Othercide

The edgiest turn-base combate experience I've ever had - gothic, intense, poetic, and with a very interesting twist on the gampelay mechanics.

I adore the art style of this game, and the gameplay is ruthlessly unforgiving but fun.

The aesthetic and soundtrack are amazing with gameplay that is pretty satisfying once you get the hang of it, but maybe a bit repetitive at the end game. Still overall a fun experience!

i feel like a horrible person whenever i need to heal one of my daughters. good game

Listen, I've seen enough of this game to know that it's a waste of time to keep going with this.

Othercide is a really pretty-looking tactical strategy game mixed with a Roguelike. I found it while looking for suggestions for XCOM-like games and I was told that this was basically "goth girl XCOM". It kinda is, yes. In concept.

Let me get the positive part out of the way first. Othercide is the most stylish looking game you'll ever play. 90% of the people that purchase this game bought it for the artstyle alone. I've never seen a game try to do an artstyle so reminiscent of 2005's Sin City. It's stunning to look at. Environments and enemies alike look wonderful in this style. That's all great.

However that's where my praises end.

Gameplay is much like XCOM, yes. Instead of having actions like XCOM, each character instead has Action Points. Abilities and moving costs AP. The farther you move, the more AP you use. This means that if you don't move far, you can attack multiple times on your turn or use multiple abilities. Cool, I like that.

The mission design however is either dull or awful. While XCOM's missions provide a sense of urgency or a feeling of tactical strategy most of the time, Othercide's missions don't invoke this. Hunt merely asks you to kill all enemies present, which is fun enough but gets dull quickly due to the lack of other mission variety. Penance is basically the same thing - except each individual unit of yours has to kill enemies to fill a gauge, in which they automatically exfil. Survival has you survive for a given amount of time before heading to the exfil zone. All of the mission design here is boring, is my point. When missions are such a big part of the gameplay just like XCOM, it's a huge issue when they suck to play.

The between-match gameplay is also not very intuitive either. Your units, or "Daughters" obviously can be killed during missions. Spending currency earned from completing missions can summon another one. One of the core mechanics of Othercide is sacrificing a leveled-up Daughter to provide a Passive bonus to another one. I never felt the need to do this. Othercide advertises itself as making you make tough decisions, but what if the player does not want to make a decision in the first place?

See, you can't say your game is about making tough decisions and then not give me those. The gameplay of missions isn't nearly tactical-strategy enough to make those tough decisions you're talking about a majority of the time, and sacrificing Daughters doesn't feel worth it. The one Daughter I sacrificed provided a Passive that was a +1% boost. What's the point?

By the way, there's only 3 Classes in the game. Blademaster, Shieldbearer, and Soulslinger. There's no unlockable or extra classes. Just those 3.

You can also end runs early I suppose if things aren't going well, but every Roguelike has that option so I can't give Othercide credit for that. Between runs you can spend another type of earned currency (forgive me for forgetting the currency names) on upgrades for your run, which are pretty useful - stemming from being able to revive 2 Daughters or giving them all +15% max HP.

When it comes to plot, I don't ask for much from a Tactical-Strategy game. Great examples? XCOM. Aliens are trying to take over. We have to stop them. Cool! Into the Breach. Aliens destroyed Earth in every continuity. We need to jump between timelines to try to save as many continuities as possible. Awesome!

What the hell is Othercide's plot supposed to be? I genuinely don't have any idea. I swear on anything, I do not know. We begin the game as "Mother" in the tutorial and when she dies to "The Child" the game begins, where she creates Daughters to send into combat. "We must put an end to Suffering!" What's that mean? Forgive me, let me go on a little side-tangent here.

Have you heard of the term "Techno-Babble?" Techno-Babble can be positive or negative, but generally it's a writing trope in Sci-Fi where characters spout a lot of lore-based technological knowledge. "Don't worry, I put the harmonized resonator into the warp-hyper drive accelerator!" It can be positive. It works in Doctor Who for instance because The Doctor is supposed to outsmart everyone else and be all-knowing. It's a really dangerous trope to use because most of the time it's negative and just comes across as meaningless nonsense with no substance to it.

