Secrets of Grindea

tl;dr good, BUT.

In many ways, this is a game I was looking for for a long time - a single-player loot fest that works well on steam deck (so not diablo 3), is 2D (so not borderlands), and I can pause (so not diablo 4). HOWEVER. This game's dev seems to have a _real_ hardon for puzzles with _very_ tight timing requirements that are complex. Every time I encounter one, I prepare myself to stop having fun for a while. They're absolutely jarring for a game that's otherwise a reasonable balance between difficulty and casuality.

Outlandishly good. Excellent. Secrets of Grindea stands as a titan of indie design alongside such titles as Terraria and Stardew Valley, and shares with them the quality of being outrageously underpriced.

You can expect a good combat and character development system. Genuinely good, but not great. And that system will carry you into a world of divinity. Everything else is a masterwork.
The art - models, animations, portraits - is fantastic and utterly baffling in its quantity.
The programming - no holds are barred. If the designers had a fun idea, they did it. And they clearly had fun ideas *constantly*. It's a wonder this was ever completed.
You get what you expect from the title with a world of collecting that is extensive, enjoyable, and grueling, yet fair.
The boss fights are nigh uncountable and marvelously creative. The mimic in particular has ousted the last boss of Elden Ring as my favorite boss fight.

And the writing. My god, the writing. How can such perfection exist? How can a world with SO MANY storylines, so many characters and conversations, not seem to have a single hole, a single disappointing moment, a single thread out of place? Every time I've been this invested in characters before, I've been left wanting in some way, because when I'm that invested and there are issues with the story, I'm looking for them, and I see them. But this time, I'm walking away utterly satisfied. Elated, even - I can't believe how many times I *screeched* with joy at new developments.

I was open-mouthed when I first realized what the premise of the story was turning out to be, how clever and unique it is. And as it expanded upon itself, fitting in countless extra pieces to weave depth into the moral and create a truly masterful story, I swear that my mind, too, expanded. I have a lot to think about.

I'd like to personally congratulate PIxel Ferrets on their mastery of grammar; my personal specialty; and thank them for what they've done here.

Not a bad game. Despite the name the grinds are not too bad.

One of the best games I've played.

Fun.

I meant to write a review a while ago after I had 100%ed the game but never got around to it. So you get this excellent review. I finished the main story twice. It's great.

think of cuphead, mixed with undertale- with a rpg combat system, which is a dream come true

A very pleasant surprise. I didn't really have high expectations for it when I got it, but the variety of builds and the boss fights are awesome, plus the pixel art is fantastic. The dialogue portraits look a little rough though.

Terrible controls, bad character customisation just not a fun experience even within the first part of the game.

It's fun except the bullet hell. Too much thing on the screen at the same time for my old mans eyes.
If you can stand that it's good. But I can't stand it so its a down vote.

Still fairly new to the game, but since it's on sale now and spring sale is coming up, I figured I would put out my initial thoughts. I'm playing single player, so no idea how the multiplayer works nor am I super interested. I got this partly because it looks like a good game that I can play at home on my PC or while I travel on my steam deck. The controls are very well done for gamepad, everything is laid out with that in mind. You basically get 12 quick use slots, 4 for each button and then 4 more for holding RT and LT respectively. The menu layout is really straightforward for gamepad as well.

This is actually quite well done. The action is responsive, and this is definitely an action rpg. The only thing missing is a dodge roll, but you have other abilities that take its place. There's a ton of character customization... you basically start out as a blank slate and can put points into anything you like, from melee skills to magic or some combination. You can specialize in either direction, or you can do the whole spellsword thing.

The world is very vibrant, colorful, and cartoonish. It almost has a cozy vibe. I haven't really met any super memorable characters, or really not more than one or two, but I'm so early in the game that I really don't know what comes up. The story is very "coming of age" style, very jrpg in nature. Lots of doing errands for the village people, finding lost rings, delivering letters, etc. Monsters are in each map area and do respawn, so if you want to grind you absolutely can. The difficulty of this game does ramp up, so you have to make sure you are keeping your gear up to date and applying you ability points.

