Children of Morta

A Great Experience of arcade gameplay with lore in it...characters are balanced and great to play with reccomended with joypad.

There is incredibly slow dialogue that goes on and on, with no ability to fast-forward it ahead. You can skip the cut-scene entirely, but that leaves you without the rest of the story.

The gameplay is pretty meh. It's as generic hack and slash as can be.

On the surface, it's like any other roguelike dungeon crawler - level up your characters as you go through the levels, gradually making your way from one area to the next. And it does that fantastically. Every character plays differently, and you can pick the ones you like the best to level up, or go all out and level up them all. If this game didn't have a story and was just *this*, it would still be worth playing.

But the story. And the world. And the characters. Hot damn. I would watch a movie about this game's world. I'd watch a series of movies. I'd subscribe to a streaming service that has nothing else on it that I care about if it had a TV show based on this game. I'd cosplay as the kid with the knives who has the same name as me.

This is one of my favorite games ever and 70% of it is because of the world, the story, and the characters. I can't recommend this one enough.

A big appeal of this game is the multiplayer, however if you don't start an alternate save to play with your friends all your progress will be overwritten or outright deleted.

Update after unlocking all the characters. Original review below. Gaym is still good, but the multiplayer is stupid. Buy it on a special and have a good time alone. Then play something meant for multiplayer with friends instead...

Shockingly good! So far the story is great and well narrated. The characters are so interesting and I cant wait to unlock more. The combat is really good and the loop structure means you can really have a blast and not have to commit 2 hours at a time. Visually the gaym is outstanding. Overall I strongly recommend this. And it keeps on going on sale for the price of sandwich. Brilliant gaym.

Feels like a crime to get this game and DLC for under 10$ because it is awesome.

The game has a very streamlined feel to it relative to the mechanics in genres like ARPGs and crafting games. There is no crafting, you just go into a dungeon and start wiping out enemies, but it is fun and feels like it respects my time. Easy to pick up, but hard to put down because it is a bit addictive.

I really like learning each character and I am surprised how little nuances in each character's abilities force you to play differently.

I am still working through the first act and I hope the rest of the game stays fun.

This game is absolutely gorgeous and a pretty good roguelike challenge. it also has wonderful narration and a decent variety of characters, though you almost assuredly want at least one ranged character.
There are some flaws especially with multiplayer as you can't see your teammates stats unless on steam play connecting to their game directly, and the rubberbanding can be annoying, but overall its pretty fun.
mechanically my only gripe is that the traps are very nasty and super annoying, and that you never feel like you have enough of the stones to buy stuff in the shops during the runs. but the bosses aren't super crazy to the point where you need to buy much either.

after getting a few upgrades and figuring out whats going on it really gets fun/addictive

10/10 experience.
Gorgeous pixel art, really enjoyed looking through the house for all those little details. Took many screenshots of views, lore/event and boss rooms throughout my playthrough, some would make great wallpapers.

Narrator was amazing, very atmospheric, really gave this heroic feeling to the story telling. As someone who likes to watch videos while grinding, I would stop videos I am watching to listen to the narration of event I already did before just to listen to the story again… voice is just that good.

It was such an awesome journey to see this wholesome family progression, from bad/sad events to the happy ending. Each family member had his/her own mechanics and it was fun trying different fighting styles (of course at the start you would prioritize Linda, but later in game i really enjoyed playing Mark, running around collecting enemies, whip them closer and then finish them off in bulk <3).

Running dungeons was satisfying and it is totally okay to die (you will still get items you collected so far) and each run you will go further and further plus maps are randomized each run so it’s not so boring to explore around. There are many mini-events and lore rooms to explore and find.

Usually I would put game aside after perfect completion, but I still want to try family trials so I will probably play this game a bit more. Sometimes it is hard to let go…

This game is gooder than Split Fiction. But I still gotta beat that other one or tariffs will nebber end. Please thank me.

