TROUBLESHOOTER: Abandoned Children

be warned, only the combat is like X-com. This is a very linear game where you follow the story and play story missions in order. There's barely any base management or strategy to the map. It took me 12hrs to realize that it NEVER really opens up. You cant recruit the members you want, its all story based. So after 12 hrs, i only have 3 members and i had no choice whatsoever in.

Combat is fun, and building characters are fun- but that's ALL this game is about. Building you characters and taking them through the linear story. Theres no strategy or management layer.

play 30 minutes mission, get 1 shot by fog of war enemy that you had no way of seeing, forced to restart.... NAAAHHH I'm good, it isn't the 90s anymore you don't need to add artificial difficulty to lengthen games.

I am about 15 hours into the game. I really really like the anime xcom, I even lovingly call it Squid Game Tactics when I speak about it. There's just so many casual quests, farms, repeatable missions you have to go through. It's the worst part of a Korean grindfest MMO in a single player (mostly) SRPG.

Starting around the lvl13-15 missions, map sizes, enemy numbers, and naturally, enemy turn timers increase exponentially. It becomes a slog through an enemy swamp. It becomes more annoying when the maps have height, since the engine doesn't handle it well (controls/LoS) and your units don't seem to get that much of a jump height or any tools to traverse it.

It's a great effort, I don't feel like I wasted my money, but I don't think I'll ever be seeing the ending of this game. If you like the Korean grind, go for it.

Over 100 hours in and I haven’t gotten to all the things. The layers of systems in this game are fantastic. I do so love a good crafting system and there are multiple of them baked in.
The dev have built a deep and rich lore and the story telling makes the world feel alive. It’s not just a static setting. There is so much going on and oh so many characters and factions.
Some have complained about the lack of a save button, but I am so happy they just made it all automatic. It just saves check points (which are configurable for how often) and auto saves when you exit, even in the middle of a mission and you start right back where you left off. You can’t save scum but it is very forgiving and lets you redo stuff and load back at a checkpoint if you fail a mission. It is much more elegant than manual saves and works really well.
There is really strong math behind everything and they have balanced it so well that nothing feels unfair. In over 100 hours I have never had a “that’s xcom” moment. It is not fair to this game to even compare it to xcom. While the grid, cover and movement look similar, it basically ends there. TS is some much more robust with terrain and weather effects, sight difference, a much better time/turn mechanic, and abilities the work with all that. The character building is extremely diverse with so many possibilities. A true theory crafter’s dream. You will constantly be trying new things. Some of the translations may not come over perfectly, but I feel like that is part of the charm of the game. I love that the voiced part in combat are mostly in Korean. I hear VHPD yelling “jail parameter” and Albus calling enemies “ya git” and it makes me giggle.
I don’t play a huge amount of games. I tend to go deep on one at a time. Troubleshooter has really found a place in my heart. When I finally finish it, I will probably start all over again.

So I've not beaten this, but given I'm bit burnt out from this, I feel like I should review this now instead of leaving it for distant future.

I enjoyed this til maybe 33 hours in, but at that point a lot of it started to repeat itself, even though the story does keep evolving. I'm not sure what the issue is for me.

Majority (if not all?) is voice acted which gives it a nice touch. Music is pretty okay, but at a point I just ended bored with it.

I love XCOM and I love this, but with XCOM I felt more engaged. It might've been the story that I enjoyed more, here the factions you fight just don't have any appeal as enemies.

However, this is definitely worth the go if the gameplay is something that appeals to you.

No save function=terrible.
Just lost an entire mission right from the start of the campain. This has been a known problem for years.

MAKE A SAVE BUTTON.

You Koreans really know how to make emotional and engaging stories, This is what I've wanted from a tactical RPG game, Interesting characters, mysterious scenarios and last but most importantly ANIME well more like Manhwa since the way the story gets revealed every chapter feels Manhwa-ish.

Hyped for your future projects, Dandylion. I will eat up Banished Children upon release. <3 <3 <3

I've been playing turn based strategy games for 40 years, it is very much my jam. Troubleshooter is the best I've ever played. I have no clue what the story is, I bang [ESC] when the words appear. The English translation is a little rough in places but its okay. The missions can be long. The time between missions setting up your characters can be long. The character theory crafting and combat are amazing. The different characters feel unique and fresh. The mastery system is absolute quality.

