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Valdis Story: Abyssal City on Steam

R

robotzombie

Member
Anyone see/hear/know about this game? It looks really awesome.

here is a random gameplay video

Metroidvania style action game with two main characters, swordie guy and punchie girl. Both can use magic as well and you get multiple skill trees to develop your characters with. Gameplay looks pretty solid and searching through the map allows you to find equipment as well as things like wall jumps and teleports and such that let you proceed further in classic metroid style.

I believe two more characters will eventually be added for free to the game.

15 smackers on Steam



Searched and didn't find anything, send me to the Abyssal City if old
 
R

robotzombie

Member
Well my friend just gifted it to me as a belated birthday present, and so far so good. The fighting is pretty crisp and you get a cancel skill by pressing down that I think is going to play into the combat. Skill tree seems simple enough but it looks like you might be able to create some nice "builds" focusing on magic or attacks, straight damage or combos or criticals, etc.
 
N

Nillansan

Member
I posted this in the Steam thread.

One of our resident indie game enthusiasts wrote his impressions on his site. The several impressions that are posted in the Steam Community forum seem very positive.
 
D

Decado

Member
Does the dev get more money if you buy it from their site? Not sure what cut amazon payments gets vs. steam, desura, etc.
 
N

Nillansan

Member
Decado said:
Does the dev get more money if you buy it from their site? Not sure what cut amazon payments gets vs. steam, desura, etc.
Click to expand...

I am unsure how big a cut Desura and Amazon get from a purchase, but I am quite sure that the developer gets a bigger piece of the pie if you buy it through their site as opposed to Steam.
 
M

Mister D

Member
I was checking this video out today. I just bought Alice: Madness Returns because it was $5 and I liked the hair tech from the first time I saw it and I also got the Joe Danger bundle. This game looks pretty cool too and I just might buy it. I have no friggin idea when I'll get to play it though. Damn PC gaming and its low prices and my lack of self control.
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
Hopefully I will be playing this by the weekend, looks right up my alley.

Decado said:
Does the dev get more money if you buy it from their site? Not sure what cut amazon payments gets vs. steam, desura, etc.
Click to expand...
Yeah, typically they'll get 100% from their site if there's a Humble Store widget or something.

Steam (and others) take 30%.
 
L

Lijik

Member
Saw this on steam today and the trailer looked REALLY great. Will probably pick up since the buzz is positive
 
G

GhostRidah

Member
I keep seeing nothing but positive things about the game, I really want to pull the trigger but I am way to occupied with Batman Origins and Battlefield 4 at the moment.
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
Just a quick pop-in to say that if you liked any of the GBA or DS Castlevania games, you should probably check this out.

The combat feels very deep so far, with skill cancels and dash combos and such.

There are also pretty varied skill trees, three of them, so you can customize your play style a bit.
 
spandexmonkey

spandexmonkey

Banned
Haven't played it a whole lot since I picked it up a couple days ago. Got to the second boss and so far it's been fantastic. Passed lots of obstacles/power ups I can't reach until I unlock certain skills. The combo system with cancel is great, game is good about punishing button mashing. Story is kind of lame, but serviceable. Bonus points for female protagonist option.
 
R

robotzombie

Member
Yeah, after spending more time with this game, I definitely recommend it. Very fun, nice difficulty, some pretty interesting puzzle aspects as well
 
O

OnPoint

Member
Got to a boss a little later in the game and found it to be fairly unmanageable in terms of difficulty unless I wanted to grind up my level. Every other everything in the game was perfectly manageable up until this. Turned me off from going any further.
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
OnPoint said:
Got to a boss a little later in the game and found it to be fairly unmanageable in terms of difficulty unless I wanted to grind up my level. Every other everything in the game was perfectly manageable up until this. Turned me off from going any further.
Click to expand...
I've died on two bosses so far and both times came back better for it (and with no additional leveling). I'm assuming the boss fights continue to rely on the deep intricacies of the battle system over pure stat boosting, but I'll keep an eye open for anything that spikes up too harshly.

That said, the plant boss drove me a little batty considering my own combos kept launching me into the poison pits.

But again, with that, slowing down and focusing a little more on heavy attacks worked out much better.
 
R

robotzombie

Member
PixyJunket said:
I've died on two bosses so far and both times came back better for it (and with no additional leveling). I'm assuming the boss fights continue to rely on the deep intricacies of the battle system over pure stat boosting, but I'll keep an eye open for anything that spikes up too harshly.

That said, the plant boss drove me a little batty considering my own combos kept launching me into the poison pits.

But again, with that, slowing down and focusing a little more on heavy attacks worked out much better.
Click to expand...

Same was happening to me, and then I discovered doing a couple of quick hits, going into a launcher, doing an air combo and quickly dropping down with the cancel led to some good damage with minimal risk
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
Valdis Story just updated on Steam, hopefully I can get to screenshotting now (going out get a treat now, but will return to the game soon).
 
C

Coconut

Banned
I picked this and Bunny must die up this week both are decent. if you are looking for some metroidvanias I'd pick one of them up warning bunny must die is balls hard.
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
Well I got two updates earlier today but the version number is the same and screenshots still don't work.

Oh well, it's time to play the game either way.
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
There's a flying dog wearing a top hat named Sir Pancakes in this game.

LRTwPoC.png
Click to expand...
 
B

Burt

Member
I feel like the fact that the game looks so good and yet it's been impossible to find decent impressions is a bad sign.
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
Burt said:
I feel like the fact that the game looks so good and yet it's been impossible to find decent impressions is a bad sign.
Click to expand...
It's just going under the radar, it's an unknown developer who doesn't make a bunch of noise pollution on Twitter, Reddit, etc.