I give that example because Othercide has "goth-babble." Or "emo-babble." Either label works. There's all this brooding and despair-ridden dialogue. None of it means anything, it's just hollow. It doesn't make any sense, none of it is explained well, or etc. You can't just bombard people with pillowy dialogue and expect it to pull people in. In fact, it does quite the opposite here since the game feels like it doesn't really have an identity. When the game's tone and plot don't make sense, what am I really fighting for? In XCOM, yes, the plot is simply that we're getting aliens off of our planet, but that keeps me going - it gives the game identity, a reason for your units to fight.

I don't know what Daughters and Mother fight for. What is Suffering? What is the Plague? There's unlockable lore in the game, but the keyword there is "unlockable". And the lore I did unlock is the equivalent to vague text logs.

Another major issue with the Daughters is that they all look too similar. While you can rename and customize them to an extent, there's not enough customization options to differ them much. You also really need to give them your own names since the game's own name pool isn't that deep. I didn't even play the game that long and I had 2 girls named Desire, 2 named Mercy, and 2 named Charity. What's even worse is that they all simply look the same. All the Daughters have white hair, and a miniscule amount of 2-3 outfits each.

I apologize for bringing up XCOM so much, but that's the gold standard and baseline that judging other Tactical-Strategy games should be based upon. XCOM's customization is such an underrated aspect, because it's not even that deep either but it does enough to make sure your soldiers don't all look the same.

I have to also mention that the controls are a bit odd. The game has button prompts on the screen even if you're using mouse & keyboard, which also means hovering over these prompts with your cursor doesn't have any feedback. Very odd. The game can be played with a controller, and I did have one plugged in, so maybe that was bugging it out. Regardless, I had an instance where the camera just couldn't be panned in a mission anymore. I tried unplugging the controller, even tried remapping the keys to the same key. Still didn't work, but then it fixed itself the next mission. The command menu for abilities feels a little unintuitive as well. While you can right click like XCOM to move, if you click another ability, you have to re-click the "Move" command in order to move again. Strange UI and control decisions here.

Othercide cannibalizes it's own identity through these poor design decisions. Playing it feels numb. It's pretty to look at it, but all of this style over substance wore me down too much to go any further. I beat the first boss and continued my run pretty well after that, but I can't bring myself to play it anymore. I'm satisfied with leaving it there. Because I don't feel like I'm dropping it - I saw everything Othercide has to offer that's worth any time at all.

Such a shame that I feel this way. It's a really beautiful artstyle and I wanted to like it. I don't think Othercide is terrible, since the core combat does work and is fun for a while. Beyond that, it's simply not worth the time.

Score: 67

Tactical and fun, great art style

I am a huge turn based game player but this game, its just odd , play it. See for yourself. I would only buy it for 10 $ tho... any more is a scam.

This is less a review and more of reassurance about how the game handles unit (Daughter) progression and retrying to invest in the long-term growth of your units.

Othercide is a tactical RPG with a progressing-through-loss system.

Your units level up to improve all of their stats (more health, damage, armor, take turns a little sooner, etc.), sometimes develop permanent traits after combat that further enhance (or detract) from their performance, can decide which abilities they learn at certain levels, and assign ability modifiers (Memories) to those abilities until the unit dies or until the modifier is replaced. These modifiers are acquired via defeating enemies primarily.

On normal difficulty (Nightmare), the main way you heal one unit is by sacrificing a second unit of the same level or higher. Depending on the second unit's class, level, and some randomness - you bestow a trait with two effects onto the surviving unit. A sacrificed Blademaster offering a Damage boost as one of the traits to maybe make that Soulslinger or your next Blademaster deadlier. Or a sacrificed Shieldbearer offering a Max Health boost as one of the traits to make your units more durable. You can only have one sacrifice trait at a time, howe'er.

Throughout a cycle / run / playthrough (Recollection), you can acquire Resurrection tokens via completing Rescue missions and choosing to take the Resurrection item after the mission concludes. These are very limited in supply and you might even lose a unit while acquiring a token. You can use these Resurrection tokens on any unit that died, was sacrificed, or from previous cycles.

