Gedonia - Open World RPG

[Sykar]

Why so many games insist in stat stickie itemization?

This game seems so good save by this problem...

Because it is easy money.

 

[Cryomancer]

Because it is easy money.

And easier to code. For eg +X to a variable is easy. Now, an warhammer which has increased damage vs skeletons and a chance to instantly destroy skeletns up to lv X requires a bit more work...

 

[Sykar]

Yes, and easier to code means you need less time and as we all know, time is money.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Because it is easy money.

And easier to code. For eg +X to a variable is easy. Now, an warhammer which has increased damage vs skeletons and a chance to instantly destroy skeletns up to lv X requires a bit more work...

This actually has that too. Blunt weapons are more likely to whack skellies and in general cause more knockdowns. Moveset is just our dude slamming it on the ground like an autistic tantrum though.

 

[Kabas]

A certain time ago i was dicking around with various builds in the arena:
-Various necromancer pets were already mentioned multiple times, but it's cool that you can also combine attack spells from the elementalism school with the elements from the other trees to create a light wizard or offensive druid. Kinda dissapointed that it's mostly a different colour beams though.
-The entire bestial school of magic was clearly intended for creating some sort of berserker who can call forth the animal spirits and turn into werewolf(was pretty strong with all these buffs). And the werewolf form can jump pretty high, can probably be used to reach certain unreachable places as an alternative to flight.
-Blood magic has a cool gimmick - you don't need to have a magic access to learn it, so you can use demon form as an alternative to fly spell. Like the bestial school it was also clealy designed for warrior type builds.
-Didn't like the paladin build that much, but i did like his one ability that allows him to grow wings and jump very high
-In the base game i found that the pure rogue with 4 agi 1str must rely on poison crafting in order to deal any damage. Doesn't seem that posion can carry you into the late game, but the ability to teleport behind u is pretty cool

 

[Kabas]

I was also wondering about how viable would be a 4 charisma character would be. No magic and weak phys damage, but has a lot of companions and focused on crafting.
Unfortunately, i feel like the game became even more demanding towards my laptop with it's unity engine, to the point i am experincing constant slow downs and plane launching noises.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

And the werewolf form can jump pretty high, can probably be used to reach certain unreachable places as an alternative to flight

Can achieve something similar with max str, though it got nerfed a bit.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I was also wondering about how viable would be a 4 charisma character would be. No magic and weak phys damage, but has a lot of companions and focused on crafting.
Unfortunately, i feel like the game became even more demanding towards my laptop with it's unity engine, to the point i am experincing constant slow downs and plane launching noises.

A 4 CHA character would be useless. Even fully upgraded and respectively equipped, companions are glorified luggage. When I used them, I stuck to ranged ones so they would die less. Even with 4 of them, they fail to accomplish much at all. They are reasonable help for very early game, but that's it.

 

[Üstad]

Art style suffers from being reddit Zelda style. I hope devs get enough money to make the sequel less of an eyesore.

 

[Mortmal]

I've effectively completed Gedonia as of last night. While there is a fair amount of post final boss content, plus anything you hadn't already done, I've completed a majority of the content and have a maxed-out character. Here goes the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good

