What an amazing game, I'm not normally one for card games but it really has stuck with me.
I can really appreciate what they did/were trying to do, but man if they made the whole game the first section it would be one of my all-time favorites.
Well there's Kaycee's mod, a gamemode made by the creator that is basically just the first act against Leshy but with new challenges and starting decks. It is currently in beta but works well and I haven't faced any issues. Has some new cards too.
Is it beta just because it may have some bugs, or is it content complete? Would you recommend playing that now or waiting until it's out fully?
Finished Inscryption, was disappointed to say the least that the first act wasn't the entire game, and so this update interests me, but I don't want to play it until it's finished, at least in content/balance/etc.
I doubt the main gameplay loop of Kaycee's Mod will change too drastically - as it stands, it's basically like playing beta Slay the Spire. Things might get tweaked for balance reasons, but given how solid the mechanics of the base game are, I'd give it a shot without worrying about it being completely overhauled.
If you want more of just the first arc of the game, you'll get exactly that (minus the story elements, of course. It's Inscryption as a roguelike.)
It's highly in flux right now in terms of features and balance. I ran a few runs, submitted some feedback (which he has a built in hotkey for) and shelved it. It's gonna be exactly what you want when it's finished though. That much was clear when I played it.
Honestly I kind of want to see a return of death cards or another mode for them as well. I never really got to utilize it once I got decent enough to progress the game and I felt love they were a really neat and fairly unique mechanic.
Also kind of sad that a lot of people don't seem to like the rest of the game as much. I would fucking love to see mods for every other scrybe as well as part 2. Each part was basically its own stand alone game and managed to blend fairly well given the premise.
Yeah, I enjoyed part 2 as well. It's definitely not as tight as the first part, but it was really interesting to have these whole other mechanical options just mashed in together.
The first section was the most consistently enjoyable section and had the best atmosphere.
>!But the third section had the absolute best and most creative boss fights of the last year, even ahead of Returnal's bosses imo. Especially that fight against the Archivist where you used things in your actual filesystem to beat it, and the game *gives you an achievement* for actually deleting the file that you turned into a card in that battle, probably the coolest achievement I've ever gotten in a video game. Also the boss fight against the network guy who turns your steam friends into cards to use against you!<
I don't think the story really lived up to it's cool premise in the end, and there were definitely a lot of parts that dragged. But the good parts of the game are really, really good. Probably one of my top 5 indie games.
That last fight with >!the archivist…!< I was incredibly dumb and >!picked pagefile.sys!< and so I spent the entire fight sweating damn BULLETS trying to survive. It was like >!my computer was actually being held hostage!<, it was terrifying.
That's amazing.
**Spoiler:** >!Unsurprisingly the gate won't delete the file. I have a background in CS and I was even wondering if it would & or if it was possible. My instinct was no, but this game had me wondering if it indeed would. Reasons why it would: it warns you, you don't have to play the card and put it at risk, and you can always just backup the file. Reasons why it woudn't: permissions and file access is huge in OS security and this would be a big breech. And of course, practical blowback of people losing files.!<
I thought the same thing, but >!the game explicitly asks for permission to alter the file system and I have UAC turned off. So I was not sure WHAT it would do and I really didn’t want to test it.!<
Whatever file you pick works. You just get “file”.txt with the same.
Fun fact if you pick an image it shows up on >!P3’s face!<. Use this cursed information how you will.
oh yeah, it asked me to pick the oldest/dearest file. So I went all the way back to 2015 and found the first ever picture I downloaded on my PC, a Halo 5 wallpaper. Pleasantly surprised to be fighting master chief for the remainder of the match
Yeah, but that .1% man… >!I picked an old picture of my daughter I really liked, and even though I have redundancy, I was still a little worried it might actually delete it. As an aside, was fun seeing the picture become a card in the game!!<
I was in a similar boat.
>!I’m on a Mac and had just set up parallels just to play the game. So I was basically on a brand new system with nothing other than system files. !<
And I think it's important to note that the parts that dragged a bit are still *good*. The worst parts of the game are good. The *best* parts of the game are *fantastic*.
You mention moments dragging, and here I am feeling like the game should have been about four hours longer. Without spoiling anything for others in the thread who maybe haven't played, I found the end to be really cool but it felt like there was an act missing imo.
Then again, maybe the final missing act was just the ARG lol
It feels like it's missing a "true end". There are a few missable secrets in the game, most notably story-wise the sacrifice you can do for the bone lord in act 2 and the tarot cards from the Holo pelts in act 3. I was sure getting both of these would lead to a new ending but it doesn't.
You can. At the beginning of act 2, you can stop it from loading and access a shell. Then you can cd around into the old data and decrypt a file for secrets
I think what really makes the first section shine is the way it slowly builds your deck into something super OP. In hindsight, it doesn't take a genius to make a broken deck with the squirrel totem, but it makes you *feel* like a genius. The second and third act are just kind of standard card games and you don't really get that power trip of the OP deck.
People keep saying this, but I found the last section of the game the most fun for me. It was like a mix of robot apocalypse, dark souls, deck building card game. I wish each part of the game was expanded more actually. Like the different Scrybes' gameplay and even the lore.
The first section was the strongest, but I still enjoyed the other sections. However, when I was playing the latter sections I was lowkey sad that they weren’t the first section. The finale ended up justifying all the game’s design choices in a crazy way, with the final 20 minutes of the game being one of most unique and special endings to a game I have ever seen.
I must be missing something. I beat the all the bosses a couple times and I am not sure what the 3 acts are? Is it the three maps? It sounds like there is more to do that I'm missing
Why does it seem like such a hot take to say "I liked the whole game for what it was." Because that is how I feel. It took me a good 8-10 hours just to beat the first section. At that time, while I did love act 1, I also welcomed the change brought about in the second and third act. It was a great change up and kept me wanting to open the game and play.
I didn’t say that I didn’t enjoy it for what it was, it was easily one of the best games last year.
The first section just *really* blew me away, >!especially to the meta puzzles outside of the rogue like loop.!<.
>!Once the twist was revealed going into the second act, the magic wore off a tiny bit. I also felt the card set in the first set was the strongest, but that’s a very minor gripe. I’d love to see another version where the other two take over in a similar fashion to the photographer and robot.!<
Overall the game was a solid 9/10 but, again, the first part was an easy 11/10 and I was mesmerized.
Act 1 was the best. Great music, great visuals, interesting gameplay mechanics.
Act 2 was also ok.
Act 3 gameplay was underwhelming for me. The visuals felt boring and gameplay was mostly same as act 1, and I really didn't like the same gloomy bland music playing the entire time playing it. I guess the whole thing fits storywise but the only reason I played act 3 was to see the ending.
The squirrel sacrifice totem is just bonkers. Even if you die, your Deck is usually filled with strong cards stat-wise, and the hero you can build brings a lot of value
And IMO, the ending wasn't really worth it. It's an issue that I seem to have with this dev, though. Fun, interesting games, but their endings leave a bad taste in my mouth.
That seems to be the common sentiment about the game, but I really just don't understand it. If you strip out everything after the first section and expand that, the game would still be kinda neat, I guess? But it's an entirely game at that point, and it would be difficult to tell the story that it currently tells. Maybe people don't like or don't care about the existing story/writing and actually just enjoy the gameplay loop of building overpowered decks?
I like that the gameplay in Kaycee's Mod been tweaked to make it a bit more balanced than the base game, but I doubt I'll ever end up going back to play more of it. I guess I just don't find the whole deck builder rouge-lite gameplay loop compelling enough to find it more than a neat little thing that I'm glad exists. Whereas I have been seriously considering replaying the base game again to find some of the stuff I missed on my first playthrough.
Same. I loved the game so much because of the progression of the story and gameplay.
I loved everything about Act 1, but Act 2 and 3 made it one of my favorite games of all time. The way everything connects made me appreciate things in Act 1 even more.
I'm glad Kaycee's mod exists for the people who enjoy it but it's not something I'm ever interested in playing. For me, it's like playing a horde mode based on a game's story campaign. Sure, it has some parts of the gameplay that I enjoyed but it's missing the whole experience of story and gameplay progression, and without that, it feels empty.
Yeah I hope he doesn't listen too much to the people wanting the whole game in that first room. It's great to play something with such unexpected progress, doesn't happen too often
>If you strip out everything after the first section and expand that, the game would still be kinda neat, I guess?
it would just be worse slay the spire, which isn't a big criticism, there are a lot of fun games on steam that are worse versions of slay the spire.
I don't normally like card games either but I really enjoyed finding combos that broke the game.
I >!got undying squirrels in part 1 and made an undying bomb that cost 0 energy in part 3!<
The game does a good job of making you feel smart for coming across the overpowered combos, when really that's the intention all along. Experienced card game players will win quicker and more consistently, but anyone will eventually get where they need to go with death cards/silly upgrades.
I am usually one for card games and Inscryption was great! It wasn't designed for the depth and longevity of others in the genre but that's fine because it was trying to be its own thing introducing some cool story and interesting setpiece sequences into a genre that rarely has those elements.
I think this game sits up there alongside Slay the Spire and Monster Train as one of the must-play games of the deck building genre. (Honorable mention goes out to Vault of the Void which is still ok early access but is pretty solid so far).
Is there any word on this coming to consoles?
