Bard's Gold Review (Payne)
I purchased this game during a 40% off sale, making the price point ~$5. I was expecting a roguelike/roguelite platformer, which is what I received, to an extent.
From what I read from other reviewers, it seems that this is the first game from the developer. This allows me to forgive some of the nuances with the mechanics that I found slightly frustrating. I wished that I could have a variable jump height instead of a static jump, but perhaps this was intentional. Some of the traps were near impossible, if not impossible, to dodge, due to this feature, as you'd have to eat the trap or ram your head into spikes. Additionally, I found the hitboxes a bit too large, especially the player projectile, hitting edges that I was clearly not contacting. Grievances aside, on to the review. I'm ignoring story because this is meant to be a roguelike, which I expect to have little or no story, which this has, and I am not disappointed, since this is not the main selling factor for a roguelike.
Gameplay:
The controls are tight. The character slides slightly to slow down, which feels good and makes mastering the controls rather difficult. There are several traps both above and below you, as well as projectiles to watch out for from enemies, making it sometimes hard to focus on everything at once, which, in my opinion, is a good thing in this type of game. I did not like when spikes fell on my head from two screen lengths up, however, with no warning. I played on a keyboard. I do wish the controls were fully customizable. I suspect, as is described in game, that playing on a control is the desired method, and I would tend to agree. Enemies were simple, yet effective. The bosses had a bit to be desired. I found locations in which I was unhittable upon fighting one boss for my first time.
I enjoyed that there were different weapons, however, I found the knife to be the most effective. The axe did not hit some enemies on the ground, making some situations impossible to get past because the enemy was in a small, unhittable location. I would have liked to see the weapons fleshed out a bit more.
I will admit I did not spend much time on the books. I played the game starting on retro difficulty, then switched to hardcore after I died twice. I wish hardcore was harder. I do appreciate that the developer made the game difficulty available to a large audience. I did find it a little disappointing that hardcore did not allow you to spend your gems on upgrades, even if you could not use them in said difficulty.
Music/Sound:
Music had a nice feel to it, and the sounds were unintrusive. I did find myself getting a little sleepy from how relaxing the music was, but this may have been because I was playing at 3AM.
Graphics:
The art in the game was decent. The levels themselves had a bit to be desired, but the character and his animations were pretty. The bosses looked as if they visually had a bit of work put into them. The graphics worked well for the game, with a few minor exceptions where I would miss an enemy because he would be blending into the background.
Overall:
This game is a somewhat flawed roguelite, but has its positive aspects and is an admirable creation for a first game. I found the overall playstyle appeasing, but longed for a bit more depth and a bit more difficulty. I completed hardcore the first day I purchased the game. That being said, buying the game on sale for less than $5 is, in my opinion, worth it. I received probably about 4 hours of entertainment from the game before completing it on the hardest difficulty, and oddly enough, securing the first spot on the leaderboard, which I suspect is because there is little reward for playing on that difficulty aside from challenge. I may run through on retro to explore the skill books some more. I would say the average gamer would get about 6-10 hours out of this game if they chose to play on normal or retro, depending on skill.
I hope to see more from the developer in the future. I hope this feedback is helpful in refining your next endeavors.