I've had two boss fights so far and the second one took me a few tries to get. Partly that's because I'm so used to games with dodge roll, but in this game you have to plan movement a bit because you cannot dodge out of the way of an attack. Perfect block is a thing though, if you use a shield (you can use 2H swords or mage staffs as well).

There are a bunch of items you collect from enemies and in the world, and I have no idea what they are for yet... I think there is some type of crafting in this game? I guess we'll find out.

Also, you do get cosmetic slots, so if you want to equip one hat but show your character with another one, you can do that. You can also just hide your hat if you like. You can use cosmetic armor as well and weapon, so that way you have some control over how your character looks without sacrificing the stats you want.

Overall I think this is a really neat little game, and I'm looking forward to playing more of it.

Honestly, the combat is pretty basic and a little clunky. Can't attack diagonally and there is no dodgeroll? Minor gripe but the UI for skill upgrades, equipment, etc is busy and could use some cleaning up - but given the large amount of upgrade options it's kind of understandable.

I can see why people like this but it's not for me.

Quite fun, but my god are some of the bosses an absolute trainwreck

So got the game. Got to the first island. Mobs kept spawning non stop. Story mode. We hit lvl 20 before getting off the first island like only fought slimes and dogs. lvl 20. Kept spawning. IDK not really fun there.

pretty and immersive, absolutely recommend if you want to zone out from the reality for some time :)

Good

nice

2 hour bean

Fun game

I initially picked up Secret of Grindea because of the obvious references to Secret of Mana and Zelda, thinking I'd primarily be enjoying a nostalgia trip with a heavy dose of RPG cliches. I was surprised when the game subverted those expectations and turned out to be incredibly fleshed out in all aspects. It has a well thought out combat system allowing for multiple character builds, numerous unique characters that grow with you, challenging and fun puzzles, and a very engaging story. The developers understand the cliches and, in every case, sidestepped or intentionally poked fun at them. This culminates in a new classic that pays homage, but does not ride the success, of it's predecessors. I highly recommend this game for anyone who loved the old SNES ARPGs but would still recommend even if you have no idea what came before.

Greatest game that I played this year. I need a STL of bag so put on my desk. Get this game.

I disliked the need for arrows to shoot things and that the endless dungeon is so different from the story. I feel like incorporating the two would have ha a good feel to "dungeons" if they didn't just unlock things but also built things up. I am re-installing it even though I've already beaten it. Because it's good.

I love this game to bits. So charming, so fun, so grindy. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it!

ENGLISH🎮 Secret of Grindea - A Nostalgic Journey!
I had an amazing experience playing Secret of Grindea with my brother! This indie gem combines nostalgic pixel art with a modern twist, delivering an action-packed RPG adventure.

Highlights:
✅ Challenging gameplay: The difficulty is HIGH, perfect for those who love a tough challenge (and we made it worse by playing on hard mode).
✅ Impeccable pixel art: Every detail feels like a tribute to classic RPGs.
✅ Co-op fun: Playing with my brother made the experience even better, and we got to share the grind-induced stress.

If you’re not into GRINDING, this one might not be for you! 😅

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PORTUGUÊS BRASILEIRO 🎮 Secret of Grindea - Uma Jornada Nostálgica!
Tive uma experiência incrível jogando Secret of Grindea com meu irmão! Esse indie combina uma pixel art nostálgica com um toque moderno, entregando uma aventura RPG cheia de ação.

Principais destaques:
✅ Jogabilidade desafiadora: Dificuldade ALTA para quem ama um bom desafio (além disso, jogamos no hard para piorar).
✅ Pixel art impecável: Cada detalhe é uma homenagem aos clássicos dos RPGs.
✅ Diversão em co-op: Jogar com meu irmão tornou a experiência ainda melhor e o estresse do GRIND foi compartilhado.

Se você não curte GRINDAR, pula fora!

It took me awhile to come to the conclusion that I generally don't recommend this game to others because the name has GRIND in it.. That being said, the only real things you'll spend time grinding for is cash. There's a pet system in the game you could potentially grind out to make yourself more formidable, but honestly it doesn't even seem worth it overall.