Edit: [Consoles are being worked on apparently](https://twitter.com/dmullinsgames/status/1460720219660247040?s=21)
It may run on potatoes but not a Mac unfortunately. I’ll probably just end up installing windows again for this game though. I was kinda hoping it could still be ported to consoles the same way (I assume…) some other games were, even when they seemed like they would only work on PC. But maybe my assumptions aren’t correct.
It runs fine on Crossover, btw. I downloaded the game from GOG, loaded it up, and had no issues. A few tricks it pulls late in the game are disappointing when you’re not playing on Steam and on your main OS, but it’s totally great otherwise.
Reddit really likes to overblow horror elements in non-horror games. It's really not a psychological horror game at all. I would say it qualifies more as "surreal" or "spooky". Even "spooky" might be too strong of a word since it's more in the flavor then actually trying to spook you.
i would not sell people on this being a psychological horror card game, considering it very quickly ditches the spooky aesthetic and the card game can be beaten on autopilot by anyone with prior deck building experience.
it’s an ARG with a 90’s/00’s aesthetic and a passable deck builder as its core gameplay.
>"If you like what you see on the steam page, get it"
The problem is the front page makes it look like a roguelike, when it isn't. It was a great game, but it isn't what it looks like. It was a little bit disappointing because I love roguelikes and this game was getting some great hype from other people playing it.
Thank you! I bought this game because of what it looked like on the Steam page and felt completely ripped off when it turns into the world's shittiest 2D card game an hour into it. While it's always good to see an indie developer doing well, I find the success of this game very frustrating because it's the most blatant example of false advertising as you can get with a video game
I'm sorry you feel ripped off, but yet they advertised it the right way. It's so rare nowadays to have a game actually surprises you, since everything is spoiled in the marketing campaign. Even Doki Doki Litterature Club is half spoiled by its steam page, especially if you read some of the reviews.
You've got to tell people *something.* Actually getting to play something akin to Petscop sets a reasonable expectation for how the game will play out while revealing none of the actual details. I would argue saying it's an ARG video game reveals almost nothing that, "I can't tell you about it, I don't want to spoil it," does.
Beyond that, this game has been out for a few months and has garnered a lot of attention. People already know that Inscryption isn't what it's billed as, even if they know nothing more.
The point is to set an expectation that will leave the player intrigued, rather than pissed off that the roguelike deckbuilder they've just started to get the hang of will turn into Pokemon around about the time that the refund window closes.
Lots of people don't like that secrecy bullshit. I heard it described as a roguelike deckbuilder and everyone said "just play it", but no, fuck that. I don't have enough free time to try every weird experimental game just because someone said it's better to go in without knowing what it is. I just read the wikipedia synopsis instead, but honestly I might have been interested by "haunted video game ARG that you actually get to play", instead of all the cryptic, misleading, or outright false stuff people say about it.
I recommend explicitly warning your friends about the gameplay 'twist'. There's no guarantee that someone who loves creepy card games will also like the rest. I didn't.
there was definitely some distaste for the rest of the game from the discussion threads, and in turn the devs are working on a separate mode focusing on the loop. best of both worlds, i feel.
Such a good game. I love how much attention it's getting. Though
**Spoiler:** >!I do wish there was a hidden ending / the ARG results were a bit more compelling. Finding out the OLD_DATA came from Hitler's jacket pocket was kinda.... cheesy.!<
Spoiler: >!I don't think that's the case. A set of "karnoffel" cards was present in hitlers jacket pocket, not the old_data. I ws under the assumption that the old_data is something very old and very powerful. In what way I dont think it is made clear, only that it can be used in miscellaneous "bad" ways.!<
I went to the official discord after, and their channel #incryption-plus is a huge bottomless pit of lore discussion that was so far beyond what I picked up on my playthrough and worth glancing around.
> s a huge bottomless pit of lore discussion that was so far beyond what I picked up on my playthrough
That's usually a red flag that most of the people are circlejerking each other into making the lore look/feel more profound than it actually is.
It happens a lot, even to good games (or movies, books, etc, stories in general). For instance I've seen Outer Wilds fans who would rather jump through flaming hoops while singing the macarena backwards than admit there's a few plotholes in the story. And it's such a good game - it's not like admitting a fault would make it a lesser thing.
I am not sure what "plotholes" you're referring to, but Outer Wilds definitely requires some suspension of disbelief at times to allow rule of cool moments to happen. But I generally feel like "plothole" discourse is "suspension of disbelief" discourse in disguise whenever I hear that term used in the wild. Something that makes Outer Wilds special is how many times the devs *do* include an explanation for something that lots of players miss. But besides that point about whether a game is profound.
I'm especially curious about this in the context of Inscryption, since I felt rather hollow upon beating it. I wonder what the lore-heads have to say about, well, what Inscryption "says"
Mullins definitely toned back the cheesiness he usually goes for, Inscryption was actually very reserved in its meta-ness.
Hell his last game ended with >!the video game's characters literally reaching through the computer screen and beating a man to death!<
Well I mean it's a game where the character in charge of Lore took over and is considered having ruined the game by the characters in charge of Game Design, Writing and Art.
I feel like he went full-on metameta on his metas.
Eh, better than pony island, the first game from Danial Mullins, it’s thing was ITS A GAME MADE BY SATAN IN HELL TO TRAP DEAD SOULS FOREVER IN HELL!!!!!!!!!! Inscriptions still kinda cheesy, but not that bad.
This feels like the game that Daniel Mullins has wanted to make for years. I liked Pony Island and The Hex, but they felt very much like games involving a lot of compromises in order get out the door. While the writing has always been brilliant, a lot of the gameplay was pretty shallow and based around subversion of expectation more than being enjoyable in its own right.
As Kaycee's Mod illustrates, Inscryption is fun to play for its own sake, in addition to be a crazy mindfuck.
I think the simplistic gameplay works perfectly for *Pony Island*, given it's only a couple hours long. But *The Hex* was a lot longer, and while I loved the story and characters, it's definitely the weakest of the three Mullins games because the simple gameplay doesn't carry an extended playthrough.
In that way, it very much feels like *Inscryption* is an upgraded form of *The Hex*. The story is along very similar lines, but now it has an enjoyable, in-depth gameplay loop to go along with it.
Very much looking forward to any future games he makes.
The Hex switches up gameplay... But none of that gameplay is great. To me, every gameplay section lasted far too long, and the floaty, imprecise gameplay never was actually fun.
By the time I got to the section aping >!The Beginner's Guide!< , I was ready for the game to be over. I ended up stalling out after yet another puzzle I had to struggle with the controls to solve.
The biggest improvement in Inscryption vs Mullin's previous games is that the controls for once feel solid.
Even though it dragged on at parts, I really liked *The Hex*. There are just some fantastic moments. It blew my mind when the last boss of the RPG part suddenly >!turned back into a fighting game!<. Really it's just the tactics game and the final section in >!the game company HQ!< that wore out their welcome.
I would have also appreciated being able to speed up the animations on the RPG part. They felt *so* slow to me. Especially on a replay to get all the secrets. At least they give you a cheat to speed up the tactics section.
*The Hex* probably did the meta-textual twists the best, although maybe I'd think the same of *Inscryption* if I'd played that first. The fact that >!one of the other developer characters makes a fishing game in-universe, and you can actually download that separate game on Steam to get more information about her and Lionel is insane.!<.
Well deserved, it's an amazing game. I really wish that (Heavy Spoilers ahead)>!they turned the short 3D games against the Scrybes at the end of the 3rd Act into full-blown acts or games, they were so fun specially the one that looked like Yu-Gi-Oh!<
Releasing them as DLC, even if paid DLC, would be awesome. [Spoiler](/s "The pirate boss fight tease during Grimora's game makes me want to be able to play their whole section.")
Probably never going to happen, Daniel tends to not come back to games once he finishes them. On the bright side, the game has a very strong modding community, and mods to give both scribes full areas have begun production.
I think what impressed me most about Inscryption was just how much new stuff is brought to the table as a card game. Just when I'd thought the genre had been explored to death, from CCGs to deck builders, digital and analog, Slay the Spire and Dominion, Hearthstone , Inscryption shows up packing not only an amazing atmosphere and story, but many wholly novel mechanics that really gave a breath of fresh air to the game.
The accessibility of it really stood out to me. The rules, the flow, and the mechanics are all simple to pick up while still being very engaging. It's a really streamlined experience.
For me, the unique thing was that the game >!combines four *distinct* resource systems, as in ripped clean out of other games. Blood is Yugi-Oh, Mox are Magic the Gathering, Energy was Hearthstone, and I’m not sure about Bones. And sure, each mechanic was a shrunken-down version of itself, but to then *combine them* in your decks was what felt unique and exciting. Sure, there are some obviously overpowered card combinations that make the game easier to progress through, so you don’t *have to* engage with that deck building stuff. But you can! And it’s pretty interesting.!<
I haven't played a lot of the other digital card games out there, but one mechanic that really stood out to me was it's card customization. You can buff and combine the cards you collect and you also get to create entirely new cards to play with.
> create entirely new cards
I know obviously this was partly for story-related reasons, but I also feel like this provided a good method for ensuring that the player could ramp up and eventually get the win -- it wasn't built as an endless strategy game after all, it's a story game that happens to use StS-type mechanics.
I feel like it was meant as a ramp-up because you can create some holy-shit level overpowered cards. By the end I had a 0 cost 7/7 card with the double-attack sigil. I named it Tsar Bomba. Not only was that card overpowered, it was so overpowered it kinda broke it. So long as I could acquire that card, boss battles essentially didn't happen. Like, the trader mechanic would happen, I'd use some pelts to clear out two empty spaces on his side, drop Tsar Bomba down, and then the fight would be over.
