izigame.me

The Gimmick Wears Off Faster Than You Think.

I really want to recommend this game. Loot River has a refreshing core gameplay, good artstyle and interesting bosses' design, yet many other parts of the game drags my experience down.

Things I Like About Loot River:

1. Special Platforming
The main feature of the game. It plays like Sokoban and Klotski, sliding different shapes of platforms to navigate through the flooded, maze-like city. Every parts of the level can be broken down to several mini-sliding puzzles, but the real star of the show is the battle encounter. Because of the nature of sliding platforms, mobs can only attack you when the platforms are directly connected, thus two strategies are extra potent: ye olde poke-n-run and the one I call "nasty angle". Shimming the right analog stick to make the platform sway like the wackiest dance floor, or parking the platform at exactly 90 degree angle to each other, all the while you hit the poor mobs that is having a bad time pathfinding makes me laugh for a while..
2. Unlockable Equipments
Loot River has a surprising amount of weapons, spells, and armors, all of which cater towards different playstyle and stat attributes. Every weapon has different attack pattern, attack speed, parry window, and special perk; armors and hats offer some bonus effects for survival; spells are randomly etched onto weapons, which adds another layer of freshness to each run.
3. Other Compliments
→Some boss fights that integrates with the core gameplay have the most fun for me.
→I quite like the potion inflation system, either all in or none baby~

Things I Dislike About Loot River:

1. Enemies' Design
I am quite disappointed at Loot River's enemy design. Of all the mobs the dev create, only one of them has the ability to counter sliding platforms, by locking them up. This enemy alone has changed the pace of combat a lot forcing me to either deal with it or bait the other enemies out of effective zone, which I gladly welcome. The Hound Master also has an interesting stage hazard which makes the fight tight but still manageable, if only there were more of this type of enemies instead of generic dudes with swords. I am talking about letting enemies creating temporary platforms, destroying soft platforms, turning some tiles into boosting pads, or even designing amphibious enemies that is equally dangerous on land and in water.
2. More Abilities Maybe?
Speaking of abilities, I am also curious to know why isn't there more spinoffs to the interesting platform-sliding. Abilities such as creating temporary platform that will decay overtime or charging the platform you are standing on so you can do some crash course to knock enemies off, will vastly breathe new air into the tedious runs. Yes, subsequent runs of Loot River can easily become tedious, and there isn't any incentive to do so besides grinding knowledge to expand your arsenal.
3. Other Complaints
→Level-up feels rather insignificant when you level anything besides health. Moreover, finding better weapons is way more rewarding than leveling up.
→I wish you can aim spells.
→There should be two separate merchants, one selling armor and hats the other selling weapons and spells instead of both selling random things.
→The second level's length is way too long and complicated.
中文小簡評
→很可惜的類華容道和倉庫番動作roguelike遊戲。
→藉由移動水上平台在迷宮般的城市中探索。
→多樣武器防具供解鎖。每把武器都有不同的攻擊節奏、速度和架招時間。
→大部分的王戰有充分搭配遊戲的核心機制。
→我個人蠻喜歡投資血瓶的功能，靠自己的實力活下來以獲得兩倍數量的血瓶。
→敵人設計的部分實在欠缺新意。這裡的新意是指針對玩家移動平台的技能而設計的障礙或考驗（像是打碎平台、生成軟性平台、亦或是不受限於能在水中自由移動的敵人），除了一隻會強制鎖平台外，其他敵人都只是常見的雜魚。
→沒有為主角設計其他技能（諸如創造暫時性的平台或者讓腳下的平台加速撞擊之類的）真的很可惜，只有移動平台實在無法讓趣味性持續多久。
→關卡內升級系統很雞肋。只有升級血量有明顯效益，其他配點不值得投資，還不如找到好裝備。
→法術無法瞄準。
→關卡的兩位商人應該要一個賣武器法術，另一個賣防具和帽子，不應該兩個都隨機賣一樣物品。
→第二關的長度和複雜度有待調整。