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Ookay? I agree with the Berserk aesthetics and everything else you said. However, I still have to play (and finish) the first game. My backlog is quite big, nowadays time is a precious resource, and all of that.
The game is short IIRC, so that's a positive.
As for the demo, I wanted to try it after finishing the first game, but I thought Codexers would be interested.
This game is very very cool. I was first drawn in by the very attractive artstyle and so coughed up out of curiosity. Random 2Am thoughts after finally achieving my first proper ending (even the easiest one took me a little under two hours to come too after quite a few deaths and substantial use of the wiki)
- Sexual and body horror. At first glance this might come across as a scatological sexually deranged teenager's edgy fantasies but as the game opened up I could definitely see the creator has a brain and was going somewhere fairly intelligent with this
- I like that this is not a horror where you are a defenceless victim to the horrors and evil being thrown at you. Indeed it is entirely up to you how you play your character. You can perform some truly pretty heinous shit yourself or simply try and do your task and emerge from this dungeon
- Plays with some RPG conventions interestingly. Asking too many or the wrong kinds of questions can backfire. The game's mechanics, while mysterious, are consistent and logical to the setting. The no levelling is great with your power and character development being driven by your prologue choices, item and interaction
- A very fluid combat system (easily the best I've seen using the engine). Combat is quick and deadly (most fights don't tend to exceed three to five turns) while the body part targeting system gives things a suitably vicious feel (mutually, on your end fracturing a leg is a huge blow). Intelligent use of items and the 'Talk' skill can result in surprising outcomes and effects to combat
- Great party mechanics. Your companions (-if- you can recruit them) don't at all feel like pawns while mixing some party members will (logically) result in disaster. Certain party members can speak out of turn and fuck things up for you too
It's a shame that the engine and rather uninspired title are going to throw a lot of people off a very well thought-out and punchy little RPG.
Random 2Am thoughts after finally achieving my first proper ending (even the easiest one took me a little under two hours to come too after quite a few deaths and substantial use of the wiki)
Dab. What was your party composition, ending, and thoughts on it if you don't mind sharing?
Its funny that your first successful run took you less than two hours because mine took me about 16, as I save-scummed until I could make the first save point reliable at which point I took my time getting endings A and D. I still never reached some of the more hidden areas of the game, like the thicket route or the tomb.
There was a new version released pretty recently so decided to give it a shot. Actually really liked it and felt like I was on a really good first run but then it crashed, fuck. Demoralised because I don't want to go through it all again and then have it crash.
Interesting game, sometimes kinda buggy (activating skill on hexen but still not learning it, passing coin toss on item search only to get nothing etc.). It has many elements that i just love in rpgs, body part based damage (decapitation done right), weapons have meaning, enemies are dangerous (maybe even too much, im not sure that giving so many enemies coin throw based, one hit kill attacks was a good idea).
This game has good atmosphere but those rape guard with mutated dicks... i literally cant take them seriously they are using their giga dongs as some kind of stinger tails XD Who knows maybe original idea for this game was just some fetish fest before it slowly transformed into what we have today.
Ironically for a game that is called Fear & Hunger, fear and hunger have weak influence on gameplay(at least so far, im now traveling through village of cave dwellers), in Darkest Dungeon these mechanics were harsher for me than here, to think about it Darkest Dungeon would be a much better name for this game.
EDIT:
So finished it with finding Le'garde (dead of course because i was exploring everything) and exiting dungeon. I killed that crow faggot, fat living torch and that ghost spawning zombie knight. Next time im going to try and be faster to save that wannabe Griffith and explore more edlritch areas. It would be cooler if endings had some info what happens to our companions and our equipment armour was visible on characters.
I prefer the demo of the sequel to the original, but one big change it makes that might be controversial is how combat becomes mandatory for character advancement. The tomes no longer provide skills and you need to barter souls with the moon god for the right to use the hexen.
I was attacked by some guard butcher guy so I cut off his snake dick and in the next turn he went full berserk on me after I lost coin flip and one shot my character 10/10 game.
The dev really struck gold with combat system in this game, not only guy made great combat with targetable limbs talking and other stuff, but he also didn't overuse it because most of the time you don't even want to engage in combat and there is a lot of enemy variety, so combat stays fresh for the entire game and figuring monsters weak points is quite fun good stuff.