Once unlocked, you can start a new cycle while at the camp (Chrono Map) with access to meta progression perks (Remembrances) that you can purchase at the start of a run or anytime during the run with enough the special currency. These perks may consist of starting with higher level units, dealing more damage to certain enemy types, more HP, Resurrection tokens for each story chapter (Era) you've progressed, skip chapters you've previous completed, etc.

If you've reached the boss in a previous cycle, you can immediately challenge that boss at the start of a chapter.

Putting this altogether?

If you know you're about to start a new cycle without even attempting a boss fight, you can sacrifice a unit into your long-term investment unit(s). This will keep their sacrificed trait up to date or at the very least, have a trait from it IF the value is an upgrade from what you currently have.

Start a new cycle with Resurrection tokens as your meta progression perk. Resurrect unit(s) from previous runs that you've invested the most into. Keep getting experience with them, keep developing new traits with them, and unlocking abilities from higher levels - some of which can dramatically beneficial.

While also getting more new cycle currency and unlocking more meta progression perks.

Maybe do a mission or two to get some Memories before trying or retrying a boss. And since the boss is one retry away, feel free to use abilities that consume HP to get an edge over the boss and unlock a few more meta progression perks in the process.

As your Cemetery gets filled up with units with no investment / no traits, use the Forget option to remove the unit so there is room for only your invested units, even if you aren't using some of them in a given cycle.

At first, you may just have one unit that is progressing ahead of the others. By the third chapter, you can consistently resurrect a team of 3 to push ahead until the end, when you can resurrect 5 units consistently.

There are multiple ways to build each class and form a cohesive team with no ONE team composition to overcome fights and bosses ahead. Short of self-imposing a challenge, all classes are viable and take on a different approach and risk depending on how they're used.

I digress. Talking about some things I didn't like: some bugs that can require you to ALT + F4 to restart the game. Sometimes the KBM UI overlapping the controller UI. Some ability mis-selections, whether from a UI design or from a phantom input that selects one item up (and at the time, I thought it could be joystick drift or the mouse accidentally touching something until I stopped using the joystick and turned the mouse upside down and the event still occurred (albeit rarely, but enough that it cost me a boss battle). I didn't follow most of the story. I read a fair amount of the lore though, mostly the characters and the memories tabs, but was missing more than 75% of the events tab by the time I was fulfilled and concluded my time with the game.

Then just ending this review with some other things that I liked: the soundtrack such as Soulswap, Child Song, and Trauma Battle. The meta progression for giving me hope against the Suffering. And when team composition, progression, and tactics come together to overcome a situation that instilled hopelessness before. Being able to rename the units and change their appearances a bit to keep track of them. And then most of all, controller support.

It's nice not having to spend time mapping controls out and testing it within the 2-hour window and just having something that gets me through the game without mouse emulation. So I do thank you for that.

I digress. Hope some of this helps if looking to tackle the loss.

Good Game!

I thoroughly enjoyed this game, however, only recommend buying it when it's on sale.

It's a beautiful game. You fight against nightmare creatures with 'daughters' in a black and white horror world. The introduction of time line mechanics as well as the fact that you can only heal your characters by sacrificing others brought in new tactical considerations, which are great. Really don't recommend playing the game on 'easy' since it'll destroy the game play.

Only downside of the game is that the content is a bit limited. Five bosses to beat the game and only four classes. I completed the game and all achievements in about 21 hours. Since I believe that games are only worth their price if I spend more hours than quid on a game, I cannot recommend paying the full price of around GBP 25.

I cant say weather I recommend this or not. It has a really cool ascetic. I have not seen everything it has to offer, but I've seen the same mission Four times & frankly it felt old the first time. They are throwing the same three monsters at me over & over again. Idk maybe my tolerance for redundant for sake is gone & others will find that grind fun. I . . . just cant.

Othercide is a roguelite turn-based strategy game developed by Lightbulb Crew, where players create and manage "daughters," units that engage in combat to fend off the twisted, otherworldly enemies threatening the world. The game’s standout features include its timeline-based combat mechanics and the ability to customize said daughters. Set in a black/white gothic Victorian-inspired world, the game offers a visually striking experience, with beautiful art, fluid animations, and a compelling soundtrack that complements its dark atmosphere.