• Character design: It uses a pseudo-classless system where your stats determine what skills you have access to. The core 4 states of STR, DEX, INT, CHA are well represented to make a cohesive character. Stats can be dumped without totally gimping yourself and each has unique advantages if you max it out. Specialists still get the best of their niche, but the breadth of skills make a generalist very functional and fun to play.
• Skill design:The skills are roughly composed of equal amounts of martial, magic, and crafting skill trees. You will be able to create any kind of archetype you wish. The skills are generally satisfying on their own, but also have a great deal of interplay between each-other. For example, you can create different kinds of summons based on what element you are channeling.
  • Utility skills are well represented and come in very handy.
• Crafting: This is the third game I've ever enjoyed crafting it. It might even be better than Arcanum's crafting. Some trees (Alchemy, Cooking) have a similar pyramid structure where later grand recipes use lesser recipes as reagents. Everything craftable is very useful, and there are pretty large gaps between what you can find and what you can craft. Only the most unique clothing and weapons (typically end-game uniques) surpass what can be crafted. Furthermore, crafting has major benefits:
  • It yields XP and is cash positive. This was exacerbated by my 4 INT, 3 CHA character getting massive bonuses to XP gain and barter. I could kill a creature for say...25XP and sell the raw meat for 1gp. With 1 skill point in cooking, I can kill it for 25xp, cook the meat for 25xp, then sell the meat for 14gp. This tempo is significant and rapidly advanced my character. A crafting character has far more power, utility, and advancement than one which does not.
  • Many crafting skills have dual uses. Not only can you create a new item or consumable, but you can enhance existing items. Most notably, cloth making can also embroider clothes with bonuses, enchanting and weapons craft can harden and add modifiers to weapons, etc.
• Exploration: The low poly world may look like a unity asset dump, but it's arranged in a way that really is a pleasure to explore. I found myself compelled to check out every mountain, valley, and cave. Characters can run, jump, swim, and even teleport and fly. While there is plenty to be found far and high, I've never actually found anything underwater, which is a shame. The old school sensibilities are strong here and there are no "artificial" road blocks. Levels and areas are design to reward those with mobility skills, and pushing the horizon to find something hidden is frequently rewarded. Plebeians who don't use magic to fly and teleport will enjoy a wide assortment of mounts that can be purchased or tamed. They're satisfying to use and will really help you get around the huge world. The biomes are distinct in character and what resources can be found. The only one I found lacking was the Enchanted Forest, which while decent looking, lacked content. There are a decent amount of puzzles, and zero hand-holding. They're intuitive and require experimentation, while not being opaque.
  
  
• Combat: While not the greatest in history, melee or magic are very satisfying. It firmly an RPG, but there is enough skill and twitch involved to keep you awake and engaged. You'll feel powerful while still being challenged, particularly once you start fighting demons. One thing I don't like, is how enemy range attacks are telegraphed with red arrows and circles. This trivializes what would otherwise dramatically increase difficulty and reward the observant player.
  
  
• Music: It's surprisingly good. Each biome has it's own distinctive music that is very fitting for the area. The only problem is that the music is limited to 1 track per area, so it will loop relentlessly. Even still, it's good enough to where that wasn't a huge problem for me.

The Bad

• Visuals: Low poly Unity assets with that Zelda wind-waker cell shading. That monsters have good animations and the overall art style is consistent and cohesive, but still bland and generic. It's definitely acceptable for a one-man indie project, but that doesn't make it good.
  
  
• AI: Like most games, AI is basically absent. The detection radius of enemies is also generally too low and will allow you to pick apart key encounters that were obviously intended to be fought as a group.
  
  
• Loading Jank: While the game is overall incredible stable and bug free, the initial loading time is quite long even on my latest SSD. If you travel too quickly, you can arrive in areas before the asset loads, which will then take considerable time to catch up with you. My wizard had such powerful flight that the world became a neighborhood I could careen around like a jet fighter. I could rocket from the desert to the main city market but have to wait a solid minute for all of the placeables, buildings, and NPCs to populate. For a non-magical character, this will be a non-issue.
  
  
• Item Dependence: While it works mechanically for the game, it makes certain builds difficult to execute due to the combinations of bonuses that appear. For example, you're never going to optimize something that uses Blood magic and Light magic, or (oddly) Elemental & Nature magic. It was a frustration for me.

The Ugly

• Quests: While there are many quests, they are nothing to write home about. They suffer from an MMO like quality of fetch, collect, and kill. There is an effort to incorporate skill checks into how many are completed, but they don't significantly enhance the experience. Most only check CHA and serve to give you a boost in gold, or reduce the amount of travelling. The quest journal is also barebones, and there is no way to switch between which one is actively pinged on your map. Some quests can be a challenge to complete simply because you're given almost no information. If you accidently start a new quest, that map ping will get replaced by the new one and you'll have to complete the others before getting it back. The only exception to this poor quests are the Faction quest lines. I found them to be very organic tests of the skill branches they are associated with.
  
  
• NPCs: Trash-tier. While the capital has good atmosphere, most interactable NPCs are utter garbage. This applies to joinable NPCs as well. They are functionally useless in combat outside of the earliest game and become literal baggage. I kept 2 ranged companions to use their inventory as storage. I renamed them Backpack 1 and Backpack 2.
  