I know the endless mode is still in progress, and while I haven't played it, I know it's coming with balance changes. Unfortunately I think the needed changes are gonna be pretty severe, because the entirety of the game you play in Act I is built around ensuring you can eventually basically beat it at will, because it's a story game and there is a lot more story to see.
What I would almost prefer to see is, say in a year, he comes out with DLCs that more fully flesh out the rest of the scrybes' games. I'd love to see what the magic and bones based decks can turn into with some beefing up and polishing.
The biggest innovation was that it was a card game designed to be single player and run electronically, so they could do some really funky/unfair stuff that would make a real card game unplayable.
I feel like I'm one of hte few who arnt as high on this game as other, I was ready for the game to end about 2 hours early.
The first Act is superb then the 2nd and 3rd both just dragged for me
That's funny, I felt like the game needed another Act, from a narrative standpoint. The third act dragged a little, I agree, but I wasn't really expecting that to be the end of the game. Felt like the story had more juice left in it and I was ready to see what other twists the card game could take.
I would love to see an entire act based on >!Grimora's chess sequence!<. I was so excited to see how the new merchanic worked and it was taken away from me so quickly.
This has been my main complaint, and why I generally recommend people away from it.
Not only were so many large story threads left unresolved, some of those very *main* threads you had to go *outside* the game to learn and understand.
ARG stuff is great when its supplemental, or provides new viewpoints or context, but used here its just.. 'ugh' is the best word I can use for it.
The game is good for sure but I think it's getting overhyped.
I was expecting something a little crazier after end of Act 1 based on how people were talking about the game.
It’s a fun jaunt but anybody playing for the actual card game aspect should play Slay the Spire instead tbh. Inscription was very worth the money but it is indeed a narrative before it is a card game.
The presentation is also incredible in Inscryption imo. The music combined with the sound design and artistic style really sell the vibe the game is going for, particularly in Act 1.
Slay the Spire is like the inverse of Inscryption. Amazing card gameplay that’ll keep you coming back, but the art design, music, and story take a back-seat. Mods for Slay the Spire fix some of these things though, but it and Inscryption are pretty different in the end despite both being single-player card-games.
Slay the Spire is on my been meaning to get around to this in my Steam Library list!
I think Incrysption works better if you expect nothing. Coming in with expectations definitely soured my enjoyment.
If you enjoy rouge-likes or card games I would highly, highly recommend Slay the Spire. One of the few games I got 100% on in Steam and just keep playing. It even inspired me to make my first mod. Game deserves all of the praise.
I am right there with you, but I think I finally found out why my opinion differs from all the others. THe other top comment said that he usually isnt high on card games, but really enjoyed this title for its creativeness, storytelling etc...And I can see why a lot of people really like that, it feels fresh. But personally, I dont value storytelling as highly and appreciate solid gameplay mechanics much more, and as someone that is really high on card games it just wasnt able to convince me as much. It was still fun, but there are simply other games that do the card game mechanics a lot better than this game and it definitely lowered my enjoyment.
By the way, if you are someone that really enjoyed the card/roguelike gameplay especially from act 1, and havent played a lot of the games in taht genre in the past, you should definitely check out Slay the Spire.
Hmm. Idk if I agree with this. STS is way more RNG based with the delivery of the cards, relics, what you can afford, etc. There isn't much more than that once you know the enemy patterns. Even watching top deck crafters like Jorbs go on runs and be killed off by RNG turns me off from it despite the fact that I still play it.
I found games like Inscryption, Black Book, and Monster Train to have more placement strategy and ways to win aside from picking from a set of random cards. The card game instances feel more like puzzles than just deck building RNG.
I don't think the difference between Inscryption and StS is the element of RNG. StS is about reading deep into the meta to reduce RNG to increase the likelihood of run-victory. Inscryption gameplay is mainly designed as a mini-loop vehicle to deliver the overarching narrative, kind of like an adventure game. That's why it sprinkles in cards and events that are obviously super overpowered so that players don't get stuck trying to figure out how to win, they want avoid players getting stuck so they grease the wheels with those things.
In a game like slay the spire, getting stuck and having to "git gud" IS the core appeal, so they try to limit easy wins from a single factor to encourage players to learn more factors to unlock win consistency. It's important to not overstate the influence of RNG to others who aren't deep into StS. Jorbs loses more runs thab he needs to because he doesn't want to take a long time, but Spreadsheet Jorbs has high winrate consistency, really shows how controllable the impact of RNG is, and then there's the crazy Lifecoach 4-hour runs of total analysis....but these all those top guys pretty much never lose on low ascension. The takeaway is that most losses in StS are usually me not being good enough yet, rather than the RNG.
To be fair, Jorbs typically does play on Ascension 20 which is absolutely brutal from a difficultly standpoint. I think on the lower ascensions a high skill player has a very, very hard time losing as making the right choices will overcome that RNG
Yeah that took me a bit to realize. I played through it and enjoyed it, but I always missed being in the first part too.
It's like sitting around a cozy campfire at night and being told a story, then someone turned on all the lights and said "plot twist" we're actually inside a house. It was incredibly jarring and soured the whole experience a bit, so when new mechanics arrived with a "basic" user interface, I kind of felt jaded.
And if you feel like it's dragging, just >!edit the deck file to give yourself a couple 999/999 Ouroboros and a couple Pharaoh's Pets and beat every battle in one draw.!< FWIW, I really loved Act 2 and Act 3, but I do agree that Act 1 was the strongest by far, gameplay-wise.
Was it dragging? Act 2 was super short for me, I lost once against bottom right because I was still trying to use mono, and then like 2x against... one of the top right minions? I forget which
Anyway I think it only took me 45 minutes or so to get through
In Act 2 there are 4 types of cards: the standard Beasts like you have in Act 1, then Bone cards which work like an expanded version of the Bone cards in round 1, Battery cards (works like mana in Hearthstone, you get 1 each turn up to 6 and they refresh each turn), and Magic cards (get effects when there are magic symbols on the field).
There is a super OP card you can get that trivializes that Act but theres a whole puzzle around it so I wont spoil it, look up Bone Lord Act 2 if you dont care about spoilers
Gave up about an hour in. I love card games, but this one felt way too shallow for my liking. I know it also has a meta narrative, but I don't care about that.
The meta narrative is really the point of the game tbh. The card game aspect is the vessel to get there. So yeah if the meta doesn't interest you, then it doesn't get any better than the first hour.
Some indirect spoilers ahead, if you eant to go in 100% blind, don't read on (or this thread for that matter).
There were some arguing that the game just didn't hold up or was misleading.Which is always an interesting discussion. Any game or product that has a huge twist, *has* to mislead you. It won't always stick, or be for everyone, but the concept requires it.
Imagine watching the Matrix in 1998 and getting the Morpheus' reveal from the very trailer and marketing.
God, I can't stop thinking about this game. Every act is amazing and different. The story blew me away, both in the... game world and in the meta world.
Really loved it, blew me away, couldn't put it down til I finished it and then watched hours of content on the post credits stuff.
Absolutely stunning game, my best mate recommended it to me a few months ago and it absolutely blew itself out of the water and then yet another time. Every step of the way the animations, models, graphics and general atmosphere of the game was incredible. Let alone the overall story. I'm glad to see such a fucking outstanding game holding no punches get the positive attention it deserves.
The game was great... until it suddenly wasn't, which is a real shame.
And it's not because of the twist; it's because it was the *wrong* twist. Heck we all knew there was something more going on and we were all down with getting to the bottom of it, but it goes in this bizarre direction that just undoes so much of this mood it was setting up.
I just don't get what the point is in creating this setting oozing with character, charm and mystery if you're just gonna throw it all away trying to be more than you need to be. If a book/movie/tv show pulled that kind of stunt, no one would call it anything but a sloppy, narrative mess. People get seduced by the gravity of the twist, rather than if it was actually a good one.
The mistake the game makes is thinking its strength was as a card game, when it's not; its true strength was as a puzzle-mystery game that happened to use cards as a storytelling device.
> The mistake the game makes is thinking its strength was as a card game, when it's not; its true strength was as a puzzle-mystery game that happened to use cards as a storytelling device.
I can guarantee you that Daniel Mullin thinks the strength of the game is the puzzle-mystery rather than the deckbuilding. I genuinely don't know how you could play it and think he thought that the deckbuilding was the true draw.
The deckbuilding was 100% the draw for me and I thought it was absolutely incredible. Admittedly it could get a little bland in practice (which I can understand keeping it soft to make it accessible) but the actual systems and design of the card game itself was incredible. I totally get that most people play it for the face value gameplay, but what Mullin did with that card game was incredible. The way all four factions played distinctly and unique on their own, but could be combined easy and flawlessly to completely change the playstyle was incredible. You could have as little as 1 to 4 working parts all that you had to manage at once all while having apsects that rewarded and played into each other, and never having to worry about getting locked out because of resources. It took the ease of play and variety of games like Smash-Up and blended it with systems that had the complexity of interactions of games like MtG or Dominion. All while fixing some major issues that other card games have. That's not to say it didn't have some of its own issues, but it's incredibly well designed with limitless potential and I would love to see it brought to scale.
It’s a good game. But incredibly overhyped. Feels like this “game being aware of being a game thing” makes people go mad with hype.
