Vampire Survivors and other top-down arcade shooters (VS discussion now forbidden)

[JarlFrank]

I liked Vampire Survivors and played a clone or two, but at this point I've gotten tired of the formula and don't even add new clones to my Steam wishlist (and I wishlist anything remotely interesting).

It's been played out. There's not enough to this little subgenre to warrant 5000 clones that do the same thing, but different.

 

[deama]

Still waiting for a hentai VS clone...

 

[Caim]

Still waiting for a hentai VS clone...

Bro just look around on Steam.

 

[luj1]

I liked Vampire Survivors and played a clone or two, but at this point I've gotten tired of the formula and don't even add new clones to my Steam wishlist (and I wishlist anything remotely interesting).

It's been played out. There's not enough to this little subgenre to warrant 5000 clones that do the same thing, but different.

Halls of Torment = VS with a Diablo 1 aesthetic and its harder than VS

 

[Elttharion]

Still waiting for a hentai VS clone...

 

[deama]

Still waiting for a hentai VS clone...

I was hoping the hentai would be baked into the gameplay, but I can have a look still.

 

[Mauman]

Damnit....bought VS recently, but didn't know it was affiliated with POS Sterling.

Now I feel dirty.

Why must people ruin things by shoving in their (really fucking bad) politics?

 

[Jvegi]

Why must people ruin things by shoving in their (really fucking bad) politics?

Perhaps you should grow a thicker skin? Not everyone needs to pander to your specific sensibilities.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i bought it before, and i feel cheated too.

 

[Black]

OG Crimsonland from 2003 remains king.

 

[Utgard-Loki]

i also feel cheated. not only because the devs are troon pedophile enablers, but also because holocure exists, is free and a better game.

 

[Caim]

i also feel cheated. not only because the devs are troon pedophile enablers, but also because holocure exists, is free and a better game.

The hololive people actually offered the holocure dev money, but he declined.

 

[Theodora]

holocure

Huh, first I've heard of this -- so it's a gacha game without an option to pay for the in-game currency? Would be interesting to see more games adopt that model, because it sidesteps the predatory aspect of that model.

When you say the hololive people offered the dev money, do you mean to purchase the rights to it, or...?

Damnit....bought VS recently, but didn't know it was affiliated with POS Sterling.

That happened pretty late in the day, and I mean, it's a writing gig for a game where the writing is pretty much irrelevant. Jvegi is right though, it's unimportant. You can try to "sanetise" your purchases if you want, but there's much better things to be doing with one's short and finite life than worrying about what video game developers (or even, those vaguely adjacent to them) think.

 

[Elttharion]

Still waiting for a hentai VS clone...

I was hoping the hentai would be baked into the gameplay, but I can have a look still.

Nsfw obviously and not really hentai, its more ecchi than porn

 

[deama]

Still waiting for a hentai VS clone...

I was hoping the hentai would be baked into the gameplay, but I can have a look still.

Nsfw obviously and not really hentai, its more ecchi than porn

Nice, let me try that, the previous one just had porn rewards which wasn't really interesting, in this one it looks like you can make your boobs bigger!

 

[biffthestiff]

VS seems to have buckbroken the Codex. I've never seen so many people kvetch over a fun indie game that costs less than a latte.

Anyone reading this who's not a complete retard, play this game. I tried it last night and I'm glad I did. Simple but fun gameplay, addictive progression, no microtransactions (i.e. optimal gameplay loop design), weapon variety (within the limits of the game)...it's certainly the best memorable indie game I've played in a while.

"NooooOooo you're not having fun! It's not FUN! Your brain is just being TRICKED into thinking it's having fun by DOPAMINE HACKING!"

Seethe and dilate. What definition of "fun playing videogames" can you provide that rules out VS but not Zelda or Fallout 2? Am I supposed to pretend Peggle or Arkanoid aren't fun too?

Damnit....bought VS recently, but didn't know it was affiliated with POS Sterling.

Now I feel dirty.

Why must people ruin things by shoving in their (really fucking bad) politics?

There's no fucking politics in it. There's ZERO story in the game, ZERO dialog, ZERO trannies. I scrolled past 10 bestiary entries looking for offensive content before giving up, I'm not reading 150 entries just to find something that may be an obscure reference to troonsing. Just STFU and play the game or don't.

Christ alive, I wish this autistic obsession with having to see numbers everywhere would fucking stop dead. Can't people judge things anymore without having to have everything spelled out in front of them?

But, but, but.... the dopamine hits.

