Roguelike Mysterious Castle - iOS/Android/Web

[AdolfSatan]

Awesome. Update doesn't seem to have broken my game, even tho, as you said, part of it I won't see because the world was already generated.

3 bugs 3:

I still get the dark screen bug (the one I mentioned in an email way back) when I descend stair, and currently can't progress because I can't save and restart to fix it due to some mobs starting combat as soon as I descend a level.

I've had some +0 rings spawn. I believe it was armor.

Due to dungeon levels of any given depth being generated on a single map but walled from each other to keep the illusion if them being separate (or that's what I assume you coded), if you get the Blink spell ring or mage cape and use its random spot warp, you can actually end up teleported to the same level depth but in a different dungeon than the one you cast the spell at.
I've actually found it amusing, but I reckon it might not be its intended use.


Other than that, I just forged the black and red blades, really cool! Are there any other items to be pieced together?

 

[AdolfSatan]

ez gg

 

[eclectocrat]

Awesome. Update doesn't seem to have broken my game, even tho, as you said, part of it I won't see because the world was already generated.

3 bugs 3:

I still get the dark screen bug (the one I mentioned in an email way back) when I descend stair, and currently can't progress because I can't save and restart to fix it due to some mobs starting combat as soon as I descend a level.

I've had some +0 rings spawn. I believe it was armor.

Due to dungeon levels of any given depth being generated on a single map but walled from each other to keep the illusion if them being separate (or that's what I assume you coded), if you get the Blink spell ring or mage cape and use its random spot warp, you can actually end up teleported to the same level depth but in a different dungeon than the one you cast the spell at.
I've actually found it amusing, but I reckon it might not be its intended use.


Other than that, I just forged the black and red blades, really cool! Are there any other items to be pieced together?

- Wow, I've only ever personally seen the black screen bug once in 13 years and I can't for the life of me figure out what is going on. I will take a fresh look at the relevant code, sorry it's happening to you!
- The ring says +0? Wierd, I'll check it out.

I'm working on a bugfix update that'll be ready in the next week or so.

- I intentionally keep the warping behaviour because I think it's hilarious, and now with warp-stones you can't really get stuck, just warp back to a stone after battle.
- There are two broken artifacts generated for each world. I believe that there are a total of 5 or 6 right now. I'd like to add epic armor too but can't figure out exactly what powers it should have.

ez gg

Nice! That guy was an asshole

Now that you've beaten the game, I'm super interested in any suggestions you have on improving it.

P.S. if you are masochistic I've beaten the game with a party of two characters (Custom-made half-elf and elf duo), and event a single non-epic character before. It was hard, and involved a lot of running away, but it's possible.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Yup, the dark screen bug is the weirdest thing. Because if I manage to save the game, even when it’s dark, all I need to do is use a warp stone for the screen to drop the dark overlay and then reload to get back to the intended screen. Also, it’s not always pure black, sometimes it’s at around 50 or 75% opacity. Weird.
Do keep the blink warp, it’s really fun.

Takes after beating the game:

Endgame content is trivial. This is a —somewhat disappointing— contrast to how punishing the game can be early on. Perhaps put fewer mobs but make them stronger? Would make sense with the angels and void creatures theme. Why are there so many when the description says they should be a rarity?
My frontliners had so much energy resistance that they took 0 damage from the fire angels’ magic. On one hand it’s good, it means good prepping pays off. On the other, it meant I could wade in untroubled by an end-game creature.
Banish should have a failure % because it makes killing angels way too easy. If they get bunched up you can scoop 9 in a single spell.
One mob behavior that was cool from was the dark angel summoning skellies. They couldn’t do shit to my chars, but it would have been a cool way for the necromancer to shield himself with meatshields instead of allowing me to rush and 1HKO the motherfucker, because I actually killed him with a single flurry attack. I was actually surprised at the lack of undead creatures surrounding the necromancer tbh.

Is it deliberate for the game to go on after beating it? Did I actually beat it or is there more after the necromancer? The unassuming message makes it a bit confusing. It would be nicer to get some kind of bigger congratulatory screen and then a prompt on whether to keep playing for the sake of it or just call it a day and get the final screen with game stats, such as walked steps, amount of kills, or whatever else that was tracked.