It also got released during a Steam sale AND the day before Typing of the Dead went "viral," unfortunate timing overall.

I assure you, the game is incredible if the genre interests you.

Here are some posts I've made in the Steam and Indie threads.

PixyJunket said:
GUYS.

Prepare to have me not shut up about Valdis Story for the next week, next month.

The game is too sick on all fronts.

I just had a boss battle that wouldn't have felt out of place in a Platinum game.

Then five minutes later, I fought another boss of the same caliber.

And it wasn't even some story bravado or a crazy stage ending event, it was just "Hey, it's been a few minutes, here's something awesome to do."
Click to expand...
PixyJunket said:
So Valdis Story has skill trees, but also weapon upgrade trees.

I'm taking my sword down the critical/assassin path, apparently.

In addition, the game seems to be pretty open where I am right now, I do have a goal but I'm kind of running around through random other areas finding new mobility upgrades and keys as I please.

Armors are kind of neat too. First of all, they all seem to be behind platform/dash challenges. And they're not simply incremental upgrades, each armor set has unique stats and/or abilities. So new armor is not "better" armor, just different. You can upgrade each armor with materials that enemies drop for incremental upgrades too.

For being so inspired by Igarashi Castlevanias, Endless Fluff has gone to great lengths to take almost every little aspect of the standard formula and put interesting, unique spins to them.

Boss battles remain a highlight. although I could use some new combat or combo abilities to freshen up a bit.

And with the armor I just found, I now have triple skill cancelling/dashing.
Click to expand...
 
Y

Yuterald

Member
Hey Pixy, what difficulty are you playing on? I started on God Slayer and while the first boss was pretty hard to S-rank, the game's become much more manageable now that I've gotten a little further and grown accustomed to its mechanics and such. I just reached the boss of the Abandoned Gardens and he's wrecking me, hard. I may go back and gain a level or two, but you can only grind so much. It doesn't help that I don't proceed unless I S-rank 'em too, hah! Definitely making it harder for myself for my first run of the game, but the rewards make it worth it.
 
Y

Yuterald

Member
I'm so sick of this Metroidvania shit term too, but this game is pretty gnar-bone. Don't pass it up just because off overused/misused internet terminology. I mean, clearly the game's taken all sorts of notes from Metroid and Castlevania, but who gives of shit if the game's tubular.
 
I

ignata

Member
Lately anything labeled "Metroidvania" means "this is a platformer where you sometimes go left." Seems like that's not the case with this game, although I heard the controls are garbage, but still I'll give it a shot.
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
Small tip: Go back to the library after you've sent a few people there, they give you upgrades and such.

Yuterald said:
Hey Pixy, what difficulty are you playing on? I started on God Slayer and while the first boss was pretty hard to S-rank, the game's become much more manageable now that I've gotten a little further and grown accustomed to its mechanics and such. I just reached the boss of the Abandoned Gardens and he's wrecking me, hard. I may go back and gain a level or two, but you can only grind so much. It doesn't help that I don't proceed unless I S-rank 'em too, hah! Definitely making it harder for myself for my first run of the game, but the rewards make it worth it.
Click to expand...
I figured I'd be playing it a few times so I started on normal.

I just S-Ranked my first boss, it was a nice experience bonus.

ignata said:
although I heard the controls are garbage, but still I'll give it a shot.
Click to expand...
You heard wrong, the controls are very tight.

Decado said:
Are the devs continuing to support this game?
Click to expand...
Meaning?
 
L

Lain

Member
I tried out the demo, it was really fun, controller worked perfectly (a PS3 sixaxis) and really brought me close to buying.
I'm just gonna wait a few days to see if I can make it fit into the budget.
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
Decado said:
Fixing outstanding issues, further plans for the game, control issues etc.
Click to expand...
The game has been out for a little bit elsewhere and is pretty polished as is (the controls are very tight, even on a 360 pad), but they are addressing some Steam specific things that have popped up (like not being about the screenshot).

And there are two new playable characters coming.
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
I beat it, just under eight hours on the game clock.

My stats: http://i.imgur.com/YLhtdtB.png

Apparently, I just fell apart regarding bosses at the end of the game. :-\

But yeah, this is a keeper, I'm ready to go again on another level or to go for 100%.

I'll have a full review written up in a few days or so.
 
R

Raging Spaniard

If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
I remember this from kickstarter, they asked for ... 8k? Ended up with 40k plus.

Good to see it came out.
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
I haven't talked much outside of gameplay, but I should mention the soundtrack; it's fantastic. I picked up hints of Metroid Prime on more than one occasion from different tracks.

You can buy the soundtrack for 50% off if you enter code "steamy_release" by November 6th.

http://zackparrish.bandcamp.com/album/valdis-story-abyssal-city

One thing I could ding the game for is the map system, it makes it pretty hard to look for undiscovered areas when you are looking for somewhere new to go. The map is only for the current area and doors to different areas aren't marked, so unless you have made good memory of areas, just looking at the maps can show spots where you don't know if you haven't been there or if it's just the exit to a different area.

A full game map would be ideal, but if exits to other areas were marked, I think it would be good enough.
 
Oublieux

Oublieux

Member
As a junior member, I couldn't post a topic regarding this game, but I would support the company for sure.

It's by Endless Fluff, a small team, and they also have Legend of Fae on Steam. I picked it up randomly on one of the older Steam sales and it is most definitely a hidden gem. I think their attention to detail, soundwork, music, etc. have all carried over to their new game (and it was in development for several years).

They definitely deserve a bit more attention.
 
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