Just disable them in the Options, morons. After about 5 runs I disabled numbers and flashing VFX.
Numbers are useful at the beginning to learn how upgrades impact your damage output. It teaches you to prioritize specializing ASAP rather than spreading yourself over multiple mediocre weapons.

i also feel cheated. not only because the devs are troon pedophile enablers, but also because holocure exists, is free and a better game.

I tried Holocure because of you, and it's disappointing coming from VS. It's a competent clone, for sure, and I guess free is a better deal than $2. But better? I get the feeling this is a political stance.

1. It's way too easy to be considered better than VS. I did 2 runs and won the stages. I'm gonna drop this unless you tell me the game improves somehow.
2. Music is shit compared to VS
3. I just hate the theme. There is nothing more repulsive to me than vtubers. It's men pretending to be little anime girls for the benefit of other men with sexual dysfunction. I think I find them creepier than furries. If VS is for trannies, then VTubers are gigatrannies.

 

[biffthestiff]

Btw if anyone can recommend indie games like VS, let me know. I don't mean other games of this genre, I mean trend-setting indie games that are easily accessible and great for short bursts of gameplay. I never heard of this game before yesterday, and I tried like 10 really shitty indie games this year.

 

[Utgard-Loki]

1. It's way too easy to be considered better than VS. I did 2 runs and won the stages. I'm gonna drop this unless you tell me the game improves somehow.

you seem to be under the narcissistic delusion that i care what you are playing. consider washing your mouth with 12 gauge 00 buck to remedy this.

 

[Gregz]

I liked Vampire Survivors and played a clone or two, but at this point I've gotten tired of the formula and don't even add new clones to my Steam wishlist (and I wishlist anything remotely interesting).

It's been played out. There's not enough to this little subgenre to warrant 5000 clones that do the same thing, but different.

I'm in the same boat.

I'm not sure if it's a limitation of the genre, or if none of the clones have managed to capture the magic formula. It reminds me of the wave of Diablo clones that never surpassed the original.

 

[biffthestiff]

1. It's way too easy to be considered better than VS. I did 2 runs and won the stages. I'm gonna drop this unless you tell me the game improves somehow.

you seem to be under the narcissistic delusion that i care what you are playing. consider washing your mouth with 12 gauge 00 buck to remedy this.

Thanks for confirming that your claim Holocure was better than VS is not based on game quality, but perceived slights by a bit-part contractor for the VS team, and/or being a degenerate VTuber watcher, i.e. the lowest form of a man, possibly even below cucks.

 

[deama]

Btw if anyone can recommend indie games like VS, let me know. I don't mean other games of this genre, I mean trend-setting indie games that are easily accessible and great for short bursts of gameplay. I never heard of this game before yesterday, and I tried like 10 really shitty indie games this year.

There's microcivilization that recently came out, it's a clicker, but unlike most clickers you can see your civ grow, evolve, etc...
There's quests to deal with and a few other bits.

 

[sser]

So is Vampire Survivors the best game of its kind?

Brotato.

More active action, more intense character building, and simply more challenging. It's also the only game I've played in awhile which captured that Smash TV/Total Carnage vibe.

 

[Haba]

Halls of Torment is pretty good for what it is.

 

[Sukhāvatī]

 

[biffthestiff]

1. In VS, what are the rules for being able to upgrade a pickup weapon/passive when you already have 6 weapon/passive? It seems like for some of them, I was given the option to upgrade them, and for others (like the skullomaniac), I wasn't, they stayed level 1 while I wasted my levelups on more gold. I want to say you can upgrade a 7th weapon but not a 7th passive? I guess stacking maxed passives would make you too OP.
I must have been banishing.

2. How are people supposed to know which "spells" (user-input cheats) to enter, other than looking it up in a wiki? There's a hidden character you can only unlock by doing a password input sequence. There's no in-game hints, right? Same for that other hidden character you unlock by pressing a special key combination in the half-second he appears.

3. Is there anything more easily accessible and OP than evolved Holy Water and King Bible? That's some real "Press A to win" shit. I just know the run is won if I find these early on.

Regarding #2, I really hate "online-aware" game design, where they expect you to read wikis (yes I read the wiki because I was told you can lock yourself out of certain characters permanently by doing unlocks in a non-standard order, which is also horrible). Your game should be fully playable by someone playing blind. 2 obscure characters aren't a huge deal tbf, but still annoying.
The worst offender was Dark Souls which hid the Great Hollow, Ash Lake and Painted World from you, the latter two being two of the most most memorable areas in the game. And then they doubled down for the DLC, which is unreachable if you don't look it up online (or wasted 30 hours revisiting every single nook and cranny in the base game, potentially TWICE). Sugoi, Miyazaki