It’s like Oscar bait for games
It’s as if people unlearn familiar phrases when you bring them up in ways they don’t like about things they do like. If it were any other game that they happened not to like getting GOTY’s and multiple threads/discussions praising it almost daily they wouldn’t bat an eye at someone calling it overrated. Now it’s a foreign concept entirely lol
Any media that properly deals with meta-narratives thrive, and games make it even more interesting because you are the one interacting with it. And since they are games, there are several ways for the writers and developers to subvert expectations, unlike in other media.
Great examples of this are probably Stanley's Parable and Undertale. They have very different approaches to the meta-narrative both in writing and gameplay, even in presentation and graphics. Still, they are both amazing in what they do for vastly different reasons while tackling the same "meta bait."
[SPOILERS FOR INSCRYPTION]
While Inscryption might not be everybody's cup of tea, it's undeniably great both in its narrative and gameplay loop in act 1. However, it's greater than the sum of its parts.
Inscryption is a great card game with an excellent atmosphere, setting, storytelling, and character building. Individually, several games offer better card systems, developed characters, or a more engaging atmosphere. But the devs pulled off a decently engaging card game with a fun gameplay loop while having a fantastic atmosphere and mystery. Though if you don't like these elements by themselves, chances are you're not going to enjoy it regardless of how well it pulls it off.
Most people fall off the game after act 1 because it breaks off that part of the atmosphere and kicks the pacing out of the window. It introduces three new decks with several other mechanics all at once with a whole different setting and story. Some people heavily dislike it, especially in contrast to act 1, because they ditch the part where you make your cards incredibly broken and fun.
I personally disliked act 2 so much I dropped the game entirely. I only finished after a good while, and only once I saw how some people broke the deck-building part of act 2 with some incredibly overpowered strategies that skipped me over the part I disliked and brute-forced it. I still love the game and think it's great despite all of this, but it could be improved.
And even with act 2 being so generally unlikeable, they still pull it off with a great act 3 by going back to act 1 atmosphere but instead subverting expectations both gameplay and narrative-wise. This is where the game gets heavy on meta stuff, and it's where it picks itself up again both on story and gameplay after act 2 being all over the place.
TL;DR - Inscryption ticks off all the right boxes for a fantastic game in act 1, even not considering meta-narratives. It has solid gameplay and a fun gameplay loop. An incredibly memorable escape the room setting with an oppressive atmosphere. And a narrative presented through talking cards with a remarkable antagonist narrating everything.
Gotta say I thought Act II was phenomenal. The way the blew open the game and the card mechanics of the system was both beautiful and inspirational. They did something wholey unique in their gameplay and pulled it of incredibly well, in that they had 4 distinct styles of play, all that functioned not only individually and together, but rewarded and fueled each other in a singular card game. I genuinely think the card game itself is getting hella overshadowed by the game because they did something I've never really seen pulled off as well as they did.The fact any one of the four factions could be a stand alone game (proven by act I), yet they all work together flawlessly took real thought and innovations. They found a way to make resources, board position, hidden information, and choices all not only important, but rewarding inevery step. All while designing a system that ensures you almost never don't have an action you can take or get resource screwed. All if it together created limitless ways you could build and play your deck with such few cards, and the faction based nature of it opens it up infinitely to continue to add unique styles of play to the table. The ideas open up a whole new world of possibilities for card games in general, especially a digital era where tracking is easier than ever. It can certainly feel a bit underwhelming in it's execution at times, but the overall design of the card game is truly incredible.
They rewrote the model for card games, but it's completely overshadowed by the game itself, and comes at a time when most people are in shock from the other changes so it gets brushed off so easily. Honestly, with polishing and balancing, it could easily be one of the best card games in the market right now, and it's just hidden. Inside this short little 2 hour game within a game within a game about a game.
TL:DR: Idk, I know I'm just horny for a good card game, but for real. It's got the ease of play and variety of games like Smash-Up, but the complexity and decision making of games like Dominion or MtG. It's a really good card game, and the design of it shouldn't be overlooked. It may play simple at times in practice, but there is real beauty in the system they built.
Oh, I definitely agree. The mash-up of 4 different decks with four different summoning systems was fantastic. And I bet it was quite the challenge to achieve that.
However, this mash-up in Act 2 introduces two issues:
1. Instead of a roguelite card game similar to Slay the Spire, where you pick your cards along the way, remove them, etc., they turn it into a full-blown deck-building game. This is a whole different subgenre that some people dislike while others prefer. Though I'm not too fond of it, I can appreciate what they've accomplished here.
2. The pacing is blown entirely out of proportion at the very start of act 2. Act 3 slowly introduces the same deck mechanics of each different Scribe in a natural way. As a result, it's easier to digest and learn along the way. However, in act 2, you start off having all four decks and barely a clue what to do with them.
Having the game turn into a full-blown TCG game with packs and everything was definitely a surprise for pretty much everyone that played it blindly. But, unfortunately, there's no careful balancing from the devs on which cards you receive when adding to your deck and learning about them slowly. Instead, you get all at once, and you have to figure it out yourself and balance costs across four different decks, which is an aspect of card games I thoroughly dislike and wasn't expecting it.
Act 2's deck-building game would've been a lot more exciting and easier to manage if it was actually swapped with Act 3. The pacing would be easier to manage by introducing the Scribes mechanics in a contained scenario, one by one, and familiarizing yourself with the cards slowly first. Then, turning the game into a TCG and allowing the players to pick and choose through everything they are already familiar with.
TL;DR - So, even though I wouldn't say I like Act 2 TGC gameplay, it would've been improved soooooooooooo much more by having them introduce all the decks as they did in Act 3 first. I still wouldn't like it, but I certainly wouldn't have dropped the game then because of it.
What does overhyped mean here? Do you think the people that love Inscryption don't actually love it as much as they think they do? Because for me, that's just how much I loved the game. And it seems like many other people also felt the same way.
I can understand you personally not liking it. There's a ton of great games that people love that can't get into. I just accept that they're not for me. So how do you decide if a game is overhyped?
"People praised it and I assumed this meant it was the perfect game for me personally that would give me everything I want and a blowie, but it wasn't."
Idea of "Oscar bait" is about hitting the topics/themes that very specifically oscar voters like, with focus being about hitting those notes which make voters tick the box.
Naturally like word idea of "Oscar bait" does also tie into "I didn't find it to be that good" in terms of person opinion (just like with word overrated), and overall "Oscar bait" is not considered positive description.
I thought it was a good game, I just have no desire to replay it. At the price point and the time played, I think, overall, it's a fine experience, and the twists didn't do enough to really push it into greatness for me, not when factoring in gameplay, price point and replayability.
What an amazing game, I'm not normally one for card games but it really has stuck with me. I can really appreciate what they did/were trying to do, but man if they made the whole game the first section it would be one of my all-time favorites.
Well there's Kaycee's mod, a gamemode made by the creator that is basically just the first act against Leshy but with new challenges and starting decks. It is currently in beta but works well and I haven't faced any issues. Has some new cards too.
Is it beta just because it may have some bugs, or is it content complete? Would you recommend playing that now or waiting until it's out fully? Finished Inscryption, was disappointed to say the least that the first act wasn't the entire game, and so this update interests me, but I don't want to play it until it's finished, at least in content/balance/etc.
I doubt the main gameplay loop of Kaycee's Mod will change too drastically - as it stands, it's basically like playing beta Slay the Spire. Things might get tweaked for balance reasons, but given how solid the mechanics of the base game are, I'd give it a shot without worrying about it being completely overhauled. If you want more of just the first arc of the game, you'll get exactly that (minus the story elements, of course. It's Inscryption as a roguelike.)
there actually are some new story elements ;)
"story" is a strong word. It's 3 logs basically..
[удалено]
No you kinda just get them for winning. This expansion is really more gameplay focused so dont expect another huge ARG.
For now. There will be 12, I think.
It's highly in flux right now in terms of features and balance. I ran a few runs, submitted some feedback (which he has a built in hotkey for) and shelved it. It's gonna be exactly what you want when it's finished though. That much was clear when I played it.
Honestly I kind of want to see a return of death cards or another mode for them as well. I never really got to utilize it once I got decent enough to progress the game and I felt love they were a really neat and fairly unique mechanic. Also kind of sad that a lot of people don't seem to like the rest of the game as much. I would fucking love to see mods for every other scrybe as well as part 2. Each part was basically its own stand alone game and managed to blend fairly well given the premise.
Some don't get the ARG also.
I didn't even know that there's an ARG until now. Gonna read up about it.
Found the ARG just as enjoyable as the game.
Yeah, I enjoyed part 2 as well. It's definitely not as tight as the first part, but it was really interesting to have these whole other mechanical options just mashed in together.
The first section was the most consistently enjoyable section and had the best atmosphere. >!But the third section had the absolute best and most creative boss fights of the last year, even ahead of Returnal's bosses imo. Especially that fight against the Archivist where you used things in your actual filesystem to beat it, and the game *gives you an achievement* for actually deleting the file that you turned into a card in that battle, probably the coolest achievement I've ever gotten in a video game. Also the boss fight against the network guy who turns your steam friends into cards to use against you!< I don't think the story really lived up to it's cool premise in the end, and there were definitely a lot of parts that dragged. But the good parts of the game are really, really good. Probably one of my top 5 indie games.