The story unfolds through memories and items found during gameplay, though the narrative itself can be hard to follow and doesn't fully develop until late in the game. While the game offers limited character customization and growth, it's the challenge and difficulty that dominate the experience. Othercide expects players to fail repeatedly, especially in its roguelite structure, making progression slow and often frustrating. The learning curve is steep, and the game doesn’t sufficiently communicate how challenging it will be, which may deter many players from finishing it.

Despite its strong visual and audio design, the game suffers from numerous bugs that can severely impact the experience. From game-breaking control issues to enemies acting unpredictably, these technical problems detract from the otherwise engaging gameplay. While the game is replayable due to its roguelite nature, there are no major post-game activities, leaving players to revisit content with stronger daughters to overcome earlier challenges.

Overall, Othercide offers a unique and visually impressive experience, but its overwhelming difficulty, lack of proper guidance, and technical issues make it a mixed bag. While it’s ideal for those who love tough, strategy-heavy roguelites, it’s best bought on sale, with the hope that the developers address the ongoing bugs. I would rate it 7/10, but would caution players about the challenges they’ll face if they decide to invest additional time in this title.

Xcom with cool vibes

A relatively bare-bones turn-based, tactical squad roguelite with a unique blend of ideas for its timeline system, and a gorgeous & memorable art style. There's very few stats and builds to worry about, instead focusing more on quick and punchy missions. Unfortunately, suffers from steep difficulty spikes and poor UI that makes information unclear to the player, especially each abilities range. The snowballing power after each run, streamlined management, and delightful character silhouettes still makes it a pleasant playthrough if you like punishing games.

Locked In the dark

Alone In the night

Grippin' your body In my arms

The pain's growing high

The powers not so far

TL;DR: A visceral, turn-based combat game, with style-noir. Dark, macabre, misogynistic and definitely not for the faint of heart. Some okay mechanics, but ultimately dull.

Full review:

It is difficult to place Othercide. It hovers on the border between steam-punk and diesel-punk, and yet it is neither. The characters are lissom, sylphlike "Daughters", who you conjure from the murky waters of a birthing pool, children of a lithe Mother (who retains a svelte figure, despite her countless offspring). The Daughters are your warriors who are deployed to fight against vile horrors, minions of torment, abominations of corruption, rot and disease. There are tones of child abuse and sexual perversion.

The art-style is minimal, yet lavish at the same time. Gloomy, rain-sodden and dismal, combining the gunge of Chicago with the foggy weather of Victorian London and the optimism of Groningen on a nice day /s. Everything is high-contrast black-and-white, with highlights in blood red. And there is a lot of blood. Mostly that of your supple Daughters.

The soundscape is effective; combining atmospheric weather of falling rain and distant thunder against the wince-inducing slices of blades or gunshots ringing out in the dark. That, and the menacing, churning gurgles and rasps of the abhorrent foes and the rending, shrieks and screams of your lacerated, falling... fallen... Daughters.

All this to a varied soundtrack of haunting melodies, synthetic beats and grunge metal. Kudos to the sound-engineers on this one. The voice over is trembling and fearful and yet determined. It works well.

I found this a somewhat difficult game. The mechanics are solid, with the core concept being a timeline-based action sequence. Combos are rewarding when you discover them and pull them off. And discover you must... there is little to go on. Your slender Daughters are expected to suffer. Like most modern games, it is anticipated that you figure things out as you go.


Crashes and issues

Then there are the more serious issues. The main problem with this game are the crashes from corrupt save files. I don't know why the save files get corrupted, but they do, then you cannot load them again and that run is effectively lost. This is very frustrating, and there is no hint as to what is causing it. I made a point of backing up the save files, just in case. Sometimes that helped... sometimes not.

There were a few bugs. Text that was rendered mirrored. Enemies that would spawn and attack when they were out-of-range (at least according to the description). And the exclamation markers just keep coming back, even after you've cleared them. This game could use another round of big-fixing, for sure.

Difficulty indicators of scenarios was odd. Challenging, Impossible, Hard? That sort of thing is not helpful. The word "impossible" means impossible, and should not be a substitute for "more difficult". In the end, I could not figure out which of these difficulties was what level. Pointless.

Also, flickering. Everything from logos on the game start-up to lighting in the missions... a gimmick the first time, interesting if used sparingly, but it's really tedious when it is every single time.

