Inkbound

like my children after the divorce, this game is unsupported.

Pros:
Not ping dependant
Lots of options for skills and trinkets
Combat feels very nice

Cons:
Very grindy, which to befair is expected from roguelites
Not a fan of the MMO aspect, very unecessary
Not a fan of the DRM options they chose

This one of the ugliest games I've ever seen.

UI looks like a mobile game and I hate the art.

But... I must admit.... it really is good. I am actually a bit in love with it once I understood how to play. One of the better co-op strategy games available with a good amount of content. God I hate that I like this one so much.

Is the lesson here to not judge a book by it's cover? No. The game still looks dorky as hell. I guess I'm just stuck staring at the covers of great novels. Bound to the ink.

still feels like early access. What is there is decently fun though. Def not worth $30 either.

Well friends, it seems we have another case of "don't trust the reviews". This game is wonderful. A solid 8/10, and that's just caution, since I'm only 3 hours in. The game looks fantastic, the story so far is good, the narrator and voice acting are all on point. The synergies, the builds are diverse, the classes are varied... I'm having a hard time thinking of things that AREN'T good. I guess that it's turn-based, so if you're not into that, that could bring it down. Otherwise, this game rocks. You can tell that this isn't their first game. (This is made by the creators of Monster Train)
Highly recommend, if you like turn based roguelikes. It will absolutely tide you over to Monster Train 2.

It's a fun game. Mechanics take a little bit to get down. Once you start finding the synergies you begin to have multiple build styles you can play through with.

I never found it particularly difficult and I only played solo so I am not sure what some of the other reviews are talking about there.

It is also nice for people who need to be able to put a game down quickly. It saves the run progress so you can close the game at any time if life calls and pick it right back up. The runs are a good length so you can sit down with the mindset to just do one and get a good session in.

I enjoyed the story. I thought it was well written.

Wish I could recommend this.
Its a decent game, however it got abandoned too early.
What could have been a fun tactical roguelite now fails to deliver longterm motivation.

While the game is enjoyable and a very unique concept but the balance leaves something to be desired. It's definitely not worth it as this game quickly became abandon-ware shortly after release which is just plainly disappointing and mildly scummy.

Classic early access moment of making money off an unfinished product and then once released abandoning it. I don't think the developers really cared for this game very much.

This game is way too hard and unfair if you try to play alone
Maybe mulitplayer is fun
But if you want a game to play alone don't bother with this one

Originally, didn't realize this was turn based, but after sinking time into the game. It was worth picking the game up on a whim.

The good:
A lot of character customization
Varied Classes
good amount of replay-ability
engaging combat

Not so Good
Minor learning curve when first starting after tutorial
Bloated quest log
When you die and come back, npc acts like you didn't fail.

Great game to buy on sale. Lots of fun builds. Will get repetitive after awhile but its good for 10-20 hours .

Perfect if you're looking for a replayable tactics game, where you're building synergies of abilities and items. Unlike with other rogue-like games, you feel powerful very quick. The co-op is optional, but adds another cool layer of synergies and possible builds.

I really like this game and its a shame that it didn't do well enough for continued support.

It has a great build craft system that allows for a lot of unique builds. I do think its lacking in content though, specifically the number of bosses.

Very difficult if you don't want to play multiplayer. Abandoned by devs, so no new content, and limited community. NOT A ROGUELIKE. If that's what you're looking for, DO NOT BUY.

Great depth of strategy, and the modification of abilities is reminiscent of Inscryption and Monster Train

The definition of a missed opportunity IMO. Turn based roguelike w/ coop. Hang with the boys and have a fuck about for a weekend. 10/10

So fun! Wild that a turn based game can be good in co-op but you take your turns at the same time.

Fully playable solo as well.

85 hours later I finally finished the main story line. I probably could have been quicker but I was also enjoying completing some of the side missions. At first, I was confused by the circular playing field but after a few runs, I got used to it and understood what to do. I would suggest playing a few rounds under the "casual run" rank with the Miner to get used to combat. My favorite is the weaver then next the mosscloak. All the available characters have three distinct attacks while the next two earned attacks are available to all the characters. Don't ignore the Smoke Bomb. I found out later that it can be very powerful.

