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

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Based and ASMR tier gameplay

 

[mkultra]

This is a real gem. I've had more fun with this than anything recent AAA on PC and PS5. 30h played in just a few days, it's super rare that i play that much, i'm often thinking i can't get into games these days and then something like this shows up and blows my mind.. need to research what else there is like this but perhaps a little more finished.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

need to research what else there is like this but perhaps a little more finished.

Gungeon, Nuclear Throne, Binding of Isaac. Vampire Survivors is closest to stuff like Smash TV or Crimsonland (Or Robotron if you want to get even older, though Crimsonland's closest with leveling up (Nation Red's another decent enough example. I played a good bit of that years back)) but if you're going hog-wild it sounds to me like you enjoy relatively short run-based games so those three are some of the best.

Binding of Isaac's best for total content and variety between runs, though there's more meta-knowledge involved. Learning what items do, learning tricks and secrets to squeeze a little more potential out of a run, etc.
Nuclear Throne's the most action-packed of the three, quicker than VS by a good margin. Has the smallest amount of meta-knowledge of all of them since even though there are a few ways to can squeeze more potential out it's mostly a case of getting a feel of the weapons and leveraging your perks which aren't obfuscated at all.
Gungeon's kind of a mix between BoI and NT. Definitely some meta-knowledge but not to the same degree as BoI, combat's got more action and bullet hell to it, and more total content than NT but not as much as BoI.

Just strictly apples to apples Crimsonland and Nation Red are likely the closest. They do require aiming rather than just running around however.

 

[Acrux]

There's also Crimson Dawn releasing into EA next week. It looks more generic fantasy themed, but also like it will have some different features like quests and individual character skills.

 

[mkultra]

Thanks, from these i might check out at least Nuclear Throne, that one looked fun!
I think what really works (for me) with VS is the entire package as a whole - the retro graphics/sound/music and of course the game mechanics too. i just love how crazy it eventually gets with the graphics, like an 80's japanese shoot-em-up, just shit all over the screen lol

 

[DakaSha]

Not mentioning nova drift pfft

 

[Theodora]

This is a real gem. I've had more fun with this than anything recent AAA on PC and PS5. 30h played in just a few days, it's super rare that i play that much, i'm often thinking i can't get into games these days and then something like this shows up and blows my mind.. need to research what else there is like this but perhaps a little more finished.

My housemate is captivated by it about the same as you.

What's surprised me is just how regularly they seem to add new content to it. He ends up no-life'ing it every few days because there's already another update with more shit to unlock. Pretty dope, can only think of a handful of games that pull off such a quick update cycle.

 

[Caim]

Yeah, this is a blast. Simple idea with some pretty deep mechanics. Still trying to unlock not-Bayonetta in the first level, but I'm having issues with balancing the damage output and getting there in time before the monsters start getting too tough. Haven't unlocked a whole lot yet, so I might have to work on that first.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

There's also Crimson Dawn releasing into EA next week. It looks more generic fantasy themed, but also like it will have some different features like quests and individual character skills.

wow people really pump out the clones fast nowadays huh

 

[JarlFrank]

Fun game, when I first checked it out I didn't expect it to be so fun but I unlocked 69 of 82 achievements already and keep coming back to it. Extremely simple, but lots of fun because of how utterly OP you can become.

Unlocked the chick that has the Song of Mana spell, which has a huge area of effect.
Coupling that with the items that reduce attack cooldown, increase area of effect, and increase duration of effect means you have a constant damage stream against almost everything on the screen.

 

[agentorange]

retarded cookie clicker garbage. what an embarrassment that people on here play this and even speak highly of it

 

[mkultra]

retarded cookie clicker garbage. what an embarrassment that people on here play this and even speak highly of it

you have zero taste... there's a reason it has Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam, people love this game. You can tell a ton of effort was made for the game mechanics here, balancing it and so forth, making sure it has a variety of fun builds, and it's not even finished yet..

Takes me back to the good old days of C64, Amiga, but you were probably not even born then..

 

[mkultra]

Fun game, when I first checked it out I didn't expect it to be so fun but I unlocked 69 of 82 achievements already and keep coming back to it. Extremely simple, but lots of fun because of how utterly OP you can become.

Unlocked the chick that has the Song of Mana spell, which has a huge area of effect.
Coupling that with the items that reduce attack cooldown, increase area of effect, and increase duration of effect means you have a constant damage stream against almost everything on the screen.

yeah song of mana is one of my favorites along with, of course, Garlic which i've now managed to find the development item for to turn it into Soul Eater.

Just unlocked the guns, will have to figure out what the development item is for it, i try not read guides..

Hope to see some more maps soon, though there are two i didn't make it to 30 mins yet + never managed to defeat the Reaper (not sure if we are meant to) + didn't find the vampire either, also not sure if its a thing or something they plan to do.

 

[JarlFrank]

yeah song of mana is one of my favorites along with, of course, Garlic which i've now managed to find the development item for to turn it into Soul Eater.

Just unlocked the guns, will have to figure out what the development item is for it, i try not read guides..

I used to really like garlic until I realized it has a low damage output, and other weapons are a lot more useful. Enemies can't hurt you if they get vaporized before they get close!

