Islands of the Caliph - Arabian Nights single character dungeon crawler

[Sacibengala]

I found a prayer rug

How's the exploration?

 

[JarlFrank]

 

[Butter]

You sure this game isn't Indian?

 

[Darth Roxor]

I found a prayer rug

How's the exploration?

Not sure yet, played for like 20 minutes before I had to stop

 

[JarlFrank]

I played for like 2 hours today and it's pretty good.
I found a crumbling wall in the first town's dungeon that I couldn't break. Two islands later, I buy a warhammer that could break it.
It also managed to break through a rock blocking a cave entrance.
I assume I'll find some sort of machete later that can destroy certain types of plants, because when I attacked a large plant that blocked my way, it said "Your current weapon cannot damage this", implying another weapon could.

There have been several instances of me taking note of some currently impassable area that I'm sure I'll be able to get through later.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I played for like 2 hours today and it's pretty good.
I found a crumbling wall in the first town's dungeon that I couldn't break. Two islands later, I buy a warhammer that could break it.
It also managed to break through a rock blocking a cave entrance.
I assume I'll find some sort of machete later that can destroy certain types of plants, because when I attacked a large plant that blocked my way, it said "Your current weapon cannot damage this", implying another weapon could.

RTFM, different applications for weapons during exploration are all listed there.

 

[thesecret1]

I assume I'll find some sort of machete later that can destroy certain types of plants,

Buy an axe. You get it in the first town from the beggar guy (he'll open a store)

 

[Darth Roxor]

Finished the demo. Liked what I saw, gon get the full deal.

Also I solved the giant squid problem in the most, ahem, middle eastern manner possible

Spoiler

The squid eggs started spawning before I actually found/talked to the squid, I collected like 6 of them and was like 'why would I even need this tamagochi shit, imma just sell a bunch since they go for 45 dollars'. Then it turns out I have to return them to the squid. :uh-oh:. I can't buy them back. :sweating profusely:. I found whatever was left on the island, returned to the squid... and it thanked me for my help and the eggs it was supposed to take from me also remained in my inventory, so I could sell them afterwards too

 

[Hobo Elf]

Also played this game for some ~2h. My reaction is mixed.

Pros:
-Music, art style and general atmosphere. Cool stuff.
-Combat is OK for a RT FPP crawler. Really, this is the one part where I've never been impressed with games of this style. I think making attack speed a stat that helps you attack + block before enemies apply a status effect on you is a decent enough way of doing it.

Cons:
-After the first few quests the game feels aimless? Like there's a vague overarching quest of uniting the islands, but you aren't give much of a reason to care. The game lacks even a small narrative hook for the player to get invested in the setting. Even something simple like an evil vizier kidnapped the princess and you have to rescue them would've been enough.
-Similarly there's not a big hook when it comes to gameplay either. The dungeons are small and over faster than you find them. The dungeon atmosphere and map layouts are decent but it's just too little and over too fast for you to feel like you are actually sinking your teeth in some good crawling. Could've been less unique areas and just longer dungeons.
-Too much screwing around with the inventory to equip different types of weapons/tools to smash rocks, walls or chop trees.
-Items don't stack properly in your inventory so you end up with several stacks of 1 medicine. Tons of different food items that functionally do the same thing (max out your hunger) but also stack in their own unique slots. There are quests to sell certain food items to NPCs in different towns to make profit but these aren't the kind of quests that needed to exist to justify making the inventory management worse than it already is.

The controls are also pretty odd. Like, I can see that the game doesn't necessarily have to have a mouse to be playable (though the option would be nice). But WASD + <- & -> arrows for strafing doesn't feel good to me. I thought about it and I think what the dev is trying to emulate here is something similar to a console controller input for a shooter game. I changed it immediately to A & D = strafing, Q & E = turning.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Also played this game for some ~2h. My reaction is mixed.

Hmm, sadly sounds a bit disappointing. Please let us know if the experience improves as you get further.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Also played this game for some ~2h. My reaction is mixed.

Hmm, sadly sounds a bit disappointing. Please let us know if the experience improves as you get further.

Got worse after I posted my message. I'm now on a main quest to collect 10 lost pages of the Quran. They also don't stack so again I need to mess around with my inventory to make space. I'm running around an island collecting pages, but also now I'm barely killing monsters or doing any crawling. Feels more like a collectathon. There's also now another tool, the fishing rod, I should add to the pile of items I need (maybe, dunno if it's optional or if I'm gonna have to fish up some Quran pages). Honestly the further in I get the more annoying the game's design becomes. Shame, the first two islands kinda showed some promise. As of now I wouldn't recommend the game and I'm considering dropping it myself. Currently feels like a chore to play more than anything else.