10/10

Yeah, thats a tough one. I really want to like this game, i really do. Its all what i want from a xcom like game - except it probably isnt. Its a shame because i had a lot fun with it at first.

Every mission feels so tedious to me after playing for a few hours. I get that i can do a lot with masteries and so on and so forth, but this all feels kinda overtuned to me.
The story is also not as engaging as i was hoping for it to be. The whole scenario where the whole thing takes place is just something i dont find to be entertaining. It feels dull to me and i cant take it seriously.

I get why others do like the game, but it just isnt working out for me.

Man I've tried a lot of games that have been said to be XCom like. I happy to have found Troubleshooter. It checks the box on so many of the things that I was looking for in this type of game. I'm writing this review with 10 hours into the game. I'll be back to expand this review. But as of now I am extremely happy with my purchase.

This is one of the best tactical RPG games have ever played.
It has some problems like translation not being the best and story while being interesting getting told in a way that can be hard to follow with so many characters and events not being told in chronological order. Gameplay is great, and mastery system lets you do a lot of fun builds.
I never needed to look up build while playing on hard, but goddamn those last few missions were super hard. Those 129 hours i have been just for story/optional maps. You can grind in this game if you want or need something specific, but I needed to do it only 2 or 3 times to unlock some masteries for builds to work so there is no worries of lack of content in this one.
There are even some things that i dislike with crafting being too RNG dependent and not unlocking masteries after missions with leads to grind or more rng to get everything. I would also like to at least be able to see masteries that i can unlock with current progress so i can decide if its worth it or not to replay a mission.

Other than things above i enjoyed my time and those 129 hours were mostly pleasant. I do hope for some improvements in the sequel and will buy it day 1 for sure.

None of the tension that you'd find in XCOM, going full Leeroy Jenkins and disregarding cover is usually fine.
Lots of grinding if you want it.
Simple but endearing characters.
Bad guys called John and Liam.

Good game.

Lemme recommend you this game in the form of a story:

>Be the MC with 1900+ health (pretty good for early game)
>Equip MC w/ a full counter + tank build
>Anyone who attacks him basically walks into a meat grinder
>Not the most op in my team
>One of my characters is basically a nuclear warhead with the fragility of the most self confident person on twitter
>godcomplexrises.exe
>Start a mission to take down 7 gang leaders
>On hard mode but have a 99% success rate so I have a chip on my shoulder
>1900+ Tank dies in one hit to a unique enemy
>wtf dude not cool
>Accidentally alerted all 3 leaders with their 5-10 goons each
>Surrounded in the middle of the road with snipers to boot
>Random bullshit go!
>spam frost grenades + smokebombs
>Somehow survive but still have 4 more bosses to go
>Situation is dire but still winnable
>2 more bosses go down w/ few casualties
>Accidentally alert another boss after killing 2nd one
>3rd Boss is a giga chad who brought a fucking army to my 7ish goon squad
>Points funny lazer at the boss
>Funny lazer goes harder than my sex life
>Boss has an ability that allows him to hit others when he gets hit by any attack
>He can also kill again if he successfully one shots his opponent
>One shots two of my strikers
>Mfw I realized Im fighting my tank but better
>Nuclear Warhead gets turned into smush
>Healer almost gets one shotted by a sniper
>Good thing I gave her one shot protection
>Surrounded at all sides with a full counter boss plus his 15+ goons
>Recycle old strategy
>Spam smoke grenades
>Genuinely feel like I've entered No man's land
>Cue Hopedying.exe
>Pin GigaChad w/ riotshielders
>Spam Iron Wall
>Don't attack; just stall for time
>Slowly build ult while taking out the snipers w/smoke grenades
>Mfw AI uses my strategy against me
>Welcome to frost grenades hell
>Turn order is only filled by the enemy
>Tfw you can only watch as your entire team gets royally fucked in the ass
>Only one riot shielder remains to distract GigaChad
>Healer miraculously lands a ~20% chance to triple kill
>Feel a trickle of hope
>Clear out most of the snipers around the Healer
>Riot Shielder is somehow still solo tanking GigaChad
>Finally have enough to ult the boss into oblivion
>GigaChad lives w/ basically 1hp
>His ability activates and targets my hybrid TankDPS
>Abouttoendmylife.exe
>Surprisingly... She lives.
>Remember when I told you 1900+ MC wasn't the most op build I have?
>I forgot I gave my TankDPS ~700 resistance against all physical attacks lol
>GigaChad goes down
>1 boss remaining and I only have 4 members left
>Encounter final Boss who is a Sniper
>Looks around, no bodyguards guarding his nest. Only 3 other snipers
>Finally understood why GigaChad had an army
>He took the Sniper's goons with him and failed to jump me
>Dunno why the Sniper boss himself didn't get procc'ed but I count my blessings
>Used Riot Shielder as bait while my Melee fighters flanked them
>Won the mission and still kept my 99% win rate
>feelsgood.jpeg
>Moral of the story?
>Doesn't matter how much HP you have if one glittery boi can one pump chump your KDrama king
>Use protection!
>Also smoke
>Smoke alot.
>Smoking saves lives. Don't believe what big pharma tells you

