Drova: Forsaken Kin - 2D action RPG inspired by Gothic series

[LizardWizard]

It's a good game and GOTY is between this and SKald for me. But I'm afraid I Fallout 2'd myself in my playthrough by doing everything in Act 1. I'm walking around in purple/orange gear in Act 1 and combat is basically pop a mole.

So yeah 10/10 for effort. It's not better than Gothic, but a game like this being made in current year is practically a miracle. GOTY. Skald had infuriating skill progression.

 

[Fedora Master]

It's not quite Body Type...

 

[HoboForEternity]

In Drova it is easier to takcle high level enemies because of traps and throwable weapons. There is even a ring that increase their effectiveness by 100% you can get in act 1

 

[MasPingon]

Do you have persuasive skills in this game? Any skill checks? Or it's not this kind of game?

 

[Sunri]

I finished it, both endings sucks but game was fun, so I guess it's okay

 

[Eldrin]

Do you have persuasive skills in this game? Any skill checks? Or it's not this kind of game?

It's like Gothic in that regard. Talks, some choices, but no 'Social' Skills/Rolls.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Oh the corpses of animals you kill actually decompose when you progress towards another act. You can still loot them for teeth/claws too if you havent gotten the skin animal perk

 

[HoboForEternity]

I finished it, both endings sucks but game was fun, so I guess it's okay

Tbh all gothic/risen/elex games kinda have shit endings, so it checks out.

 

[Harthwain]

Drova has too much running around (for both the player and enemies), and has HP bloat where you need to hit enemy dozens of times (but otherwise it's not a diffucult encounter, just time wasting).

Dodging was the staple of Gothic's combat as well though. Especially against the tougher enemies (who would also have A LOT of HP, for obvious reasons). In the beginning this helped to gate the players' exploration and make them seek "easier" areas or forced them learn how to fight so well that they were able to beat strong enemies (strong compared to their character's level).

So I still don't see too much of a difference here (except that Drova's combat resembles Dark Souls more than Gothic, but the basic principle remains the same). Maybe you could make an argument that starting enemies in Drova are too strong relative to the player, but you could also be going into places where enemies ARE supposed to be stronger?

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Spoiler

Is this part of the map gated by chapter? It seems impossible to get here? I can get up on a place where there's a Leshy, but no way to go down. The road is blocked by rubble and you can't get there through the water area where my character is because the islands don't connect

 

[normie]

Spoiler

Is this part of the map gated by chapter? It seems impossible to get here? I can get up on a place where there's a Leshy, but no way to go down. The road is blocked by rubble and you can't get there through the water area where my character is because the islands don't connect

through the cave up woodcutter's camp - there's a path in there left and down

 

[Lyre Mors]

I'm not saying it's a terrible game, but I don't get the hype on 'dex.

I don't really understand where you got a sense of hype from. Most of the people actually playing the game have just been saying it's good and enjoyable, not that it's amazing or groundbreaking. It's a well constructed indie open world RPG made by an impressively small team. The world-building is fine, the writing is mediocre, the progression is satisfying, the combat is fun and reflects said progression well, the enemy variety is good, the economy is tight (at least in the first half), the exploration is an incredible strength, quests and character interactions offer some interesting emergent moments, the atmosphere delivers in certain cases, the music is decent to good, and the environmental art is nice. It's a solid 7-8/10 (8 personally, but I can see how it could drop based on preferences) game made for Gothic fans by Gothic fans. And I don't think anyone has indicated much beyond that.

Good game that's certainly worth the price. As a big fan of Gothic 1 and 2, it scratches that itch very well. I personally find it better than Risen, which I also enjoyed a lot the two times I've played through it.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Fuck me

Spoiler

I found my way, by accident, into Drivanius' dungeon still underleveled. I used up all my consumables to fuck up those golems and got the armour pieces, nice. But I have barely any left and I run in all happy thinking I'm gonna get some great loot and get met with another fight. A fight where I got him down to ~30% health when he then proceeds to spawn 3 more people. Fuck this I'll come back to it.

I hate getting blueballed like that in games but I guess it's fair lol

 

[Shaki]

I'm not saying it's a terrible game, but I don't get the hype on 'dex.