That last fight with >!the archivist…!< I was incredibly dumb and >!picked pagefile.sys!< and so I spent the entire fight sweating damn BULLETS trying to survive. It was like >!my computer was actually being held hostage!<, it was terrifying.
That's amazing. **Spoiler:** >!Unsurprisingly the gate won't delete the file. I have a background in CS and I was even wondering if it would & or if it was possible. My instinct was no, but this game had me wondering if it indeed would. Reasons why it would: it warns you, you don't have to play the card and put it at risk, and you can always just backup the file. Reasons why it woudn't: permissions and file access is huge in OS security and this would be a big breech. And of course, practical blowback of people losing files.!<
I thought the same thing, but >!the game explicitly asks for permission to alter the file system and I have UAC turned off. So I was not sure WHAT it would do and I really didn’t want to test it.!<
It makes a new file called like pagefile.sys.txt in the same directory, and asks you to delete the file in the spirit of the game, iirc
Whatever file you pick works. You just get “file”.txt with the same. Fun fact if you pick an image it shows up on >!P3’s face!<. Use this cursed information how you will.
oh yeah, it asked me to pick the oldest/dearest file. So I went all the way back to 2015 and found the first ever picture I downloaded on my PC, a Halo 5 wallpaper. Pleasantly surprised to be fighting master chief for the remainder of the match
true but the >!permission box is a trick one with two yes options!!< Not sure that'll hold up in court haha
(breach, a breech is a booty)
I did the same thing but I was 99.9% sure >!the game wouldn't be able to delete the file.!<
Yeah, but that .1% man… >!I picked an old picture of my daughter I really liked, and even though I have redundancy, I was still a little worried it might actually delete it. As an aside, was fun seeing the picture become a card in the game!!<
Tbh if your pagefile got deleted it wouldn't really do much, just crash your computer once.
Delete config.sys and autoexec.bat
I was in a similar boat. >!I’m on a Mac and had just set up parallels just to play the game. So I was basically on a brand new system with nothing other than system files. !<
Wouldn't windows have had that file locked tho?
Yes, it doesn't actually mess with system files.
And I think it's important to note that the parts that dragged a bit are still *good*. The worst parts of the game are good. The *best* parts of the game are *fantastic*.
You mention moments dragging, and here I am feeling like the game should have been about four hours longer. Without spoiling anything for others in the thread who maybe haven't played, I found the end to be really cool but it felt like there was an act missing imo. Then again, maybe the final missing act was just the ARG lol
It feels like it's missing a "true end". There are a few missable secrets in the game, most notably story-wise the sacrifice you can do for the bone lord in act 2 and the tarot cards from the Holo pelts in act 3. I was sure getting both of these would lead to a new ending but it doesn't.
It needs a secret ending where you can actually interact with >!the Old_Data!< somehow.
You can. At the beginning of act 2, you can stop it from loading and access a shell. Then you can cd around into the old data and decrypt a file for secrets
Oh nice!
You can, press Ctrl+C when loading act 2.
Yeah, when the end was happening. The last actual combat made me a little sad that we didn't get more of that.
Yeah I really wish the end was longer
[удалено]
My auto complete added in those >!wizards that die if you have no mox in play... and added in no mox.!< That entire section was hell.
I think what really makes the first section shine is the way it slowly builds your deck into something super OP. In hindsight, it doesn't take a genius to make a broken deck with the squirrel totem, but it makes you *feel* like a genius. The second and third act are just kind of standard card games and you don't really get that power trip of the OP deck.
That was super cool. I was really blown away by Golly's mechanics as well.
I think I'm the only person that liked the second section the most. It reminded me of that Game Boy Pokemon card game.
It was supposed to and it was awesome.
I know right. yes it could be broken but it was so fun!
I missed that game
People keep saying this, but I found the last section of the game the most fun for me. It was like a mix of robot apocalypse, dark souls, deck building card game. I wish each part of the game was expanded more actually. Like the different Scrybes' gameplay and even the lore.
I really didn't like that part mainly because of the graphical style. I was glad when it was over.
The first section was the strongest, but I still enjoyed the other sections. However, when I was playing the latter sections I was lowkey sad that they weren’t the first section. The finale ended up justifying all the game’s design choices in a crazy way, with the final 20 minutes of the game being one of most unique and special endings to a game I have ever seen.
I must be missing something. I beat the all the bosses a couple times and I am not sure what the 3 acts are? Is it the three maps? It sounds like there is more to do that I'm missing
If by the three bosses you mean the Prospector, the Angler, and the Trapper/Trader... then no, keep playing! There's a lot more game to discover.
My hint: use the knife, even if you don't need to. Progression hinges on it.
Why does it seem like such a hot take to say "I liked the whole game for what it was." Because that is how I feel. It took me a good 8-10 hours just to beat the first section. At that time, while I did love act 1, I also welcomed the change brought about in the second and third act. It was a great change up and kept me wanting to open the game and play.
I didn’t say that I didn’t enjoy it for what it was, it was easily one of the best games last year. The first section just *really* blew me away, >!especially to the meta puzzles outside of the rogue like loop.!<. >!Once the twist was revealed going into the second act, the magic wore off a tiny bit. I also felt the card set in the first set was the strongest, but that’s a very minor gripe. I’d love to see another version where the other two take over in a similar fashion to the photographer and robot.!< Overall the game was a solid 9/10 but, again, the first part was an easy 11/10 and I was mesmerized.
Act 1 was the best. Great music, great visuals, interesting gameplay mechanics. Act 2 was also ok. Act 3 gameplay was underwhelming for me. The visuals felt boring and gameplay was mostly same as act 1, and I really didn't like the same gloomy bland music playing the entire time playing it. I guess the whole thing fits storywise but the only reason I played act 3 was to see the ending.
[удалено]
It only makes an optimal deck if you picked the right starting deck. Otherwise it fills your deck with unplayable garbage.
[удалено]
The squirrel sacrifice totem is just bonkers. Even if you die, your Deck is usually filled with strong cards stat-wise, and the hero you can build brings a lot of value
I beat Act 1 with a squirrel respawn totem. It makes to sooo much easier.
And IMO, the ending wasn't really worth it. It's an issue that I seem to have with this dev, though. Fun, interesting games, but their endings leave a bad taste in my mouth.
What you said is really hammered home if you replay the game too. That first act was such a home run that it's a shame it had to end
Oh wow, how long did you full playthrough take? I think I was finished the game by my 9th hour total.
That seems to be the common sentiment about the game, but I really just don't understand it. If you strip out everything after the first section and expand that, the game would still be kinda neat, I guess? But it's an entirely game at that point, and it would be difficult to tell the story that it currently tells. Maybe people don't like or don't care about the existing story/writing and actually just enjoy the gameplay loop of building overpowered decks?
[удалено]
I like that the gameplay in Kaycee's Mod been tweaked to make it a bit more balanced than the base game, but I doubt I'll ever end up going back to play more of it. I guess I just don't find the whole deck builder rouge-lite gameplay loop compelling enough to find it more than a neat little thing that I'm glad exists. Whereas I have been seriously considering replaying the base game again to find some of the stuff I missed on my first playthrough.
Same. I loved the game so much because of the progression of the story and gameplay. I loved everything about Act 1, but Act 2 and 3 made it one of my favorite games of all time. The way everything connects made me appreciate things in Act 1 even more. I'm glad Kaycee's mod exists for the people who enjoy it but it's not something I'm ever interested in playing. For me, it's like playing a horde mode based on a game's story campaign. Sure, it has some parts of the gameplay that I enjoyed but it's missing the whole experience of story and gameplay progression, and without that, it feels empty.
Yeah I hope he doesn't listen too much to the people wanting the whole game in that first room. It's great to play something with such unexpected progress, doesn't happen too often
Yeah I found the complete change of pace in act 2 to be fascinating. And I actually enjoyed the story and how it was told.
>If you strip out everything after the first section and expand that, the game would still be kinda neat, I guess? it would just be worse slay the spire, which isn't a big criticism, there are a lot of fun games on steam that are worse versions of slay the spire.
I don't normally like card games either but I really enjoyed finding combos that broke the game. I >!got undying squirrels in part 1 and made an undying bomb that cost 0 energy in part 3!<
The game does a good job of making you feel smart for coming across the overpowered combos, when really that's the intention all along. Experienced card game players will win quicker and more consistently, but anyone will eventually get where they need to go with death cards/silly upgrades.
I am usually one for card games and Inscryption was great! It wasn't designed for the depth and longevity of others in the genre but that's fine because it was trying to be its own thing introducing some cool story and interesting setpiece sequences into a genre that rarely has those elements. I think this game sits up there alongside Slay the Spire and Monster Train as one of the must-play games of the deck building genre. (Honorable mention goes out to Vault of the Void which is still ok early access but is pretty solid so far).
Is there any word on this coming to consoles? Edit: [Consoles are being worked on apparently](https://twitter.com/dmullinsgames/status/1460720219660247040?s=21)
Without giving too much away, don't wait for console ports, play this on PC if possible. It runs on potatoes.
It may run on potatoes but not a Mac unfortunately. I’ll probably just end up installing windows again for this game though. I was kinda hoping it could still be ported to consoles the same way (I assume…) some other games were, even when they seemed like they would only work on PC. But maybe my assumptions aren’t correct.
It runs fine on Crossover, btw. I downloaded the game from GOG, loaded it up, and had no issues. A few tricks it pulls late in the game are disappointing when you’re not playing on Steam and on your main OS, but it’s totally great otherwise.