The story is fine, and you do not need to grind much of anything to get through it, though some of the bosses will make you wonder if maybe the dev has inhuman reaction times based on how the block mechanic works. The puzzles are interesting and some can be tricky, the characters are memorable but somehow the story just feels rushed for some reason.

Well this left a bad taste in my mouth. I won't say that I didn't find any enjoyment in it the whole time, because in theory this game has solid mechanics, and the characters and story had just enough lighthearted charm to maintain my interest in between the fights... to a fault.
The perfect guard and instant charged counter attacks had to have been some of my favorite abilities, and the flexibility of the respec system made it fun to explore different builds. Of course, this flexibility starts to disappear once patience and cleverness cease to be viable and high DPS is your only hope for keeping the INSANE clutter on the screen under control, especially when bosses start spawning unlimited numbers of enemies who toss out huge, unmanageable groups of projectiles themselves.
I wish I knew going into this that I had chosen what would end up being the worst possible way to experience the game by the time the endgame rears its ugly head. If you want to avoid tainting the experience for yourself, DO NOT play on expert mode. Your power will scale so slowly relative to the enemies that you will be forced to grind for far longer than the devs clearly intended, because by the time you reach the endgame, you will likely already have reached the softcap for experience gain and will still be far too weak.
I won't say that none of the bosses were any fun on Expert. Some actually felt deeply satisfying to best. But, on that note, the cherry on top of the horrendous Expert difficulty option is one unadvertised feature (disabled healing) that turns the true final boss into an idiotic Sisyphean task that only a savant could pull off without practicing for weeks or months on end that normal people do not have at their disposal.
It only added insult to injury that a more reasonably balanced "Hard" mode was released after I had already ruined the game for myself, and the challenge level of the final boss changed from an impasse to a stiff breeze, and the whole ending sequence felt weirdly hollow afterward.

Perhaps if you play on Hard, you can enjoy that game as it was meant to be, but for me, its already too late, the good moments I had with Secrets of Grindea are already tarnished.

A great ARPG in the vein of the Mana series with light-hearted, genuinely funny writing. Tons of little dopamine rushes from various collectathons and satisfying if stiff combat. The name made me a little worried as i could imagine it used on some idle clicker - but if anything, this game was made by a crew with a lot of love for genres and indie classics.

For a game meant to satirize long grind-heavy RPGs and turn the whole concept of them into a fun, cheeky parody, this game has a surprising amount of heart and charm to it that really hooked me! Grinding for monster drops and using them to create new equipment or fulfill side quests is the game's main bread and butter, but it also comes equipped with an intriguing story full of twists and turns that harken back to older RPG classics like Secret of Mana or Chrono Trigger (the anachronistic time-jumping setting of this world helped!).

That said, don't think of it as a piss-take of the genre, but more like a wink-nudge love letter to it. You'll be doing A LOT of grinding, and the game is designed to account for that. Enemies in certain areas will spawn in increasing numbers the longer you stick around, thankfully making grinding into a less arduous but equally rewarding process. It's well balanced as a brain-off activity in between the more dramatic story moments (yes, although funny, the story does contain a healthy amount of drama and intrigue!).

The real kicker though, is that boss fights are often intense and designed to be very challenging - significantly moreso if you're playing with friends. It can be a difficult game in that respect, so approach it with that in mind. But if you're game, it's absolutely worth playing all the way through.

Very well made game with great story. I enjoyed it a lot

Just a bit of grind. Well constructed world. Manageable puzzles with adequate guidance from clues. Tons of feasible builds which can be swapped at reasonable cost. There is a lot to like here and it's bug free too. Even if you start to get tired of it by the end, you'll still get your money's worth. An easy recommend.

Had to grind so hard, ended up mob farming the same area for two hours. The constant button mashing actually gave me carpel tunnel and I couldn't hold a controller again for a week.

The game itself is fun enough, if a bit simple.

Please play responsibly.

A hidden gem. An old school style RPG made modern. Quite the masterpiece combining great elements from many known games. I never encountered a single problem playing, unlike one reviewer who went into pain staking details describing.

Amazing and highly recommended.
Totally ticks all the right boxes for me with complete freedom in player builds and addictive game play loops.

