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

[GloomFrost]

Yeah of course its just the "wymen guards" that is the problem otherwise Drova is is just as good if not better then Gothic...... except for tiny little things like immortal NPCs (just like Gothic "wink wink"), tons of boring fetch quests, laughably bad writing, no life simulation, no memorable characters etc. Also just because it was made by a small indie studio doesn't automatically make it immune to any criticism. Archolos is a completely free mod and it got way more quality content and full VO for God sake.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

What is this retardation about no life simulation? NPCs sleep at night, work during the day, move around and do stuff. Does it have all the little touches Gothic did? No, but what game does? It has more than enough for an indie offering from some new studio.

 

[notpl]

What is this retardation about no life simulation? NPCs sleep at night, work during the day, move around and do stuff. Does it have all the little touches Gothic did? No, but what game does? It has more than enough for an indie offering from some new studio.

Monsters also sleep at night, fight one another, have nests they're guarding and whatnot. I'm curious exactly which simulation elements anyone can point to that were present in G1/2 but absent in Drova.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

And to people whining about fetch quests, there are so many really cool quests, involving exploration, thinking, etc. Like the one about missing Baltus which leads to a whole prison escape thing, or figuring out what happened to Aldo the merchant. Great stuff.

 

[notpl]

And to people whining about fetch quests, there are so many really cool quests, involving exploration, thinking, etc. Like the one about missing Baltus which leads to a whole prison escape thing, or figuring out what happened to Aldo the merchant. Great stuff.

I think my big issue with the quest design is that they just didn't give us a ton of ways to interact with the game world in this engine. It's pretty much just dialogue (and not very much or of high quality), combat, and then the right click -> investigate mechanic. There's no sneaking, pickpocketing, there are one or two places where you can cut through some spiderwebs to progress but not very many, you can't move stuff around - a game like this cries out for ultima-style drag and drop inventory and world manipulation, just that alone would open up so many possibilities for puzzles and exploration. Transformation magic to let us fly or swim and access new areas, zelda-style bombs to open passages, there's no end to the stuff they could've done, but didn't. It's definitely a disappointment I had with the game.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Doesn't bother me much, I usually play RPGs as a combat character with dialogue skills anyways, but also, they created a hell of a game as an indie team with very limited funding. You may want it to have more mechanics and stuff, but I don't think it detracts from the excellent game in any way. It has a fun combat system, decent dialogue for an indie game, puzzles, exploration, character development. That's more than enough for a great game.

 

[Infinitron]

00:00 Intro
00:58 What skills are required to create VFX in videogames?
01:44 Would you say that you need "deep" math for that?
03:12 How did you start developing shaders in the first place?
04:44 Can you identify with your team role as a shader dev? Are you happy with it?
06:56 Do you sometimes miss "normal" game development?
08:18 Where should people, that are interested in doing VFX, start?
09:32 Chris Question: Do you rather see yourself as a an artist or as a developer?
09:56 Outro

 

[Lord_Potato]

Played Drova for 20 hours. Reached level 13 before all the quests dried up and I had to join a faction to proceed.

After much deliberation I joined Nemeton, which is funny, because in Gothic 1, 2 and Risen 1 I always joined the 'rebel' faction - New Camp, Mercs, Bandits in the moors.

However here the Remnants irritated me too much, due to the fact everyone was trying to fuck over everyone there (guards in the pit, money lender in the town) while the citizens of Nemeton had some rules (although harsh) and a certain decency. Even Eugen, who's a true bro wasn't enough to make me choose the red guys.

Now I'm in Chapter 2, almost level 15, climbing up the ranks of the Arena and preparing for the voyage into the dark forest. The game's still very enjoyable.

The fact it was made by 6 German dudes on a budget barely enough to sustain them on a steady kebab diet makes me confident that even when the AAA sector burns down to ashes, we'll always have games to play, created by such small, passionate teams like this one here.

