Inkbound Reviews

Absolutely gutted that the devs stopped active development. The unexplored potential of this game's mechanics will be one of my biggest gaming what-ifs. Despite this, I have to give the game it's flowers. Totally unique 3D turn-based combat. Well-thought out co-op (you don't have wait to take turns). Deep itemization and skill options augment your character's base kit as they are presented to you over the course of a session. Roguelite metaprogression.

Excellent Co-op turn based roguelike. Really encourages planning and cooperating with your friends - not just playing next to them. 20 difficulty tiers allows you to pick how relaxing or stressful you want your run to be as you climb up them. There are some negative reviews about this game no longer being updated. I'm totally cool with that because guess what, it's not a live service game. They made a decision early in development to remove the cash shop, so i bear no grudges. Even though i'd love more updates, The game feels complete as is, and hope their next game is fun too. This is not a live service game, don't treat it like it. Pros -fun, intuitive Gameplay -Customizable faces -Fun, old style, almost 2010 era flash game graphics -reminds me of the good times of spiral knights, that i wish dearly -you can make any build work on any character even at the highest difficulties. Some characters lean towards some synergies more than others, but you really can make anything work well if you know how to build it. -good variety in builds -Difficulty scales with # of players Middle - Lots of achievement grinding for the story, if you enjoy it - Story is... hard to pay attention to. It's easy to skip, it's there if you want it, easy to skip if you don't. - Did i mention the quests and story are massive? Only do these if you Want to. Don't get burned out on it. - Between-run grind for power isn't important. You can get in and go without paying attention to it and not worry about being lower power. Cons - LIke all roguelikes, it will get repetitive eventually. - could use more enemy variety. - extremely long grind to unlock the final boss(s)? I'm still working on it! Overall this game is fun to solo or with friends, and allows you to either take it easy or crank up the difficulty. if you like achievement hunting, this is great for you, but if you don't, you dont really lose anything by not working on them. the between-runs grind isn't very important for success.

Hello There! i must first say that i have a few devs i follow because they are the best devs in my opinion on each genre for Rogue Like games i love the work of Shiny Shoe, in my opinion they manage to do very complex system for rogue likes that you just don't get bored of trying new things, i first started with Monster Train in that game i have wasted hundred of hours and even after unlocking everything i still enjoy playing the game thats a sign of a good rogue like game, by the way if you have not play Monster Train i demand you do. alright putting that out of the way there is one more thing i must say before talking about INKBOUND, i must warn you before we continue INKBOUND development as been halted and there is no plan for future content because poor monetization in short they didn't earn enough to keep a live service going, however the servers will remain up and your free to play what they got, DO NOT THINK the game is not fun or worth playing because of this i would STILL recommend it and i will get why shortly. INKBOUND Combat is very interesting it is a turn base combat game you can move freely in the area of movement you can pick from 8 different classes which each one have one passive and three ability's which can EVOLVE and be UPGRADED plus 2 extra slots for 2 ability's you can pick while playing and can be upgraded and evolve as well, making a total of 5 active skills you can use and a ton of combinations because of the evolution of ability's that change how they work, if thats not enough you also have 2 slot for consumable objects one time use each and also you can select 1 trinket of a total of 21 trinkets you select one at the start of the game and this allow you to add some interest effects or boost 1 atribute lets say fire and assure you that you will get fire spells more often, if that not enough you also have 7 slots for unique artifacts you can find while in each run that will either boost stats or add different effects or triggers, you thought that was all? nope~ each artifact haves 1 or 2 attributes and you can destroy the artifact to duplicate the attribute on your stats and this works like in auto-chess it gives bonuses when you reach x amount of stats on each one. now combine all of that as a base for combat it makes the game very interesting and it haves a TON of replay ability because of that now the interesting twist is that is Single-player OR Co-op up to 4 people and considering that each class plays very differently to each other there is a lot of combinations and fun to be had even if there is no new content you will be having a lot of fun and that's more or less why i think it's still worth playing even if there is no future content in the near future.

This game is a completely solid, fleshed out and expansive experience and is a complete product. The devs announced the game was “done” and for some reason people are saying that means it’s “abandoned” ??? Is Nintendo putting out updates to super mario bros on the NES ? Extreme example but same principle… why must a dev support a game for the rest of eternity. The game is not unfinished, it does not feel unfinished, and it does not feel like it’s missing anything. There is plenty to unlock. It does not feel buggy, it does not crash. It’s a great game

This is a really neat game idea as it combines interesting turn-based gameplay with multiplayer. There are several different classes you can play with, various ways to play said classes, and lots of synergy to be had when playing with other people. The game also comes on for fairly high discounts, although this is due to the developers announcing that they have ceased development on the game. Despite this game not having much of a future, it is definitely a decent game to play with a friend, and/or just to experience the melding of roguelike gameplay with multiple people.

