Incline Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children - isometric tactical Korean SRPG

[Abu Antar]

[Notice] Next Update Schedule Announcement

Hello everyone, this is Troubleshooter development team.

Happy New Year to one and all !!

The development team returned to work after the end of the year vacation.

The DLC update has been delayed more than expected. The update will be carried out at 11 p.m.(GMT + 9) next Wednesday to ensure no further delay.

We will do our best to normalize the development speed as soon as possible so that we can keep the regular update schedule.

Thank you.

 

[Reinhardt]

So replaying anything but Epic Hunt missions is pointless.

I like to just go and dominate low level missions from time to time. Albus is not that kind of a guy to refuse to help against some basic street thugs. And Irene is even more so.

 

[StaticSpine]

I'm also amazed that after playing 90 hours, missions feel fresh. This is some kind of combination of the story and the map design. Even after 90 hours, missions are interesting. Even the side missions.

And speaking about story, the game has a damn good anime story. It is engaging. A lot is going on, and you have absolutely no idea what is going on. But you care about it.

The game has excellent pacing. Once you get used to your characters, the game give you another on. Once you get used to the new one, a new one appears. It kind of force you to be in constant process of building a character. Once you figured one character, the game gives you another one.

I can point only two negatives in the game. It has slow start. First mission is boring. But starting, from the second one you are hooked. So it is not a big of a deal. The second one is difficulty. I feel that Cruel/Challenging is not tough enough. So, I guess for a second playthrough, I will need to come up with some home rules.

Yeah, it definitely needs another difficulty notch. Because the progression system is so goddamn addictive, you eventually build a team of absolute monsters, and even Cruel/Challenging becomes not exactly easy but not enough of a challenge.

This was brought home to me in one of the later "training" missions, where Giselle and one other handpicked team member and a bunch of grunts have to face off as "defence" against the rest of your team and another bunch of grunts, AI-controlled as "attack". The first time I played it I had to laugh at how quickly and thoroughly my team under AI control obliterated my defence team. (I could picture the AI thinking to itself, "OMG, I can do this??? GO!!!!") I tried a bajillion different strategies, but every time it was complete armageddon in a few minutes, and eventually I had to actually strip the attack team of its masteries and gear to make the mission doable. Mind you, it also made me feel quite proud

Bruh, this mission is such bullshit. Like any other missions where you are forced to play characters you don't like. I just got there and I'm not too fond of stripping my team of masteries and gear.

 

[Zumbabul]

Bruh, this mission is such bullshit. Like any other missions where you are forced to play characters you don't like. I just got there and I'm not too fond of stripping my team of masteries and gear.

I have managed to beat this mission without stripping off masteries and gear. I picked Heixing as a teammate for Giselle. Heixing was a ranger with fire support, poison and bleed. Gisele also had fire support. I pulled all units to the tower. Then I just laughed. Every shot of any unit was accompanied with the shot of Heixing and Giselle. Soon the whole battlefield turned into giant poisoned cloud.

The hardest thing was to dispatch Anne. Since every time I killed her, she possessed Heixing. Once this happened, I needed to kill Heixing. Anne had second heart, so I needed to kill Heixing two times (he also had second heart).

I actually like design of the missions. Even "bullshit mission" with some strategy turn into enjoyable experience. A lot of the "hard" missions are actually a strategic puzzle. Once you solve it, the mission stops being hard.

 

[NJClaw]

Holy cow, this was no joke.

 

[StaticSpine]

Bruh, this mission is such bullshit. Like any other missions where you are forced to play characters you don't like. I just got there and I'm not too fond of stripping my team of masteries and gear.

I have managed to beat this mission without stripping off masteries and gear. I picked Heixing as a teammate for Giselle. Heixing was a ranger with fire support, poison and bleed. Gisele also had fire support. I pulled all units to the tower. Then I just laughed. Every shot of any unit was accompanied with the shot of Heixing and Giselle. Soon the whole battlefield turned into giant poisoned cloud.