The combat moves of the 8"-stiletto-wearing Daughters were dangerously close to final-fantasy-super-hero-anime cliché. The impeccable art-noir style saves it... just. Anything less than perfection would have been totally kitch. It was borderline at times.

But, my main complaint is the tedium. You need to go through the levels multiple times to get anywhere. The moves are the same. The settings are the same. The scenarios are the same. You do feel like you are making painful progress... but it is still painful. And I found that really dull.


Summary:

I've never come across anything like this before, so it is difficult to compare it. The abominations remind me of Tainted Grail, but the rest is unique to my experience. Yes, this game is difficult, dark and otherworldly, but it is also rich and full of texture. The visuals are on another level, although rather misogynistic. Definitely not for everyone, maybe just for those intrigued by the atmosphere, and with the stamina to face a gruelling, tactical, turn-based combat... over and over and over again.

I give this 11 out of 10 for the style-noir, but only a 2 for engaging gameplay. This felt more like an artbook, than a game.

Very enjoyable, very stylish - rogue-like XCOM-like - without the base building meta-game - pretty tough turn based battles that get a little grind-y as you need to get top level "daughters" to have any chance of the final boss - some nice variation with memories(chosen skill upgrades) and traits(randomly(?) acquired character upgrades) - well worth changing the speed setting to fast once you understand the mechanics - could have done with a little more variety in the missions or maybe some additional variation in the upgrades for the daughters - maybe customizable weapons would have been fun? I'd definitely play a follow up!

Certified suffering moment

The game is very cool. At some point it is simply impossible to stop playing xD the game is also quite difficult, especially on the nightmare level, I did not manage to complete the game on this difficulty level. And even on the dream level it was far from easy. It seems to me that in DS it took me fewer attempts on one boss than here

Sick game, sick BGM, game is hard but that's the whole point of Suffering. Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain something of equal value must be lost.

This is a fun game! There's great battle mechanics! There's enough bugs to qualify as a bethesda title! It's an all around great game!

Super dark and creepy. For cinematic effect alone this game is worthwhile. The turn based strategy aspect of it appeals to me immediately, and I actually found it pretty satisfying. The enemies are well described and you can read what to expect from each in the Codex. Definitely makes for a thought provoking game while experiencing some weird psychological horror stuff. 5*

Interesting concept, bosses can be cheesed a lot if u know how. But still enjoyed it.

Cool and Fun game with turn based combat. Good mechanics. Good strategy. Cool theme and art.

Beautiful aesthetic, lots of strategy, tough choices. 10/10

Honestly can't believe how addicted I became when stumbling upon this gem.

What a diamond. What a beautiful game were hidden from me. But finally i found it. I love everything about this game. Firstly the art style. I have no words. Unique and just feels good to look at it. The story is Dark as the world is and its great. Bosses are fantastic especially the Surgeon and the Maid. My 2 favorites. The gameplay is best desribed as a turn-based,roguelike game. High risk,High reward gameplay. 4 different class,Everything works as you should think it will work so its a big win. You have a lot of way to take down enemies. Soundtrack is unique and never out of place every boss fight has its own soundtrack. Please give this game try if you read this review it wont let you down and it will reward you greatly if you play it through.

Amazing game, amazing soundtrack. Worth

The gameplay isn't really my thing, but that's more about the genre of game than anything else. I'm told it's a bit simpler than other games in the genre but I'm not the right person to comment on that. I am intrigued by the story and worldbuilding I've seen so far. I enjoy the soundtrack. The voiced lines get a bit repetitive/don't have much variety for how often they're spoken. The aesthetic is spectacular, in my opinion--I love the choice of grayscale and red as well as the art direction. it feels borderline cosmic horror and gives me vibes of Bloodborne.

A fantastic turn-based strategy with a very focussed and tight style to it and roguelike elements. The minute-to-minute decisions feel more akin to a board game like Gloomhaven rather than the "I hope this 70% shot hits" RNG fest of X-Com, and this leads to very satisfying combos and planning.

This game is such an underrated gem, it's a shame it's not more well known. Overall, I've really been enjoying this game and would recommend it to people who love punishing turn based strategy. However, it's not without its flaws that will put some people off, but I think the core game is fresh and unique and well worth a go. I'd love to see a sequel at some stage.

