KickStarter Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones - a Lovecraftian Computer RPG

[Jrpgfan]

Yeah I guess the artstyle itself does resemble something like Alan Moore more. Which is also fine by me.

 

[Zombra]

I love the art style. It doesn't look like the pulps, but to me it's very evocative of 20s line art. I'm having a hard time finding examples but here's something:

Figures in unexpressive poses (not drawn the exaggerated "Marvel way" you see in more cartoonish modern work), faces are little more than a few parallel lines, elaborate shading done using nothing but heavy black ink, everything drawn completely freehand. I feel like this is the basic art style they were going for.

 

[Valtiel]

I'm looking forward to play the demo asap

btw, is Dark Corners of the Earth worth nowadays? never played it and don't know if it's good

 

[Beowulf]

It has always been good.
But the game shifts from investigating strange things to shooting horrors in the second half, so you have to be prepared for that.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

I remember Dark corners of the earth...never finish it but what I played was great!

 

[Fedora Master]

I'm looking forward to play the demo asap

btw, is Dark Corners of the Earth worth nowadays? never played it and don't know if it's good

Pretty buggy and prone to crash and it takes a nosedive around the 2/3 mark.

 

[veevoir]

So.. anybody tried the new demo?

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Do we get additional stat points on levelup? In the demo i only got 2 skill points upon reaching lvl 2.

Is 10 the max for stats or does it go higher?

Is the game coming out on GoG? I installed steam just for the demo, and i do not like drm spyware like that...

 

[Zombra]

Do we get additional stat points on levelup?

I'm not an expert, but I think your stats are just your stats.

 

[agris]

I do think it could've used less successive battles in the bank part, though.

This beat em' up hallway of battles was my main issue with the backer demo too. Kind of dissapointed they haven't taken such critiques into consideration for the release of the public demo, but the rest is such incline my hopes remain high for this beautiful game.

This is the 'Publisher Demo' -> 'Backer Demo' with just improved stability, so I don't think any content has been touched. Scrawled could let us know what Cultic Games think of the combat pacing in the Bank, though.

Is "research" implemented yet? So I didn't get to test that out, unfortunately, to see if I could craft enough booze/drugs/etc. to counteract bad combat stats.

No, I don't think Research is implemented in the demo.

[...]

I played through the demo with an Old Occultist Mesmirist and am left feeling conflicted. I'm very cautiously optimistic. The dialogue was Fallout-ish, which is to say I liked it. Direct, to the point and nothing purple about it. But, the number of 'fucks' seems too high for the 1920s vibe it had going (ymmv), with all the people in suits and hats, and came across as amateurish. Still, when the dialogue bothered me, it was nowhere near as bad as TToN or POE. The character system implies that the game is going to be mechanistically deep, with lots of non-combat usage of different skills to interact with things differently ala Fallout 1/2. If the game lives up to the character system and doesn't go WL2 on us, then we're in for a chardev treat. The art is gorgeous.

My number 1 concern about Stygian is actually technical; I'm worried Cultic doesn't have the technical chops to realize their vision, and the most obvious example of this is the excessive number of load screens. My number 2 concern is how they're approaching combat, including the JRPG-esque "battlefields" that enemies trigger. My 3rd concern regards player skills and how they interact with the game world, outside of dialogue and combat, which appear almost non-existent. The 4th, albeit minor, concern is that various aspects of POE seem to have bled into Stygian such as camping supplies, some of the icons, and even the same font for some text.


edit: can someone please tell me what Spellpoints are? I was playing in 1920x1200 which clipped some of the combat interface, so I couldn't see a SP meter there, nor in the character sheet.

 

[Zombra]

The number of 'fucks' seems too high for the 1920s vibe it had going (ymmv), with all the people in suits and hats, and came across as amateurish.

I found it interesting. It's certainly not like a novel that would have been published in the 20s, because publishers would have censored that word - but the word itself has been around and in common usage a lot longer than HBO. To me it lends a weirdly authentic vibe, like this might be more like how people actually would have talked, particularly after an apocalypse when there's no society to be polite in any more.