 

[eclectocrat]

Yup, the dark screen bug is the weirdest thing. Because if I manage to save the game, even when it’s dark, all I need to do is use a warp stone for the screen to drop the dark overlay and then reload to get back to the intended screen. Also, it’s not always pure black, sometimes it’s at around 50 or 75% opacity. Weird.
Do keep the blink warp, it’s really fun.

Takes after beating the game:

Endgame content is trivial. This is a —somewhat disappointing— contrast to how punishing the game can be early on. Perhaps put fewer mobs but make them stronger? Would make sense with the angels and void creatures theme. Why are there so many when the description says they should be a rarity?
My frontliners had so much energy resistance that they took 0 damage from the fire angels’ magic. On one hand it’s good, it means good prepping pays off. On the other, it meant I could wade in untroubled by an end-game creature.
Banish should have a failure % because it makes killing angels way too easy. If they get bunched up you can scoop 9 in a single spell.
One mob behavior that was cool from was the dark angel summoning skellies. They couldn’t do shit to my chars, but it would have been a cool way for the necromancer to shield himself with meatshields instead of allowing me to rush and 1HKO the motherfucker, because I actually killed him with a single flurry attack. I was actually surprised at the lack of undead creatures surrounding the necromancer tbh.

Is it deliberate for the game to go on after beating it? Did I actually beat it or is there more after the necromancer? The unassuming message makes it a bit confusing. It would be nicer to get some kind of bigger congratulatory screen and then a prompt on whether to keep playing for the sake of it or just call it a day and get the final screen with game stats, such as walked steps, amount of kills, or whatever else that was tracked.

Yeah, I agree about the end-game. I will be upping the power of Angels and Demons a little, as well as generating slightly fewer and slightly larger mobs in the deeper levels. It's a tricky balance, but there is plenty of time to explore and find better equipment and more books if it's too hard.

The banish spell actually does have a chance to fail but I guess your spellcaster was all maxed out. In the next version the spell is a little more expensive to prepare and a bit less likely to successfully banish.

Yeah, the end screen (if you can even call it that) is very weak right now. I will eventually add a more comprehensive review of the party's stats. It's deliberate that the game doesn't end, because originally there was a secret section after the necromancer filled with the most insanely difficult mobs of unique monsters but I had to remove it because it was buggy. Eventually I'll re-add it but for now there isn't any greater challenge than the necromancer.

I'm releasing a bugfix/rebalance patch in the near future and then I have a bunch of more interesting mechanics/world generation features in the pipeline.

Thanks a lot for playing, and for the helpful feedback!

 

[AdolfSatan]

My pleasure, it’s a very fun game, and certainly takes the crown as the best rpg in mobile gaming; even with that category aside, it’s a great dungeon crawl. 100% recommended, stamp it with Adolf’s seal of approval.

 

[eclectocrat]

Version 1.62.1 of Mysterious Castle is now up on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store! The web-based version is still on v1.61 as I've encountered a critical bug that needs fixing there. This version is a bugfix and balance update, many bugs have been fixed, and the endgame has been made more challenging. Changes include:

• Angel enemies and epic characters are now more powerful.
• Demon enemies are now slightly more powerful.
• More enemies are generated in very high level dungeons.
• Increased the size of the necromancers party by 50%!
• Rebalanced banish spell:
  • It cost more to prepare.
  • It has a lower chance to banish enemies.
  • It deals more damage to enemies that resist banishment.
• Added "out of bow range" message when enemy is too far to shoot.
• You can now use help mode to see epic characters racial modifiers.
• Tapping on an item name when in help mode now brings up item info.
• Fixed a bug when moving equipped offhand items broke your inventory.
• Fixed a bug where if you 'put' an item in your inventory it would disappear.
• Fixed a bug where a corpse over a secret door would prevent selecting either, and block 5 foot steps.
• Fixed a bug where you couldn't dismiss the map view unless tapping on specific areas.
• Fixed iOS tap coordinates for multiple iPad and iPhone models.
• Fixed resolution for iPad Mini 6th gen.

You can find links to all versions at https://mysterious-castle.com.

Join us at our discord https://discord.gg/Td6ChnTzUH to leave feedback and get tips.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

This game looks pretty solid for mobile play and to be 13 y/o is pretty amazing since games get dropped on a regular basis. Lot of RPGs I see that were once on mobile and now POOF gone.