Balrum - Released

From the Balcony Team:

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We simply wanted to thank you for covering all of our newsbits throughout the years. Your support was a tremendous help to us. The best thing is your user base. Most of them are mature, kind people who write constructive comments.

Have a nice day RPGWatch.

Good luck with the Balrum launch!

Wishlisted. Too much other stuff right now which I already bought and didn't come to.

I hope they fix the Starving while reading issue.
But I don't quite get why this actually is the case. From what I have seen the game works turn based like a roguelike. So is the starvation not bound to that and you can actually starve within a turn? Or does it switch from real time to turn based just within combat?

Combat is turn based. But when you read a message. speak with people. try to figure how interface works… etc., time goes. And very fast. If you are clumsy or noobie enough this game is more unforgiving than Counter Strike. The weird thing is that combat is the only relaxing part of this game. Fighting monsters is not so dangerous. Real danger is reading books. talking to neighbours or cooking soup.

Ok, that sounds pretty bad. But as mentioned before I also think that's something probably tackled by the first patches as it seems to be pretty obvious.

Still no key for me so I'm finally going to dive into the Shadowrun expansion that I never got around to.

Originally Posted by Swann
Combat is turn based. But when you read a message. speak with people. try to figure how interface works… etc., time goes. And very fast. If you are clumsy or noobie enough this game is more unforgiving than Counter Strike. The weird thing is that combat is the only relaxing part of this game. Fighting monsters is not so dangerous. Real danger is reading books. talking to neighbours or cooking soup.

Freaking hilarious. I'll keep my eye on this game but no way I'm playing under a timer like that!

Well I haven't played the release yet but I played it around a year ago and here and there every couple of months and I don't remember having too much difficulty with eating/drinking. I also don't remember the dialog being particularly extensive so I don't see how it's a problem. The enemies ramp up as you get farther from home.

Brainy and Nerdy wrote a short review of it here: http://brainyandnerdy.com/balrum-review/

What I want to know is if I can ignore the whole house making and field tending and still be able to finish the game while not being a lot weaker than those that spent 10 hours making stuff first.

I am not into crafting and building in games. When games ask me to collect basic elements and then slowly turn them into something big I go find another game.
But I don't mind if the game has a easy to use upgrade system like what WL2 or Fo4 did (I hated village building in Fo4 as well but upgrading your gear was good) or if you can just buy a finished thing and place it somewhere.

And still no key. At least I'm playing Shadowrun so I am entertained.

I had a brief look at it last night. I backed it on kickstarter and was looking forward to it. You can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel and you can scale the UI elements in the options. One bug for me was when I scaled the UI up slightly most of them (inventory window etc.) were immediately positioned miles off screen meaning I had to close the game and edit the config to get them back. As to crafting it appears to be balanced in that instead of cooking food you can simply buy it. Same with say building a fence. An early quest has you fixing a fence that requires some wood and nails. Once I had those things I was able to repair it so I didn't need to learn anything extra to complete that quest but you would probably have to learn how to create the nails for example. I am guessing as I've barely touched it so far.

Finally re. the thirst/hunger dynamic it does seem that you get thirsty and hungry very quickly but I would say that when you are finally given control of your character it looks like your levels start low so that it hits you very quickly with warnings to eat/drink. Once I figured out that I could open the character sheet and inventory and consume food and water until thirst/hunger were at 100% it then seemed to last longer than perhaps first impressions imply. I would still love if you could control the rate of it's decline as while I don't really mind needing to eat and drink it does appear to quick for my taste.

I may wait for some bugs to be ironed out but so far it looks like a little gem to me.

Originally Posted by Archangel
What I want to know is if I can ignore the whole house making and field tending and still be able to finish the game while not being a lot weaker than those that spent 10 hours making stuff first.

I am not into crafting and building in games. When games ask me to collect basic elements and then slowly turn them into something big I go find another game.
But I don't mind if the game has a easy to use upgrade system like what WL2 or Fo4 did (I hated village building in Fo4 as well but upgrading your gear was good) or if you can just buy a finished thing and place it somewhere.

Yes you can finish it.
Yes you will be weaker - thats kinda the point of rewarding optional activities.

But… why do you care? Nobody will know you are weaker but you. And you wouldn't even know if you hadn't asked the question first. You would have just finished the game and been excited that it was good value.

Well congratulations on the release!

Not to be confused with Rum Balls, of course.

Originally Posted by Swann
Fighting monsters is not so dangerous. Real danger is reading books. talking to neighbours or cooking soup.

LOL…Wishlist is shorter now.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Well, I hope I'm corrected, but this has always looked pretty basic and generic, to me. I've no problem with a 2D engine, done well, but I'm not seeing anything particularly interesting or engaging on any front. I await the reviews.

Yes, this literally is Eschalon with another name.

I did finally get a key but now I'll finish the games in my que before even thinking of starting this one. I'm replaying Phantasy Star Four for like the sixth time or so, then I play on playing the third game and most likely a few Final Fantasies after that.

One of the two new patches addresses the Hunger/Thirst issue, so that should help.

Originally Posted by Humanity has risen!
Yes, this literally is Eschalon with another name.

That's a stretch. The graphics have the same feel, but it's probably got more in common with Divinity Original Sin than Eschalon. And by that, I mean it's more of a sandbox game, than just old school RPG.

Original Sin? It is nothing like it at all, unless you mean the 5,000,000 crafting items.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
Original Sin? It is nothing like it at all, unless you mean the 5,000,000 crafting items.

Not just the crafting, real time with turn based combat, and environmental effects. .