Summary: Great story, personality, and OK gameplay. Would recommend to roguelike beginners and veterans looking for a simple story.
I've played a ton of roguelikes, including but definitely not limited to: enter the gungeon, skul the hero slayer, vampire survivors, astral ascent, and hades 1 and 2. I think I am a pretty good judge of roguelikes at this point so I hope you find value in this review.

To start off, the place this game shines the most is its personality. The pixel art is beautiful, and the way all characters move is very dynamic. Even in the house before you start a run, you see the family playing games, eating together, talking to themselves, sharing quality time, and so much more. I don't usually care about those kinds of things but its important I mention now that this game KNOCKS IT OUT OF THE PARK.

The story is simple and cliche, and while I personally wish the story took a different route, simple stories arent bad and sometimes thats exactly what you're looking. When I say the story is "simple and cliche" I mean I can summarize it as "Bad corruption gets purified by heroes" and you wouldn't be able to tell me if I was talking about Children of Morta, or any of the other thousand games with the same plot. of course theres deeper lore, with the entire world and characters having fleshed out lore to it, and with the reason WHY the corruption exist having some mystery behind it for you to discover, but even from the very start of the game I had a prediction of how it would end and it ended exactly as I expected.

Gameplay wise, I played the entire game on hard mode, and I recommend any roguelike veteran do the same to slow down your progression a bit.

The way the game works is like this: You play as one of 7 characters, 6 family members and one person named "Apan" who is a healer that was clearly a last minute addition to the game. Each hero fits an archetype, like knight, archer, assasin, mage, etc, each with at least 4 abilities and sometimes more if you combine buttons. Heres the interesting part that I immediately recognized was amazing game design and had to mention it here: as you level up characters, they unlock bonuses for the entire family, and if you play one character too much they get "corrupted" and lose maximum HP on their next run. This both rewards the player for playing different characters, and punishes players for just sticking to one class, a perfect balance of carrot and stick that really deserves to be mentioned. Also, leveling up classes only unlocks new abilities for that class, or lets you upgrade those abilities, stats are upgraded for the family as a whole in "Ben's workshop", which I really really liked. I hate when I have such horrible stats when playing a new class and need to grind lower level dungeons to get them up to speed with the other classes. But now, since all stat upgrades are shared with all classes, you don't need to be worried about taking a level 1 class to the final dungeon, just you won't have all their abilities unlocked.

In each dungeon things aren't as good, but aren't bad either. Its really clear that across dungeons they HEAVILY borrowed enemy AI and designs, just with stat changes, but THERE ARE new enemies as you progress, just barely enough so I won't complain about enemy variety. as you explore there are hazards you need to avoid like floor spikes, as well as bonus rooms with challenges, puzzles, or lore rooms where you get to complete side quests, which usually entail rescuing or helping an NPC. It spiced up each dungeon enough with breaks in between the carnage, so I liked them. My favorite part was the memory game, and if you want you can figure this out yourself but ill explain it below.

The symbols on each pad for the memory game are the same each time, and always correspond to the same press order, the only difference is that they are shuffled in each puzzle. Once you step on a pad, you have a brief moment to see all of the symbols, a VERY brief moment, and then have to do a battle. Once I got good, I would only need to do 1-2 battles to press all the right buttons in order, and I felt very accomplished once I figured it out!

Boss wise, the bosses are very creative, but not really balanced. I kid you not, the first boss was the most difficult one out of them all. You don't have many options to deal with such heavy swarm attacks early on, and by slowing you with webs the boss basically can only be defeated with the right combo of items and graces. While all bosses had unique mechanics, it didn't feel like I had to "overcome" them, more just avoid them. What do I mean by this? Well halfway through the game I realized that if you do certain things in boss fights, you can stun the boss and get damage in. This is never told to you explicitly, which is fine, I managed to get far into the game without knowing this, but that made me realize something important. Fighting bosses in Morta didn't feel like I was "dodging attacks" more just running in a big circle and messing with enemy AI so I never really had to deal with the attacks. Best example was the final boss of the first world. the slam attack that stuns you? completely unfair, im not even gonna pretend that it isn't. How did I get passed it? I stayed right on top of the boss, and ran slightly left and right so he ONLY EVER did his melee attack, while I could get in constant damage without the boss having the chance to do that stun attack. By the way, I know I can dodge it by dashing over the stun wave, but it was too thick for me to ever get across consistently. So after 2 minutes of left and right presses, I won the fight. You see, the real challenge in morta is the dungeons and leveling up in them. You are forced to deal with enemies, not because you're locked in with them, you are perfectly capable of running RIGHT passed them, but because without killing them you wont get gold or exp to level up your character, preventing you from steamrolling bosses. the most challenge and fun I had was in killing HORDES of enemies on hard mode.