The hardest thing was to dispatch Anne. Since every time I killed her, she possessed Heixing. Once this happened, I needed to kill Heixing. Anne had second heart, so I needed to kill Heixing two times (he also had second heart).

I actually like design of the missions. Even "bullshit mission" with some strategy turn into enjoyable experience. A lot of the "hard" missions are actually a strategic puzzle. Once you solve it, the mission stops being hard.

Fair point, but this is not a Tactics Puzzle game. Almost all of the time you are focused on building up an effective team to deal with constantly increasing numbers and toughening enemies. And this includes developing preferred team tactics. I wouldn't be so butthurt if it was a side mission, though, but it's a mandatory one.

 

[Visperas]

Bruh, this mission is such bullshit. Like any other missions where you are forced to play characters you don't like. I just got there and I'm not too fond of stripping my team of masteries and gear.

I have managed to beat this mission without stripping off masteries and gear. I picked Heixing as a teammate for Giselle. Heixing was a ranger with fire support, poison and bleed. Gisele also had fire support. I pulled all units to the tower. Then I just laughed. Every shot of any unit was accompanied with the shot of Heixing and Giselle. Soon the whole battlefield turned into giant poisoned cloud.

The hardest thing was to dispatch Anne. Since every time I killed her, she possessed Heixing. Once this happened, I needed to kill Heixing. Anne had second heart, so I needed to kill Heixing two times (he also had second heart).

I actually like design of the missions. Even "bullshit mission" with some strategy turn into enjoyable experience. A lot of the "hard" missions are actually a strategic puzzle. Once you solve it, the mission stops being hard.

Fair point, but this is not a Tactics Puzzle game. Almost all of the time you are focused on building up an effective team to deal with constantly increasing numbers and toughening enemies. And this includes developing preferred team tactics. I wouldn't be so butthurt if it was a side mission, though, but it's a mandatory one.

And it's not the only one. There's one where you only take the siblings and it was a pain in the ass. I had to reduce difficulty to finish it. Still a great game though.

 

[StaticSpine]

I have a question about 46 story mission.

It's full of nastiest White Tiger mobsters and there is a condition that police checkpoints must survive. So I was steadily clearing the map, otherwise, my squad would be easily destroyed, but at the same time, the Northern checkpoint with 6 policemen got attacked by a mob of ~20 including bosses And I failed the mission.

How to deal with it?

 

[Zumbabul]

I have a question about 46 story mission.

It's full of nastiest White Tiger mobsters and there is a condition that police checkpoints must survive. So I was steadily clearing the map, otherwise, my squad would be easily destroyed, but at the same time, the Northern checkpoint with 6 policemen got attacked by a mob of ~20 including bosses And I failed the mission.

How to deal with it?

If you are talking about the mission where you should arrest Foo, then you should agro the whole map. In this case, the policemen will be safe)

In the very beginning of the mission, there is a barricade with two buildings on its side. On one of the building there were few snipers. This building is crucial. You need to secure it. Heixing and and Albus can jump to elevating positions. Use them to kill the snipers. After you kill the snipers, Heixing will be in elevating position, and the situation will be a little bit easier. I would advise to use Heixing as a ranger (fire support, overwatch, bleed, silence, no poison) and Gisele as a sniper with fire support mastery set (more fire support shots).

You next goal is to put all your ranged units on top of this building. Don't go through the barricade, this is a trap!!!!. Heixing-ranger will lock down this direction. Go in other available direction. Once you put Ray, Heixing, Gisele, Anne, and Sion on top of the building, you will have elevated position, while White Tigers will be in the open. At this point you will probably trigger the whole map, and the mission will turn into shouting training: each shot that you make will be supported by Heixing and Gisele.

The majority of the enemy forces will try to attack your well defended position, only very small forces will be not engaged in the battle. If you want, you can send a small squad to dispatch them. Or you could send Hero Irene.

 

[StaticSpine]

I have a question about 46 story mission.

