Children of Morta

[Lordnine]

Didn't see a thread on this game and it deserves one. I've been completely charmed by this game for the last few hours. Probably the best way to describe it would be Rogue Legacy mixed with Bastion.

You play as the Bergson family...all of the family. So far I've unlocked four different family members that each play uniquely. There are no big surprises here, they fill the typical archetypes, Warrior, Archer, Rogue, Monk, etc, but they are well done. You go on dungeon runs and it plays like a mix of of Bastion and a little bit of Diablo. Each member of the family has its own levels and a branching skill tree. Where things get a little Rogue Legacy is that if you reach a high enough level you unlock unique skills on each family member which will apply to all family members. Furthermore, if you die, your dungeon run ends. You lose all items you've picked up but your gold carries over to be used on upgrades for all family members.

As the game goes on you also unlock new family members and other curiosities. For example, I found a wolf pup in the dungeon, rescued it, and now it's running around the Bergson's house. Oh, and to hit home the Bastion similarities, the whole game is narrated. It's not quite to the level of Bastion but it is charming and frequently makes me smile as I am exploring the world.

[Lordnine]

Not a single interested person?

I am about 9 hours in now and think I am maybe 1/3 of the way through the campaign. I have unlocked all members of the family as playable characters and am still really enjoying the game. I am impressed that with the number of times I have died and had to restart I have yet to encounter any repeating (or absent) voice lines. For reference, every time you die you get another little story tidbit from the narrator regarding either a specific character or something going on in the world. They are short but really add a lot of personality to the characters and world without requiring you to read long exposition dumps.

[Skinypupy]

It’s on my “I’ll get around to it someday” list.

[morlac]

I bought it this week but have not fired it up yet Prolly get to it this weekend, heard nothing but great things.

[Skinypupy]

Picked this up last night. Initial impressions:

- Seriously incredible pixel-art
- Cool story and theme
- Great music
- Meh gameplay. Feels like a far less interesting version of Diablo

Pretty early on though...hopefully that will improve.

[wonderpug]

I played through this a few months ago, really enjoyed it the whole way through.

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

Picked this up last night. Initial impressions:

- Seriously incredible pixel-art
- Cool story and theme
- Great music
- Meh gameplay. Feels like a far less interesting version of Diablo

Pretty early on though...hopefully that will improve.

II picked up at release and played it a bit, and these were also my impressions. I do feel like I should give it another go, to see if it picks up.

[Lordnine]

Gameplay gets more interesting once you unlock a couple abilities on your characters. I would also say the warrior character is the least interesting character in the game to play. I’m a fan of the archer and the fire girl.

Still, while it looks like Diablo, it definitely plays closer to a rogue-like like Binding of Isaac, so if you are looking for constant weapon drops and tons of different abilities, the game isn't that. What you do get is Shrines (Temporary special powers), Runes (Pickups that modify your three basic abilities) and Relics (activatebles that do anything from drop a turret, to summon friendly minions, or make you temporarily invulnerable).

[Skinypupy]

Side note: When porting games to Switch, would it kill these devs to increase the font size a bit? I’m having a hell of a time because I can barely make out the tiny font they use for everything.

[Skinypupy]

Gameplay gets more interesting once you unlock a couple abilities on your characters. I would also say the warrior character is the least interesting character in the game to play. I’m a fan of the archer and the fire girl.

Still, while it looks like Diablo, it definitely plays closer to a rogue-like like Binding of Isaac, so if you are looking for constant weapon drops and tons of different abilities, the game isn't that. What you do get is Shrines (Temporary special powers), Runes (Pickups that modify your three basic abilities) and Relics (activatebles that do anything from drop a turret, to summon friendly minions, or make you temporarily invulnerable).

Thanks for this post.

I had been playing with the Warrior (melee is my typical playstyle for these sort of games), and it simply wasn't interesting at all. Switched over to the archer, and it's like playing an entirely different game. Thankfully, one that's quite fun instead of a slog.

I'm starting to figure out the rhythm of the game as well, and its really beginning to click. I've gotten to the first boss 4 times now, and think I mostly figured it out on my last run. Got it to about 1/3 heath, just need to get better on the timing. My only gripe is the spikes. I hate, hate, hate the spikes, as they're nearly impossible to see.