Very fun melee and ranged skills and magic abilities and support AI summons along with fishing and pet mini-games and engaging hilarious story and memorable characters.

Only nitpick is needing to fiddle with the fullscreen settings every game launch. Pro-tip: drag the game window to the lower right of your screen before adjusting the zoom level and going fullscreen.

This is a retro mash up of Legend of Zelda, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Megaman feels :D

*tries to teleport, shield comes out*
*moves slightly*
*tries to teleport, shield comes out*
*moves slightly*
*tries to teleport, shield comes out*
*moves slightly*
etc.

Aside from this and the pirate ship, it's a good game.

I wish i could give this game a mixed review. The game is really fun in co-op. The hit detection and fluidity of combat feels ok but I have a few gripes.

In adventure mode, there are a lot of puzzles, mostly simple but a lot of them are re-used often and they just make the game take longer. Not add more enjoyment. Yes I'm aware there is another mode, but people wanting to see the story shouldn't need to solve the same block puzzles a dozen time to progress.

Equipment doesn't feel very diverse. There are weapons with some neat effects but each time we went to a new town, they were selling worse equipment than what I already had. In a new town I'd see maybe 1 new weapon, 1 new shield, 1 new headgear, and most of the time it was the same or worse. Load it up with more equipment, and make some of it expensive so we have something to work towards to.

In Multiplayer, you may notice lag spikes. If the game loses connection and tries to reconnect, it will freeze your entire pc, not just the game. This freaked me out, as I thought I was about to BSOD. I couldnt get to task manager, or anything.

Skills could use some rebalance. There are a lot of useless skills like Titan Throw that don't do enough damage to justify putting any points into them.

Point allocation feels dull. a lot of points wil be spent, just adding 1% or 5% into something. I would have preferred a larger skill tree, and more meaningful boosts in stats.

Overall, it is a fun game, and I would recommend it if you have a friend to play it with. I just wish there are more skills, and the current skills were more balanced.

This game is really fun!

This game makes me think of the phrase "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts". You'll quickly see that this game, while really charming also has plenty of flaws. That doesn't matter at all though. The combination of the things it does well, means that the game is just really fun, plain and simple. Definitely recommended.

If you like farming/grinding, this game will deliver.

If you don't, you can enjoy the game's general content without having to do much grinding at all.

Gameplay feels good, love the old-school top down pixel vibes.

I hate puzzles

A dash of "Link to the Past", a little dab of "Sword of Mana", and sprinkle in skill trees and talents to make your dream "spellblade" or even a "druid". Grindea gives off the feelings of playing those old SNES and Sega RPG games. I would recommend playing this on the Steam Deck for a bit more control over your character ( it certainly helped me with dodging and blocking a lot of enemy and boss attacks). The music and sound are what one would expect, the story is alright, the heart and soul of the game is in the talent system and varying builds / attacks.

I would give this game a solid 3.5 out of 5 fireworks.

Gives that old school RPG vibe but adding modern characteristic to it. Managed to complete the full game after a lot of "ill come back in a few days" to cool down. It has great lore and a feel you can't describe unless you actually play it yourself. The arcade mode is wicked hard and fun and the story mode is something to experience all on its own.

I followed this game since dungeon one was the ONLY dungeon, and while it took a while to get to this point, I have to commend the developers. I love this game and will return to it every two to three months to see what new gameplay/story there is. I think that, generally speaking, the game as it stands is worth the 15 dollar price tag. If it were only 75% of what it was at the time of this, I'd still say the 15$ is a good deal for how much fun I've had. If the devs end up reading this, thank you for the good times and to any future or current players, happy grinding and may the drop rates be in your favor!

I wanted to be able to recommend this game because it’s clear that the developers put a lot of time and passion into it. But in its current state, I can’t.

I played on the steam deck co-op with a friend, and the friend was playing on PC.

There were constant bugs throughout the play through. This is a list of as many bugs as I could remember. I took screenshots and recordings of many of them, but sometimes I couldn’t tell what the screenshot was supposed to be communicating to me, and with the passage of time I forgot. So there are definitely more glitches and I just don’t remember.