My current go-to build is
Song of Mana for wide area damage, it's especially awesome when upgraded
King Bible becomes an almost impenetrable barrier when upgraded, absolute top

Then go for other high damage area effect weapons like axe or fire wand (upgraded), and I pretty much always pick Attractorb to collect tons of XP

 

[MRY]

It's a very fun game, but I'm not sure the "different builds" point is right. It feels like there are obviously better and obviously worth paths; you can challenge yourself by using silly things like the dove weapon, but it's not really that the game plays differently -- whatever gear I load out with, it feels very similar (early game is a little tricky, by late game it's just a matter of picking up EXP as fast as it drops). It's still a relaxing way to zone out for a little bit. I think the 30 minute timer is probably too much, though; feels like each run overstays its welcome by about 10 minutes, as the last 10 minutes are very easy and don't involve any real progression.

I think agentorange's criticism is overblown but not entirely misplaced. The game isn't exactly an idle game, but it has a very similar hook: you are watching your "resource per second" accelerate as you level up, there are things happening all over the screen, and the numbers get absurdly huge as it goes on. I would say it's somewhere in the middle of the old zergling/tower-defense Star Control maps (which spawned a whole genre that culminated in They Are Billions, I guess?), idle games, and Gauntlet. Not a lot of skill, but a weird kind of satisfaction.

 

[mkultra]

I used to really like garlic until I realized it has a low damage output, and other weapons are a lot more useful. Enemies can't hurt you if they get vaporized before they get close!

My current go-to build is
Song of Mana for wide area damage, it's especially awesome when upgraded
King Bible becomes an almost impenetrable barrier when upgraded, absolute top

Then go for other high damage area effect weapons like axe or fire wand (upgraded), and I pretty much always pick Attractorb to collect tons of XP

For my best runs i've used Garlic, its very useful for collecting XP from weaker enemies, there's no other weapon that you can use to run directly into enemies to quickly kill a very large number of them, or for just standing in one spot to kill everything closing in on you, early on.
King Bible is indeed extremely good. The orb is a must yes, i tend to always upgrade it a ton, just like Garlic its very useful for XP.

It's a very casual game to say the least, and exactly what i needed after mainly playing Rimworld and RPG's for the last 10'ish years.. this game with different graphics and different music + exactly the same gameplay - most likely i would have hated it and wouldn't have spent 10 minutes on.. it's the entire package that just works.

 

[Acrux]

garlic until I realized it has a low damage output

When turned into the Soul Eater, the damage output is based on how much healing you receive from it. So, the best strategy in that case is to try and take as much damage as possible and keep healing, and avoid damage reduction items.
It's still not that great, though.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

It's a very fun game, but I'm not sure the "different builds" point is right. It feels like there are obviously better and obviously worth paths; you can challenge yourself by using silly things like the dove weapon, but it's not really that the game plays differently -- whatever gear I load out with, it feels very similar (early game is a little tricky, by late game it's just a matter of picking up EXP as fast as it drops).

The dove is balanced towards higher leveled characters and is meant to be paired with the black bird. They combine with each other and free up another weapon slot at high level.

Also, the weapons that seem to be weak in the beginning (e.g. the whip, the throwing knives) become much more useful on the later stages because the enemies on those stages have too much HP to die in a single hit, and those weapons allow you to direct and concentrate your damage onto a single target for max DPS. This lets you kill boss monsters for their chests more easily as well, and as enemy HP increases, it becomes necessary to get those chests to survive.

 

[Jason Liang]

I see that Mathil is streaming Vampire Survivors :/

 

[Ranselknulf]

It's worth 3 dollars.

 

[mkultra]

it is.. after 40h i feel kind of done, but i think i can easily spend 40h more with some new content. no idea what the plan is for the game really...

 

[Sukhāvatī]

Each weekly update gives another hour or two's worth of play; good for fiddling with when listening to podcasts, lectures etc.

 

[mkultra]

New update is out.

- 1 new, hard Challenge Stage
- 1 new Character and 1 new Weapon
- 1 more rank for Reroll and Skip powerups
- 2 new Arcanas

Tweaks:

- Added a toggle in Stage Selection to disable Arcanas. Disabling them also disables the extra minibosses at 11:00 and 21:00
- Added the option to pick a random first Arcana.
- Reduced long term gains of Gatti's attack power when stealing chicken.
- Halved projectile explosion damage from Arcana XIX - Heart Of Fire.
- Reduced cost of Reroll, Skip, and Banish.
- Stage items are now removed if they've already reached max level.

Bugfixes
:
- Tentative fix to chicken/coinbag choice presenting itself when there are still items that can be leveled up
- Phieraggi is now affected by Arcana V - Chaos in the Dark Night.
- Added an extra backup system for save data in %appdata%/Vampire_Survivors/saves/backups. These backups will not sync with Steam Cloud, so you can restore them manually if needed.

 

[Ranselknulf]

I might have played the game for 3 hours at this point.

Most guides I've read say offense is everything, and it really is.

That being said, its still worth it to evolve some of the defensive items at least once. You get 500 coin a piece just for upgrading them the first time.

 

[Ranselknulf]

I found this while searching around.

Simple to follow weapon upgrade chart.

It doesn't have everything, but its a good start if you need something for reference. I know the pentagram is missing for sure, but there are probably other things missing.