Ludus Mortis — Dark Fantasy Roman DRPG — releases today

[Acrux]

If anyone in this thread likes this kind of game, be sure you've played the following:

There's also a sequel that will be released Any Day NowTM.

[Vergil]

HIGHLY recommend Shining The Holy Ark, too. (Sega Saturn.)

Hidden Content

This board requires you to be registered and logged-in to view hidden content.

One of my fave games from my youth. Some good puzzles, too.

Imagine feeling the need to hide your post talking about a sega saturn emulator.

[Tweed]

Last dungeon I was in had a danger zone and an enlightenment shrine (30% extra xp) on top of my temple blessing of 50%, now everyone has their primary skills maxed out and several more levels. Also I tromped through the entire thing on extreme, safe to say everyone is godlike at this point.

[1998]

Last dungeon I was in had a danger zone and an enlightenment shrine (30% extra xp) on top of my temple blessing of 50%, now everyone has their primary skills maxed out and several more levels. Also I tromped through the entire thing on extreme, safe to say everyone is godlike at this point.

How long did you have to grind to reach that point?

[Tweed]

Last dungeon I was in had a danger zone and an enlightenment shrine (30% extra xp) on top of my temple blessing of 50%, now everyone has their primary skills maxed out and several more levels. Also I tromped through the entire thing on extreme, safe to say everyone is godlike at this point.

How long did you have to grind to reach that point?

Not very. I started stepping up difficulty from the beginning because most of it was easy, which also gives more xp per kill so it's a self-fulfilling cycle. Once I boosted everyone's agility for extra action points that was all she wrote, magic wipes things out and I knew the best thing to do was boost divines to replenish as much sp as possible and increase the number of uses. They want you to sneak around those danger zones and avoid encounters, but they're really no harder than regular ones so that's even more xp. Stats seem to be more important than levels except where certain skills are concerned. Technically I'm underleveled, but I boosted my stats.

EDIT: at this point I'd be better off dropping encounter rates and rushing each dungeon to try and find one that's a challenge, but even then it's boring because it's all the same.

[1998]

Last dungeon I was in had a danger zone and an enlightenment shrine (30% extra xp) on top of my temple blessing of 50%, now everyone has their primary skills maxed out and several more levels. Also I tromped through the entire thing on extreme, safe to say everyone is godlike at this point.

How long did you have to grind to reach that point?

Not very. I started stepping up difficulty from the beginning because most of it was easy, which also gives more xp per kill so it's a self-fulfilling cycle.

Yeah it's slightly more "fun" playing like that. Still I don't really get it. Its either turning difficulty and encounter rate to the max, stepping back and forth grinding however long you can survive, or turning the spawn rate all down trying to actually finish the dungeons.

Nothing in there really seems rewarding. It feels like the game wants me to figure out how to get max XP/min and roll with it.

[Tweed]

I was pretty close to the end so I went ahead and finished it. More of the same, burning stuff down with magic and moving on. Post game has three challenges for phat lewt, no real reason at that point other than feeling good about yourself. It feels like there's only half a game here and the dev threw a bunch of stuff in without any understanding of how these mechanics are suppose to work together. There's no reason to have more than four gladiators unless you're on hardcore because no one ever gets tired and the price they charge for their services is minimal compared to your cash flow. Wounds don't keep them out of the fight either and their penalties are unnoticeable when they happen at all which isn't often. The only resources you'll ever lack for are crafting materials which pretty much requires grinding.

Speaking of which, crafting sucks, you're better saving your meagre resources to upgrade stuff you find unless you're making legendary stuff and even that will get outpaced as the gear seems to scale with dungeon level. Most physical skills seem to fall by the wayside, indeed, my tanks became nothing more than meatshields and crowd control for my elemental mage and healer. Even on extreme nothing can withstand the almighty power of inferno and hailstorm and boosting difficulty just feeds the beast. It's impossible for me to tell how much players were meant to grind, obviously near the beginning I had to repeat a few dungeons, but only one did time did I actually have to retreat. I experienced three deaths in the entire game and no wipes.

You can say the game was meant to be played hardcore and I would have lost exactly two characters since my thief died twice, that's it. The fact that you can control difficulty and encounter rate suggests you're meant to powerlevel or in the very least the dev realized you'd have to repeat dungeons at some point and you'd either need to level up to be ready or want to turn down encounters to find leftover secrets. Plus the random dungeon you get access to later on also suggests grinding as much as you please. I didn't even bother upgrading all of the Ludus, most of the upgrades are completely useless. I never ran out of storage space, not even close. Past a certain point you'll never lack for ambrosia for blessings. Lockpicking is somewhat helpful, but usually whatever was in the box got autoscrapped. The only really valuable thing was boosting food quality and the ultimate party attack.

Compare this to something like Darkest Dungeon which is made/built around stress levels and high level characters refusing to do low level dungeons or something like Alvora Tactics which really is meant to be played hardcore or else it can be completed in a manner of hours. Ludus Mortis has no idea what it wants to be so it winds up being nothing.

[1998]

Almost can't believe I am still playing it. But once everything is set up, it's at least faster to progress.

Short, 1 Boss Dungeon: Extreme (or any other safe setting) -> Very Low Encounter rate
Then once you can leave without the -75% XP hit change to Extreme -> Very High Encounter Rate

Grind until there is no Stamina left (always buy max. food) and you level up plenty after each dungeon.

Still, it's just boring. It's one of those games where I am sure the dude had good intentions but there is so much wrong that no further updates could save it.

[Tweed]

It's like he started with a grander scope, realized how much work it would be, and then stopped midway through.

[1998]

@Tweed

How do I get pass that teleporter here?

[Tweed]

@Tweed

How do I get pass that teleporter here?

There's a set of switchs on the wall in those quadrants on the lower right, they open a few passageways that eventually lead into the southern area. You'll need to crabwalk to find it efficiently.

[1998]

Finished it. In the end, I set up some auto clicker to farm a couple of million XP. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have finished it.

[Acrux]

This guy has a new game coming out that's a dungeon crawler based on the DUSK FPS.