I don't really understand where you got a sense of hype from. Most of the people actually playing the game have just been saying it's good and enjoyable, not that it's amazing or groundbreaking. It's a well constructed indie open world RPG made by an impressively small team. The world-building is fine, the writing is mediocre, the progression is satisfying, the combat is fun and reflects said progression well, the enemy variety is good, the economy is tight (at least in the first half), the exploration is an incredible strength, quests and character interactions offer some interesting emergent moments, the atmosphere delivers in certain cases, the music is decent to good, and the environmental art is nice. It's a solid 7-8/10 (8 personally, but I can see how it could drop based on preferences) game made for Gothic fans by Gothic fans. And I don't think anyone has indicated much beyond that.

Good game that's certainly worth the price. As a big fan of Gothic 1 and 2, it scratches that itch very well. I personally find it better than Risen, which I also enjoyed a lot the two times I've played through it.

"Solid 7-8/10 game made for Gothic fans by Gothic fans" is all I need to be a very happy man, but somehow for 20+ years, despite this very modest expectation, I was consistently disappointed by 99% of the "Gothic-likes", including most of games that Piranha Bytes itself made. Pretty much only Archolos and Risen (and to lesser extent first Elex), were decent enough to actually make me happy, and I think from these, only Archolos beats Drova. So actually I am goddamn hyped. I am allowed to get hyped for a 2nd best Gothic-like of the last 2 decades. It's not perfect, but Gothic itself also wasn't perfect, and it never stopped me from shilling it.

 

[Grauken]

I finished it, both endings sucks but game was fun, so I guess it's okay

Tbh all gothic/risen/elex games kinda have shit endings, so it checks out.

Not limited to them, most cRPGs have shitty endings and those with good ones are the exception

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Spoiler

I got this bulletin board quest but I talked to every Druid in Nemeton and none of them acknowledge something they have for me. Which place is Sacred Grove, am I missing something?

 

[normie]

Spoiler

I got this bulletin board quest but I talked to every Druid in Nemeton and none of them acknowledge something they have for me. Which place is Sacred Grove, am I missing something?

central area in Nemeton, guy up left

 

[Karwelas]

So, I just laughed my ass of due to an interesting, VERY interesting part of the game happening, namely:

A little fun thing

I just skipped whole chapter by doing things out of order - you can head to the Light Forest and get yourself a Spark before joining any of the factions. Your character actually mentions that they, in fact, already have a way to piss all over Blackflame and cause Chapter 2 to be skipped, going straight to chapter 3. The reactions of other characters, are understandably bordering on total shock, respect and hint of doubt. But that was fun thing to happen.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Spoiler

I got this bulletin board quest but I talked to every Druid in Nemeton and none of them acknowledge something they have for me. Which place is Sacred Grove, am I missing something?

central area in Nemeton, guy up left

You talking about the guy who wants butterflies? Did that already, guess the game doesn't acknowledge it like the other bulletin board quests I did before reading the note

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

So...choosing Nematon consequences

Spoiler

is it possible to do this and not destroy the forest? I'm going through the aftermath and it literally broke me mentally i hate this. Did i miss somrthing? I did warn the Bonded, primieval forest was my favourite part. Im too fucking mentally ill getting attached to the piglets i helped god fucking damnit fuck it all burn it all

 

[Sunri]

So...choosing Nematon consequences

Spoiler

is it possible to do this and not destroy the forest? I'm going through the aftermath and it literally broke me mentally i hate this. Did i miss somrthing? I did warn the Bonded, primieval forest was my favourite part. Im too fucking mentally ill getting attached to the piglets i helped god fucking damnit fuck it all burn it all

You are a bad man no matter what, you can only help survivors after this game is rather linear

 

[thesecret1]

So...choosing Nematon consequences

Spoiler

is it possible to do this and not destroy the forest? I'm going through the aftermath and it literally broke me mentally i hate this. Did i miss somrthing? I did warn the Bonded, primieval forest was my favourite part. Im too fucking mentally ill getting attached to the piglets i helped god fucking damnit fuck it all burn it all

Spoiler

Don't forget to loot the piglets for meat.

 

[Fedora Master]

The game deserved better graphics than it got.
Also stop it with the fucking laughing, this isn't some kind of Wuxia movie

 

[Nikanuur]

The Piranha Bytes king is dead, long live the Just2D king!

 

[Marat]

The Piranha Bytes king is dead, long live the Just2D king!

This un's better than anything bald guy's PB ever made.