The strategy of which vestigates to keep and which to destroy makes for every run to be unique. This is what makes the game play fun and addictive. I wish I could have played co-op but didn't get the chance but solo runs are fun in itself. The game is simple in combat but more complex when trying to figure out the best build for the run.

I did come across one game breaking bug as sometimes the game would hang/crash at startup. I would actually have to sign out of Windows as trying to stop the game either in steam or in the task manager was not possible. It seemed to happen the second time I would launch the game after quitting the first time.

There is some endgame as you have daily challenges and gathering "dust" via XP to unlock more cosmetics. Then there is co-op play (as stated above, I didn't try). But I have other games to play but I am glad I took the time to finish Inkbound. It was well worth my time.

Games good, Pretty fun with friends.

Hoping to see more content in the future, classes, enemies or maps; AS this would bring back a lot of interest in the game I feel. And as always Trinkets or other interesting items

In Summary, excellent game, plays well, I wish there was more of it.

This game should have a review score of "Mixed" at best. I do not like the presentation, I do not like the "story", I do not like the mechanics, nothing is really fun for me.

I bought this game to play with 2 buddies in coop and we all really tried but cannot find the joy that some people see in this game.

This is a Supporter Pack for Shiny Shoe, their Monster Train is a great game. I paid for Inkbound to support them but do I want to play Inkbound any more? Hell, no!!

fun coop turn based roguelike. combat and buildcraft are very cool.

Amazing game, truly. Unfortunately it was abandoned by the devs to focus on Monster Train 2 and wont be receiving any (much needed) future updates.

It has the bones to be an amazing game, but is missing a bit of variety and content that is needed to make a roguelike like this one remain fun long-term. The first dozen or two hours are great, but once you've been through the classes and bosses it gets repetitive.Still, it's unique enough that it's worth it picking up on a steep sale if you can.

I bought this way back thinking that the people who made Monster Train would surely produce another banger. Instead they made a game that was half baked and then never updated after its premature release from early access. It's a shame because its bones were good, but it needed some refining to make the game more streamlined and fun to replay.

This is actually a really fun game and very multiplayer. Not sure what people's issues are.

Awesome roguelike with enough story and quests to keep you plugging away at, what's not to love?

Literally my favorite game of all time. It's got a low skill floor but huge skill expression. Lots of interesting builds and abilities. Combat is fair, and its fun to focus on any aspect (movement, burst damage, sustained damge, tankiness, buffs)! Learning the best builds is great and climbing the difficulty ranks is extremely satisfying.

Must play hidden gem. Deep gameplay systems. Lots of playstyles, all fun.

Starts out fun and interesting, but gets boring and repetitive VERY quickly. Not nearly enough variety present for a roguelike to keep things fresh.

Don't believe the hype; this game is great and well worth the discounted price (at time of review). Plenty of active players. Easy to understand game play. Easy controls. Use of mouse only is an option, although using a key board provides for better accuracy in game play. Yes I know that sounds backwards. Regardless of the mixed reviews (at time of review), this game is clearly an 7-8/10 rating.

The combat in Coop is really fun, and its worth playing for this reason. Could really do with some more enemy variety though, you end up fighting the same encounters over and over with no meaningful changes.

The story is pretty incomprehensible and I ended up ignoring it.

I didn't pick this up for ages because of the live-service debacle at launch; I'm really happy to report that all of that stuff is gone, and this is now an excellent strategy rougelike that can be played entirely in offline, singleplayer mode. Time will tell whether I end up putting hundreds of hours into it like I did Monster Train (the studio's other game), but it absolutely feels like a good deal at the price.

A fully fleshed out story, tons of content, more replayability than you'll ever get to the end of.

Between the two sides who completely disagree, I would fall on the side that says this game has enough content. Any speculation that this is an unfinished game is completely unfounded. It's a full game, sometimes it might be a little too big for what is actually here.

With that said I wish I could give this game a neutral rating. While you absolutely will get your money's worth with what is here, I feel the game's pacing is a bit overly repetitive.