The musics also very good, just wish they ACTUALLY had the entire soundtrack online, since the boss theme for the spider boss just isn't there.

So yeah, if you're looking for a high intensity gameplay experience, dont play this. Play this if you want a chill, slow, story oriented game with likeable characters.

The writing is so bad it's funny. Other than that I don't see anything negative. I've been playing it with a friend and we're having a lot of fun! It's beautiful and the gameplay is great.

Children of Morta is a very immersive experience. This game is incredible in many things. The gameplay is great, with unique play styles for lots of different characters, and the combat has a nice skillful feel to it. But that's not what makes this game awesome. The best thing is definitely the artwork, and the way the game makes you feel connected to the family of characters. The pixel art and animations are incredible, and paired with an amazing soundtrack and great narration, it is a very immersive game. I recommend playing it solo first to appreciate it more.

A beautifully heartfelt journey through family, fate, and dungeons. Every run felt like a bedtime story laced with blades and beasts. Protecting your loved ones never looked this pixel-perfect.

Very smooth Rogue-like experience. Combats are straightforward, art and narration are gorgeous, even if the story itself is really just an excuse to go kill monsters. If you like the genre it is a must I suppose, but I found the game a bit basic & repetitive. Great game if you don't come in with crazy expectations and just want to smash keys in a wholesome atmosphere.

absolutely great game, i plyed a diffrent version, played it on highest difficulty and loved it bout 20-30h i guess, loved the story, the carachters , the family... truly amazing, wouldve loved more and evolved stuff of this game nd devs, insted new titel is an arpg which we have enough i guess , im not a friend of grindy games anymore had my fair share of it, ruined my life, however this game had a bit of grind too but in a good way, so u could play more around try stuff and enjoy every character as u play the game and progress in content and story.

so if u like to tke it slow and a bit simple , this might be for you, its quite easy to enjoy. :) loved it. peace

great fun, especially with friends.
love the build diversity between characters and between runs as each one evolves differently.

The most wholesome pixel game. There is a beautiful story shaped around a family. Good music-sounds and art style complete the story in the best way.

Really enjoying the replay of each level. The growth as a family, as opposed to individual growth per character alone is also a remarkably great addition. I know this game has been out for a long time, but I'm diving in like its brand new! Thank you 11bit!

I like how it sounds. I (mostly) like how it looks. I somewhat enjoy how it writes. But I absolutely loathe, detest, and despise how it feels. And that's the thing you'll never get from videos of others playing it. It is as unfun, clunky, and unwieldy as it gets. Sprinkle with lots of indestructible level hazards for a truly unforgettable and obnoxious experience.

Personagens diversificados e com diferentes playstyles. Artes e trilha sonora são boas, mas nao excepcional. Com a adição da DLC, com o novo modo o jogo tem uma ótima rejogabilidade.
pontos positivos do game para quem não é gamer: fácil de aprender, boa progressão durante o game e menus claros.

beautiful art, good story telling, and good game play.