Thank you devs for building such an amazingly well crafted game! I still haven't finished the full game but you have my full attention should there be a sequel, or more of the same types of games. :D

I NEVER heard of this game until I stumbled upon it on sale and I'm so glad I took a chance on it.

I'm greatly enjoying the character customization, the battle system and the battles themselves, the story is interesting, a well-done game overall.

Yes, you can tell the game wasn't written by native English speakers. Some of the dialogue and such has some quirks in it that make it read a little strange, but it's still understandable.

It's a minor wrinkle in an overall quality game.

The way some of these characters attack is also funky. One girl kicks fireballs, for instance. Another character is basically a human pikachu.

The setting is modern. Kind of reminds me of a Persona-ish combination of modern-style settings with fantasy mixed in.

Combat-wise, you'll see a lot of referencing XCOM, and for good reason. The battle presentation basically is XCOM. There are a lot of enemies on the battle maps. I enjoy that as it makes more sense than a small scale battle...while sieging a whole castle or some such. You're attacking a gang's hideout or stopping an invasion force...and you'll feel like you're facing that. You'll often have guest characters on your side as well and, generally, they are useful and not just as meatshields.

The maps are also large, adding to the feel that you're exploring a whole neighborhood/block/district. You can find items in chests and items you don't want/aren't better than your current gear can be salvaged for parts in the game's crafting system, where you can upgrade gear or construct new equipment. And of course, you can buy and sell items as per usual. There's also item identification. It's inexpensive, so it's worth revealing the full modifiers of a piece of gear before making a final decision on it.

Overall, if you like tactical RPGs or RPGs in general with heavy character customization, consider giving Troubleshooter a try.

With higher budget it could have been the greatest. After 50h it became too grindy even for me. Too much running around without any challenge. I had a lot of fun anyway.

Troubleshooter is a tactical RPG. I liked it, and I respect it, even though I couldn't get into it. This game tries to do everything you can think of. It has a story with narrative choices and some complex presentation; it resembles XCOM and follows some of its conventions, but it actually plays more like Japanese strategy RPGs such as Disgaea. It includes class-switching, monster taming, character building through putting abilities into "sockets," crafting, developing relationships with NPCs, and challenge modes for missions. It tries to do everything.

Most of it kind of works. You'd expect such an ambitious indie game to look like an ASCII roguelike, but it even looks fine, I like 2D art especially. I respect that. It's still turned out to be too hard for me to swallow; the UI struggles to support even basic functionalities, not to mention more arcane mechanics. I'm not even sure how hit chance works in this game! It has an odd sensation of roughness where specific elements are fine, but they rub together in the wrong way. I like the music, but it's frequently used out of place; it feels like every track they have is meant to be played over a boss fight. The English translation is the final straw for me. While the writing is functional in gameplay, the story is barely comprehensible.

I've said many harsh things about this game, but I still give it a thumbs up. This is clearly a labor of love, and it could have captured me under different circumstances; it has everything to become someone's favorite game. If your tolerance for jank is high and you're well-versed in the world of tactical RPGs, then definitely give it a try. Oh, and I don't recommend playing with gamepad, at least on Steam Deck it turned out to be more convinient to emulate keyboard and mouse.

This is it. One of the Trinity of Hidden Gems that you must try: Library of Ruina, Depersonalization & Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children. Their ienglish text may not be the best (still convey what it needs to be said without much issue), but it is heavily overshadowed by the quality of every other aspect in this game. If you like XCOM or similar games, this is one of a must try. 감사합니다 Dandylion!

This game is a gem! I'm so glad I found it, and I'm having a great time so far. The characters are fun, the missions are interesting, and the world is intriguing.

