Games worth discovering
Ah, Across the obelisk. This game is a hidden gem, extremely fun to play, has a TON of variety for you to tinker around with and you can also play online either with other players or just do challenges/partake in events. ATO is a rouge like, turn based side scroller where you select a party of 4 from among a total of 16 different characters according to your playstyle and preference. (Bearing some resemblance to Darkest Dungeon, another fantastic game)
Let's talk general gameplay and combat: The typical loadout would be rank 4: healer/support, 3: mage/ADC or support, 2: support or ADC, 1: Frontliner/tank. However you can also just play two adcs, a healer and a tank; two adcs, a healer and a semi healing frontline etc. You're free to use what works well for you up to a certain extent depending on the madness level of your current run, we'll get back to that later.
Each character has a deck of cards, which are essentially the actions that said character can perform, depending on the energy you have and the cost of the card. The minimum deck size is 15 but you can add more cards either from the towns you come across during a run or from rewards which you'll come across as you traverse the different regions. (Which are broken into acts) This ability to pick and discard/upgrade cards means that you can tailor make your characters to your liking according to how you prefer to use them.
Each character also has a few play styles they can spec into,(primarily determined by perks, card pool, item choice) although it's generally ill advised to play them with a hybrid style as they may be able to do a lot of things, but they run the risk of being underwhelming in all of them. Having a large deck would also mean lowering the character's consistency and performance.
As is expected from a rogue like, the game is more focused on gameplay rather than the story, which is admittedly rather simplistic. A basic fantasy tale of 'rescue the princess'.
You start Act 1 in the opening region, the kingdom of Senenthia. Then proceed along the kingdom progressing through branching nodes, which are each different scenarios, viz battle, event, campsite, etc., The direction your party moves in can be determined by yourself, the player, depending on the rewards you like best or what you think will benefit your team the most.(which are not static as each run has differences)
There are a total of 4 acts, with each ensuing act being another region of the player's choice.( Of which there are 3 areas you can choose from, meaning you can choose red zone for act 2, blue zone for act 3, or green zone for act 2, red zone for act 3 etc, any combination of the three, areas scale according to act no.) Act 4 being the final area which is always static similar to act 1.
The game begins in madness 0, which is base level difficulty, once you complete your first run the fun truly begins. You can start trying out different compositions and playstyles, level up your heroes, play on higher madness levels, unlock new items and nodes etc. Clearing one run doesn't mean you've finished the game! There's a lot more to be had.
With that said, before I go on there's a mechanism that really needs to be explained and understood; Madness levels. Each madness level essentially adds another layer of difficulty or handicap to a run, for instance, penalty for taking too many turns in a battle, imposing caps on buff stacks, increasing enemy skills and stats, reducing reward gains after battle etc. The difficulty and challenge you face can all be customised according to your preference! This is a very crucial element of the game as it ensures the game does not become stale, although it does mean you'll need to start being more mindful with your team comp, character role specialisation, deck conciseness, etc.
There's a lot of meat on the bones of this game. Cartoony visuals, nice music, beautiful locales, varying events, loads of items and cards to unlock and build around, high number of characters that you can use, optional online play, zero p2w. These are only some of the strong positives this title has to offer you.
Unless you simply abhor turn based rogue likes, I highly recommend giving Across the Obelisk a try. I guarantee you it will not leave you disappointed. It may be a very niche game, but it's an extremely underrated one that frankly deserves a bigger following, imo one of the best in the genre and truly unique. I lost count of how many runs I've completed during my time playing, (on and off even now) such was the experience and enjoyment I derived from the game.
So what're you waiting for adventurer? Epic tales await you, lying just beyond your reach, Across the Obelisk.
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