I checked the skill tree:
>"Bury the Trauma"
>"Masturbation"
>"Inverse Crown of Thorns"
Finally, I've come home.
Alright new and returning people (ie no one really) listen for a sec
So the premise of the second game is that its Battle Royale mixed with WW2 occult horror - you are stuck in not-Prague in the middle of an eldritch ritual with roughly a dozen other survivors, a ton of grotesque creatures roaming around, and you are supposed to outlive your fellow mortals or something. Its built on the metaphysics from the first game but who cares because this one appears pretty self-contained and better one in general.
The game now has 8 different playable characters (the ones you don't pick appear in the game as fellow participants in the ritual and may become companions if you play your cards right,) and the background choices seem much more balanced and considered than the one in the first game with no obvious must-picks. Builds are pretty game-changing - combinations like Soldier+Trench Gun, Thug+Lockpicking, and so on will give you dramatically different options and advantages, at least in the early game.
Mechanics and narrative are much less rough around the edges while still being an ESL dev's awkward-yet-endearing attempt at a psychosexual survivor horror game. I recommended the first game mostly for the charming oldschool fun of figuring out a poorly documented and somewhat shoddy (yet ultimately good IMO) indie RPG, but I think the second game has far wider appeal thanks to its better design, a more open map (at least for the first few starting areas,) characters and the world changing with the day & night cycle, some surprising C&C options like being able to immediately stalk and kill some of your would-be companions, etc etc.
Basically, I recommend everyone gives Termina shot. It's cheap and even if you bounce off some of the more controversial aspects of the game's design, you will at the very least get a weird and compelling story to tell from it.
Here is my starting strat that worked well for me in the demo and seems to be a good way to go in this version, too - not really a general guide (might write one up later) but a specific build/path. Might be good for those struggling to get powerful enough to explore the game in earnest:
I pick the Soldier kid, my background choices are to pick the Trench Gun, desertion (skips on a powerful skill but avoids morphine addiction,) stock up on ammo (extra shells.) Not sure which is the best God to pray to, I assume this affects skill availability on the Hexen - going with god of fear & hunger for now.
The area around the train is safe and should be explored for items and herbs. Afterwards, the due north-west from the train will eventually lead one to the Woodsman executing a villager. With shotgun equipped, left shift should be used to shoot the motherfucker while charging into contact with him - this initiate the battle with an extra turn to our advantage, since the Woodsman is still recovering from the shotgun blast. Afterwards, two attacks to the torso should kill him, netting the Axe, a good starting melee weapon.
After exploring the Woodsman's House, taking the path west and then west again will lead to an encounter with two headless hounds. Use the Talk ability in combat to feed then rotting meat stunlocks the hound for 2-3 turns, allowing us to chop it to death with an axe. One rotting meat is guaranteed to spawn in a shack to the west of the train. If there is no rotting meat for the second dog, just take the poison attack that it deals and use the White Vial guaranteed to spawn in Woodsman's fridge to cure the status effect.
Proceed past the dogs to the hatch and open it - Abella the mechanic will join you as a result.
So this is a very reliable way to acquire the following:
- good melee weapon
- powerful trench gun with enough shells remaining to give yourself a big advantage against a tough enemy
- a safe save point (resting in Woodsman's house with him dead, otherwise he comes to kill you in your sleep)
- companion with good alpha strike potential (wrench throw skill)
- opens up the path to recruit another, secret companion later
- a lot of trouble saved later down the road (for reasons I won't spoil)
From then on it is possible to save immediately, or risk exploring some more to get a head start in the ritual.
Also, to be clear, this is a psychosexual thingy in the same way Alien or Berserk are - not an eroge or pornographic product. While edgy shit and some pixelated nudity are in the game, I didn't want to mislead people into thinking this was like a top-down version of someone's modded Skyrim aha
I'm pretty sure Tyranicon was referring to some darker and more degenerate circles than those of Howard and Lovecraft, considering the content of this game.
I'm pretty sure Tyranicon was referring to some darker and more degenerate circles than those of Howard and Lovecraft, considering the content of this game.
Funnily enough, both of the fear & hunger games do have threads on f95 (for those cultured enough to know of that place,) and are very well reviewed there, although most of the reviews stress that it is not a porn game unlike most on the site.
Some of the negative reviews for the first game on there almost sound like Age of Decadence reviews (both 1/5 stars lul: )
random coomer said:
CONS:
1) NO porn. I mean it. Some dicks and tits. Occasional (gay) pixel fucking after which you die.