This is a gem, a lot a value for what you pay and even more, deep tactical systems, fun characters, good ost, the graphics can look a little dated but the art design overall is great. I'll be definitely looking forward the next season

A great mix of an xcom game with an rpg. Keeping things fun and balanced from start to finish

Pro - Systems and depth that exceed almost any other game in the genre.

Con - Cookie cutter weeb presentation.

Much like the Persona games, there are miles of depth underneath a surface of cringe anime.

The game throws a lot at the player in the beginning, and can get confusing at first, but at normal and hard difficulties, is manageable enough that the systems are understood in time.

No miss-able content, as everything can be replayed and NG+ exists as well.

Is it to late for a refund? Lost track of time I guess. Seriously this game is one of a kind. I play many Turn based combat games, this is easily a favorite. That tag is what got me into Troubleshooter but it is really so much more than that. Because of the diversity of skills and loadouts for each character there is thousands of ways to approach the battles in this game. Easily addictive and very rewarding trying the different tactics. Story is compelling. Fun crafting and item upgrade mechanics with hundreds of recipes and ingredients farmed throughout the many repeatable missions, chasing items and skills unlocked by hunting down specific enemies at increasing difficulties is a deep well i keep going back to.

Masterpiece. So nice I played it twice.

Excited about what comes next from this great Developer.

Not a BAD game, but way too busy. There is so much un-needed micromanaging that I ended up just installing because I got bored because I never got to the questing. I liked the combat and general class/mastery system, but am uninstalling due to tired of all the extra steps to get there to keep up with all the tutorials, new mechanics (we do not need a whole area for side quests and shops), etc. that are coming up. Can't even skip because you miss important info.

If you don't mind any of what I mentioned, well worth it on sale.

This is by far one of the best Tactical RPGs ever made. The sheer depth of its systems make titans such as final fantasy tactics and xcom pale in comparison. That said, it is not without its flaws.

Pros:

The mastery system on display here is one of the most in depth and flexible character building system put to code.

Every single character plays very differently and some such as Giselle and Kylie have systems like drones and pets that are complex and encompassing enough to be worth games of their own and that they are just for a single character each is nothing but incredible

The devs are incredibly responsive to player feedback

For such an incredibly complex game (seriously check it out if you like crunchy systems!), it has no bugs or if there are bugs then I haven't found any in my almost 300 hours

Cons:

The story. This is really what is stopping it from becoming a modern classic imo. It is not bad, nor is it some ill though out shounen plot but it is presented in a very incoherent manner and the somewhat spotty translation doesn't really help. Sometimes you will get paragraphs worth of exposotion for easily deducible things and the opposite is also true, especially regarding the overarching plot. Furthermore some characters are heavily typecast into archetypes like Irene. And finally, when the description calls it the first season of a franchise, they are not kidding. It sets up more than it answers but whatever is within it is competently planned from a worldbuilding pov.

Mixed:

The length. Expect 200-300 or more hours of gameplay if you wish to finish the main game + dlcs with the optional violent cases. This is a boon or a problem depending on who you ask

Very enjoyable XCOM-like game with many of its own innovations to create diverse gameplay. It does well to introduce mechanics at the right stages and encourage you to handmake your own strategy.

It's indie though so forgive some UI awkwardness.

All in all it's among the better XCOM-likes I've tried. Story, tone, tactical play, strategising are all fun where others in the genre generally fail at one of these hurdles.

It is insane that this game was created. I wish it had a better English translation; the current one does it a disservice.

One of the best parts about it is that it feels more like classic XCom than the later games. Large, squad-based encounters where you clump or spread your forces based on the situation, sometimes splitting them ahead of time to enter a map from multiple areas. You can make sound tactical decisions about positioning and so on without feeling fucked over by RNG, like with the pod activation mechanics in the newer XComs. In other words, playing well doesn't involve tedious creeping across maps and so on - just smart decision making.

The depth of the mastery system is absurd, not to mention itemizing and crafting and drones and beast taming. It's satisfying to link a bunch of new mastery sets and power-spike at will.

Playing on Cruel is a decent challenge; only the very beginning was overly easy. I haven't even touched the Challenge mode itself yet.

The mission variety is excellent, the characters are generally enjoyable, and the story is interesting despite the translation. This game is really excellent, to the point that I came back just to expand this review, and it would be worth double what they're charging.

this is a korean RPG trying to be a JRPG, and they've definitely copied all the worst design elements of the genre. this game has it all!