You should be prepared because you will encounter many missions where every step to completely the mission is basically just go do another run, and as soon as you check off that box you will get an objective for something that you can no longer do in this run, and will just feel like the game was designed to trick you into one more run as opposed to a great core loop encouraging you to keep going.

The classes all play uniquely, but most strategies really favor the same types of generic abilities so don't be surprised if you find yourself relying on DoT abilities like Fire/Poison. The stages and enemies are the most repetitive there just isn't enough variety to warrant the amount of times you will be fighting them.

All in all, I feel it's a good game on sale. It's definitely worth 15 bucks or so, if you haven't played Marvel's Midnight Suns I would recommend that first. It's very similar, but if you did like that game and want more this is a good substitution.

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

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 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.

Really good game, been enjoying it with my friends. Lots of unique classes and characters to be discovered, highly recommend way too polished to claim it is abandoned

Super good game in my opinion: rogue-like mechanics, action-RPG style combat, super clear interface and character design paths. Haven't tried coop yet but having lots of fun playing solo and going to try and convince friends to join me exploring the Sea of Ink.

This game is phenomenal. Don't miss out because of the silly negative review bombing.

- Awesome combat system. Each class is unique and fun, and the bosses and enemies are a good challenge.
- High replayability. There's a ton of viable ways to build your character on each run, shaped by the different augments and items you pick up.
- Fully voice acted with a cool story. I usually don't care about either, but the writing, characters, and voices are great.
- Cool art style.
- Great UI, with good explanations for mechanics.
- Plays well on handheld.

10/10

Short Review

Although very unfortunate that Shiny Shoe had to "give up" this game so to speak due to poor sales, what is here is a really well made roguelite with excellent multiplayer, fun build variety, and some unique classes, where you are easily able to get quite a few hours worth of fun, at least in my opinion.

The game also comes with a somewhat satisfying unlock system where you will strive for certain unlocks at least early on, but none of them are particularly difficult or grindy.

I'm a roguelite enthusiast to say the least and I love to find new roguelites with different spins or approaches or unique build variety etc. Inkbound is one that I hesitated on purchasing early on mostly due to now knowing enough about it at the time and generally being hesitant about turn-based combat, but after having played it with a friend of mine I've found myself thinking about it quite a bit and comparing it to other games in the genre. I know some might not consider 30 hours a lot which is true by a lot of standards, but I can easily see myself playing more and definitely wanting for more of what the game has to offer.

Inkbound has a very satisfying flow and feel to it, albeit a bit rigid in terms of animations but nonetheless each run had me enjoying whatever build I went with or enjoying every single class to some extent and made me curious about their potential. It is indeed a shame that there won't be more classes, bindings, vestiges, and bosses, but what there is on display I think is worth giving a try, especially on sale.

Although maybe not as highly esteemed as SuperGiant Games (Bastion, Hades, Transistor) a company that has hooked me since Bastion and then hit me with bangers ever since, Shiny Shoe piqued my interest when they first came out with Monster Train much like Bastion did, and for all it does do well they have also impressed me with Inkbound in spite of the unfortunate end result. By that I don't mean that I expected a live-service game, I just wanted more of what it has to offer in-general.

I will definitely be trying Monster Train 2 when it comes out and likely whatever else they try, as I find their spin on things very entertaining and they've earned that with these 2 releases at least from my perspective. If you're a fan of roguelites, don't mind turn-based combat, and especially if you have a friend or two to pick this up with, I definitely recommend it.

Turn-based, multiplayer "broken-build" game. I love playing this with my friends and doing over a million damage a turn by the end of our run.

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.

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.

very nice and fun game where builds can get really janked. Don't trust the recent review bombing as the game is finished, has a full story and it's worth it to do a couple of runs whenever you feel like it, and it's cool to play with friends

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.

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.

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.

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.

Gameplay: 10/10

Graphics & Sound: 7/10

Narration: 8/10

✔️ 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.

Devs stopped working on the game. Was fun too. There just needs to be more content.

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.

Inkbound is something special. I'll never buy another Shiny Shoe game after this though for just straight up abandoning a great game. Their shoe is on the wrong foot.