Druidstone - Released

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HiddenX

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The tactical turn-based RPG Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest has been released:

RPG Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest



Evil is afoot in Menhir Forest. The druids, the caretakers of the woods, are troubled: their archdruid has disappeared under deeply suspicious circumstances, and a cancerous growth of purple cysts is spreading, carrying corruption and sickness wherever they appear. It takes a special kind of hero to save the day. Or maybe more than one.

Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest is a labor of love from the co-creators of the critically acclaimed Legend of Grimrock series. Druidstone is a tactical, single-player, turn-based roleplaying game, which combines the best qualities of modern RPGs with the elegance of tactical boardgames. Every action, every turn counts as you control your party of heroes through handcrafted, challenging missions with varying, and often surprising, objectives.

Set in a unique fantasy world, Druidstone is filled with ancient lush forests, standing stones, snow-topped mountains, deadly creatures and puzzle-ridden ruins. And somewhere in the middle of all of this, caught in the flow of events, are Aava, the archdruid's daughter, who must now shoulder his responsibilities, Leonhard, a warden with a mysterious past and a lethal destiny, and Oiko, the failed Red Priest who is living proof that one may be very smart without being particularly wise. Along the way, they meet companions and villains, whose unique personalities and abilities make every encounter memorable.

Key Features


  • A tactical turn-based and tile-based battle system where every action and every turn counts.
  • Upgrade the abilities of your heroes - your upgrade choices have a dramatic impact on the characters' capabilities!
  • Obtain upgrade gems by completing missions and discovering hidden treasures.
  • 35 challenging, hand-crafted missions with playtimes ranging from 15 minutes to 45 minutes.
  • Solve devious non-combat puzzle levels to gain extra upgrade resources.
  • Find lost shipments to gain access to the best gear in Steelface's Emporium of Curios.
  • A gripping, fantastic story of love, death and responsibility centered around the main characters of Aava, Leonhard and Oiko.
  • A unique fantasy setting that combines the best elements from western RPGs, JRPGs and tactical boardgames in unexpected ways.
  • Play custom missions created by others, or make your own campaigns with the Druidstone Level Editor (available as a post-release update).
  • Total playtime ranging from 15 to 20 hours.
Click to expand...
Thanks henriquejr!

More information.
 
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I'm watching the video.. lots of action. But WHERE IS THE FUN??

The Secret of the Menhir Forest is that deep in the forest rabid druids began humping poor fairies and slugs and other moving animals. It got to the point that people noticed and developed a game about this tragedy.
 
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I'm tempted to get this asap. Although, I read on Steam that many missions have time limits and those that don't have endless (and increasing) spawns.

Would be thankful if some Watcher can give his/her impressions!
 
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Yep, and thanks Pongo.
So far I only played 3 different missions and yes, some have time limits of some kind.
The one mission you had X turns to destroy 3 objects, where every destroyed object increased the time limit by 2.
If the time limit is over, some evil supermonster spawns and you only get a few more turns until you'd be killed. So the time limit is not 100% artificial.
The second mission I had to escord someone who was followed by some monsters which are to hard to kill. So the "time limit" is basically that if you are too slow, you get killed.
 
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This sounded really interesting once upon a time, but the more I read about it, the worse it sounds. Timed missions, escort missions, replaying missions until you get them "optimal", etc. Doesn't sound much like an RPG, at least not something I'd recognize as one. Last couple pages of the Codex thread are pretty enlightening: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...from-grimrock-devs.114693/page-9#post-6132543

Think I'll have to pass.
 
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I'm not a fan of time limits, as I like to explore every square inch of available space to see exactly what's going on. It won't necessarily stop me from buying it, but it will force me to do more research beforehand.
 
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It's really a tactics game first and just happens to have some RPG elements.

Which is actually not that far away from Blackguards, which just had a very bloated character system or Grimrock, which basically had no story, and also no point in character development, as it was mainly about circling around enemies in action combat, which was actually most efficient if you only used one or two characters.

So in the end Druid is closer to a Panzer General where you can take over some experienced units, than to something like Baldurs Gate.

That doesn't mean it's bad. But you shouldn't go in and expect a full RPG.
It's a tactics game with some character development and a story which connects everything.
 
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Kordanor said:
Which is actually not that far away from Blackguards, which just had a very bloated character system or Grimrock, which basically had no story, and also no point in character development, as it was mainly about circling around enemies in action combat, which was actually most efficient if you only used one or two characters.
Click to expand...

Legend of Grimrock 1&2 are mainly about exploration and puzzle-solving. Combat was only part of that.

