RPGWatch - Lords of Xulima Preview

HiddenX said:

@Pladio - some starting advices for LoX are not bad. The devs explicitly wanted to make a hardcore game and are successful with this design goal IMHO.
Not everyone is used to old school mechanics nowadays and some websites already criticized LoX for being not playable at all. So Aries100 cared for the more casual gamers among our lurkers.

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Makes sense. It still feels slightly out of place though.

Maybe it would be good to have a beginner's tips section at the end rather than interlaced in the main body of the preview.

This was my first attempt at writing a preview. A genre or texttype I'm not that familiar with it seems...

Thank you for all your input. It is great advice for next time…

And yes, I tried the game on both casual, old-school veteran and hardcore. Unfortunately (due to me working at my real life job) I didn't seem to have enough time (as we never seem to do?) to go through every build in the game. But I agree that I probably should have said how my build was. The point I was trying to make was and is this:

In this game you'll need a healer, a character which is able to sing songs of courage
etc. and a tank as well as mage/sorcerer character. If you don't you won't advance much since you'll need to do combat so much.

As I explained in the preview, I'm colourblind….Unfortunately, this meant that I couldn't distinguish between the different types of green grass which seems necessary at one point in the game. So unfortunately that was the end of the game for me…. I tried maybe 5-8 times to go through this area…but sadly….no…

Also, this was the other place in the game (up till now) where I felt my progress relied more on the player skill than on the character skill….

A good first attempt, I say. Skill comes with practice. So I want more (p)reviews from you.
(Ignore the Grammar Nazis)

As I explained in the preview, I'm colourblind….Unfortunately, this meant that I couldn't distinguish between the different types of green grass which seems necessary at one point in the game. So unfortunately that was the end of the game for me…. I tried maybe 5-8 times to go through this area…but sadly….no…

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maybe they should add a button that highlights all interactable items.

At uni they always emphasised accessibility options when creating things (developing websites or anything else related to user operation).

I think all games should do that.

The old-school mechanics, the lack of hand-holding, the trial and error, were all really refreshing aspects of the gameplay for me. I appreciated the food, and I felt like the vivid, colorful scenery really added something.

But I simply could not get around the interface. I couldn't. It was like trying to enjoy a piece of candy with a huge gumball in my mouth. Every menu, every tooltip, every piece of text floated like some cheap free mobile game designed for a phone or a tablet. The mechanics feel like they're in progress, but the game's visual design - at least the user interface - feels like something from an airport bookstore, meant to be enjoyed for a few hours then thrown away forever.

It's hard to take a game seriously if it looks like…

Well. Forgive me, guys. Cheap trash.

But otherwise I think it's a really promising start, a nod to long-vanished game mechanics, and something that could blossom into a decent title.

HiddenX said:

@Kordanor - and it goes without saying that people that correct so much have to write the next review…

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I am more comfortable to do my Reviews in German, like the one about Divinity:OS or the one about Wasteland 2
I don’t think I am as eloquent in English, which (among other reasons) is why you won’t get a Review from me here (or at least not representing RPGWatch).
However I also find it important to mention it when some Information is just not correct. Especially if the article is a “official” featured review.

About the typos and so on…yeah might have been a more discrete way to send it via pm, I can see that.

wolfing said:

maybe they should add a button that highlights all interactable items.

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The Devs already mentioned that they won't implement it. They call it part of the fun to find little secrets. Well, I guess they have a point. If you can just highlight everything and see secret passages they arent secret anymore. If you excluded them people would be less tempted to find them probably.

However this ties into one thing I actually do not like about the game: The Herb situation.
In Gaulen is the only Character with the knowledge of Herbs skill. Depenent on how high the skill is you get a random number of herbs for each pick. Which is always 1 in the beginning, and multiple if maxed out.
These Herbs can then be made into stuff which boosts your attributes permanently.
So in order to max your characters you should run past all the herbs in the beginning and collect them once Gaulen has the skill on 30.
This feels like a bad mechanic and without an option to highlight all the herbs you left out backtracking becomes even more painful.

Can't disagree more about what Aubrielle mentions about the interface. I actually think it's extremely well done. To me it looks good and it feels good. The only problem is that it doesn't show the player everything he needs to know (though it shows a lot of things). Knowing what your classes will be able to learn is essential. At least in the first 15 levels or so when you get lots of new skills each level. There were also a couple of other small things like no value for the effect of speed.
A player with the name of "Mike" put together a nice list of stuff which players want to get improved in the UI: http://steamcommunity.com/app/296570/discussions/0/35220315825139093/#p5
This also contains Map notes btw.
And as mentioned before, the Developers are quite good in listening in what players say (if it fits into their concept).
But I can undersand what a bad interface can feel like. I had this with a game called Heroes of Steel, which has probably the most horrible interface I have ever seen. This (and the horrible sound loops) are also the reason I never really played it yet.
But to me the Xulima Interface is pretty good, though not perfect of course. But to me it actually "feels" better than the Interface of Wasteland 2 or Divinity OS. Tastes are different I guess. But maybe Aubrielle/you can give a concrete example in which the interface doesn't work for her/you.

