Bastard Bonds - fabulous fast-paced tactical RPG with high-end pixel art

[Drowed]

Steam Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=682180703

https://townseed.ca/bigfingers/BB/index.html




https://af.gog.com/game/bastard_bonds?as=1649904300

Spoiler

So, I just found this thing here:

As a citizen of the nation of Crest, you've found yourself bound and subject to the whims of your country's laws, convicted and consigned to a distant penal colony, from whence none return.

Are you being mistakenly blamed for a theft, or are you a serial killer who finally got sloppy enough to get caught? Will you throw yourself at the court's mercy, or keep your own counsel? Is this justice, or a farce, and once you are interned, how far will you go to regain your freedom? Surrounded by convicts, can you trust anyone at all? These are your questions to answer.

Bastard Bonds is a fast-paced tactical RPG with a very high degree of customization. A near-endless variety of convicts can be created with the provided template manager, and character appearances can be fully modded. The game features over 200 unique in-game locations, hundreds of unique character and monster sprites, forty plus hours of content, and a moody original soundtrack composed by the talented Peter Olson.

Pics:

Spoiler

Does anyone know it? Played it? Can you tell me if it's interesting? It costs $20, if someone wants to risk or have already done so, I want to know your opinions about it.

EDIT: Store Page added. And it looks good, will buy it.

 

[FuriousGamer87]

That's one way of saving a helluva lot of work for animations.

 

[CryptRat]

Looks cool, I'll try the demo version soon.

 

[Abu Antar]

I saw it in my Greenlight queue and voted for it, but I haven't tried it out.

 

[ghostdog]

That's one way of saving a helluva lot of work for animations.

Indeed, this game looks pretty good with some very nice sprites and yet there are no actual animations, so they've reduced the budget a lot. Jeff Vogel should see this and weep.

 

[getter77]

Looks promising---the rest of the games on their site are a bit...different, it would seem. This one is apparently meant for general audience by far as a breakout.

 

[ColCol]

Is this a secret fetishist game. I feel like this is a fetishist game.

 

[Siveon]

Is this a secret fetishist game. I feel like this is a fetishist game.

Not exactly secret when his other games look like...

NSFW

Well, that.

 

[Severian Silk]

Wait wut?

 

[Drowed]

Now it only needs a tranny to be perfect for the Codex.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

the title alone should be getting some sweet outrage publicity

 

[Siveon]

Wait wut?

The developer is as straight as a curved road. His first crush was most likely Conan the Barbarian. He enjoys the male physique. His favorite class was probably gym. In summary, homosexual. There are 11 models dedicated to burly Orc men alone. Not that I care, but I couldn't resist.

On topic, wall of text.

Rant

The game seems alright so far. In the beginning of the game you create a lone character with a rather extensive set of clothing and customization options, which allow you to layer multiple pieces of sprites onto a model and you get to color them at well. With a bit of fiddling your character can look somewhat decent. The game starts off with the classic prisoner approach, where you state your name (and where I found out you cannot name the character the same name of an NPC, which is a nice touch) and your crime (!). The crime affects certain things like who joins you and how NPCs react. I also can confirm, this game does include at least a mention of tasteful rape. Since you can choose to be accused of being a rapist (which is funnily enough, your class). After you're locked up, a party member joins you which I assume is also selected from whether you state you were guilty or not guilty. I'm not sure if this is only for the beginning but I liked that brief Elders Scrolls questionnaire way of getting your party (which, including you, is up to 4 I believe). Yeah, you can't create the other three which is a bit disappointing.

Now, meat and bones, the ruleset seems to be rather simple. At first, I guess. Your character creation involves choosing stats off of a 3x3 grid, and whatever stat you choose also slightly increases other stats vertically and horizontally. It's very minuscule, though. The nine are sorted into three color coated rows for symbolizing Warrior, Thief and Mage stats. Red having a Fight, Guard and Labor stat. Yellow having a Hunt, Dodge and Thwart stat. Blue including a Blast, Ward and Weave stat. If you upgrade a stat to a certain level you get a perk (up to six per stat for a total of 54 perks). There are skill checks for the last three stats (with perk requirements). For example, in the beginning you find a spell for opening doors that can only be be cast with the right weave stat. Me and my partner both failed and lost a bit of life. Considering what stat you level up to get the most perks is paramount, since you can stack effects together which improves your stats.

My only gripes are the controls and viewpoint. Most of the game is controlled with the mouse and shift key. You get two prompts for both mouse buttons (like say, approach or attack) and you get a shift mode dubbed "Act Recklessly" where you can do something like dash away or attack non-hostiles. I haven't seen a control scheme like this before so it took me a bit to get used to. It wasn't long but still, unorthodox. According to the controls you can also negotiate mid-battle if the enemies are hesitating. I don't know the parameters but that sounds interesting. FAKE EDIT: Usually when they're low on health they panic, but it seems that recruit can only be done on human enemies. When I talked to a slime it just ran away. With the viewpoint, in can sometimes be a pain seeing whatever is on the foreground, but hovering over usually tells if there's say a door or not. Back to the UI, you start with two inventory slots which can be upgraded by certain perks and and one weapon, armor and accessory slot. The dumbass that I am thought it was simply a way to classify the stats (which are always shown).