PROS:
* There is such a dark but engaging atmosphere to this game. Your decisions, losses, and sacrifices all feel very gritty.
* The permadeath of units adds so much tension to the game, leading to some tough decisions as you progress. As a huge XCOM fan, I love this.
* There are some great moments of unit synergy once you understand how they work and can be exploited. It's a great feeling when it all comes together.
* The initiative timeline is a cool and unique mechanic, and the initiative boosts + delays give some good strategic options.
* The art direction is amazing and really accentuates the theme of this game.
* The soundtrack is amazing, particularly for the bosses.
* The game is brutally difficult and you certainly feel the costs of your mistakes.
* The voice acting is fantastic - although the lines do get repeated quite a lot.
* The different kinds of missions, while limited, are interesting and diverse enough.
* The animations are fluid and the short cutscenes for some abilities and for some killing blows look great.

NEUTRAL:
* Sacrificing your units to heal and upgrade others is a great concept. However, I think it is underutilised and the requirement of sacrificing a unit of greater or equal level largely makes it an unviable strategy as you progress.
* It seems some abilities look good on paper, but are far less useful than their alternatives in game, so they seem like traps to new players. I find myself selecting mostly the same abilities across all units because they are objectively better than the alternatives.
* There are only a limited number of maps, so you will see the same ones fairly often. I think they could have padded this out a bit better with varying the starting locations, enemy configurations, randomly distributing the obstacles, etc.
* I think the rougelite mechanic is a little bit lacking, and it seems to be used more for saving overall progress rather than unlocking new and exciting things.

CONS:
* Boss fights can be incredibly unfair and almost impossible to predict or even plan for. If you don't know in advance what you're fighting against and you bring the wrong team comp, the fight is almost unwinnable.
* Normal enemies spawning near your units is such a pain point. The melee units are largely predictable, but the ranged units can just spawn and immediately shoot your units and you have no real way to mitigate this.
* Some normal enemies are horrible to fight against. They have their turns too often, do too much on their turn, and there's no real way to counter them.
* There are some major things lacking in the UI that really should be there. Particularly around what traits and memories your units have - it makes it difficult to build your team comp and utilise them in battle if you don't know what your units do.

OTHER:
* I'd love to see more classes, more useful abilities, and a greater diversity of missions. Essentially, just more content.
* I'd like to see a better way to manage your units turns, particularly when they are all in a row. You're at the mercy of the imitative bar and often you want other units going before others to properly utilise some skills and setup combos. Perhaps a simple delay initiative ability would be useful.

It was far too difficult for me. The first 2 hours seemed fine, but by the third it became too difficult for me to manage. I can't say it's bad, but I can say I didn't enjoy the spike that happened just too far in to refund the game.

I bought this game a long time ago and almost finished it, then other games distracted me. After a few years I came back and this game is epic - dark and beautiful, gameplay, bosses, music, atmosphere - If you like Turnbase, Rouge/Souls like games - just try it and enjoy!

I am only about 8ish hours in the game and I am obsessed! I suck at tactical games, but this has such a unique style and the challenge scared me at first but you are actually rewarded when losing so it makes me feel empowered and ready to kick butt the next time. Fun game play, average story so far. I cannot wait to finish; however, I'll be sad to say goodbye. Worth the buy!

MAKE ANOTHER ONE

Personally, I really like the game. The gameplay itself is great. Exactly what I want form a turn based strategy game where you have a squad of fighters. A lot of people compare it to Xcom. It's no surprise then that I will also do that (You'll see I have played a lot of Xcom 1 and 2).

Visually, a lot of people like it. See the screenshots and trailer to see if it's your thing. Personally, it doesn't do much for me both negatively or positively.

Audio is great. Sound effects, voice acting and the music as well are all fine. However, the voice lines do get repetitive pretty quick.

Tactically, the game is similar and does scratch the same itch as Xcom. However:
- There are only a few classes, and not many skills per class. Basically, you have less tools. Also, because there is no elevation mechanic, and no cover mechanic, and no items to bring, it's a lot simpler.
- Therefore, a lot more important to make correct decisions. It does get hard if you just mess around. There is "dream" option, but if you struggle with X-com or similar games on normal difficulty, you're not going to like this. Or at least you're going to die a lot.
- The timeline mechanic is actually GREAT and it allows for more planning, tactics and tricks then simple turn-based. Wonderfully done.