Kordanor, you're english is more eloquent than the english of most native speakers. That seriously is a really bad excuse for not doing a review.

On the "different colors of grass" issue, in reality what triggers the sleep spell are specific tiles that have flowers on them. These flower tiles are represented by tiny colorful dots sprinkled throughout the tile. Aries, you might see if you can spot these tiles with these different colors on them (save your game and try hitting the same spot where you fall asleep and see if you can notice it). It's true that there's a darker shade of green to represent the flower stalks, but there ARE other colors on those tiles (which, admittedly, might be hard to spot because they're so small). Just trying to help you get past this part...

aries100 said:

As I explained in the preview, I'm colourblind….Unfortunately, this meant that I couldn't distinguish between the different types of green grass which seems necessary at one point in the game. So unfortunately that was the end of the game for me…. I tried maybe 5-8 times to go through this area…but sadly….no…

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Aries, if you're talking about the Golden Forest that puts you to sleep, you don't need to see color to pass this. In this area you just need to

Morrandir said:

Anybody knows the current ETA?

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Couchpotato said:

Look above you at the very first post from me on the thread. I even shared a link.

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HiddenX said:

I need new glasses…

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Me too.
Thanks.

Kordanor - Like you said, it's probably just a matter of taste, and it's probably me nitpicking the visuals. The interface is well designed, and things aren't hard to find or anything. It just felt cheap to me visually. Between the choice of font and the cheapie arched scroll graphics on the loading screen tips, it doesn't urge me (personally) to take the game very seriously, and it looks like it was made from cheap clipart and free stock fonts.

I know I'm being harsh, and I really don't meant to offend. Again, this is my personal opinion, based on my personal tastes. I'm probably the first to voice that kind of opinion about the game, and if others enjoy it or don't have a problem with it, then more power to them for sure. I'm truly glad that others enjoy the game as much as they do, and I'm not about to degrade anyone for enjoying it.

You mean that the game is great, but you can't play it because the interface uses cheap graphics ? Wow, that's harsh against an indie developer!

On the other hand, we all have something that breaks the immersion for us, just like I can't enjoy pillars of eternity / Baldur's Gate etc, because the characters don't have any faces.

There's a lot of things I don't like about this game. The visuals, the predefined main character with 0 immersion, the absence of visualisation of the other chars on the main view, the lack of deep NPC interaction, the lack of companions etc.

But when I've started to play it on a longer train journey, I really fell for it. Developing the characters, overcoming the challenges, exploring the world is really fun.

I just don't know if I can find a free time slot with the big guys like WL2, DA:I and Witcher 3 on my todo list.

GothicGothicness said:

I can't enjoy pillars of eternity / Baldur's Gate etc, because the characters don't have any faces.

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Interesting.
For me the character portraits always made up for this.

crpgnut said:

A small problem with this design is that the game has no place to make notes on the map.

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Aaaand here we go

New Feature: Write your own notes on the Maps!

Another feature requested by the fans is writing their own notes on the maps. Finally, it has been implemented. It was a little hard to add, but we love that feature too. Also, these custom notes can be consulted directly in the Journal with the rest of auto-notes that the game records for you. Hope you enjoy it!

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I came here to make just this posting. 10 minutes late.

My only significant criticisms of the game based on what I've played is that the NPCs (and Gaulen are very flat, with little personality to them, and the story hasn't really pulled me in. It's also a pretty linear game / there hasn't been any C&C (but I haven't gone very far so perhaps that changes).. I'm not crazy about most of the visual puzzles I've encountered either. They're mostly tedious / trial & error based, which I don't like. The above average combat system almost makes up for these shortcomings though. I think the art is well done and the UI is adequate. Despite the fairly linear set up, exploration manages to be interesting.

I ended up buying the game..


It's quite bit of fun, but basically only on the following aspects :
- Good character progression (filled with a bit of mystery)
- Exploration
- Challenge

I'm not too much a fan of the type of battles, but the challenge keeps it interesting and it's sometimes worth trying to beat difficult opponents.

The story is not bad, I'm actually rooting for the 'evil' God as I find his opposition to the others good

I'm not too fond of Gaulen's voice, it's a bit raspy and makes me lose immersion a bit. It looks like they wanted some with a deep voice, which often sounds good, but this one isn't so good.


I have a few questions :

1. How do I heal nausea/cursed (and a few others that don't heal after 24 hours of rest) without going to the priestess ?
2. What needs to be put on the altars of the Gods as gifts ? They don't seem to care for my fine gifts of brass axes and torches

1. I think Nausea is counting as disease and can be removed with a Level 24 Cleric Spell.
The Curse can be removed with a level 36 Cleric spell.
It's probably a good idea to...just live with the curse until the cursed dogs are gone and then let the priestess do her work.

2. There is a specific item for each god. It's not random stuff.
But if you want to know the exact items, you can check the steam forums, there are people figuring out what use the special items have: http://steamcommunity.com/app/296570/discussions/0/35221031514450025/#p1

Are the developers sticking with their idea of no option (button) for highlighting objects in the game? Because I like it and think it sounds interesting. I wonder has it been done before in this type of games.