Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes - RPG/Tactics

[Renevent]

So this just made a blip on my Renevent Game Radar© and apparently it's going to be released at the end of the month.

It's a RPG/Tactics game which could be nice (don't get these too often) and the game has some interesting features :p

http://www.grotesque-game.de/grotesque-tactics/


1. turn-based, tactical battles featuring the most hilarious animations ever seem in an RPG.

2. Explore beautiful forests and villages as well as dark dungeons in the fantasy world of Grotesque.

3. An ironic storyline with a deep atmosphere, which RPG fans will be singing ballads of for the next thousands of years.

4. Huge, detailed and ill-tempered bosses

5. Entertaining multiple choice conversations and dialogue puzzles in a style similar to Monkey Island are giving the SRPG genre a new face.

6. Classic RPG elements: complete story-driven quests, discover treasure, carry on trade, level and power up party members.

7. Distinctive party members: for example the arrogant hero Holy Avatar, the blood thirsty vampire Solithaire and the sweet angel Angelina who easily loses her temper.

8. Half-naked virgins can be rescued from the claws of vile monsters to then follow you into battle as groupie-pets

9. Obsession: Every hero possesses an expressive flaw like irascibility, the sudden telling of ridiculously long heroic tales or insane jealousy, which can however be used to ones advantage in battle – if the chosen one acts wisely...

10. Programmed by the lead/senior programmer of Gothic 1-3 Carsten Edenfeld and other passionate as well as good-looking RPG developers of Silent Dreams.



Interesting...some of them absurd but ok lol.

Environmental art looks really nice, though I have to admit the character style is a bit anime-ish which I hate...but it's more of a parody so maybe it will work out ok.

It's also a budget title so could be some nice cheap entertainment :D

http://www.the3dzone.de/wp-content/lg-gallery/Grotesque%20Tactics/GrotesqueTactics2.jpg

http://www.escuadronpikmin.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/grotesquetactics3.jpg

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/media/19790/1/1.jpg

[Panthro]

Looks a bit like King's Bounty and Battle for Wesnoth.

[Renevent]

Yeah, in fact they made reference to King's Bounty directly on their website. To me this is a good thing, as I think KB is an awesome game. But I still have my reservation about this one...

Reading a bit more about it I found a few points:

-On the short(er) side...10-15 hours long. But it is a budget title so that's ok...and considering it has a lot of roots in the RPG side maybe there's some re-playability as well.

-While from what I have gathered it seems to be getting mostly positive player reviews (mostly half assed google translated stuff) some of the mechanics aren't quite as deep as some expected like the tactics part...although not sure about this.

-The game has a lot of silly humor...I think this could go either way with folks as some people like this stuff. Personally I like my games more on the serious side but coupled with the anime-looking characters it might be too much for me.

-You can actually buy and play the translated german version now directly from their web-site...but unsure on the exact details.

We'll see, hopefully more reviews come in once the game is released. I don't think there is enough info for me to pre-order the game yet though.

[Perturabo]

Bought the german basic version some 2 weeks ago before realising there was a premium version short before release. Well just played a bit and did not really not like it. It played kind of not very comfortable, mostly because you were always in round-mode with half your party scattered across the map, trying to reach the battle before everyone else would be dead. When the upgrade for prem was released last week, I bought this as well and got pretty satisfied. The game is great. The humor is awesome and after some 2 or 3 hours my wife left the room - couldn't hear my constant laughter and giggling any longer ^^
Game mechanics are easy to understand and learn. But than it was meant to be rather simple. They luckily changed the party movement, making a lot of things way more easy. Played a couple of hours, reaching Westwind - the third map - by now. But it doesn't feel like only 10-15 hours by now...

Interesting might be the fact, that there are some similarities between Crate and Silent Dreams. They have been working as independent company as well, trying to raise money for their main game, Grotesque: Heroes Hunted by releasing Grotesque Tactics. This alone led me to buying the game, independent programmers have to be supported ;)
Oh, and don't look to much at the video - it was made before releasing the halfway finished "light"-version...

[Renevent]

Thanks for the info!

BTW, could you expand a bit on the RPG elements? Are there cool items to find and equip? Leveling with skilltrees? Can all your troops level up and be equipped with items? Stats?

If you played King's Bounty how would the game compare to it?

*edit*

Good to know more about the studio as well! What kind of game is Heroes Hunted? Same concept just larger scope?

Oh and one more thing...I did see the thing about the premium upgrade/german version...how does that work exactly? If I order now or do the pre-order I have to pay extra for the better version?

[Perturabo]

There are not that many items. Each character has 3 slots - weapon, armor, treasure. By now, the shop in Station Wish, where you return to after every quest, sells three different grades of weapon and armor, which would make it 6 different items for all characters (except the virigins - they are all wearing the same type of "armor" and a bow) + treasures (of which I don't know how much there are). You can find a lot of those items, in case of the treasures, you have to find them, cause they are not buyable.
You don't get any skilltrees but each character will gain 2 special attacks + their obsession. This nice little feature increases during each battle until the characters obsession breaks through. Holy Avatar will for example boast with stories of his half-divine live - which let's everybody next to him fall asleep :D
On party leveling - they gain experience, they level and they increase their stas automatically (attack, life & mana). Sry, no freedom of choice there.
The game reminds partly of Kings Bounty, but there are no towns, no huge armies, no castles,... They share the strategical approach and the leveling but that's mostly it.

Heroes Hunted was supposed to be a bigger RPG like Gothic or Two Worlds with heavy focus on character-development and story. You may find some nice screenshots here (http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/showthread.php?t=409311).

As far as I see, the basic english version will much be as the premium german version, except there won't be voice-acting (might be the reason why the english version will be cheaper). Preordering now will surely mean, you will receive an email including a link as soon as the english version is available. Since I don't think there will be englich voice-acting in the near future you surly won't have to pay anything else.

[Renevent]

Thanks for the feedback...I think I will still maybe wait until it's released. Plus, Disciples 3 seems to be nearing release too and it's in basically the same genre. Probably wait for both and see which one looks better.