Just started the game, so far it's fun. the multiplayer works pretty well, too. The only downsides I've found so far are that it's fairly buggy in the hub area - one time I had to restart the game because I could not select anything in the hub, and another time my friend had to restart the game because of an issue with connecting to my save - and the story, which is told though various in-game events and if you do anything out of order (beat a boss faster than they expect you to) it skips story up to the cutscene you skipped to. For example I beat the first boss on my first run, which skipped a cutscene where a character ran away, so suddenly a cutscene played where they got back home and were talking about things I didn't know about. The gameplay is super fun so far though, it's just a game that you'll want to ignore the story mostly. Sucks that the story is janky because it seems fairly well written and conceptually interesting.

I'll update this as I play it, but so far after beating the first area the game is pretty good. Would recommend as a co-op game.

I played this game in coop and it is one of the best coop experiances ive ever had.
I love the world, i love the narator and i love all of the characters.
Its just such a well built game and i can reccomend this to litteraly anybody who is looking for a coop game or just a single player experiance

also who doesnt love animals. you definetly notice that the devs did as well

There are a lot of bugs in the game. I mostly play it online with my wife, who uses a Mac, and the game occasionally freezes. One thing I can warn you about is that if something unusual happens, like dashing not working or some skills not activating, simply return to the main menu and restart the game. You’ll still be able to save your experience and gold.

Once, I lost two hours of gameplay, and I immediately requested a refund. Unfortunately, our total playtime exceeded the two-hour limit, so I couldn't get my money back.

Children of Morta is an absolutely fantastic action RPG that perfectly blends deep storytelling with rewarding gameplay. The hand-painted art style is stunning, and the world feels alive with rich lore and heartfelt character development. Each family member brings their own unique abilities, and the combat is fast-paced and satisfying. The game's difficulty ramps up nicely, making every victory feel earned. With a compelling story about family, sacrifice, and courage, Children of Morta is a must-play for fans of the genre. Highly recommended!

Good game. Needs more items and maybe the story could be more challenging on hard mode but it's fun

If Hades is the best roguelike about a dysfunctional, broken family, then Children of Morta is the best roguelike about a healthy, wholesome one

fun

It is a good game and I am addicted to it.

Mork çokiyi :P

Children of Morta is the game that got me into Roguelite genre. The best way to describe it from a gameplay standpoint is a simplified version of Diablo / Path of Exile. The different family members are basically different classes that all play drastically different. You get Morv during each run that is used to permanently improve all the family members. The story unfolds much like it does in Hades, but is a much simplified version of that concept. I love the story of this game and I think the theme of a family coming together to beat back the threat to their world really resonated with me. If you like ARPGs like Diablo/Path of Exile and want to try your hand at a Roguelite, this is the game for you. Highly recommended.

Played with a friend, we had fun, the art is amazing, the story is cute. I recommend it if you're not into the genre, it's a solid co-op game.

Im loving this game! Its amazing how the storytelling unfolds while playing. The gameplay mechanics are cool although I find the "normal difficulty" too easy, even more when playing with more people (we are going to try the hard difficulty now). Nevertheless, I love it <3

This game nails every aspect except the most important one for a roguelike: the gameplay loop. Everything else is great, from the charming artstyle to music and narration. You grow to care and like the family members and the various foundlings like the wolf pup or little automatons. Unfortunately the main gameplay is just boring. Ya it's great that you find various relics and things in the dungeons but none of that changes how a character is played. The characters do have their own styles but the options are often limiting. The gameplay itself quickly gets grindy and worsens to repetitive. I want to like this game but it's just not fun.

Fun & interesting story.

A nice looking game that wears thin quickly. The mechanics are uninspired and repetitive, the meta-progression between runs is bland, and the narration is hit or miss. There's obviously still unfinished edges to this 4+ year old game, such as graphical glitches in the City of Thieves tileset and typos in the quest log. What initially promised to be a lovingly crafted game ended up being a well-polished but soulless slog.

Pretty chill game. Love the graphics design. Story is fine too.

I Have it on my switch as well it's a fun game, good quality at a decent price

It's rare for me to say a game is perfect, and this is one of those games. Amazing story, awesome graphics, buttery smooth gameplay, and the progression system is very unique.