  
• Plot/Narrative: Miserably bad. Cut scenes are a goose-bump inspiring degree of cringe. Frequent attempts are humor are painful. Dialogue with nearly every NPC is no different. Luckily, you can skip all of it and just explore.
  
  
• UI/Toolbar: The UI is deliberately gimped to accommodate console controls. I wound up with 120 skill points--which was enough to max out over 3 trees that all have heavy investment. Unforunately, you can only assign keystrokes to about 1 trees worth of skills. Absolutely infuriating.

Overall


A very competent effort made all the more impressive by being a one-man indie developer. It's an obvious labor of passion, and I enjoyed it. The systems are elegant, well devised, and satisfying. It could use some expansion, but is still streets ahead of most RPGs out there. The soul is good. It has old school sensibilities with modern QoL improvements. It plays a bit like a single-player MMO, but I find most open world RPGs do. As long as you're not a story fag, this game has a great deal to offer. I ran it effortlessly on Linux using Steam Proton client. It's constantly being updated and has a promising future. I'd love to see what could come of this if the developer had a budget. There is a tremendous amount of incline in this humble game. Overall, firmly recommend.

Good review, well even if it's impressive for one lone guy that game seems clearly not worth of our time.

 

[notpl]

Why so many games insist in stat stickie itemization?

This game seems so good save by this problem...

Not familiar with this term.

 

[Cryomancer]

Not familiar with this term.

Magical gear which instead of doing interesting stuff, serve as an replacement for char stats

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Mortmal I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. It will appeal to people who like Gothic. Lots of heart, exploration, decent ingenuity, and some jank. Buildfags will like it. It has a lot of old school sensibilities. And jank.

In that way, it kind of has a compelling quality to it that's difficult to describe. Its the antithesis of Pillar of Eternity. PoE had the polish, aesthetics, etc, but I kept asking myself why I was playing it. Pun intended, it had no soul. Eventually I quit and uninstalled it despite having a boundless HDD. Gedonia is all kinds of rough around the edges, but has that jen sais qua je ne sais quoi that kept me wanting to see more. Do a different build. Find another secret. Again, I cannot fully recommend it, but it's worth being put out there.

I'm glad you liked my review.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

jen sais qua

You do not know what you don't know. In the very literal sense.

 

[Antigoon]

It's out of early access now, with a 20% discount

 

[Cryomancer]

What changed after the end of EA?

 

[Antigoon]

Never played EA, only now finished the first area. It sure is clunky af. Can't imagine combat was in any worse state during EA.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

plays like a low budget mmo except it's singleplayer
even includes mmo loot puke

meh

 

[notpl]

plays like a low budget mmo except it's singleplayer
even includes mmo loot puke

meh

yeah it's honestly shocking to imagine anyone but teenage brazilians enjoying this

 

[somerandomdude]

plays like a low budget mmo except it's singleplayer
even includes mmo loot puke

meh

yeah it's honestly shocking to imagine anyone but teenage brazilians enjoying this

LOL, yeah, I don't hear them complaining about the lack of regional pricing, which happens a lot.

 

[Antigoon]

I actually finished the main story now, took me about 17 hours. Stopped playing at Level 40. Cap is 50. There is probably content for another 5 hours in there. But yeah, it sucks.

 

[ItsChon]

precisely as in Runescape (acquire five feathers, kill three bears, etc)

Runescape quests are literally nothing like this outside of the beginner ones. Say what you want about the game, but its quests are fucking quality. Rest of your post seemed informative though.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

One-man dev teams should stick to game concepts that they can actually execute with some degree of competence. Everything about this game looks amateurish. There are tons of one-man games that are far more complete and professional-looking. Even putting aside games like Dwarf Fortress or ADOM, which have been in development for decades and so aren't fair comparisons, there's Spark the Electric Jester 1-3, Armored Commander, Alisa, and even Grimoire... not to mention older games like Ultima 1-4, Rogue, etc.

Then again, none of those games have 1,500 reviews on Steam, so I guess Kazavok Oleg has achieved more success with his amateur-looking game than other, more high-effort looking games. I can't criticize a solo dev for that. Good for him, but I won't be playing this myself.

 

[notpl]

Man I wish this game were good.

 

[curds]

Man I wish this game were good.

Just this one? I wish every game was good.