 

[Jinn]

They did a good job of maintaining quality - and even improving on things - into the later stages of the game too. I found the writing and world-building surrounding the Bygones to be some of the best narrative material in the game, and the later parts lean into discovering more about them, so that might be partially why that aspect felt better to me in the second half. But I feel even the dialogue started to settle into a little better of a flow as the chapters went on.

Beyond that, gameplay and progression stays challenging and rewarding right up to the end, which was impressive. The difficulty curve keeps ramping up in satisfying leaps that you have to continue to keep up with even in the final hours. They avoided the pitfall so many RPGs fall into with late game progression, which is very commendable. Exploration stayed relevant and fun as well, with some cool little dungeons, puzzles, and exciting rewards to be found.

These guys are learners with an impressive passion for their craft. I can't wait to see their next project, and hopefully many more into the future. They want to continue improving, and unlike many others before them who fell into complacency, I see them honing their skills into a fine point.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Combat becomes trivial when you get armour of the bygones, especially earlier than end game if you use up your consumables on the golems. You don't even have to continue the dungeon after you get the pieces, just go back and craft it to finish up.

Although thats good, I want to become an unbeatable God like in Gothic.

 

[thesecret1]

Combat becomes trivial when you get armour of the bygones, especially earlier than end game if you use up your consumables on the golems. You don't even have to continue the dungeon after you get the pieces, just go back and craft it to finish up.

Although thats good, I want to become an unbeatable God like in Gothic.

TBH it's super easy as soon as you get the bandit armor from the guys to the west of Remnants

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Combat becomes trivial when you get armour of the bygones, especially earlier than end game if you use up your consumables on the golems. You don't even have to continue the dungeon after you get the pieces, just go back and craft it to finish up.

Although thats good, I want to become an unbeatable God like in Gothic.

TBH it's super easy as soon as you get the bandit armor from the guys to the west of Remnants

oh yea, completely forgot about that armour. Was that area part of any quest? Because that armour is pretty much endgame in terms of stats so it was pretty amusing just randomly stumbling upon it, got it pretty early just spamming traps and the only place I was ever in any danger was in the aforementioned dungeon where I got enough pieces for bygone armour (or I'd imagine 4+ harpies)

 

[Jinn]

Combat becomes trivial when you get armour of the bygones, especially earlier than end game if you use up your consumables on the golems. You don't even have to continue the dungeon after you get the pieces, just go back and craft it to finish up.

Although thats good, I want to become an unbeatable God like in Gothic.

That was maybe in the last hour or two of the game for me, which is an appropriate time for one to become OP, imo.

TBH it's super easy as soon as you get the bandit armor from the guys to the west of Remnants

Didn't find it, and glad I didn't, I guess. Nemeton's heavy armor helped greatly in terms of defense, but some late game enemies could still shred my HP if I made one wrong move or ran out of stamina.

 

[thesecret1]

Combat becomes trivial when you get armour of the bygones, especially earlier than end game if you use up your consumables on the golems. You don't even have to continue the dungeon after you get the pieces, just go back and craft it to finish up.

Although thats good, I want to become an unbeatable God like in Gothic.

TBH it's super easy as soon as you get the bandit armor from the guys to the west of Remnants

oh yea, completely forgot about that armour. Was that area part of any quest? Because that armour is pretty much endgame in terms of stats so it was pretty amusing just randomly stumbling upon it, got it pretty early just spamming traps and the only place I was ever in any danger was in the aforementioned dungeon where I got enough pieces for bygone armour (or I'd imagine 4+ harpies)

Nah, not part of any quests, and you get get it at any time if you cheese the defenders enough (you can even lure them to remnant camp and have the guards there take them out)

 

[Jaedar]

Combat becomes trivial when you get armour of the bygones, especially earlier than end game if you use up your consumables on the golems. You don't even have to continue the dungeon after you get the pieces, just go back and craft it to finish up.

Although thats good, I want to become an unbeatable God like in Gothic.