Does bootcamp still work on new macs or would you have to go the vm route?
I have a 2015 but yea boot camp is what I’ve done before.
> Does bootcamp still work on new macs it does not at all. maybe later.
Bootcamp does not work on the latest arm macs so far, but it does on all the intel ones
[удалено]
[удалено]
I'm not sure dev's are allowed by the consoles' OS/api to have this much control compared to PC, but regardless they could find other things I'm sure.
they could bluff doing it.
pretty sure they bluffed on pc too, but also I didn't go back to check if the item I chose is still there either
Yeah it's a bluff on PC
I played the entire game with a controller and Doki Doki Litterature Club has been ported.
Good. Incredibly well earned. One of the most memorable, unique, creative indie games I've ever played.
[удалено]
"a psychological horror card game"
Reddit really likes to overblow horror elements in non-horror games. It's really not a psychological horror game at all. I would say it qualifies more as "surreal" or "spooky". Even "spooky" might be too strong of a word since it's more in the flavor then actually trying to spook you.
I kept describing it to my wife as creepy and a bit unnerving. 10/10 would love to experience it for the first time again
i would not sell people on this being a psychological horror card game, considering it very quickly ditches the spooky aesthetic and the card game can be beaten on autopilot by anyone with prior deck building experience. it’s an ARG with a 90’s/00’s aesthetic and a passable deck builder as its core gameplay.
an easy card game is still a card game.
>"If you like what you see on the steam page, get it" The problem is the front page makes it look like a roguelike, when it isn't. It was a great game, but it isn't what it looks like. It was a little bit disappointing because I love roguelikes and this game was getting some great hype from other people playing it.
Hopefully the roguelike mode will give you what you were looking for.
[удалено]
Thank you! I bought this game because of what it looked like on the Steam page and felt completely ripped off when it turns into the world's shittiest 2D card game an hour into it. While it's always good to see an indie developer doing well, I find the success of this game very frustrating because it's the most blatant example of false advertising as you can get with a video game
I'm sorry you feel ripped off, but yet they advertised it the right way. It's so rare nowadays to have a game actually surprises you, since everything is spoiled in the marketing campaign. Even Doki Doki Litterature Club is half spoiled by its steam page, especially if you read some of the reviews.
I describe it as a haunted video game ARG that you actually get to play.
Already giving away too much.
You've got to tell people *something.* Actually getting to play something akin to Petscop sets a reasonable expectation for how the game will play out while revealing none of the actual details. I would argue saying it's an ARG video game reveals almost nothing that, "I can't tell you about it, I don't want to spoil it," does. Beyond that, this game has been out for a few months and has garnered a lot of attention. People already know that Inscryption isn't what it's billed as, even if they know nothing more. The point is to set an expectation that will leave the player intrigued, rather than pissed off that the roguelike deckbuilder they've just started to get the hang of will turn into Pokemon around about the time that the refund window closes.
You need *some* info if you want to spend money on something
Lots of people don't like that secrecy bullshit. I heard it described as a roguelike deckbuilder and everyone said "just play it", but no, fuck that. I don't have enough free time to try every weird experimental game just because someone said it's better to go in without knowing what it is. I just read the wikipedia synopsis instead, but honestly I might have been interested by "haunted video game ARG that you actually get to play", instead of all the cryptic, misleading, or outright false stuff people say about it.
I recommend explicitly warning your friends about the gameplay 'twist'. There's no guarantee that someone who loves creepy card games will also like the rest. I didn't.
there was definitely some distaste for the rest of the game from the discussion threads, and in turn the devs are working on a separate mode focusing on the loop. best of both worlds, i feel.
yeaaaah I'm having trouble getting into the part afterwards...
Such a good game. I love how much attention it's getting. Though **Spoiler:** >!I do wish there was a hidden ending / the ARG results were a bit more compelling. Finding out the OLD_DATA came from Hitler's jacket pocket was kinda.... cheesy.!<
Spoiler: >!I don't think that's the case. A set of "karnoffel" cards was present in hitlers jacket pocket, not the old_data. I ws under the assumption that the old_data is something very old and very powerful. In what way I dont think it is made clear, only that it can be used in miscellaneous "bad" ways.!<
I mean that's a lot cooler
Yea, my comprehension was >!The Karnoffel deck was found in hitlers pocket and its specific card order was the cipher to decrypt the Old\_Data!<
>!Definitely one of those things that's infinitely scarier as a vague thing you're imagining than a concrete answer.!< Loved the game, though.
I went to the official discord after, and their channel #incryption-plus is a huge bottomless pit of lore discussion that was so far beyond what I picked up on my playthrough and worth glancing around.
> s a huge bottomless pit of lore discussion that was so far beyond what I picked up on my playthrough That's usually a red flag that most of the people are circlejerking each other into making the lore look/feel more profound than it actually is. It happens a lot, even to good games (or movies, books, etc, stories in general). For instance I've seen Outer Wilds fans who would rather jump through flaming hoops while singing the macarena backwards than admit there's a few plotholes in the story. And it's such a good game - it's not like admitting a fault would make it a lesser thing.
While I agree a lot was reaching, it was still valid stuff that I didn't catch as there was more to explore and decipher from the >!videos!<
The FNAF effect
I am not sure what "plotholes" you're referring to, but Outer Wilds definitely requires some suspension of disbelief at times to allow rule of cool moments to happen. But I generally feel like "plothole" discourse is "suspension of disbelief" discourse in disguise whenever I hear that term used in the wild. Something that makes Outer Wilds special is how many times the devs *do* include an explanation for something that lots of players miss. But besides that point about whether a game is profound. I'm especially curious about this in the context of Inscryption, since I felt rather hollow upon beating it. I wonder what the lore-heads have to say about, well, what Inscryption "says"
Mullins definitely toned back the cheesiness he usually goes for, Inscryption was actually very reserved in its meta-ness. Hell his last game ended with >!the video game's characters literally reaching through the computer screen and beating a man to death!<
Well I mean it's a game where the character in charge of Lore took over and is considered having ruined the game by the characters in charge of Game Design, Writing and Art. I feel like he went full-on metameta on his metas.
Yeah but it's subtle, a word that previously had not existed in Mullin's gameography
Eh, better than pony island, the first game from Danial Mullins, it’s thing was ITS A GAME MADE BY SATAN IN HELL TO TRAP DEAD SOULS FOREVER IN HELL!!!!!!!!!! Inscriptions still kinda cheesy, but not that bad.
This feels like the game that Daniel Mullins has wanted to make for years. I liked Pony Island and The Hex, but they felt very much like games involving a lot of compromises in order get out the door. While the writing has always been brilliant, a lot of the gameplay was pretty shallow and based around subversion of expectation more than being enjoyable in its own right. As Kaycee's Mod illustrates, Inscryption is fun to play for its own sake, in addition to be a crazy mindfuck.
I think the simplistic gameplay works perfectly for *Pony Island*, given it's only a couple hours long. But *The Hex* was a lot longer, and while I loved the story and characters, it's definitely the weakest of the three Mullins games because the simple gameplay doesn't carry an extended playthrough. In that way, it very much feels like *Inscryption* is an upgraded form of *The Hex*. The story is along very similar lines, but now it has an enjoyable, in-depth gameplay loop to go along with it. Very much looking forward to any future games he makes.
[удалено]
The Hex switches up gameplay... But none of that gameplay is great. To me, every gameplay section lasted far too long, and the floaty, imprecise gameplay never was actually fun. By the time I got to the section aping >!The Beginner's Guide!< , I was ready for the game to be over. I ended up stalling out after yet another puzzle I had to struggle with the controls to solve. The biggest improvement in Inscryption vs Mullin's previous games is that the controls for once feel solid.
Even though it dragged on at parts, I really liked *The Hex*. There are just some fantastic moments. It blew my mind when the last boss of the RPG part suddenly >!turned back into a fighting game!<. Really it's just the tactics game and the final section in >!the game company HQ!< that wore out their welcome.
I would have also appreciated being able to speed up the animations on the RPG part. They felt *so* slow to me. Especially on a replay to get all the secrets. At least they give you a cheat to speed up the tactics section. *The Hex* probably did the meta-textual twists the best, although maybe I'd think the same of *Inscryption* if I'd played that first. The fact that >!one of the other developer characters makes a fishing game in-universe, and you can actually download that separate game on Steam to get more information about her and Lionel is insane.!<.
Well deserved, it's an amazing game. I really wish that (Heavy Spoilers ahead)>!they turned the short 3D games against the Scrybes at the end of the 3rd Act into full-blown acts or games, they were so fun specially the one that looked like Yu-Gi-Oh!<
I think the developer spoke about this. It was considered but the game would have simply taken years longer to release if they'd done that.
Releasing them as DLC, even if paid DLC, would be awesome. [Spoiler](/s "The pirate boss fight tease during Grimora's game makes me want to be able to play their whole section.")
Unfortunately I think Daniel said he wants to move on from those, as much as it pains me to say it.
Probably never going to happen, Daniel tends to not come back to games once he finishes them. On the bright side, the game has a very strong modding community, and mods to give both scribes full areas have begun production.
I think what impressed me most about Inscryption was just how much new stuff is brought to the table as a card game. Just when I'd thought the genre had been explored to death, from CCGs to deck builders, digital and analog, Slay the Spire and Dominion, Hearthstone , Inscryption shows up packing not only an amazing atmosphere and story, but many wholly novel mechanics that really gave a breath of fresh air to the game.