If this had been Grimrock 3, it would have been a Day 1 purchase for me. It doesn't look like a bad game though if pure tactics are your thing. I might give it a shot just because I like the developer.
 
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JDR13 said:
Legend of Grimrock 1&2 are mainly about exploration and puzzle-solving. Combat was only part of that.
Click to expand...

What I wanted to get at is that the outcome of combat was rather action and player based, than character and stats based. And you often heared like "Fallout 4 is not an rpg, it's a shooter". And you could say something similar about grimrock.
 
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Kordanor said:
What I wanted to get at is that the outcome of combat was rather action and player based, than character and stats based. And you often heared like "Fallout 4 is not an rpg, it's a shooter". And you could say something similar about grimrock.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think we've all seen that silly statement from some people before. Just because you have shooting mechanics in FO4 doesn't make it a shooter. If we always used that logic, then all RPGs with action-based combat would just be action games.

I know that's not what you're saying though. My point was just that Grimrock isn't mainly about combat.
 
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It's a good game. Not as deep as Grimrock 2 but really challenging and rewarding. Might put out a full review today.
 
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Kordanor said:
Yep, and thanks Pongo.
So far I only played 3 different missions and yes, some have time limits of some kind.
The one mission you had X turns to destroy 3 objects, where every destroyed object increased the time limit by 2.
If the time limit is over, some evil supermonster spawns and you only get a few more turns until you'd be killed. So the time limit is not 100% artificial.
The second mission I had to escord someone who was followed by some monsters which are to hard to kill. So the "time limit" is basically that if you are too slow, you get killed.
Click to expand...
Most missions work that way. There are a few missions with X number of turns, but in the ones without it, you have to advance aggressively as the longer you wait, more enemies will spawn. It's kind of like chess, in the sense that each move has to be perfect. While it can get frustrating or cheap sometimes, the risk vs reward is nice. The normal difficulty needs some balancing, however.
 
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yemeth said:
Most missions work that way. There are a few missions with X number of turns, but in the ones without it, you have to advance aggressively as the longer you wait, more enemies will spawn. It's kind of like chess, in the sense that each move has to be perfect. While it can get frustrating or cheap sometimes, the risk vs reward is nice. The normal difficulty needs some balancing, however.
Click to expand...

I think I will have to pass then. I know I will lose sleep if I cannot explore the whole map and find all the goodies. Never understood why devs love turn-limits and increasing, infinite spawn rates. Don't get me wrong, I love risk vs reward and hard fights where you have to try different strategies. But I want to do it in my own time frame.

Looks like I will have to wait until this is in the discount bin before I give it a try.
 
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Yeah, I was already doubtful because of the fixed protagonists, but the turn limits on maps, spawning enemies and escort missions have completely out me off. Hopefully it's a good experience for those who want a tactics game, but I'm going to pass.
 
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I like tactical RPGs from Nintendo systems, like Fire Emblem or more recent Wargroove. If this is good I might pick it up. It would be nice if they release it on Switch though, I like to play these games in horizontal position :)
 
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The setting looks like a game I could like. But not a fan of time limits. Going to pass.
 
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Stingray said:
This sounded really interesting once upon a time, but the more I read about it, the worse it sounds. Timed missions, escort missions, replaying missions until you get them "optimal", etc. Doesn't sound much like an RPG, at least not something I'd recognize as one. Last couple pages of the Codex thread are pretty enlightening: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...from-grimrock-devs.114693/page-9#post-6132543

Think I'll have to pass.
Click to expand...

Wow, that Codex post sounds really bad. Pretty much everything I hate in these types of games are present. But I didn't know about random monsters spawning willy-nilly.

And when it said "fixed damage", I take that to mean each time something hits an enemy, the damage is always exactly the same for that attacker for each hit?

I do like the visuals a lot, and from what I've read the tactical combat itself is fine. Why the devs decided to add all that cr.ap is beyond me and I will also do a hard-pass.
 
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Darkheart said:
Never understood why devs love turn-limits and increasing, infinite spawn rates.
Click to expand...

Not saying it's the case in this game, but my experience has been that when devs add things like that, it's to make up for other shortcomings, like enemy AI. Just throw more and more spawns at the player or put "timers" or other artificial speed bumps.

The negative I see (for me, anyway) is that if missions force you to "haul a$$" I tend to make more mistakes, thus causing more spawns, and more ulcer-inducing moments. I realize it's turn-based which means I can take all day to make a move (not a positive either, imo) but for me it's still a massive negative.
 
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