TBH it's super easy as soon as you get the bandit armor from the guys to the west of Remnants

I thought that fight was pretty challenging, even with chapter 3 armor. Cheesing it in chapter 1 is probably entirely possible (a bit hard to dodge all their nets, but as long as you manage that) though. I don't recall the bandit armor being that good though, about equivalent to chapter 2 faction armor?

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Combat becomes trivial when you get armour of the bygones, especially earlier than end game if you use up your consumables on the golems. You don't even have to continue the dungeon after you get the pieces, just go back and craft it to finish up.

Although thats good, I want to become an unbeatable God like in Gothic.

TBH it's super easy as soon as you get the bandit armor from the guys to the west of Remnants

I thought that fight was pretty challenging, even with chapter 3 armor. Cheesing it in chapter 1 is probably entirely possible (a bit hard to dodge all their nets, but as long as you manage that) though. I don't recall the bandit armor being that good though, about equivalent to chapter 2 faction armor?

It's superior to any armour you can get from factions.

 

[whocares]

Combat becomes trivial when you get armour of the bygones, especially earlier than end game if you use up your consumables on the golems. You don't even have to continue the dungeon after you get the pieces, just go back and craft it to finish up.

Although thats good, I want to become an unbeatable God like in Gothic.

TBH it's super easy as soon as you get the bandit armor from the guys to the west of Remnants

I thought that fight was pretty challenging, even with chapter 3 armor. Cheesing it in chapter 1 is probably entirely possible (a bit hard to dodge all their nets, but as long as you manage that) though. I don't recall the bandit armor being that good though, about equivalent to chapter 2 faction armor?

That was the hardest fight in the game for me. Did it in chapter 1 cause I was just 'splorin and found these dudes who told me to beat it so I savescummed until I cleaned them out. I had to just cover the map in spikes and run around dodging nets, not even attacking - they killed me in like 2 hits and I barely did any damage with anything I had (throwing knives ignore armor my ass). Getting that armor after was a gamechanger. Went from babbys first armor that was like what, 8 armor? to that one. Felt like cheatung.

 

[Jaedar]

It's superior to any armour you can get from factions.

Fair enough. It has the same armor value as the nemeton mage armor (2 more, but whatever), and quite a bit more than the chapter 2 heavy armor. So it's superior to any chapter 2 faction armor, and worse than chapter 3 faction armor.

 

[toro]

I'm testing Copilot.

It seems like there's some interest in a potential sequel to the game Drova - Forsaken Kin. While there hasn't been any official announcement about a "Drova 2," fans have been discussing the possibilities and expressing their hopes for a sequel. The developers have acknowledged the interest but haven't made any promises regarding a follow-up game.

Are you a fan of the first game, or are you just curious about the possibility of a sequel?

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Hey Fucktard Cucks, keep in mind some people are still playing it. Put this shit in spoilers, you irredeemable cunts.

 

[Tigranes]

This is a Good Game.

True to tradition, it seems like early game experience will vary a lot with metaknowledge. My guy was completely useless for quite a few hours even after locating Remnant Camp, until I found what I assume is one of the unique game-changers, the always-crit glove.

I hope there's good spears somewhere though because I'm useless at gauging the exact range of enemy attacks and staying out. And no every Gothiclike must be played melee or the EU comes to take your reproductive organs away

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Imo, the most fun way to play the combat system in Drova is to go sword & shield. The shield talents allow you to eventually do a Dark Soul-esque perfect block (stun the enemy, lose barely any stamina, and do a crit on the next hit), and learning each enemy's attack patterns is fun and rewarding.

 

[Jinn]

I fell in love with the feel of the two-handed axe right from the start. Weighty, great payoff for committing to heavy attacks, and just plain satisfying. Used a bow on the side for a bit, but it fell off in usefulness pretty quickly.

 

[notpl]

I liked daggers because I wanted to max mind and eventually do a mage build. The higher your base focus, the more damage you can do with the dagger strong attack. Once you get a couple of talismans that boost next-hit damage, half a focus bar or so can one-shot any common monster and put a serious hurt on bosses.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Why in this game do everyone and their dog continuously spit on the ground?