 

[agris]

The number of 'fucks' seems too high for the 1920s vibe it had going (ymmv), with all the people in suits and hats, and came across as amateurish.

I found it interesting. It's certainly not like a novel that would have been published in the 20s, because publishers would have censored that word - but the word itself has been around and in common usage a lot longer than HBO. To me it lends a weirdly authentic vibe, like this might be more like how people actually would have talked, particularly after an apocalypse when there's no society to be polite in any more.

Maybe it was a coincidence of my dialogue choices, but at first it felt as you describe, then upon rapidly encountering it a few more times, read as amateurish. I will play through with another character, and maybe the cheatengine to jack up my cigs, to see what I can find.

 

[agris]

Zombra can you enter combat with anyone at any time? The pistol icon was also cut off from the interface for me, so I never tried it. I'd love to take out Richter's (not-Doc Morbid) goons and see what's in his fridge.

 

[Zombra]

Zombra can you enter combat with anyone at any time? The pistol icon was also cut off from the interface for me, so I never tried it. I'd love to take out Richter's (not-Doc Morbid) goons and see what's in his fridge.

Unknown, I haven't touched the demo since the original backer release. If you see me on Steam feel free to ping me and I can go try it. (I'm at work right now.)

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Zombra can you enter combat with anyone at any time? The pistol icon was also cut off from the interface for me, so I never tried it. I'd love to take out Richter's (not-Doc Morbid) goons and see what's in his fridge.

No, at least not in the demo.

 

[Kaivokz]

edit: can someone please tell me what Spellpoints are? I was playing in 1920x1200 which clipped some of the combat interface, so I couldn't see a SP meter there, nor in the character sheet.

Do you mean the SP consumed by casting spells? It is your sanity meter, if I’m not mistaken. Spells you cast come out of the same resource (blue bar) that sanity drains affect.

If there were spell points separate from that, I did not encounter them.

 

[agris]

edit: can someone please tell me what Spellpoints are? I was playing in 1920x1200 which clipped some of the combat interface, so I couldn't see a SP meter there, nor in the character sheet.

Do you mean the SP consumed by casting spells? It is your sanity meter, if I’m not mistaken. Spells you cast come out of the same resource (blue bar) that sanity drains affect.

If there were spell points separate from that, I did not encounter them.

That was my suspicion. The spell info in the grimoire lists SP (spell points) as well as AP as the cost of casting spells, fyi.

 

[GandGolf]

Did the backer demo allow the player to save their game or to camp or rest? Or was it completely identical to the demo available on Steam as stated?

 

[udm]

It's a cool poster, but I'm not sure it's the same style. Anyway, browsing old covers has been fun. There's a lot of hilarity to be had.

I always thought the scrawny-ass Conans were pretty funny.

 

[Gargall amb Mocs]

I've tried, but no thanks. The animations are a joke, and the art style screams 'I can't draw'.
Next!

 

[fantadomat]

I've tried, but no thanks. The animations are a joke, and the art style screams 'I can't draw'.
Next!

The CoD is strong in this one!

 

[PrettyDeadman]

I've tried, but no thanks. The animations are a joke, and the art style screams 'I can't draw'.
Next!

Maybe this game is not for you, my friend. Go play Skyrim instead.

 

[Gargall amb Mocs]

I've tried, but no thanks. The animations are a joke, and the art style screams 'I can't draw'.
Next!

Maybe this game is not for you, my friend. Go play Skyrim instead.

Yeah, maybe. Far less cutscenes and not a complete amateurish shit.

 

[skacky]

Tried the demo. Went insane at the bank. 10/10.

 

[Jaesun]

I've tried, but no thanks. The animations are a joke, and the art style screams 'I can't draw'.
Next!

Maybe this game is not for you, my friend. Go play Skyrim instead.

Yeah, maybe. Far less cutscenes and not a complete amateurish shit.

Joined: Jun 2, 2017