2) VERY slow pace of the game: walking, combat, ass fucking--everything is slow.
3) VERY fast dying, because of OP monsters and RNG.
4) NO strength progression (at least initially).
5) On top of that: NO saving. LOL.
Usually, at first games are easy to hook up the gamer, there are a learning curve, and after a while the games become more difficult. Not this game. There is no progression at all in the difficulty of the game and you can't save the game when you want, so the playthrough is like this:
1. You choose one of the 4 possible characters and start playing in "easy" mode.
2. You see the introduction and play during about 5 minutes.
3. You are killed after your first or second combat.
4. You start the game again with another character.
5. You repeat the previous steps.
6. You repeat the previous steps.
7. You repeat the previous steps.
8. After starting the game with the 4 possible characters, seeing the introduction 4 times, and being killed 4 times after 5 minutes, you get bored, give up and delete the game from your HD.
I am enjoying the idea of these poor, horny bastards just loading up the game expecting an easy wank and then being subjected to h4rdcore RPG action and dying in the first fight.
The first review is funny to me in particular. See, one enemy type in the first game does rape the character on loss under certain conditions (being depraved prison guards corrupted by some eldritch influence) before amputating their limbs and throwing them in a corpse pile which you very slowly can crawl out of but by that point your playthrough is past the point of recovery in 95% of cases - presented about as horribly as I described it. And this fellow was like "this is bullshit. This anal rape scene is too slow. How am I supposed to climax to this?"
(To be fair there are definately porn games that depict very similiar scenarios in ways tantalizing for the S&M crowd, so I can see why these folks fell prey to false expectations but needless to say, F&H was not any more designed to help people get their coomies out and about than Alien etc)
As far as Termina goes, the psychosexual stuff is more in the background this time around.
How's the sequel compared to F&H? And do I have to finish/beat F&H to play Termina? Cause honestly, while I enjoyed the game, after 17 hours you start to notice the cracks and how repetitive it is (Yes, I know it's a roguelike-esque).
Also, the lore was pretty bad, not because it was grimdark and edgy, but because it was blatantly a mish-mash of different references that the dev thought were cool, and loaded with contradictions and inconsistency that stemmed from fault rather than purpose.
Playthrough is currently on Day 2 with Abella, Marina, and Black Kalev in party, about 5 hours in. Just reached Prehevil proper - the game really opens up, same overwhelming feeling as getting to Mahavre (or whatever it was called) in the first game.
I think I am falling in love with the game, and the new saving system makes me want to press on as far as possible even on a playthrough I would otherwise write off, leading to a delicious combination of risk/reward. There are surprising alternate routes here that I could see it being a lot of fun planning a build/playthrough around.
Some playthrough notes:
-I did my Levi (soldier) start. Was originally planning to be a relatively pacifistic dood but since finding a cavalry sabre in the starting train and realizing that the Lockpicking ability is tied to Karin's soul, I killed her. Killed Henryk too, and Tanaka got himself killed, so we are down to 11/14 participants.
-Don't sleep on Persuade - it is basically a free stun on certain enemies. Works on Henryk!
-Yo, save your Shillings - store in Prehevil, somewhere past the gate, sells skill points at 50 a pop.
-Directly north past the locked gate to Prehevil proper you will also find a vendor that trades severed heads of festival participants for books (this is a reliable way to get crafting recipes, super glad this is a thing)
Better IMO - myself and other people have already provided general impressions, but specifically to your questions:
-Termina barely qualifies as a roguelike in comparison to F&H, as you immediately have access to a save point. Saving comes at a cost - it advances time, which in turn advances certain events and character fates, but as a result the game feels more like a structured and considered puzzle and less of a random experience.
-Speaking of randomness, F&H had mild random generation due to varying map presets and randomized item drops. Termina has a fixed map with no randomization (and a great, interconnected and sprawling one at that, with alternate routes etc etc) and the item RNG has been made a lesser factor through there being more reliable ways of getting important items such as recipe books, and a few different item shops.
-The dank lore and writing are still on an ESL level, but I personally find Termina's setting to be much more inspired and coherent, and the text noticeably more polished and confident (though still awkward.) Finishing the first game is not at all required, and if anything I'd play them in reverse order since that one is a far more obtuse experience. Opaque? Both or something idk
