Abyss Odyssey

While I'm not exactly warming up to Abyss Odyssey, I am glad I extended this game's coverage by another day. As I intimated last time, there's definitely something of what I call a "discovery curve": something that's less of a difficulty curve in a traditional sense, where the game starts easy and gets gradually harder to match the player's increasing competence with its mechanics, but a sort of bell curve where it initially starts difficult due to the player having zero idea of what's going on, becomes easier as you ascertain a lot of very important rules and mechanics through attrition, and then starts to creep towards being difficult again as the late-game throws everything it has at you. This type of curve is particularly prevalent in roguelikes/roguelites, I've discovered. Maybe it's intrinsic to the nature of those games that there's a lot of answers to glean and baptisms of fire to burn through as you permadeath your way through your first dozen character builds before you finally have a good handle on what the game wants from you.

So I should probably start with some clarifications/corrections regarding some misconceptions and ignorance from last time. You don't lose your gold upon death; similar to Rogue Legacy, you want to hang onto as much of your found treasure as possible so that you have some petty cash to spend on equipment for the next playthrough. Every hub area - there are three, and each successive one provides a larger "short cut" to the lower dungeon floors which also increases the initial level of challenge - has a merchant with specific types of item for sale, and since there's no backtracking it wouldn't make sense for them to be up there if you didn't retain your wealth from run to run. You might also hang onto your weapon or accessories after dying, but only very rarely. There's also another mechanic I've discovered today that has proven to be very useful: enemy soul captures. You have the ability to capture the soul of a weakened enemy (souls are also available to purchase, occasionally) and can swap between them and your main character in case of emergency. Each enemy character has a completely different set of combat moves and skills, though few are as versatile as your main character and none of them can change their equipment. They're essentially the same as the brave soldier that tries to rescue you whenever you fall; a damage sponge for when the main character is incapacitated or close enough to it that you daren't risk bringing them out. It's an interesting mechanic, as is the main menu option to "train" as any of the ensorcelled monsters you've acquired (which makes it another collectible side-quest, so that's good) to get the hang of using them. Stronger monsters require you to be a higher level before you're allowed to snag them, but even if you fail to capture one with the spell the "capture ball" that results still does a lot of damage regardless.

I've also learned that, yes, the world map is different every time you play. The difficulty of the individual floors is randomized each time, as is the placement of certain strange areas that I've occasionally wandered into: one threw me into a black and white world where I had to defeat a few enemies as a different enemy. Not only does this result in a free enemy soul, but it allows you to skip the floor entirely. Another was an odd treasure room with a fountain in the center - I'd read ahead a little (thanks @baal_sagoth for the tip) and found out that this was where an unlockable playable character was hiding, though I apparently lacked the funds to recruit them despite dropping the five figure sum I had on me into the fountain. That was like a thousand wishes' worth, dang it.

The last thing I managed to unlock was a new character who is apparently a gestalt entity of all the soldiers killed in and by the warlock's nightmare, so now I'm wandering around as some kind of hooded Ermac with a broadsword. Time will tell if I prefer this guy to the default woman, as he seems to be slower and stronger with a slightly longer reach with his two-handed weapons. Given how ineffective I am as an evasive, agile swordswoman, I figured that maybe a tank character was more my speed. It's fair to say that, after reaching the end boss in a single amazing run, the Ghost Monk fellow does seem to suit me better. I was able to get a full tour of the late-game areas, and discover how certain items are practically useless. Specifically, the expensive camp tokens, which not only provide just a finite amount of continues but also resurrect you on whichever floor you used them without any of your equipment. My chances of survival were not high. Didn't help that I used it on the floor that had a boss at the end, who apparently respawned since I left.

Ultimately, though, there's still that clumsy elephant in the room: the awkward, laggy, sticky, occasionally brutally unfair combat. I finally realized what this game's combat reminded me of most, and it wasn't Guacamelee! or A Valley Without Wind or Rogue Legacy. It was that stupid quest mode from Tobal 2, where every fight was against a (mostly) intelligent fighter game combatant and your health barely recovered between each battle, forcing you to depend on being lucky enough to find healing items (or decent enough at the game to not get hit too often, I guess). It struck me when I realized that every character in the game was playable, and so they all had their own array of special attacks and their own strengths and weaknesses. You could also make the case that it resembles the adventure mode of Super Smash Bros. Melee (or the Subspace Emissary mode from Brawl, if you'd prefer) for similar reasons: lots of traversing randomized 2D dungeons, avoiding hazards and minor enemies, occasionally stopping to fight opponents as mechanically sophisticated as you are.

The Verdict: I wish I liked Abyss Odyssey more. It's stylish and strange and inventive and after that last run I feel like I finally have it figured out. However, I'm still fighting against the controls and the combat every step of the way, and I can honestly get my fill of randomized dungeons and permadeath from a hundred other Indie roguelikes out there. Pass.

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Man I did not have those issues with the lag in the controls at all. That's a bummer it negatively impacted your play experience that much Mento.

I haven't played Tobal 2, but I'm pretty sure the devs said somewhere in an interview that they were inspired by Smash Adventure like you noticed. Down to even the combat system which is smash-esque to me.

Sorry it didn't click for you. The story is pretty crazy if you get far enough into the game to piece it out.