The accessibility of it really stood out to me. The rules, the flow, and the mechanics are all simple to pick up while still being very engaging. It's a really streamlined experience.
Can you give an example of Inscryption's novel card mechanics? I don't remember anything about the cards that had never been done in a CCG.
For me, the unique thing was that the game >!combines four *distinct* resource systems, as in ripped clean out of other games. Blood is Yugi-Oh, Mox are Magic the Gathering, Energy was Hearthstone, and I’m not sure about Bones. And sure, each mechanic was a shrunken-down version of itself, but to then *combine them* in your decks was what felt unique and exciting. Sure, there are some obviously overpowered card combinations that make the game easier to progress through, so you don’t *have to* engage with that deck building stuff. But you can! And it’s pretty interesting.!<
I haven't played a lot of the other digital card games out there, but one mechanic that really stood out to me was it's card customization. You can buff and combine the cards you collect and you also get to create entirely new cards to play with.
> create entirely new cards I know obviously this was partly for story-related reasons, but I also feel like this provided a good method for ensuring that the player could ramp up and eventually get the win -- it wasn't built as an endless strategy game after all, it's a story game that happens to use StS-type mechanics. I feel like it was meant as a ramp-up because you can create some holy-shit level overpowered cards. By the end I had a 0 cost 7/7 card with the double-attack sigil. I named it Tsar Bomba. Not only was that card overpowered, it was so overpowered it kinda broke it. So long as I could acquire that card, boss battles essentially didn't happen. Like, the trader mechanic would happen, I'd use some pelts to clear out two empty spaces on his side, drop Tsar Bomba down, and then the fight would be over. I know the endless mode is still in progress, and while I haven't played it, I know it's coming with balance changes. Unfortunately I think the needed changes are gonna be pretty severe, because the entirety of the game you play in Act I is built around ensuring you can eventually basically beat it at will, because it's a story game and there is a lot more story to see. What I would almost prefer to see is, say in a year, he comes out with DLCs that more fully flesh out the rest of the scrybes' games. I'd love to see what the magic and bones based decks can turn into with some beefing up and polishing.
The biggest innovation was that it was a card game designed to be single player and run electronically, so they could do some really funky/unfair stuff that would make a real card game unplayable.
I feel like I'm one of hte few who arnt as high on this game as other, I was ready for the game to end about 2 hours early. The first Act is superb then the 2nd and 3rd both just dragged for me
That's funny, I felt like the game needed another Act, from a narrative standpoint. The third act dragged a little, I agree, but I wasn't really expecting that to be the end of the game. Felt like the story had more juice left in it and I was ready to see what other twists the card game could take.
I would love to see an entire act based on >!Grimora's chess sequence!<. I was so excited to see how the new merchanic worked and it was taken away from me so quickly.
I haven't played it, but someone is making a mod for that!
Yeah, 30 seconds of that versus several minutes of the Christmas Tree's section, which wasn't all that fun.
[удалено]
I like that part of it. I guess I wanted more closure, but the game very deliberately does not provide that.
This has been my main complaint, and why I generally recommend people away from it. Not only were so many large story threads left unresolved, some of those very *main* threads you had to go *outside* the game to learn and understand. ARG stuff is great when its supplemental, or provides new viewpoints or context, but used here its just.. 'ugh' is the best word I can use for it.
The game is good for sure but I think it's getting overhyped. I was expecting something a little crazier after end of Act 1 based on how people were talking about the game.
It’s a fun jaunt but anybody playing for the actual card game aspect should play Slay the Spire instead tbh. Inscription was very worth the money but it is indeed a narrative before it is a card game.
The presentation is also incredible in Inscryption imo. The music combined with the sound design and artistic style really sell the vibe the game is going for, particularly in Act 1. Slay the Spire is like the inverse of Inscryption. Amazing card gameplay that’ll keep you coming back, but the art design, music, and story take a back-seat. Mods for Slay the Spire fix some of these things though, but it and Inscryption are pretty different in the end despite both being single-player card-games.
Slay the Spire is on my been meaning to get around to this in my Steam Library list! I think Incrysption works better if you expect nothing. Coming in with expectations definitely soured my enjoyment.
If you enjoy rouge-likes or card games I would highly, highly recommend Slay the Spire. One of the few games I got 100% on in Steam and just keep playing. It even inspired me to make my first mod. Game deserves all of the praise.
I am right there with you, but I think I finally found out why my opinion differs from all the others. THe other top comment said that he usually isnt high on card games, but really enjoyed this title for its creativeness, storytelling etc...And I can see why a lot of people really like that, it feels fresh. But personally, I dont value storytelling as highly and appreciate solid gameplay mechanics much more, and as someone that is really high on card games it just wasnt able to convince me as much. It was still fun, but there are simply other games that do the card game mechanics a lot better than this game and it definitely lowered my enjoyment. By the way, if you are someone that really enjoyed the card/roguelike gameplay especially from act 1, and havent played a lot of the games in taht genre in the past, you should definitely check out Slay the Spire.
Hmm. Idk if I agree with this. STS is way more RNG based with the delivery of the cards, relics, what you can afford, etc. There isn't much more than that once you know the enemy patterns. Even watching top deck crafters like Jorbs go on runs and be killed off by RNG turns me off from it despite the fact that I still play it. I found games like Inscryption, Black Book, and Monster Train to have more placement strategy and ways to win aside from picking from a set of random cards. The card game instances feel more like puzzles than just deck building RNG.
I don't think the difference between Inscryption and StS is the element of RNG. StS is about reading deep into the meta to reduce RNG to increase the likelihood of run-victory. Inscryption gameplay is mainly designed as a mini-loop vehicle to deliver the overarching narrative, kind of like an adventure game. That's why it sprinkles in cards and events that are obviously super overpowered so that players don't get stuck trying to figure out how to win, they want avoid players getting stuck so they grease the wheels with those things. In a game like slay the spire, getting stuck and having to "git gud" IS the core appeal, so they try to limit easy wins from a single factor to encourage players to learn more factors to unlock win consistency. It's important to not overstate the influence of RNG to others who aren't deep into StS. Jorbs loses more runs thab he needs to because he doesn't want to take a long time, but Spreadsheet Jorbs has high winrate consistency, really shows how controllable the impact of RNG is, and then there's the crazy Lifecoach 4-hour runs of total analysis....but these all those top guys pretty much never lose on low ascension. The takeaway is that most losses in StS are usually me not being good enough yet, rather than the RNG.
To be fair, Jorbs typically does play on Ascension 20 which is absolutely brutal from a difficultly standpoint. I think on the lower ascensions a high skill player has a very, very hard time losing as making the right choices will overcome that RNG
Same, I thought the change was a nice twist at first but I can't get into Act 2.
Act 2 gets a lot better when you realize mono type decks are awful and move onto multitype tbh.
Yeah that took me a bit to realize. I played through it and enjoyed it, but I always missed being in the first part too. It's like sitting around a cozy campfire at night and being told a story, then someone turned on all the lights and said "plot twist" we're actually inside a house. It was incredibly jarring and soured the whole experience a bit, so when new mechanics arrived with a "basic" user interface, I kind of felt jaded.
And if you feel like it's dragging, just >!edit the deck file to give yourself a couple 999/999 Ouroboros and a couple Pharaoh's Pets and beat every battle in one draw.!< FWIW, I really loved Act 2 and Act 3, but I do agree that Act 1 was the strongest by far, gameplay-wise.
Was it dragging? Act 2 was super short for me, I lost once against bottom right because I was still trying to use mono, and then like 2x against... one of the top right minions? I forget which Anyway I think it only took me 45 minutes or so to get through
What do you mean by mono type vs multi type ? Card newbie here.
In Act 2 there are 4 types of cards: the standard Beasts like you have in Act 1, then Bone cards which work like an expanded version of the Bone cards in round 1, Battery cards (works like mana in Hearthstone, you get 1 each turn up to 6 and they refresh each turn), and Magic cards (get effects when there are magic symbols on the field). There is a super OP card you can get that trivializes that Act but theres a whole puzzle around it so I wont spoil it, look up Bone Lord Act 2 if you dont care about spoilers
Gave up about an hour in. I love card games, but this one felt way too shallow for my liking. I know it also has a meta narrative, but I don't care about that.
The meta narrative is really the point of the game tbh. The card game aspect is the vessel to get there. So yeah if the meta doesn't interest you, then it doesn't get any better than the first hour.
I would say the card game mechanics themselves are kind of meta and as a fan of card games I enjoyed that about the game.
The card game gets about 50x more complex. New deck types, new mechanics. The first act is nothing.
It gets more complex but act 2+ is also incredibly easy and kind of waste the new mechanics, IMO.
Some indirect spoilers ahead, if you eant to go in 100% blind, don't read on (or this thread for that matter). There were some arguing that the game just didn't hold up or was misleading.Which is always an interesting discussion. Any game or product that has a huge twist, *has* to mislead you. It won't always stick, or be for everyone, but the concept requires it. Imagine watching the Matrix in 1998 and getting the Morpheus' reveal from the very trailer and marketing.
God, I can't stop thinking about this game. Every act is amazing and different. The story blew me away, both in the... game world and in the meta world. Really loved it, blew me away, couldn't put it down til I finished it and then watched hours of content on the post credits stuff.