TLDR: Good game, solid loop, enjoyable characters. Game still has more content to give but for now a satisfactory conclusion to the story. So actual review time. Inkbound is a roguelike more than a roguelite, there are some upgrades in the lobby but those mostly just allow you to better push the game to give you things you want, rather than straight increases to damage or defense(For the most part). Game makes you work for the win and I appreciate that. It can be BRUTAL if you want it to be, rank system is well designed and makes progressing through the ranks an enjoyable process, rather than just a slog. Some friends may disagree with me on that point but that's how I feel. The heroes are interesting and do have VERY different playstyles, making you want different items for different characters through a run. Inkbound is also not afraid to let the player make a broken build. There are massive synergies that make the game a lot easier if you get and/or push for them. This is always an enjoyable time in my opinion but I understand some players don't enjoy that. Overall I recommend the game, the artstyle reminds me of those mid 2000s browser MMOs and gives me a huge amount of nostalgia.

Really good but short of great. Definitely worth the price of admission. Probably worth even more if you have a buddy to play it with. This game is no longer receiving updates and will not get any DLC. When compared to its predecessor, Monster Train, this game falls very short for me.

I don't really know where the negative reviews get off on the idea of "can't recommend game because devs have moved on" but that's frankly an incredibly terrible reason to poorly review such a phenomenal game. There is nothing wrong with buying and enjoying a perfectly -finished- product that is complete with 8 fully fleshed out and extremely well balanced playable classes (four of which require unlocking through game-play and progression, NOT micro transactions), over 250 "relic" type items to augment builds, hundreds of which are unlocked through satisfying goal progressions and side quests, a FULLY VOICE ACTED CAST AND STORY, incredible music, a mind-breakingly satisfying combat system that feels genuinely fair and doesn't rely on RNG BS to stay interesting, and tons of other amazing gameplay elements. ALSO the game has exceptional coop capabilities, an absolute blast to play both solo and with friends. Easy run-progression saving for both single player AND multiplayer runs, need to stop for a night? Just log out and mid battle and you and your friends can literally resume the run right there next time you're on. AND the game's controller support has absolutely no business being as good as it is. I didn't even try it on controller for so long because I didn't think I could possibly work, but it does. I have almost 100 hours on record, still enjoy playing this game, and am STILL unlocking stuff. I still don't even have the last character yet. This game is a genuine gem, well worth $30, and is a breath of fresh air in a genre (rogue-lites) that is over-saturated with so much of the same-same content. This is a fantastic addition from the team that made Monster Train and if you came to this store page wondering if this has the same level of depth, replay ability, and hook as Monster Train (which I also have 170 hrs in) then take my review as a loud and resounding YES. TLDR: The game is fantastic, one of the best rogue-lites I've played in years, absolutely worth it full price and if it's on sale you should snatch this game up like a gemstone laying in a river bed. Ignore the haters.

This is a finished game that feels good for the price point, especially on sale. It isn't a live service game, so I'm not sure why people are giving it a bad review.

[h1]All the people review-bombing the game saying it was "abandoned by the devs" need to touch grass. The game offers a complete and enjoyable roguelike experience for something like 100-200 hours of gameplay depending on how much of a completionist you are.[/h1] Yall need to get rid of the "game as a service" brainrot, for real. It's not like they dropped it mid-development, they just aren't releasing any DLCs, chill. Besides it's hilarious that people complain about devs caring "more about money than the game" - they still need to earn money to live, you garbagefolk, they won't be releasing additional content as charity. I'm pretty sure that if you came over to them and offered to pay their salaries for whatever additional development time was required to release DLCs they'd be happy to oblige. Gamedevs are people too, and they can't survive on passion alone, despite what some gamers seem to think. Now that this rant is out of my system, let's move on to the actual review. [h1]Gameplay: 10/10[/h1] [h1]Graphics & Sound: 7/10[/h1] [h1]Narration: 8/10[/h1] ✔️ Excellent combination of tactical combat and roguelike mechanics, with a very enjoyable multiplayer experience. ✔️ Rather wide variety of build options, relying on mixing and matching item effects and set bonuses retained from destroying items. ✔️ Surprisingly enticing story with all the characters revealing their secrets and gaining in depth as the game goes on. ✔️ The random modifiers on enemies, areas, etc. as well as the daily challenges keep the game fresh through the runs. ✔️ The possibility to rather freely customize your character's appearance is pretty fun and unusual for this kind of game. ✔️ Fun and creative character & environment design. ❌ The quest journal is awful. Terribly difficult to navigate and track. ❌ The 3D cutscenes are... just not great. The game's models have been made to be visualized from a distance, and displaying them from up close leads to unfortunate results. ❌ Following the story in multiplayer is pretty difficult since advancing in the story requires you to follow quests through, and you can't re-listen to the dialogues once you've completed them, which leads you to either make big pauses in collaborative gameplay while your mates wait for you to complete dialogues, or skip dialogues and be completely at a loss about the story. Not a big issue in my opinion - I ended up mostly playing through the story by myself and only playing in multiplayer once I've advanced enough in the story to have a lesser density of dialogues, but it requires some kind of self-organization instead of being handled by the game smoothly. Overall, I think it's an excellent roguelite experience, with an intriguing narrative background, and a fun multiplayer experience once everybody in the group got a bit familiar with the game. I definitely recommend it to most people, don't listen to those neckbeard haters.