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Project Overview

"Is this the Dark Souls of SAGE 2019?!" - Sparks, during the Pre-Show stream

This is an action platformer for PC (for now) in which you will explore 6 vast levels with secret areas to find, meet a colorful cast of characters... and beat the crap out of them, along with whatever else stands in your way using a wide array of moves! You can also pit yourself against either another player or a CPU opponent in Duel! Play as either Dunkehr or as one of the campaign's bosses in a fast-paced, deep yet accessible fighting game mode!

Patreon page: CLICK HERE!
Discord: CLICK HERE TOO!

The provided download contains a concept/demo level and an early build of Duel.


Latest reviews

NOTE FOR WANDERING, FOOLHARDY SOULS LIKE ME: Read up on the controls within the pause menu. Learning how to parry and actually burn meter will save your life if you play any difficulty higher than easy!

With that said... no, this ain't Dark Souls-level hard. NES-type hard, maybe... but nothing can sell your soul like the original.

High points:
-It's still a hard game, though most of the time, your errors are yours alone.
Learning how to parry, burn meter and pick your fights will help you in the long run, and if you don't learn those skills, nothing will save you.
-The gameplay is really fun to master. Nothing beats parry-locking that boss fight at the end of the demo~

Tripping points:
-Invincibility frames? Those exist in modern games? Bah!
Again, and I can't stress it enough, if you don't learn parrying or learn the button input for the knock-away, you will not survive long. I simultaneously like and hate that about this game, especially with how easily the lizard lancers can bum-rush you with five-strings from their charge. Oh, and good luck against shielded enemies, without parry. Spear spam will not save you.
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Fontes
Fontes
Thanks for the feedback! In regards to how relentless the enemies are, at the time of this reply that has already been toned down with more readable wind-ups, among other things. For example, Frilleons (the guys with the polearms) now have an actual wind-up animation instead of a static frame, so it's easier to tell the exact moment before they start charging.

You'll still greatly benefit from all the skills you have at your disposal, mind you... along with some new things that have already been added. While parrying was never the only way to dispatch Iguanis, now even less so. Because options are a fun thing to have!

I will not be updating the submitted build to avoid confusion, but if you want you can check all the new stuff on the Discord server linked above!
SageofMa'i
SageofMa'i
I might just do that~ I hope this project goes well in the future~
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Beautiful graphics, fun gameplay, fair difficulty balancing, and excellent sound design. Only knocks are the music is kinda samey, the grab mechanic feels unfinished, and I wish I could remap the buttons. Near perfect demo, though. ♥
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Comments

This game is absolutely gorgeous. I’m blown away by the art and style. I also love the way things are setup to do all these emergent combos.

I used keyboard rather than a game pad, and found the controls very challenging. I assume game pad is preferred.

I played normal mode, but found the game very challenging—not just because of the controls—but also because the enemies have a lot of health, and it’s easy to take damage mid-attack from things like arrows.

Maybe I’m an old man n00b, but I would’ve preferred the enemies to be a lot easier to beat and let the combos and more advanced combat be a bonus. Pizza Tower, for instance, utilized the principle of easy-to-start and hard-to-master. I think this game would benefit greatly from a similar tweak of level and monster design.

Overall, this game is obviously enormously impressive and has a ton of potential to be one of my favorite games!
 
This game is absolutely gorgeous. I’m blown away by the art and style. I also love the way things are setup to do all these emergent combos.

I used keyboard rather than a game pad, and found the controls very challenging. I assume game pad is preferred.

I played normal mode, but found the game very challenging—not just because of the controls—but also because the enemies have a lot of health, and it’s easy to take damage mid-attack from things like arrows.

Maybe I’m an old man n00b, but I would’ve preferred the enemies to be a lot easier to beat and let the combos and more advanced combat be a bonus. Pizza Tower, for instance, utilized the principle of easy-to-start and hard-to-master. I think this game would benefit greatly from a similar tweak of level and monster design.

Overall, this game is obviously enormously impressive and has a ton of potential to be one of my favorite games!
Hey, thanks for the feedback!

Yes, this game is indeed oriented more towards controllers. Such will be made more obvious in a later revision.

As for the difficulty... yes, that has indeed been a common "mention", let's put it that way. At the time of this reply adjustments have already been done, such as enemies having more readable attacks. I am not going to update the uploaded build to avoid confusion, but it's already implemented for future releases. Also keyboard options have already been implemented!