- generic protagonist designed to appeal to 12yo korean boys with no life outside of videogames
- a setting and story that make 0 sense, full of 1 dimensional anime trope characters
- tons of disgusting copaganda and obvious fascism that the characters just accept
- overly complicated combat and levelling system that makes you hate playing the game
- forced tutorial that takes a million years to get through but also doesn't adequately explain the game mechanics
- npc voicelines on nearly every turn, because that doesn't get annoying at all
- queer baiting written by cishet dudes who don't understand queer characters at all

i never got out of tutorial hell before i quit it forever. maybe this game gets better like 20h? but I doubt it.

I really want to like this game but all the dialogue is so extremely roughly translated that it makes it almost stressful to play because it's really hard to understand what not only the characters are saying but also what the tutorials are trying to say.

It's really good! Well-made strategy game, great value even at full price and a lot of content.
The tactical gameplay is heavily inspired by XCOM, and the stages are a little more punishing in general (I'm playing on hard mode, and the difficulty can be changed at any time), but there's no permadeath or larger strategic penalties for failure, so it doesn't feel particularly bad to lose, or encourage save-scumming as much as those games do. Generally fun cast of characters as well.
As a matter of personal taste, I'm not really a fan of how many systems are present in terms of character progression, it can be a bit difficult to wrap your head around. Equipment specifically, I would much prefer more standardized gear, as opposed to the system of randomly statted tiered gear.
The developer is working on a new entry as well, please look forward to it.

Almost 400 hours in, I finally finished the game…

I spent the whole morning thinking about how to write a review that would do Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children (and its DLCs) justice. It’s a complex game that definitely deserves its place among my most played games as well as the most favorite - from the complex character customization , various and unique mission designs, difficulty and settings, through memorable characters all the way to game’s ability to be played over and over again, I’m actually sad that it’s over. Yes, I know I could go back and replay some encounters again, but without any more story and lore, I think I’m just going to wait for the Banished Children to come out before I touch this franchise again.

This game literally gives you all the tools and lets you figure out your own play style - wanna make one of your characters a tank to take the hits for the team? Go ahead. Do you want the same character to be a squishy glass cannon? Sure. Do you want a pet dragon that can fight 1v20 because of the masteries? Sold… I can’t stress enough how beautiful this game is both visually and gameplay-wise.

Now, as for the only negative I could think of - please consider hiring someone to voice your characters in English as well for your next game, or at least give them more than a few lines to say throughout the game. While I understand that you’re a Korean studio and want to make the game in your native tongue, I can see why some people might be put off by a language they can’t even remotely understand. As for me, the language itself isn’t the problem, the problem is how repetitive it gets to hear (and read) the same phrases over and over again.

Good luck with The Banished Children, I’ll be the first one to buy it when it comes out. Until then, thank you so much for the experience!

i love this game it is goofy, fun, inventive, creative, thoughtful, stunning, masterclass in doing something new going against the common AAA mindset. easy to run on standard computer setups. all the characters are truly different in their own way. story is new and something you won't find anywhere else even the enemy's are fun and cookie with a little bit of drizzle flare and edgy that i like

Troubleshooter is messy, ambitious, and flawed. But it’s alive. A game that doesn’t always succeed but never stops trying. If you can forgive its imperfections, it’ll stay with you, long after the last turn.

This game is incredible - a huge amount of tactical depth and content that I would be happy to pay full AAA price for, coming from an indie developer. There's so many different possible combinations, but it never gets too boring and the easier difficulty options allow you to engage as much or as little with the game mechanics as you want. Great work and I'm excited for the sequel!

Game has its ups and downs but it's going to get an F from me for one shotting my hero. Think the mission was a spreading magenta? Spend all this time slowly moving all these units up the street, then this boss guy does a power up (rage I think) and then one shots my hero. I'm just not into it. Could I go waste a bunch of time slowly moving units up the streets and use a smoke grenade or something next time? maybe there's something I could do? but no, it's just stupid and annoying to get one shot on the first fight of a long boring level.

You need to respect the player's time. You don't make them run around for 15 minutes and then one shot them. Awful.

The game has some ups and downs, but the main issue is, the missions are on rails and there seems to be very little variety, you get heroes way too slowly, and you get power ups and stuff way too slowly. I put quite a bit of time into the game and still have a measely 2 characters on my team.