From all that gathered, this game feels like a mix between a regular tactical RPG and something more akin to a board game in terms of simplicity and oddities and what I see in the trailer. I'll play more to see if the conscripting is included as well as the world map and strongholds. FAKE EDIT: It does. Map acts as a level select screen and you can go back to certain levels.

FAKE EDIT: I also failed to mention that Act Recklessly can be used with normal stuff like attacking or casting spells to increase speed. With the fact that each success increases your chance to fumble and lose a turn. Excusing my messy rant it's fairly easy to get into once you start playing. Uh, hope that helps. Game seems fun.

That took a lot longer than expected.

 

[Mustawd]

Voted for this on Steam Greenlight. Looks great.

 

[Siveon]

Same, I think my favorite part is that it's just a plain release. No Kickstarter, just a demo and a full game to buy. I'm definitely bookmarking this for later.

EDIT: By the way, where the hell did you find this?

 

[CryptRat]

It costs $20, if someone wants to risk or have already done so, I want to know your opinions about it.

If you haven't tried the demo, just do. I don't really like the game, but it's long enough to get an opinion.

A few screenshots :

Spoiler

There are cool skill checks (you generally don't have the needed skill), character developpement seems decent, I died a few times, and negotiating with enemies looks cool even if I never could use it (because of me or because of the monsters?). I thought the combats and maps were boring, only walking and clicking on enemies (even with my mage) which didn't use any skill but the game probably gets better.

 

[Mustawd]

Holy Fucking Shit. Getting a huge gaming boner. Why hasn't this gotten a ton of attention on here?

 

[Siveon]

I thought the combats and maps were boring, only walking and clicking on enemies (even with my mage) which didn't use any skill but the game probably gets better.

Aye, there are intricacies but the first few maps didn't prove to get bigger as I hoped it would. I'm hoping the differences between enemies will make up for the fact that the combat is very limited.

 

[Severian Silk]

Someone should invite the developer to the Codex.

 

[getter77]

Holy Fucking Shit. Getting a huge gaming boner. Why hasn't this gotten a ton of attention on here?

Based on the gist of the trailer comments and the rest of the YT channel there, it would very much seem this was something of a low key/secret project for the past few years with the main folks paying it mind being the fan base for his prior game projects and that general scene---though if not mistaken there was also mention of a crowd funding venture that didn't pan out for another something a fair while back that was perhaps somewhat related to this in spirit.

 

[V_K]

Is it just battle after battle after battle or is there some exploration involved?

 

[Siveon]

Is it just battle after battle after battle or is there some exploration involved?

Well, the maps get somewhat bigger with secrets to find (so far it's only Dragon Age level. Key on table, monster pile. Stone you push for encounter, etc) and where you choose to go on the map (which, as previously stated, like a FE level select screen) branches out a bit, but it doesn't seem to reach say, Ultima levels of vastness. If you've played Geneforge, it's like that in miniature.

 

[Lhynn]

Siveon do you have sweaty gay bear sex on the game?

 

[Siveon]

Siveon do you have sweaty gay bear sex on the game?

No?

EDIT: I did at least finish the demo though. It does include a bit of the stronghold system, where you take over a certain map provided you have the manpower. I assume manpower is calculated by the number people of your party, both combatant and non-combatant, as well as their utility and alignment. Chaos aligned members apparently do less? The tutorial was a bit vague but I think it was just fluff. EDIT: Just as well, while there doesn't seem to be any inherent negative to having people of different alignments in your party, there's apparently a boost for same alignment parties. The encounters definitely get harder and I found myself unable to defeat an optional mid-boss called a Titan since the dude (buffed, of course) was doing 30 damage a pop on my 100HP defender.

I also found a tutorial map that explains the magic system a bit more. Some colors do certain debuffs/buffs and they do more damage on people using other colors. You get a color by equipping an equipment item. Nothing mind blowing. Beyond that and the titan there was just a bunch of forest maps that mostly got progressively bigger. But eventually there were no more paths to take so I assumed I reached the end.

Spoiler

Barring this one castle that has a locked door with a switch asking to prove that you've "sacrificed to gain perfection" or something like that. No clue what that was all about.

 

[Lhynn]

Siveon do you have sweaty gay bear sex on the game?

No?

Hadda ask, his other two games do.

 

[V_K]

Siveon do you have sweaty gay bear sex on the game?

No?

Hadda ask, his other two games do.

It says that sex in BB is "Mentioned, not depicted" right there on the site.