-the HP bar for bosses would not decrease after any amount of hits. The same also went for enemies

-the HP bar for bosses would not vanish off of the screen after killing the boss. It would only disappear after leaving that map

-the percentage progress bar on my save file seemed to always display random values and never consistently go/stay higher no matter how far into the story we got

-the boss fight against pulse man would freeze after a few attacks, and was impossible to progress as co-op. I had to leave the game, my friend beat it on her save file, and then I rejoined the game afterwards. I could not do the boss fight

-the boss fight of the first dungeon against the giant mech was stuck endlessly firing its laser even after it was dead. It constantly played the sound effect of the laser firing as the animation of the laser was on endless loop. The laser did no damage damage when stepped in

-for whatever reason, in the ice area, a large red crosshair appeared over my friend’s character. Upon leaving the map, it disappeared. It never appeared again

-the hydra boss fight would have its heads fly off the screen and become completely invisible to me during certain attacks. We were only able to complete the fight because my friend could see their heads even though I could not. I could only see the stumps where their necks were supposed to be

-after winning the boss fight against Winter, my friend and I both became able to walk anywhere on the map in that room. We could walk all over the walls and on the black areas of the map. We lost this ability as soon as we left the map

-in the guild hall, after defeating Vilya and her henchman, after the cut scene, her two henchman were still on the map. Both of them were turned to the right, doing their idle animation with their weapons out. They moonwalked slid backwards to the left edge of the map, kept going, and both of them disappeared. This was as absurd as it sounds

-the HP bar for the cursed priestess boss remained on screen even after going in and out of buildings for some reason. Usually, boss HP bars would disappear after leaving the boss room map

-despite the fact that we were both playing on chill, in the options menu the difficulty for the game was displayed as being expert and I could not change it

-in the ghost dungeon, I was booted from the game during one of the boss fights. But when I was taken back to the title screen, tons of HUD elements from the game, including status effect icons and numbers from damage, appeared on the save file select screen. More of them kept appearing as I stayed on the screen, as if I was taking damage or something and the numbers to show that were popping up

-During the sequence when you are in a mirage version of your home and are being berated by your father about perfect guards, if you have the cowardly shield equipped, you are able to use it during this section of the game, even though the gimmick of the shield is supposed to be that it’s a pacifist and if you try and use it elsewhere it will refuse to appear/work

-during the boss rush, when fighting the giant mech again, upon dying, it continued to fire its laserbeam in the exact same fashion as the glitch mentioned above. It continued to do this even after the elevator had stopped moving

-During the boss rush, the hydra heads disappeared like before

-during the boss rush, I inexplicably became immortal. Anytime that my hit points were dropped to zero, nothing happened. If I healed and then my hit points were dropped to zero again, nothing happened either. I was able to continue attacking and playing as if I was alive.

-after defeating her in the boss rush, Vilya had her weapon out and was doing her idle animation while standing where she had been at the end of the fight. This was purely visual; she could not be interacted with in any way but it sure looked bizarre

-During the final boss fight, for the first phase, I was completely unable to see the boss. I was also unable to move. This lasted for a while until the game randomly crashed.

-during the true final boss, the one that you have to unlock the ability to fight, on my end, it looked as though both me and my friend were frozen and unable to move as my friend completed the fight without me. Throughout half of the fight, I kept trying to rejoin until I gave up

My friend says that she played the game by herself on PC and these glitches didn’t happen. She also played on the steam deck by herself and these glitches didn’t happen. It seems to happen when doing multiplayer on the steam deck, and possibly only when doing multiplayer between Players that are not all using the same system, such as not all using a PC or not all using the steam deck. I believe this to be true because separately from my friend, I also tried to play it with my siblings, and three of them were using computers and I was the only one using the steam deck and I ran into the same glitches.

But while some of these glitches are funny and relatively harmless, others were very frustrating and greatly interfered with my ability to enjoy the game. I cannot recommend a game that is marked as being steam deck verified and then has this kind of play experience on the deck.