It's full of nastiest White Tiger mobsters and there is a condition that police checkpoints must survive. So I was steadily clearing the map, otherwise, my squad would be easily destroyed, but at the same time, the Northern checkpoint with 6 policemen got attacked by a mob of ~20 including bosses And I failed the mission.

How to deal with it?

If you are talking about the mission where you should arrest Foo, then you should agro the whole map. In this case, the policemen will be safe)

In the very beginning of the mission, there is a barricade with two buildings on its side. On one of the building there were few snipers. This building is crucial. You need to secure it. Heixing and and Albus can jump to elevating positions. Use them to kill the snipers. After you kill the snipers, Heixing will be in elevating position, and the situation will be a little bit easier. I would advise to use Heixing as a ranger (fire support, overwatch, bleed, silence, no poison) and Gisele as a sniper with fire support mastery set (more fire support shots).

You next goal is to put all your ranged units on top of this building.

I did exactly that, but I also killed Foo, and after that, almost all the remaining Tiger forces started mobbing on the Northern point. Killing Foo must be a trigger for the assault to start.

 

[Zumbabul]

I have a question about 46 story mission.

It's full of nastiest White Tiger mobsters and there is a condition that police checkpoints must survive. So I was steadily clearing the map, otherwise, my squad would be easily destroyed, but at the same time, the Northern checkpoint with 6 policemen got attacked by a mob of ~20 including bosses And I failed the mission.

How to deal with it?

If you are talking about the mission where you should arrest Foo, then you should agro the whole map. In this case, the policemen will be safe)

In the very beginning of the mission, there is a barricade with two buildings on its side. On one of the building there were few snipers. This building is crucial. You need to secure it. Heixing and and Albus can jump to elevating positions. Use them to kill the snipers. After you kill the snipers, Heixing will be in elevating position, and the situation will be a little bit easier. I would advise to use Heixing as a ranger (fire support, overwatch, bleed, silence, no poison) and Gisele as a sniper with fire support mastery set (more fire support shots).

You next goal is to put all your ranged units on top of this building.

I did exactly that, but I also killed Foo, and after that, almost all the remaining Tiger forces started mobbing on the Northern point. Killing Foo must be a trigger for the assault to start.

I think this is a rule for the majority of maps: if you kill the main boss, the whole map will try to escape. The game even show you the message: "somebody decided to escape." Once this happens, your smart strategy goes to trash bin, and you need to improvise. I actually like this.

You can send reinforcement to the northern outpost before the escape will start. You have a lot of melees. You don't need all of them to defend the building. You can try to send them to the north.

 

[StaticSpine]

Ugh, I got to the ending slides, but I must admit I got tired of the game. Most likely will get back when the DLC gets a full release. The completion rate must be rather modest, judging by the cheevos.

Thanks to everyone who advised me to play Troubleshooter. This is a real gem and easily shares GOTY with ToCS III for me.

 

[Reinhardt]

The completion rate must be rather modest, judging by the cheevos.

Better than most modern games. Especially considering its length.

 

[StaticSpine]

The completion rate must be rather modest, judging by the cheevos.

Better than most modern games. Especially considering its length.

And still, developers make longer and longer games. I don't get it

 

[Reinhardt]

And still, developers make longer and longer games. I don't get it

Who? These korean madmen are exception, not a rule.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Vote for Troubleshooter as RPG Codex Game of the Year

 

[NJClaw]

Why are troubled anime girls with bright-colored hair so hot? What's my problem?

 

[Efe]

You are being indoctrinated to like dangerhair sjws

 

[StaticSpine]

Why are troubled anime girls with bright-colored hair so hot? What's my problem?

 

[abnaxus]

I keep reading this "tiddies is the new rpg"

 

[NJClaw]

Does anyone know if the Observation bonding mastery (the one that gives +10% to hit and dodge while in line of sight of the bonded member) stacks with itself?

 

[Zumbabul]

During my first playthrough, I enjoyed the story, but I didn't get it. I knew that a lot is going on, but I had no idea what is going on.

