RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore Reviews

[quote]Just saying, but I do have a curator page. If you like my remarks about games, you can find more of them here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades [/quote] "RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore" is a game that I remember seeing bombarded by tons of negative reviews after launch; reviews that were mostly of Eastern origin. So I thought maybe this is another review bomb caused by localization matters and didn't pay it any mind at the time. Recently I decided to finally play the game for myself. It was only then when I found out that the negative reviews were apparently posted because of people not being happy with how the game was designed. And honestly? Now I get why they were not happy. [h2]Did... did you name the main characters after the development studios?[/h2] Despite the developers claiming that RemiLore is a roguelite, everything in the game shows the exact opposite, as the roguelite mechanics are either nonexistent, or improperly implemented and clash with other parts of the game... starting with how the story is told. The story in RemiLore is not gradually unraveled over multiple runs and instead, everything happens in the duration of a single run, with frequent conversations either stopping the gameplay or taking place while you play/fight. These conversations happen on every playthrough of the story mode, and will even replay everytime the player falls in combat and has to retry. This already is a very bad idea for storytelling in a roguelite, and the devs' solution is for it is not amusing either. Their solution is to send the player to the beginning of the current level set, instead of the beginning of the game, and nothing else which doesn't help with their repetition anyway. Not to mention this decision has also damaged the plot flow and character development as well. In a roguelite, there's not enough time for story and character development through a single run. Therefore, you need to do it through multiple runs. RemiLore doesn't do that, so we're stuck with bland, one-dimensional main characters with no qualities of their own. Their dialogues are very uninteresting and don't even have a coherent flow to them, as new topics come out of literally nowhere and don't fit when put next to each other. Like, the main character contronts her companion on suspicion that they are hiding something, just for the dialogue to go nowhere until the beginning of the next level. Meanwhile, they keep having friendly chats over food, crushing over someone or how many siblings they have. [h2]Where's the roguelite, Mansley?[/h2] There's also an arcade mode which strips the story completely, allowing you to go through the game with zero story interruptions. But I guarantee that the majority of you will not be willing to play through the game more than once and therefore, will have no desire to go for arcade mode. The thing is, RemiLore is incredibly dull and boring. It has the basics of isometrical Action RPGs... and that's it; Because you will quickly find out that aside from permadeath mechanic and the overly simplistic meta progression, there are no more roguelite elements. All you do is going from one arena in a level to the other, mashing the attack button to get rid of the spawning enemies, then using your easily amassed currency to upgrade you abilities whenever you want from the pause menu. The enemy encounters are literally the only thing the game offers and the enemy variety is low. So, coupled with how the story and runs are handled, it's pretty easy to get bored of the game after an hour or two. And whatever the game offers to make itself interesting end up having no effect. There's a combo list in the game, yet none of the moves feel actually useful and just mashing the attack button is more beneficial. There are lots of weapons, yet they feel barely different when compared to each other. There's an unlockable character, yet aside from her HP and MP values, she plays exactly the same as the main character. [h2]Then we have the combat which is another can of worms itself[/h2] Simply put, there are some big problems when it comes to combat design. The most visible issue with the game is that it's too easy. If you play this without getting bored and manage to actually stay attentive, you have a chance of clearing it on your very first run. The only thing you have to do is to rapidly attack regular enemies, keeping them in their stun animation so they cannot fight back. And I said "you have a chance" as combat has a variety of other problems which can also cause some of your deaths. There's a lot of visual clutter on the screen while you fight. Hordes of enemies move around, the sweets (the currency of RemiLore) either lay on the ground or fly towards you, bright flashes will appear whenever you hit an enemy, and enemy projectiles use color palettes that make them blend-in with everything else. All of these make enemy attacks extremely hard to see, leading to unfair hits. In addition, Your dash has no invulnerability frames and you won't be able to go through enemy attacks, which means you will always get hit if you are in the radius of an attack and won't be able to skillfully evade homing projectiles either. If the enemies get into their startup animation for an attack, you will not be able to interrupt and punish them. And would you believe it if I told you the enemies can stunlock you as well, keeping you in your stun animation if a group of them manage to gang up on you? [h2]If I wanted to just finish a list, I would go shopping[/h2] The final nail in the coffin is the nonexistent replayability. You now know that the game ends in one run, so what's left to make one replay it? The answer is basically nothing. The game has you doing extra runs, just to fill up the list of your found weapons and unlock every upgrade. And that's such an underwhelming incentive to chase after. With everything I have said so far, it honestly feels like RemiLore has an identity crisis. It wants to be a roguelite but can barely classify itself as one, as it doesn't have what it needs. On the other hand, we cannot classify it as a good Action RPG either, as clearly not a lot of polish has went into designing the game and it has glaring issues in that regard as well. Now, one might think that maybe this game was not meant to be played by experienced audiences. Maybe it was intended to be played by newcomers or people who just want a simple, chill game to play without putting too much brainpower into it. And my response to that proposition is... [b]do you REALLY like to fork over 40 bucks for this?![/b] [h2][b]They want HOW MUCH for this game?![/b][/h2] I personally find it unacceptable that the asking price for this game is 40 US dollars. Sure, there are a bunch of stuff to like about this game like the cozy visuals, the art and some of the music. But the problem is that even at the time this game came out, there were numerous other games on the market, including roguelites, that were infinitely better and cost way less. Want examples? There was a game called Hades which was in early access at the time of this game's release. Dead Cells was out for over a year. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth's second DLC, called Afterbirth+, was out for over two years. All of those games easily give you hours of playtime. Meanwhile, this game only lasts an average of 4 hours to be completed, while expecting you to go back and do additional runs in order to do nothing but complete your lists of weapons and upgrades. Do you really think this is worth the asking price? [h2]TL;DR[/h2] Normally way too overpriced, still not worth it while on sale. It's neither a good Action RPG nor an actual roguelite, and is not fun to play. You can find better alternatives for fairer prices.

Characters were charming with great voice acting. Recommended as a palate cleanser from heavier games.