through, loot quickly, and run away.

 

[jackofshadows]

Harpies are most dangerous with their ranged attacks.

If there's only 1, you can beat them at pretty low level by forcing them into their very telegraphed melee/charge attack. It's doable but much more tricky when there is more than 1 and your armour isn't good enough to stop you from dying after 2-4 hits of ranged attack.

You can also just run through, loot quickly, and run away.

I wrote that above and just killed my first harpy but she was alone so yeah, it was like you've described.

Run through obviously when there's more than 1 yeah by now.

Also: wtf is "+stance damage"? Is it flat bonus to basic attacks? Not sure yet.

 

[thesecret1]

You find ruins by exploring (duh) and they are only guarded by some harpies. You can kill those easily with just a couple bombs.

Have you played recently? I'm level 11 at the moment and still struggling with them, cluster bombs take something like 20% of harpy's hp at best.

About two weeks back. I took out a couple harpies with bombs (I just spammed them), but killed the most in melee after pumping STR high enough.

Alternatively, if you want to cheese it, you can to nothwest of Remnant camp and find several bandits there. They're too powerful for you to tackle, but you can lure them into the remnant camp where they'll get massacred by the guards. Strong weapons (high prowess requirements tho) and a really good armor is hidden there

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

For some reason luring the bandits didn't work for me so I just destroyed them with dozens of traps, that armour carried me until I built the Bygone armour set

 

[toro]

Harpies are most dangerous with their ranged attacks.

If there's only 1, you can beat them at pretty low level by forcing them into their very telegraphed melee/charge attack. It's doable but much more tricky when there is more than 1 and your armour isn't good enough to stop you from dying after 2-4 hits of ranged attack.

You can also just run through, loot quickly, and run away.

I wrote that above and just killed my first harpy but she was alone so yeah, it was like you've described.

Run through obviously when there's more than 1 yeah by now.

Also: wtf is "+stance damage"? Is it flat bonus to basic attacks? Not sure yet.

Each monster has a yellow bar under their health bar. Think poise damage in Dark Souls.

 

[toro]

For some reason luring the bandits didn't work for me so I just destroyed them with dozens of traps, that armour carried me until I built the Bygone armour set

Great minds something something ...

It's worth the price.

Spoiler

This is basically end game gear

Bonus: I finally found Prospecting 5

The game is not perfect but the exploration part is top notch.

I think this game is on par with Risen 1 therefore better than ELEX.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

For some reason luring the bandits didn't work for me so I just destroyed them with dozens of traps, that armour carried me until I built the Bygone armour set

Great minds something something ...

It's worth the price.

Spoiler

This is basically end game gear

Bonus: I finally found Prospecting 5

The game is not perfect but the exploration part is top notch.

I think this game is on par with Risen 1 therefore better than ELEX.

I lawnmowered the entire map within the first 2 chapters so I decided why not invest in crafting and had more traps than I could use so I would just go overkill for fun. They couldn't even reach me)

 

[ArchAngel]

For some reason luring the bandits didn't work for me so I just destroyed them with dozens of traps, that armour carried me until I built the Bygone armour set

Great minds something something ...

It's worth the price.

Spoiler

This is basically end game gear

Bonus: I finally found Prospecting 5

The game is not perfect but the exploration part is top notch.

I think this game is on par with Risen 1 therefore better than ELEX.

I lawnmowered the entire map within the first 2 chapters so I decided why not invest in crafting and had more traps than I could use so I would just go overkill for fun. They couldn't even reach me)

I wasted all the iron to make iron arrows :D
But at least now I kill Harpies with a bow and also some other enemies that are not in your face in melee 100% of the time. That stunning arrow is great.
Archery is extremely bad in early game and parts of midgame but once you get better bows, and bow skills and some bow magic items it becomes useful. Still not possible to go full archer due to how scarce arrows are.

 

[HoboForEternity]

it's a crime that slingshot doesnt get a legendary weapon tier. i like using them as a sidearm. they do pretty good poise damage thing

 

[ArchAngel]

Archery is extremely bad in early game and parts of midgame but once you get better bows, and bow skills and some bow magic items it becomes useful

the only thing I found bows good for was building up focus from a distance and in the process perhaps bleeding

It is fairly easy to kill many enemies with it as long as those enemies do not rush you and you got enough stamina for dodging left. One of the archer abilities basically gives you a free shot after a dodge and there is that ring that gives 50% bonus damage after a dodge. And focus builds up so fast (in combination with good base focus) that you can shoot stunning arrows every 3rd shot. I also noticed Stunning arrow and Poison Arrow abilities do not use your ammo so I found them even better.

 

[Shaki]

Still not possible to go full archer due to how scarce arrows are.

I mean, with how much crafting shit you can find, and with how much merchants have, and with them restocking inventory every chapter, you can probably make it work. I'm probably gonna try going full ranged on my second playthrough,

 

[ArchAngel]

Still not possible to go full archer due to how scarce arrows are.

I mean, with how much crafting shit you can find, and with how much merchants have, and with them restocking inventory every chapter, you can probably make it work. I'm probably gonna try going full ranged on my second playthrough,

Maybe with a lot of metagaming but that should not be required for something basic like this. It is not like archery is OP or anything. If they wanted to make ammo scarce they should have done it like in BG games where standard arrows are basically unlimited but special arrows are not. Here you can even run out of stone arrows easily (actually you can craft more iron arrows through the game). Or maybe I mistook it with stone bullets for your sling :D

 

[Marat]

 

[jackofshadows]

Respec feature with perks like skin animals? Ehh.

 

[Gandalf]

No Drova 2 in sight.

 

[Marat]

No Drova 2 in sight.

 

[Marat]

But seriously... "A new challenge arises" is about as explicit a promise of new content as they get.

 

[Gandalf]

But seriously... "A new challenge arises" is about as explicit a promise of new content as they get.

Yeah, I'll just wait a couple of years before I play the defenitive version of Drova, then.

 

[ArchAngel]

Ok, I've just finished it, chose to support Nemeton in the end but you end up ruler of Drova or something anyways.. end of the game just feels like start of expansion or next game so kind of lame.
I never found 7th part for ruin raiders so I do not know if there is some more major content around that or if it somehow changes the ending, I just wanted to finish the game by that point as it was getting boring. My original score stays, 8/10 game. Fun but I have zero wish to replay it which is bad for a game like this. All the best RPGs I played I could replay multiple times.

 

[toro]

I think I've done every quest possible before joining a faction. I managed to get 6 activated shrines, an end game armor (bandits), an epic sword and axe and 1 piece of the special bygone armor but it looks like further content is locked behind joining a faction.

I agree that the replayability factor is low but I'm finding a lot of secrets in this second playthrough therefore I think a second run is recommended.