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It's All About The Journey😸
9K View2022-07-04I’m usually not a big fan of roguelike games and I almost never finish any of them on PC/Console. It’s not like you can ever finish a roguelike game because they are designed the way that you can play them endlessly. But I’d always give up playing halfway-through the game. I just quickly lose interest.
A Vertical Screen Roguelike?
With The Way Home it was the first time for me to experience a well designed roguelike game on a mobile device and on top of that it plays in a vertical screen mode so that was something new. It definitely stands out among other 2D roguelike games with a traditional wide screen mode when you first look at it. But it has a minor flaw that sometimes you can't see enemies or what's going on on the sides of your screen. Which may end up in getting attacked or walking into a trap sometimes.
In terms of the looks, the game has a very simple but distinguishable art style. Pixel art and animations are all pretty good here and the attacks are easy to detect. Accompanied with satisfying sound effects and contagious music, the whole atmosphere sets the tone of excitement and mystery around the island from where our protagonist wants to escape.
It’s All About The Journey
I only reached the first boss once during my playthrough, but I got completely destroyed in less than a minute (you can see my failed attempt in the video below T_T). Like in other roguelike games this feeling of being weak and not having lots of good gear at the beginning is very frustrating (we’ve all been there). And then in the process when you finally become powerful enough to kill your first boss - this is when you have your moment of achievement. But I think sometimes the journey itself is more satisfying than the actual end result. And The Way Home is a perfect example of a great journey. The crafting and building mechanics, collecting resources, discovering new NPCs, and learning new skills - everything kept me engaged here. The progression felt like it had just the right pace for me to keep going.
Also, after finding out that the main protagonist is a pixel copy of the developer’s cat in real life I feel to be more invested in his story and I want to find out how Cheese ended up in this mysterious island in the first place. I’m really rooting for Cheese and his friends and can't wait to find out more about their story.
As I am still relatively early in this game I might update my review later. But for now I think it's a solid roguelike experience that you can ever have in your pocket.
If you want to know more about the developer and his next big update for the game then definitely check out this post!👇👇👇
Hi, I'm the dev of The Way Home | TapTap
https://m.taptap.io/post/1557949
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Hi Kim, I think you didn't have enough skill upgrade to beat Act1 boss haha :) Thank you so much for playing my game and leaving a review with a video :)
2022-07-05
Author likedHi there, and thanks! I really enjoyed The Way Home and writing a small review about it. Haha yeah, I finally beat the first boss last night and it wasn't actually that hard as soon as I learned some new skills. Looking forward to exploring Chapter 2 and 3 in the coming days!
2022-07-05
It feels really odd to play an action game with vertical screen, but I guess this game is fun enough to balance that out?
2022-07-04
Yeah, there are definitely some downsides to it but the levels are designed in a way that you would always need to go upwards to reach the next door. Also, I think the developer mentioned that if you have an ipad you can play this game in a widescreen mode :D
2022-07-04