What's already in, though, are ways to deal with enemies that haven't been made as obvious as they probably should've (like stat power-ups and certain moves Dunkehr has), and a proper tutorial is in the works to make sure players are aware of the tools at their disposal before being sent to the depths of hell. :P

But yeah, things will be made better. And hey, if you wanna check how development's going, there's that Discord link up there! At the time of this post there's already new stuff being shown!
 
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Wow, what a demo! I am seriously impressed with this one. The graphics are beautiful, with lush environments, excellent character designs, and gorgeous animation. The sound design is also really professional, with every crunch and lurch of combat feeling just real good to play. The controls (I played on a Xbone controller) were pretty good, though the ability to remap buttons would be a really appreciated addition -- I'd definitely prefer Roll to be on B instead of R1. The Difficulty had a solid curve to it, at least on Normal (I didn't play the others), with enemy telegraphs being obvious and fights feeling fair; Even the times I died by getting my ass kicked, I could easily see what I did for that to happen, rather than feeling like the controls or difficulty was unfair. Overall the gameplay and presentation were phenomenal.

I've only really got two gripes. First one is more on the subjective side, but I didn't find the music particularly appealing. It wasn't bad it just didn't really stand out. Second one is more of a pivotal issue IMO, and that's that the grab mechanic definitely needs some work. It just feels really finnicky and unpolished, especially next to the rest of the gameplay. I snap to ledges with ease, but ropes/chains/etc feel like a total crapshoot if Dunk is gonna grab onto them or not. The ledges seem to automatically snap to if the jump button is held, whereas environmental grabs aren't. I reckon they should all function like the ledges, as the "timing" in grabbing ropes etc feels kind of bad and frustrating, especially when they're the only way to platform.

But regardless of all that, I'm really looking forward to more from this! This game looks and feels amazing!!
 
Wow, what a demo! I am seriously impressed with this one. The graphics are beautiful, with lush environments, excellent character designs, and gorgeous animation. The sound design is also really professional, with every crunch and lurch of combat feeling just real good to play. The controls (I played on a Xbone controller) were pretty good, though the ability to remap buttons would be a really appreciated addition -- I'd definitely prefer Roll to be on B instead of R1. The Difficulty had a solid curve to it, at least on Normal (I didn't play the others), with enemy telegraphs being obvious and fights feeling fair; Even the times I died by getting my ass kicked, I could easily see what I did for that to happen, rather than feeling like the controls or difficulty was unfair. Overall the gameplay and presentation were phenomenal.

I've only really got two gripes. First one is more on the subjective side, but I didn't find the music particularly appealing. It wasn't bad it just didn't really stand out. Second one is more of a pivotal issue IMO, and that's that the grab mechanic definitely needs some work. It just feels really finnicky and unpolished, especially next to the rest of the gameplay. I snap to ledges with ease, but ropes/chains/etc feel like a total crapshoot if Dunk is gonna grab onto them or not. The ledges seem to automatically snap to if the jump button is held, whereas environmental grabs aren't. I reckon they should all function like the ledges, as the "timing" in grabbing ropes etc feels kind of bad and frustrating, especially when they're the only way to platform.

But regardless of all that, I'm really looking forward to more from this! This game looks and feels amazing!!
Hey there, thanks for the feedback as well as the review! Glad ye dug it!

For the music... yeah, it's not great in the slightest, arguably not even good. Definitely an area I need some serious work on.

As for hanging, you might be happy to know that at the time of this reply it was not only made easier to execute (no need to release the jump button anymore), but a glitch related to it has been found AND fixed, and a new leap mechanic has been added so if you long jump (roll+jump) into a hangable place, if you're quick enough you can shoot yourself forward (kinda like a second long jump). Should make for some interesting platforming segments.

As I mentioned in in a previous reply, there's already new stuff in (like control options), and you can check it on the linkage above!
 
Hey there, thanks for the feedback as well as the review! Glad ye dug it!

For the music... yeah, it's not great in the slightest, arguably not even good. Definitely an area I need some serious work on.

As for hanging, you might be happy to know that at the time of this reply it was not only made easier to execute (no need to release the jump button anymore), but a glitch related to it has been found AND fixed, and a new leap mechanic has been added so if you long jump (roll+jump) into a hangable place, if you're quick enough you can shoot yourself forward (kinda like a second long jump). Should make for some interesting platforming segments.

As I mentioned in in a previous reply, there's already new stuff in (like control options), and you can check it on the linkage above!
Oh heck yeah!! That sounds so awesome :3! I can't wait to play the full version, aaaa!!!!
 

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