However, during my second playthrough, I truly appreciated the story. The game has very subtle story-telling. The events are shown to you, but the game never explains them to you. It's up to you to find logic. On your first playthrough you have no context for the events, and therefore you can't understand them. During second playthrough, you start to notice stuff. You have context, and the chains of events actually make sense. Even very small details fall into bigger picture. Let's see few examples (spoilers ahead).

Look at this chain of events:
-Marco comes to the bar to Don, and give him pass to another district (from a friend).
-Marco talks to some red-haired dude that asks him to visit his old friend. Marco asks if this is a scout? Red-haired dude says "probably".
-Don decides to sell a bar
-You are shown that Don and some red-haired dude were in the same company 10 years ago.
In my first playthrough, I didn't tied this events together. But once you know the context of the story, everything makes sense.

Another example. Before the mission in the docs (where you first time meet Ryo), the game shows you a conversation between Alisa and Bianca. In first playthrough, I didn't get it why the game shows this to me. It doesn't add anything to the story! Actually, it does. As we know, Alisa and Bianca follow the paintings of the Ramjist. The loading screen to Ramji plaza incident (i think it's the third mission) is Ramjist painting. Bianca and Alisa are on this painting. So they came to Ramji plaza because of the painting. Same is true for the mission in the docs. The loading screen is Ramjist painting with Bianca and Alisa.

There are a lot of examples like this. The story doesn't make sense during first run, however it makes much more sense during second run. During second run, you notice that some story is told at the background of the images. Some items have descriptions that tell something about its owner. Only during second run, I noticed that if you click on characters between mission, a "thought bubble" will appear. I could not appreciate all of this during my first run, because I was overwhelmed with game mechanics. During second run, you understand the system, but the game still can offer you something new (understanding of the story).

 

[Zumbabul]

I like how this game put efforts to explain the motivation of the characters to join your company. All of the recruitable characters have their reasons. Not because 'they seek for adventures' or they 'happened to meet you and they have nothing else to do'.

Scion joins because he desperately needs money. He would even agreed to work for food.

Irene wants to help people (be a hero). She doesn't want to do this for money like other troublshooters. She only joins, when she see that actions of Albus company actually help people.

Anne want to heal people. She doesn't want people to die. She wants to be at the site as soon as possible.

Heixing was asked to stop Carter. He cannot do this alone.

Ray joined for the same reasons as Heixing.

Giselle want to hunt some criminal targets. Your company is an opportunity for you to achieve her goals. She also wants to teach Albus some stuff. Also Jane asked her.

Kylie likes to work with Albus company and game of dragons forces her to join you.

Alisa and Bianca follow Ramjist paintings. As soon as they saw a painting indicating to your company, they came to you.

Leton. During my first run, I thought that this was the only exception. He just showed up. It was especially strange, since in one of the dialogue he says that he didn't want to join. However, during second run, his motivation became more clear.

Leton was a part of some ESP experiment. Eventually, he joined Lilly's lab and started working for her (he became her 'project'). On one of the mission, he needed to arrest Carter. Instead he joined him, and Lilly allowed him. She gave him a 'vacation'. As the date of the election came closer, the mayor needed to restore public order. He asked Lilly for help. He asked/forced to use one of her 'projects' (probably Leton) and Albus company. Before the mission where Carter kills Sharky, there is a phone talk between Leton and Lilly. She asks/orders him to do something. And then Leton tells Carter that next time he will be on the other side. So, Leton joins your company because: 1) mayor asks/forces Lilly to use Leton and Albus to restore public order; 2) Lilly asks/forces Leton to join and help Albus company. And Leton clearly doesn't want to join, instead he would rather go with Carter.

I'm satisfied to see how many efforts and thoughts devs put into the story and setting of the game. The majority of the players will not see these details. For them the story will be just a sequence of the random events. Nonetheless, the devs considered worthwhile to spend time on stuff that most players will not see. This deserves respect.

 

[rashiakas]

They should do a kickstarter for proper english translation.

 

[Doktor Best]

Its the thing that keeps me from diving into this.

I have a feeling this will get a new translation as soon as people realize its potential.