I LOVE IT !!!

before my friend told me, "its like stardew but more combat focus". idk its not quite that, i feel like playing MMORPG have a metroidvania element. i love card system, just chilling grinding low level mob to get this card thing (MMORPG element) there is fishing, minigames like sokoban puzzle games, THE FAIRY EASTER EGG IS TOO GOOD is as annoying as the game its referencing from.

9.6/10

IS JUST A GOOD GAME, A VERY GOOD GAME

Basically just a bullet hell. You'll spend about 99.99% of time dodging just to barely whittle away at a boss all to have the game crash during the cut scene after finishing the fight. The only "defense" or "healing" in the game is a farce and your only way of surviving fights is by never getting hit.

A fun RPG with lots to do, fun dialogue, well written story line and the ability to build your character so you can play in a variety of different combat styles. I love some of the humour in this game and the personalities of the important characters. There are multiple difficulty options and you can switch between them at any point while playing which is very useful.
I will say that if you're not someone who enjoys grinding at all in video games you may not enjoy this game as much as I did.

It is straight up fire, expect a grind as title suggests but also a surprisingly difficult and engaging combat system weirdly enough, I picked Hard and there's one above it, probably a torture chamber.

I’ve played over 500 games while Secrets of Grindea was being made

• The fact you can play this game co-op is amazing, I wish I had friends interested in small indie games like this to share what this game has to offer.
  
  
• Secrets of Grindea feels like it was made by true fans of the old-school RPGs that said “I’ll do it myself”, but by the time it was released, the genre was no longer as dominant as it once was.
  
  
• The amount of content, in this indie game is crazy for a trio to do that is only rivaled by Stardew Valley and Animal Well. The game is jam-packed with so many interesting side-quests, a house to fill up for no reason other than it’s cool, a rogue-like mode that I didn’t care for because I hate that genre, but so many cool things to make the game feel more grand than it has any right to be.
  
  
• That said, the story and its characters didn’t interest me at all and I skipped it about ⅓ of the way through it. The developers being animators and programmers show with its generic but somewhat comical story. The video above covers it’s joke better than text can
  
  
• The combat centers around mana and cooldowns. You get alot of variety to build a style that fits you from melee, range, magic, and any combo in-between if you wanna grind the levels to max out and become overpowered.
  
  
• The game does have grind but that’s only if you want to fight the exclusive and best boss in the game, otherwise, you will have to settle for a huge selection of other amazing and creative bosses to fight.
  
  
• I never got to fight the bonus final boss because the grind is not worth it to me, drop rates for the items are in the sub 1% chances that I don’t care to do.
  
  
• I did play the game at launch and so this aspect can’t be felt anymore. The game was insanely tough to the point that I felt it was too much for me, which has only happened once with Rain World. You can choose between Normal and Hard, which at the time was “never die ever” or “die so much I don’t know how this is possible”. I lowered it to Normal which is now called Chill. They made it more manageable since launch as I never shy away from a challenge, expect for this game
  
  
[*]The game was hard because you don’t have i-frames or dashing. You get one heal that recharges slowly and so you get very few mistakes, so be mindful that this might look casual but it can be harder than you might expect

Worth it/10

Starts off fun, but slowly the game just gets more grindy, I'm not talking about just about grinding for exp either(that would be more fun). As the game goes on the boss battles just get more repetitive, it's like spending half an hour dodging enemies in galaga, and if in the last phase the boss does something cheap then it's another half hour of dodging.

The game lacks the basics RPG feature of telling you where to go. The game will give you the name of the place that your supposed to go, however 90% of the time that name isn't one of the 10 points listed on the map so there's no in game way to tell where your supposed to go.

I can't rate the games story because I learned to just skip all the dialog. This is solely because it's humorous writing is so lame it makes those "comedy" anime where the joke is the protagonist spends half the time falling down and landing on boobs, look witty and charming.

Old school RPG with modern graphics. AMAZING game and excels at everything. Story is well designed. Builds/evolution is balanced. Visuals are very nice, and music/sfx are cool. Boss fights are challenging. Very fun to play with friends too!

Not sure why, but sound effects only come through the left ear for me and no one else seems to be having this issue. Music is fine, other games or apps are fine, but every sound effect is strictly on the left ear.