So In short, switch to the archer (Linda) if you're not having any fun with the Warrior (John).

[Lordnine]

As the game goes on you will want to switch characters in an out. Some characters excel at certain bosses. Even those that don’t are worth leveling because they give stat buffs and abilities to your other characters. I actually just leveled John high enough that if one of his children would take lethal damage he now appears and protects them from dying.

[Skinypupy]

First boss is down, now with three different characters (John, Linda, Kevin). The feeling of progression from getting absolutely destroyed by it to now taking it down fairly easily is pretty awesome. I've actually switched back to using John for the second level. Linda just doesn't quite have enough DPS yet to survive very well and Kevin needs more skills. Will keep grinding.

I did run into a rather nasty sound bug where the attack sound effect gets stuck and just loops over and over again. No other sound plays while it's looping...just that. Makes the spikes even tougher when you can't hear them go off. Hoping it's just a one-off and not a regular occurance.

EDIT: And now second boss is down. An absolutely epic run that had me taking on the boss with a ranged, melee, and healing companion. Made very short work of him.

[Skinypupy]

Unlocked the Fire Mage, and agree that she's a blast to play. I love the fact that I get a quick snippet about the family after most dungeons. The character they build into these sprites is really pretty amazing.

On the down side, the audio bug seems to be rearing its ugly head more frequently now. It seems to happen about every 3rd or 4th run, where the audio simply gets stuck on the attack sound effect and nothing else plays. Super annoying.

[Kurth]

I’m interested in this one. Thanks for all the impressions. Planning to pick it up,

[Lordnine]

On the down side, the audio bug seems to be rearing its ugly head more frequently now. It seems to happen about every 3rd or 4th run, where the audio simply gets stuck on the attack sound effect and nothing else plays. Super annoying.

Interesting. I haven’t encountered any bugs at all. Maybe an issue with the Switch version? I am playing on PC.

I recently got to the Industry area and man that is a steep difficulty increase. I was breezing through most of the game up until that point and now I am struggling to make it the 2nd floor. I’ve managed it once in four attempts.

[Skinypupy]

Freed the first god and have unlocked all the characters. The difficulty jump between the first zone and the second is definitely significant.

My favorite is still Linda, least favorite has been Mark. Ranged characters seem to work much better, although the fire girl’s lack of mobility makes things tough. Crushing mobs with Joey is fun, but I don’t see him being a sustainable end game option, since his attacks are SO slow.

I’m finding that success or failure on missions depends very heavily on the rate of potion drops. Some runs have extra potions lying around all over the map, while others rarely see any.

Doubt I’ll have the patience to grind through to the finish, but I’m definitely still having a blast after 10 (?, Switch doesn’t track time) or so hours. If you enjoy Diablo and/or roguelikes at all, do not miss this one.

[Lordnine]

The game is not super long. I just finished it tonight. Steam says it took about 18 hours but I know two of that was just spent leveling all characters to the top level because I wanted to see what all the abilities did.

I enjoyed it all the way to the end and I have to say I really appreciate that the ending is actually achievable and also satisfying under realistic play times in a game like this. Most roguelikes go out of their way to make the ending content so difficult that most people will never see it and if you do it’s usually pretty disappointing. The final area was a challenge, but I think I made it harder for myself than I needed to by not upgrading character health at all until really late in the game.

Definitely check the game out if anything posted here piques your interest!

[Skinypupy]

As much as I love this game, I'm probably going to set it aside unfinished due to the bugs on Switch.

Had a great 45 minute run going, and went into one of the mid-dungeon "mini boss" areas. It was supposed to be three waves of mobs, then the gate opens and reveals a chest. Got through the first two waves, then...nothing. The third wave never spawned. And in the mini-boss area, the exit plate is disabled until you finish the encounter (which I couldn't do because they didn't spawn) and you can't teleport out either. After waiting about 10 minutes hoping that something would happen, I simply had to reset the game and lose all the progress, including nearly two levels and about 7K gold. Add that to the audio glitches and a couple other weird issues (quests not triggering), I'm sadly going to have to shelve it.

Sucks, because the game is really awesome outside of the bugs.