I do think there's a fair amount to like about the game, but I find the balance is very wacky and wonky. Sometimes hero units join your team and they are 10 times stronger than your character and have piles of HP and resistance. And then sometimes you're stuck with your character, who you have no choices over. You have nothing to do for a build, you have no characters to choose from, and then it one shots you.

I think this game is more like a thumbs sideways, there are good parts, I think the game might have potential later, but the experience is so linear it's really a turn off. I'm really super irritated about being one shot and having to start over slowly moving my units up the streets again. Not worth my time.

Getting one-shotted on normal difficulty on one of the starting missions... didn't know this game is a soulslike.

Great game - Devs love their game and it shows, can't wait for the sequel!

Incredible game! Like Xcom but with much deeper mechanics. I play it on Geforce Now and it works great. Have also played it using a controller, which works well but not 100 percent.

I found this game by chance, It's honestly one of my favorite games as it scratches a lot of itches from other games I love and I haven't seen a lot of other games doing the things this game did, it's depth was surprising.

Messing around with builds and finding the best combos for your characters was fun, every one of them has a relatively unique style of play and some have their own complex subsystems.

It can feel a bit slow at the start, but for the price I would recommend it 100% for anyone that likes XCOM or turn based strategy games.

Absolute hidden gem. Even though it has a slow start, the story and gameplay keeps getting better. Definitely recommend for people who enjoy build crafting.

This game is a blast, with a great deal of charisma and love.

Tactical RPG full anime style, that can actually change with each playthrough, no multiple save spots though so be careful on those first choices. :D

It is a boring, linear thing and the bosses have far too much damage, so your guys get oneshotted with a crit. Which sucks, given that half the defeat critia is that guy dying.

This game is nuts. Haven't had the time to get fully into it yet but I can't wait to. Honestly though this is the type of game that deserves a good review, you can tell the heart and soul of the developers is poured into this game. It is updated constantly and has some really cool ideas about mixing XCOM combat with even deeper RPG mechanics.

It's also VERY anime, gotta be ok with that. Looking forward to spending more time with it.

"Big game that mixes xcom combat with A LOT of content and constant updates"

Music is really good. Characters are voice in Korean, because this is a Korean game.

This game has multiplayer mode and singleplayer mode.
Multiplayer progress is saved on online, but you can download it whenever you want to play it in singleplayer or to keep a backup of your progress.

There is really A TON of content, you can easily surpass 100hours of gameplay without finishing the game. There are many great characters and the story, although a little messy, it is complex.

You can customize and craft many things, from consumables weapons and armor, to skills and masteries (which you can equip, unlocking secret effects if the ones you apply are the correct ones to unlock it).

Characters level up and gain stats, they have multiple classes which you can also level up. You can equip these classes to unlock new abilities.

You can eat to activate buffs (certain combinations unlock secret effects on the food).

You can level up your friendship with your teammates and also with quest givers (completing their missions) and store-sellers (buying and selling stuff, or simply using their services).

The DEVS love their game, it is highly noticeable due to the many updates they keep applying constantly, and their active responses to the community. They are currently working on another game in this same world.

This game is filled with baffling design choices.
Don't really feel like going on a rant about what I dislike about the game, so instead I'll just explain my latest game over.
Game sends me on a mission to find someone, gives me four choices of places to check out. For *some* reason, the game tells you how many people have picked each choice, and in this case option D had something like a 98% choice rate. Gee, I wonder where she could be.
In any case, I figure I might as well not go with that choice first and see what happens with the other choices. What happens is you get a game over.
If that choice percentage wasn't there, this would be a one in four chance of just getting a game over; and with it, it's a pointless one, since know I now never to go against the flow. Great game design!

Now, to keep things brief. I liked the anime x-com gameplay but up to this point I've only had access to two preestablished characters. Both with lame anime personalities and that go around with swords and magic when I wanted to use people with guns. The game gives you plenty of generic cops that fill this description, but they're on a "per mission" basis and you're not allowed to customize them in any way.
I feel this is anti-thesis to the x-com formula.