 

[Darth Roxor]

hmmm maybe it's good i didnt buy it just yet

 

[Lyre Mors]

It's a shame. This one had a ton of potential, from its setting, aesthetic, to genre. Lord knows we need more dungeon crawlers out there. Why do the majority of them have to be shit? I feel like there are some very simple aspects of the genre that need to be followed in order for a game to be good, yet they are often ignored. Why?

 

[thesecret1]

Also played this game for some ~2h. My reaction is mixed.

Hmm, sadly sounds a bit disappointing. Please let us know if the experience improves as you get further.

Got worse after I posted my message. I'm now on a main quest to collect 10 lost pages of the Quran. They also don't stack so again I need to mess around with my inventory to make space. I'm running around an island collecting pages, but also now I'm barely killing monsters or doing any crawling. Feels more like a collectathon. There's also now another tool, the fishing rod, I should add to the pile of items I need (maybe, dunno if it's optional or if I'm gonna have to fish up some Quran pages). Honestly the further in I get the more annoying the game's design becomes. Shame, the first two islands kinda showed some promise. As of now I wouldn't recommend the game and I'm considering dropping it myself. Currently feels like a chore to play more than anything else.

You don't need the fishing rod for anything, 9 of the 10 quran pages are within the city or the library right next to it, the last one is in the tower to the west – you can collect and hand over all the pages in like 10 minutes

 

[JarlFrank]

6 hours in I'm still having fun. Not even following quests or anything, just traveling and exploring dungeons. I didn't even get the Quran pages quest yet.

The ghoul dungeon on the third island was cool. Yes, the dungeons here aren't huge, but this one didn't feel tiny either. Broke through two secret walls to explore caves beyond. Took out my shovel and dug randomly, actually found a key this way, to my surprise. The ghouls gave good XP but also hit hard, gotta do the step dance to kill them without taking damage. Found a high quality hammer on the upper floor of the dungeon, guarded by two ghouls.

Went on to another island, it's a depressing place covered in burnt-out forests. The dungeon here is a tower atop a hill you must climb. It's infested with albino spiders. There are several secret chambers you can access by smashing walls with your hammer. One of those chambers held a golden key.

I remembered a locked door in the second island's dungeon that required a golden key, so I took three boat trips to return there and unlocked that door. Beyond the door was a sign saying "Don't go further!" Of course, I went further, and got my ass kicked by a snakeman. Tried again, this time I just spammed attack and managed to stunlock the beast. Descended further, killed more snakemen, they dropped spears, one of them was high quality and has the highest speed and attack values of all weapons I found up to this point. Nice. Further down, I found a jinn lamp! Haven't used it yet, perhaps you can rub it? It's tagged as a quest item, so perhaps later on I'll find something to do with it (or I could just rub it lol).

Yeah, I'm enjoying this. Good fun.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Thanks for the alternate perspective JarlFrank! Sounds like there's some solid exploration to be had. Maybe I'll keep my eye on it after all. Would be interested to know how many hours it takes to complete, whenever you do.

 

[JarlFrank]

Just did the Quran pages quest, not the most well-designed quest I've ever seen but it's not that terrible. You can find all ten pages around the city, with a few being in two towers outside of the city - which is exactly what the questgiver tells you ("I lost them in the city, please find them, and make sure to check the towers outside of the city!")

Item stacking is somewhat of an issue, you don't have much inventory space and there's a bunch of items you should carry around at all times (lamp, axe, hammer, shovel) which take away one slot each. Equipped items also take up one inventory slot so armor and helmet is two more. Also, you can't sell or toss the starting weapon... dev says it's as a safeguard to prevent players from selling all their weapons and then being stuck because they can't do damage, but idk, if you do that you deserve being stuck.

There's plenty of backtracking and you have to go back and forth between islands a lot, but usually it's because you know you missed something (locked door you need a key for) and are coming back for a reason, so I don't consider it a bad thing.

It does have a couple of flaws but the drive of exploration keeps me going, it's just a fun game overall and apart from the frequent ship journeys it doesn't waste your time at all. Movement is super quick, as is combat.

 

[JarlFrank]

Don't free the jinn.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Don't free the jinn.

“Why?”

 

[ferratilis]

When you die in this game, do you get the 72 virgins? Also, are there any planes to hijack? Asking for a friend.

 

[JarlFrank]

Also, are there any planes to hijack? Asking for a friend.

No but you can commit an act of terrorism by freeing the jinn.