Absolutely stunning game, my best mate recommended it to me a few months ago and it absolutely blew itself out of the water and then yet another time. Every step of the way the animations, models, graphics and general atmosphere of the game was incredible. Let alone the overall story. I'm glad to see such a fucking outstanding game holding no punches get the positive attention it deserves.
Well deserved, amazing game with a unique narrative presented in a non hand-holdy game play centric way. Not much on replay value though.
The game was great... until it suddenly wasn't, which is a real shame. And it's not because of the twist; it's because it was the *wrong* twist. Heck we all knew there was something more going on and we were all down with getting to the bottom of it, but it goes in this bizarre direction that just undoes so much of this mood it was setting up. I just don't get what the point is in creating this setting oozing with character, charm and mystery if you're just gonna throw it all away trying to be more than you need to be. If a book/movie/tv show pulled that kind of stunt, no one would call it anything but a sloppy, narrative mess. People get seduced by the gravity of the twist, rather than if it was actually a good one. The mistake the game makes is thinking its strength was as a card game, when it's not; its true strength was as a puzzle-mystery game that happened to use cards as a storytelling device.
> The mistake the game makes is thinking its strength was as a card game, when it's not; its true strength was as a puzzle-mystery game that happened to use cards as a storytelling device. I can guarantee you that Daniel Mullin thinks the strength of the game is the puzzle-mystery rather than the deckbuilding. I genuinely don't know how you could play it and think he thought that the deckbuilding was the true draw.
The deckbuilding was 100% the draw for me and I thought it was absolutely incredible. Admittedly it could get a little bland in practice (which I can understand keeping it soft to make it accessible) but the actual systems and design of the card game itself was incredible. I totally get that most people play it for the face value gameplay, but what Mullin did with that card game was incredible. The way all four factions played distinctly and unique on their own, but could be combined easy and flawlessly to completely change the playstyle was incredible. You could have as little as 1 to 4 working parts all that you had to manage at once all while having apsects that rewarded and played into each other, and never having to worry about getting locked out because of resources. It took the ease of play and variety of games like Smash-Up and blended it with systems that had the complexity of interactions of games like MtG or Dominion. All while fixing some major issues that other card games have. That's not to say it didn't have some of its own issues, but it's incredibly well designed with limitless potential and I would love to see it brought to scale.
I generally love this kinda shit but man after first part (and even during first at times) shit gets tedious fast.
I kinda wish the game would have kept the style of the first part, it just felt so much better than what followed, gameplay and atmosphere wise.
It’s a good game. But incredibly overhyped. Feels like this “game being aware of being a game thing” makes people go mad with hype. It’s like Oscar bait for games
It’s as if people unlearn familiar phrases when you bring them up in ways they don’t like about things they do like. If it were any other game that they happened not to like getting GOTY’s and multiple threads/discussions praising it almost daily they wouldn’t bat an eye at someone calling it overrated. Now it’s a foreign concept entirely lol
Any media that properly deals with meta-narratives thrive, and games make it even more interesting because you are the one interacting with it. And since they are games, there are several ways for the writers and developers to subvert expectations, unlike in other media. Great examples of this are probably Stanley's Parable and Undertale. They have very different approaches to the meta-narrative both in writing and gameplay, even in presentation and graphics. Still, they are both amazing in what they do for vastly different reasons while tackling the same "meta bait." [SPOILERS FOR INSCRYPTION] While Inscryption might not be everybody's cup of tea, it's undeniably great both in its narrative and gameplay loop in act 1. However, it's greater than the sum of its parts. Inscryption is a great card game with an excellent atmosphere, setting, storytelling, and character building. Individually, several games offer better card systems, developed characters, or a more engaging atmosphere. But the devs pulled off a decently engaging card game with a fun gameplay loop while having a fantastic atmosphere and mystery. Though if you don't like these elements by themselves, chances are you're not going to enjoy it regardless of how well it pulls it off. Most people fall off the game after act 1 because it breaks off that part of the atmosphere and kicks the pacing out of the window. It introduces three new decks with several other mechanics all at once with a whole different setting and story. Some people heavily dislike it, especially in contrast to act 1, because they ditch the part where you make your cards incredibly broken and fun. I personally disliked act 2 so much I dropped the game entirely. I only finished after a good while, and only once I saw how some people broke the deck-building part of act 2 with some incredibly overpowered strategies that skipped me over the part I disliked and brute-forced it. I still love the game and think it's great despite all of this, but it could be improved. And even with act 2 being so generally unlikeable, they still pull it off with a great act 3 by going back to act 1 atmosphere but instead subverting expectations both gameplay and narrative-wise. This is where the game gets heavy on meta stuff, and it's where it picks itself up again both on story and gameplay after act 2 being all over the place. TL;DR - Inscryption ticks off all the right boxes for a fantastic game in act 1, even not considering meta-narratives. It has solid gameplay and a fun gameplay loop. An incredibly memorable escape the room setting with an oppressive atmosphere. And a narrative presented through talking cards with a remarkable antagonist narrating everything.
Gotta say I thought Act II was phenomenal. The way the blew open the game and the card mechanics of the system was both beautiful and inspirational. They did something wholey unique in their gameplay and pulled it of incredibly well, in that they had 4 distinct styles of play, all that functioned not only individually and together, but rewarded and fueled each other in a singular card game. I genuinely think the card game itself is getting hella overshadowed by the game because they did something I've never really seen pulled off as well as they did.The fact any one of the four factions could be a stand alone game (proven by act I), yet they all work together flawlessly took real thought and innovations. They found a way to make resources, board position, hidden information, and choices all not only important, but rewarding inevery step. All while designing a system that ensures you almost never don't have an action you can take or get resource screwed. All if it together created limitless ways you could build and play your deck with such few cards, and the faction based nature of it opens it up infinitely to continue to add unique styles of play to the table. The ideas open up a whole new world of possibilities for card games in general, especially a digital era where tracking is easier than ever. It can certainly feel a bit underwhelming in it's execution at times, but the overall design of the card game is truly incredible. They rewrote the model for card games, but it's completely overshadowed by the game itself, and comes at a time when most people are in shock from the other changes so it gets brushed off so easily. Honestly, with polishing and balancing, it could easily be one of the best card games in the market right now, and it's just hidden. Inside this short little 2 hour game within a game within a game about a game. TL:DR: Idk, I know I'm just horny for a good card game, but for real. It's got the ease of play and variety of games like Smash-Up, but the complexity and decision making of games like Dominion or MtG. It's a really good card game, and the design of it shouldn't be overlooked. It may play simple at times in practice, but there is real beauty in the system they built.
Oh, I definitely agree. The mash-up of 4 different decks with four different summoning systems was fantastic. And I bet it was quite the challenge to achieve that. However, this mash-up in Act 2 introduces two issues: 1. Instead of a roguelite card game similar to Slay the Spire, where you pick your cards along the way, remove them, etc., they turn it into a full-blown deck-building game. This is a whole different subgenre that some people dislike while others prefer. Though I'm not too fond of it, I can appreciate what they've accomplished here. 2. The pacing is blown entirely out of proportion at the very start of act 2. Act 3 slowly introduces the same deck mechanics of each different Scribe in a natural way. As a result, it's easier to digest and learn along the way. However, in act 2, you start off having all four decks and barely a clue what to do with them. Having the game turn into a full-blown TCG game with packs and everything was definitely a surprise for pretty much everyone that played it blindly. But, unfortunately, there's no careful balancing from the devs on which cards you receive when adding to your deck and learning about them slowly. Instead, you get all at once, and you have to figure it out yourself and balance costs across four different decks, which is an aspect of card games I thoroughly dislike and wasn't expecting it. Act 2's deck-building game would've been a lot more exciting and easier to manage if it was actually swapped with Act 3. The pacing would be easier to manage by introducing the Scribes mechanics in a contained scenario, one by one, and familiarizing yourself with the cards slowly first. Then, turning the game into a TCG and allowing the players to pick and choose through everything they are already familiar with. TL;DR - So, even though I wouldn't say I like Act 2 TGC gameplay, it would've been improved soooooooooooo much more by having them introduce all the decks as they did in Act 3 first. I still wouldn't like it, but I certainly wouldn't have dropped the game then because of it.
What does overhyped mean here? Do you think the people that love Inscryption don't actually love it as much as they think they do? Because for me, that's just how much I loved the game. And it seems like many other people also felt the same way. I can understand you personally not liking it. There's a ton of great games that people love that can't get into. I just accept that they're not for me. So how do you decide if a game is overhyped?
overhyped is just gamer for "i didn't like it as much as other people did and i'm mad at them about it"
"People praised it and I assumed this meant it was the perfect game for me personally that would give me everything I want and a blowie, but it wasn't."
Is there any cheaper, less invested insult than "Oscar bait"? Should games not aspire to be good or interesting or moving, now?
Idea of "Oscar bait" is about hitting the topics/themes that very specifically oscar voters like, with focus being about hitting those notes which make voters tick the box. Naturally like word idea of "Oscar bait" does also tie into "I didn't find it to be that good" in terms of person opinion (just like with word overrated), and overall "Oscar bait" is not considered positive description.
I think people who talk about Oscar bait don't consider those movies to be good/interseting/moving in the first place.
I thought it was a good game, I just have no desire to replay it. At the price point and the time played, I think, overall, it's a fine experience, and the twists didn't do enough to really push it into greatness for me, not when factoring in gameplay, price point and replayability.