Now, I do want to debunk some things:
- I see a lot of people claim "grind grind grind" for heals. This is not (entirely) true. Basically, git gud (no joke). This is why your decisions are important. IF you screw up too much, or IF you play "casually", you will lose a lot of health and your daughters WILL die because you can't heal them.
- But I played the game for the first time, and I reached the first boss the 1st round, the third boss the 2nd round, and I'm doing quite well in my 3rd round where I'm sure I'll at least reach the fourth boss (there are 5).
- For every boss (or at least the first two) you kill, you can get 1 resurrection on ALL your next campaigns. And you can get resurrections throughout the whole game (if you don't skip parts). I've just done the third boss and I've resurrected both my A-teams from the 1st and 2nd campaign. You CAN (without grinding) make a perfectly healthy, strong team of the daughters you're attached to.

Now there are some negatives as well. First of all the seems not be tested properly. EVER.
- In the beginning it feels super clunky. Oftentimes you have to click multiple different buttons where there should have been no need. ESC doesn't work to cancel. It opens the menu screen. (cancel is C).
- Numbers on the UI are wrong. They don't show all boosts or debuffs. Just base stats/damage.
- Some things are not in the UI at all. A lot of stats of your units (traits, equipped buffs, etc.) can't be seen or found anywhere when you're inside a mission. Some of which are really important, such as "does 40% damage buff on adjacent units" and such.
- Instead of giving tooltips, the game makes you press every skill and every unit to check what they do (and then you have to cancel out again).
- You do get used to it, but it's the main problem with this game for me.

Repetiton:
- The game is, luckily, not that long. I am still enjoying but I can see that if you have played through fully, you're done. There is no reason to restart unless you're REALLY enjoying it. But there is no higher/lower difficulty, no new units to discover, no this or that choices, no nothing that can result in a different type of campaign. They're all the same.

Devs:
- I've seen a lot of messages on the forum of devs saying "we'll look into this or that" and they never did. And then they abandoned the game without getting rid of the kinks.

Is it worth it? In the end, yes, if you LIKE tactical games AND are at least somewhat skilled at them, you'll enjoy it. If you're not that skilled, or you want a chill game, don't buy this.
The game does provide a well thought out tactical system with interesting units and possibilities. By the time you've seen all of it, you're probably just about done with the game anyway. I would guess 25 hours or so? Which is reasonable for this price. Basically, it's "fun till you get sick of it".

I'm not sick of it yet, so I'm happy to say I got my money's worth.

I can say I'm a little bit of a scaredy-cat. so noir themes can go both like and dislike.
I started it for the tactical game, but this game held me in its grasp until the end.
Recommend.

𝐒𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐨𝐝.
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘺𝘴𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥.
𝘈 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦.
𝘚𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦.
𝘚𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘺.
𝘞𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘮.

𝘞𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘨𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘱, 𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘪𝘵. 𝘏𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘶𝘱. 𝘞𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘮. 𝘞𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘶𝘥. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘦.

— 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘶𝘭𝘵... 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦.
— 𝘈𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥? 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦?
— 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘶𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦...
— Why did you leave us? Can't you hear our tears...

𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘐 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳?
𝘔𝘺 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭...
𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴: 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘹𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳.
𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘈𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘳𝘺.

𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵, 𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯.
𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦...

Lots of atmosphere, great soundtrack.

Atmosphere is great, art style is immaculate, and gameplay is everything you'd expect with some interesting twists. Punishing & rewarding, with multiple ways to strengthen your units. The action point/time line mechanic in combat allows for unique strategy and risk-taking. If you've never played turn-based tactical games before, maybe give this a miss because you might not get the same kick out of it. If you are a turn-based fan, I would definitely recommend.

Bought this game on release because of the outstanding style and presentation, and in 2024 its still absolutely worth your time

It's been a while since I played a fun turn-based tactical game. And here it is again. The tactical and RPG components are pretty good, the art style and music create a great atmosphere. The voice acting is decent. There are some small rough edges in technical part, game mechanic, I would like a higher difficulty settings, etc. but overall I am happy.