Preface: this game is a slow burn and I mean real sloooww, took me around 100h to finish the main campaign with minimal grinds on hardest difficulty with High Risk High Reward modifier. Cutscenes most of the time are flashbacks that jumps all over the timeline so it's really hard to remember what's happening with the story since each mission can last 30m to an hour and you will spend a lot of time in between missions customise and optimize your characters. The gameplay will be quite basic for awhile, move, attack or use cover and then end turn until like 30h mark or so where you can start doing crazy build like counter attacks, one shot kill refill one action point, it won't be boring because you will constantly progressing and unlocking new systems and there are a lot of mechanics, some are even character specific.

One of the best Turn-based Tactics RPG I have ever played although I haven't played many games in this genre but my standard are Divinity Original Sin 2, Symphony of War and The Last Spell.

Over 100 well crafted missions each with different ways to approach, maps aren't flat, only a couple missions reused old map but with new enemies and enemy placements it doesn't feel repetitive at all.

I think this game hit the perfect spot for difficulties in term of Turn-based RPG. It's hard but it never felt impossible or just a dps check, making bad decisions can kill your units really quick but you will be surprise by how much you can turn tables if you don't give up, every build and enemy has weaknesses and it's up to you to figure it out.

The base game has 9 characters and 3 more from DLCs I think, every character has prefixed classes but you can customize how you want to play those classes using masteries which are basically passive skills and there are hundreds of them, there are so many classes and each one of them has like dozen of class masteries, equips the right masteries and you'll unlock masteries sets for even more passive effects and not just some boring stats bonus, actual game changing effects like refill Action Point, reduce Action Time, temporary stats buff. Don't stress to much about class limitations, they only decide how many slots you will have, some stats and which class specific masteries your character can use. You will spend a lot of time in menu changing your masteries to optimize your build and honestly this is why the game is one of the best, there's no meta builds or one build to beat them all, any well crafted builds will work and your build can actually change up the gameplay. Once you recruit 2 specific characters you can start taming beasts and crafting drones too, they can be just as strong as your characters so you'll end up controlling a lot of units during a mission.

Story ended quite abruptly, this is only episode one and episode two is in the making which is a new game, not an update or DLC. I didn't even expect the game to end even though I was already 100h into the game. It just doesn't feel satisfy, no questions was answered, nothing resolved, the game left me with even more questions, I need to wait for episode two which could take years and I will eat that game up despite all of this because the gameplay is that good.

The only improvement I would like to see is the 3D Art because the 2D Arts fit perfectly but the 3D models are a bit weird, optimization could use a bit of work too since the game run fine most of the time but some maps will drop fps massively below 60 unless you zoom in closer, cutscenes could use a lot less flashbacks and time jumps. The gameplay is already so good it could just stay as is with the addition of new characters.

Weirdly Awesome

11/10

Experience the world as a private security contractor as you tackle themes of friendship, divided loyalties, and betrayal. Someone wrote 3 seasons of a cop drama television series and put it into a turn based tactical squad shooter.

Every named character in this game has a tragic backstory and character arc. Everyone has their own motivations and reasons for joining your company. They even form their own cliques and subgroups within your team.

The maps feel bigger than they actually are. Big enough to have meaningful divergence and consequence for taking a different route to your objective. Small enough that you don't get too lost. All the missions correspond fully to the storyline. Someone wrote the entire books out first and then made a single player campaign around it.

The gameplay itself is very good. There's a ton of complex systems and the amount of customization is halfway between Path of Exile and 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons. There are many game mechanics to make sure you get the difficulty
you signed up for.

140 hours in, I've encountered no bugs and the game has only crashed on me once.

11/10.

I can not imagine the amount of planning, endless work, and redo that must have gone into making a game of this caliber. This game is far superior to most $60 AAA games with $100m budget. It's like eating honey for the first time after a lifetime of high fructose corn syrup.

I haven't played very long, but this game rocks. It's kinda like XCom but with an anime style. I plan to eventually finish.
I had to review a game for the Steam Awards and this was the only game I played.

In my experience, Troubleshooter is an extremely fun and tactical game. The game's quality is outstanding, with graphics and music that are comparable to Persona and XCOM. I found the game to be highly entertaining and challenging, with the ability to adjust the difficulty level to suit individual preferences at the beginning. The game offers a range of options, including a story mode for a more relaxed experience and a hard mode for a more demanding challenge. The graphics, particularly the zoom feature when attacking, are similar to XCOM. While DLC is available, primarily for cosmetic purposes, it is not essential. However, for fans of games like XCOM, Troubleshooter offers a unique experience that is worth considering. I highly recommend it.
9/10