I expected a simple dungeon crawler, but there's a lot more to it. I'm positively surprised. I gave the game to my Romanian pal and we're playing it together now, he has a similar experience. There is lots to discover, and there are even choices & consequences!

Here's a couple:

Spoiler

When you have to get rid of the squid, there are two ways to do so: gather its eggs, or just attack it to chase it off. I attacked it and didn't even know the egg quest exists. I wonder what the difference in outcomes is, I'm pretty sure there is one.

My pal helped out a pirate, and restarted his game afterwards because the consequences weren't pretty. The pirate became active again and sank the ship that brings you back to the first island, effectively cutting you off from it! The main quest doesn't require you to go back there I think, so it's not game-ending, but it's a major consequence.

The main quest has the caliph of the third island send you to other islands and talk to their rulers to reunite the islands. When he gives you the second letter, he says "The ruler of that island is into dark magic, and Satan is trying to deceive him. If he gives you a task, you probably shouldn't do it."
The task he gave me was to retrieve a magic lamp. I brought him the magic lamp. He freed the ifrit locked inside, the ifrit betrayed him, and now there's a super powerful demon ravaging the land and two major cities are on lockdown, preventing me from entering them until I deal with that fucking ifrit. This is the most apocalyptic consequence I've ever seen in an RPG. Holy shit.

On one island, there's a roc, a giant bird that many fantasy games use as a transport unit. And you guessed correctly, you can get the roc to transport you to other islands if you help him out. But there's also a guy who wants to eat a roc egg and offers you good money for it. If you steal the roc's egg, it will attack you and you have to kill it, taking away the option of using it for transport.

This game has actual, real, hard-hitting C&C.

 

[Arrowgrab]

The ghoul dungeon on the third island was cool. Yes, the dungeons here aren't huge, but this one didn't feel tiny either. Broke through two secret walls to explore caves beyond. Took out my shovel and dug randomly, actually found a key this way, to my surprise. The ghouls gave good XP but also hit hard, gotta do the step dance to kill them without taking damage. Found a high quality hammer on the upper floor of the dungeon, guarded by two ghouls.

You know you can just pacify the ghouls, right? IIRC:

Spoiler

Find a hut outside the city on the third island, talk to inhabitant, he tells you the ghouls are pissed off because he stole and item from them and gave it to the local sultan as a gift. Go to the sultan in the city, he'll give you the item. Go to the ruins, place item in the hand of the dead king.

Of course that means you can't farm them for XP and ghoul hands.

 

[JarlFrank]

You know you can just pacify the ghouls, right?

Yes, that's part of the main quest actually, and I've done it a while ago.
I hadn't found that out yet at the time of writing the post.

 

[vitellus]

is the game in the full version identical to the demo? something about the movement just didn't gel with me

 

[thesecret1]

Also, are there any planes to hijack? Asking for a friend.

No but you can commit an act of terrorism by freeing the jinn.

I expected a simple dungeon crawler, but there's a lot more to it. I'm positively surprised. I gave the game to my Romanian pal and we're playing it together now, he has a similar experience. There is lots to discover, and there are even choices & consequences!

Here's a couple:

Spoiler

When you have to get rid of the squid, there are two ways to do so: gather its eggs, or just attack it to chase it off. I attacked it and didn't even know the egg quest exists. I wonder what the difference in outcomes is, I'm pretty sure there is one.

My pal helped out a pirate, and restarted his game afterwards because the consequences weren't pretty. The pirate became active again and sank the ship that brings you back to the first island, effectively cutting you off from it! The main quest doesn't require you to go back there I think, so it's not game-ending, but it's a major consequence.

The main quest has the caliph of the third island send you to other islands and talk to their rulers to reunite the islands. When he gives you the second letter, he says "The ruler of that island is into dark magic, and Satan is trying to deceive him. If he gives you a task, you probably shouldn't do it."
The task he gave me was to retrieve a magic lamp. I brought him the magic lamp. He freed the ifrit locked inside, the ifrit betrayed him, and now there's a super powerful demon ravaging the land and two major cities are on lockdown, preventing me from entering them until I deal with that fucking ifrit. This is the most apocalyptic consequence I've ever seen in an RPG. Holy shit.

On one island, there's a roc, a giant bird that many fantasy games use as a transport unit. And you guessed correctly, you can get the roc to transport you to other islands if you help him out. But there's also a guy who wants to eat a roc egg and offers you good money for it. If you steal the roc's egg, it will attack you and you have to kill it, taking away the option of using it for transport.

This game has actual, real, hard-hitting C&C.

You can get rid of the pirate by ratting him out to the jailer. Does that respawn the boat, or is it gone forever?