If you're checking this game out, it's because of the super-stylized visuals. In that respect, the game nails it. Fantastic visual style, environments and music. It's really unique and does it very well.

Gameplay-wise, though, the game gets super tedious. My biggest gripe is there are only 3 classes, each with ~3-6 skills (depending on your level) and the skills honestly don't really differentiate or even synergize. Lots of them break down to "do a lot of damage in 1 hit" vs "do smaller damage in 3 hits" vs "do medium damage with a push effect". The environments are just a big flat square grid interspersed with barricades that don't even serve as cover in the X-Com sense. So you're usually just looking at all the enemy movements and then trying to remember where they are all going when you pick yours. It's dumb and tedious.
Much like X-Com, the game can heavily punish you if you make a mistake. But unlike X-Com, it doesn't really give you the tools to do anything about it. I guess it kind of fits the brutal stylings of the game visuals, but it makes for a lame gameplay experience.

The perfect encapsulation of the game is this: Your character health does not regenerate after missions. You need to sacrifice another character of equal or greater level in order to heal a wounded one. It's a very unique mechanic that fits great into the vibe of the game. But as far as how it actually plays gameplay-wise? It's awful. You're essentially wasting the time you spent on one character so you can sacrifice them to heal another.

Short Version: Short and sweet for a tactics game that delivers tight gameplay with a broody atmosphere, a solid choice!

Long Version:
Gameplay: Mistakes are punished hard but very few feel forced once you know what your units/enemies are capable of. Especially enjoy being able to check what moves enemies/bosses employ before they use them, really helps not having to learn through trial and error. You get a decent variety of skills/modifiers/classes to dispatch enemies that don't get too repetitive by changing/upgrading as you delve deeper. Roguelike elements are simple but let you choose between the usual starting from scratch but stronger or jumping back into the area/boss you last were.

Story: I'll be honest, despite reading all the flavour text on equips/enemies/etc. provided, I didn't bother piecing everything together into a cohesive storyline, I never felt the need to have a concrete reason to fight on so I can't vouch for the strength of the plot, it's there if you need it.

Sound: Music does a very good job of providing the right mood, sombre tunes that intensify as the peril grows, harder tracks when facing Bosses (though I'm not a big fan of vocal stuff). Sound design is on-point, weapons swing/hit satisfyingly, monsters sound creepy and die gurgling. Voice acting is okay but Mother is not as good a narrator as Darkest Dungeon's Ancestor (which is a high bar to meet/clear).

Graphics: Love the art-style and colour scheme, Daughters looks bad-ass and monsters/boss are appropriately nightmare styled.

Final Note: Game could have used some final polish, some maps are too easy/hard, some enemies too tough/weak, some choices too one sided, etc., that being said, it was a solid experience from start to finish and I'm glad I got to enjoy it, well done folks!

good !

this game i want to like but no matter what its stupid at how it plays. ive gotten killed for no reason more then 12 times full HEALTH and the enemy even though its a basic enemy guess what death for me but them nooooo they never die plus the time line stuff is kinda dumb as well oh you used 51 points well your going to 100 LIKE REALLY

It's a tactical game in a grim dark world. I can see this being intriguing if you like that environment and story type. It also has an interesting mechanic where if a character dies, they are gone from your party. You can resurrect them by earning an item at the completion of chapters, but otherwise you won't have them for a while. It also has a somewhat unique turn order determination. You can alter your initiative based on how much movement or AP you spend on your turn. It was a bit confusing and didn't ever really click for me though.

I don't usually play these types of games, but the vibe and art style alone got me wanting more, it's fun and I love the mechanics, being able to have a reacting move is so fun, you can use some of ur own health to do a move that can protect an ally, if ur smart and plan things out it can go well, being able to bring back favored characters is fun, the end of a run doesn't feel like the end it feels like the start to another try, I don't even really feel punished for failing, in a good way, though I am on an easier difficulty, it's a lot of fun and I feel like the harder difficult would be fun too it's just not for me, I definitely recommend

Very cool game.

It's an extremely difficult game. But, if you can get a foothold with the permanent powerups, that's how you can start to make easier progress.