This is by far one of the most slept on games.

Great history, would gave me the chills at some points of it. Gameplay was awesome also, both with kayboard or control. Really fantastic game!

The build customisation could be a bit deeper, but it went more in depth than I initially expected. You get several angles to get power throughout the story and runs feel different most of the time, especially through the different characters, which the game kinda encourages you to play, since they have cross-character synergies.

The story that is being told by the narrator is really impactful, you can really feel that there is a lot of passion for storytelling, the writing/voice acting makes some moments really stand out and the visuals are beautiful.

Highly recommended for the story alone, but the roguelike gameplay and the additional dungeon mode make it even better :)

Cool, entertaining game, with awesome art and animation, but too many bad design choices for me to recommend it.

Pros:
- Incredible art, you can really feel all the love poured into it. Real kudos for the visual design guys!
- Narrator's voice work is GOOD.
Cons:
- What little plot points exist, are all underdeveloped, boring and/or nonsense.
- Game mechanics are messy and don't feel fluid like it should.
- Too many lines that are supposed to sound cool or deep, but just felt cringe and annoying (to the point I had to mute narration, which is a shame because the voice actor is really good).
- Predictable AI with no variation in enemies' actions, making the game way too easy.
- Instead of losing progress when you die, it's one of those games that actually rewards you for losing, letting you keep the XP and money even if you died (you are returned to the base then). This makes the game feel like a endless grinding until you pass the level and get to the next one. Nothing is at risk, ever. Too easy, too boring.
- Way too short. There's basically 8 levels and the tutorial, and all the time you spend in game is grinding through the same levels (ok, the map changes, great. Still not enough variation).
- The whole thing with the characters being members of a family has an incredible potential, and basically none of it was used. Except for the cringe scenes between levels, which more breaks the rhythm of the game than anything else.
- A LOT of the items you find in dungeons are plain useless, and I mean the ones that should be useful. Some are even a setback, but it's clear that wasn't the intention, it's just bad design.
...

Honestly, I could keep going with the Cons, but it really all sums to this: Poor design choices. The devs were lazy, they wanted to finish it soon so they'd stop spending and start gaining, they took a game with amazing potential and made a half-assed job, turning what could be a game people would play repeatedly for years, into a generic, repetitive dungeon crawler which only merits are the art and narrator's voice (the lines are still bad).

Sure, it entertains for a while. But seeing all the potential it had... It's just a shame. Maybe that's what riles me up the most. If you just want to be distracted for a few hours, sure, go ahead and play it. But if you want and actual GOOD game, this is not the one. It could be. But it's not.

It's a pr cool game.
pros:
-many characters with cool abilities
-epic beautiful pixelart
-good leveling system
-very distinct enemies and areas
cons:
-some characters are super hard to play (their basic attack has a long wind up and does comparably very little damage)
-you usualy cannot move while attacking which you might be used to if you like this game genre

Vin Diesel starring as John Bergsons because all he care about is family and morv

Fun co-op game, the campaign lasted us around 18 hours but then there's the rogue-like gamemode that i haven't tried too much of. The combat is a little too simplified but if you get a run with good items and synergy it becomes really satisfying. Best way to describe is that the game is decent but for a split second when it gets hectic, its hella fun.

The levels could be designed a bit better, such as the desert level which is awful and annoying, and the enjoyment is heavily dependant on good items (uncommon) or late game upgrades which are my main issues with it.

This is a game best served over a long period of time so one can fully savor it. I went into this game with low expectations, but was SO surprised at how smooth the game play is and how much replayability it has. It's a loose story, but a good one nonetheless. The pixel art is initially what got me into it, and the amazing narration and awesome gameplay loop kept me going. If you like action roguelikes, definetly check this title out. I can't recommend it enough!

A lot of fun, not great but worth a buy if on a deep sale.

I loved the game, it's challenging, and just had so much fun. But i hope we could have 3-4 players for co-op thing, it would be really fun

Fun and interesting gameplay with an engaging story told through great narration.