This is WORLD OF HORROR: The end of the world is nigh, and the only solution is to confront the terror reigning over the apocalypse. Navigate this hellish, roguelite reality through turn-based combat and unforgiving choices in this roguelite-style cosmic horror RPG.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19101839/Snowglobe_Vertical_Teaser_RGB_US.jpg "Horror")
Forstarters, the way your followers or companions who you have join youduring an adventure is great. They don't directly add to your combatpower, nor do they show up to help you with the weird shit so much.Instead, they act as a stat bonus (or sometimes negative- I try tokill these ones off as soon as possible of course) and can be used incombat as a one off attack (which always kills them) or they can beused to 'distract' an enemy, which has a chance to kill them andgrants you some more combat speed for the encounter. I think thisdesign to hirelings is really interesting and, in the grand scheme,kind of unique. Having an extra hireling or follower who doesn'tdirectly double your player's ability to do stuff is pretty nice,it's the sort of abstraction in gameplay I think works well. You canalso consider that a highly charismatic character could have anentourage of a bunch of helpers, but all they do is add maybe a smallbonus to a roll or act as a meat shield for an attack. I think thatwould be a nice way to 'balance' out the player characters with alot of charisma versus the ones with a little that doesn't involvejust letting them have a ton more powerful helpers. Of course,balance isn't necessarily a primary goal of a game, which is why Iput it in quotes, but it's still nice to strive for a 'balance'.
WORLD OF HORROR is a love letter to the cosmic horror work of Junji Ito (伊藤 潤二) and the 1-bit aesthetics of early Macintosh computers. Armed with clues, spells, and your dwindling sanity, you'll investigate mysteries all over the city and in the realms beyond. World of Horror is a Lovecraftian-horror role-playing game where players must 'navigate a hellish roguelite reality with turn-based combat and unforgiving choices.' World of Horror was created by panstasz, published by Ysbyrd Games, and released on February 20, 2020. The End of the World as We Know It can be prevented by nerds playing an RPG. One of Miku's outfits is a t-shirt with the words 'SKELETON VOMIT' written on it. The mere fact that most of the protagonists are teenagers who have no business going up against eldritch horrors is already amusing in a certain sense, but what makes it even better is. Summary: Experience the quiet terror of this 1-bit love letter to Junji Ito and H.P. Navigate a hellish roguelite reality with turn-based combat and unforgiving choices. Experiment with your deck of event cards to discover new forms of cosmic horror in every playthrough.
Ihave no idea why I find this so fascinating. I have a weird thing forgames with 'Power' as a sort of generic stat, or all encompassingthing, but to me in World of Horror this seems perfectly fitting.Like the more powerful something is, the more impossible it is for avunerable human like yourself to actually fight it. It's not that itnecessarily dealing more damage to you, because enemies in this gamecan do more things then just damage your basic health or sanity. It'smore like it's 'presence' is more powerful. Harder to destroy andphysically harm, it's pull on the world is supernaturally stronger.While it rubs slightly against the concept of a clear division ofghost enemies (which can't be hurt by physical attacks at all) andmore regular monsters or creatures which can be anything from weirdmutant people to serial killers to otherworldly entities. The morepowerful they are, the more they transcend the physical reality youlive in, the less you can do against them. Like they seep into theshadows of the room, their malovelnce almost makes them intangible.Almost like they are more of a presence then a flesh and bloodcreature you ever hope to fight.
Butnow, let's talk about a few negative things. As far as an 'earlyaccess' indie game goes, World of Horror is really well polished.But the spread of content is weird to me. It feels like the developerput a lot of effort to finish a lot of things that aren't asimpactful as the obvious, main things that everyone will notice. Ifthat doesn't make sense, let me be more specific. The game hasmultiple characters with multiple costumes, you can also pick fromseveral backgrounds which have unique events and parameters that makeeach run harder- this is great. But the game only has a total ofabout 12 case files, which is something you will need to be doingover and over again on any given run.
Forstarters, the way your followers or companions who you have join youduring an adventure is great. They don't directly add to your combatpower, nor do they show up to help you with the weird shit so much.Instead, they act as a stat bonus (or sometimes negative- I try tokill these ones off as soon as possible of course) and can be used incombat as a one off attack (which always kills them) or they can beused to 'distract' an enemy, which has a chance to kill them andgrants you some more combat speed for the encounter. I think thisdesign to hirelings is really interesting and, in the grand scheme,kind of unique. Having an extra hireling or follower who doesn'tdirectly double your player's ability to do stuff is pretty nice,it's the sort of abstraction in gameplay I think works well. You canalso consider that a highly charismatic character could have anentourage of a bunch of helpers, but all they do is add maybe a smallbonus to a roll or act as a meat shield for an attack. I think thatwould be a nice way to 'balance' out the player characters with alot of charisma versus the ones with a little that doesn't involvejust letting them have a ton more powerful helpers. Of course,balance isn't necessarily a primary goal of a game, which is why Iput it in quotes, but it's still nice to strive for a 'balance'.
WORLD OF HORROR is a love letter to the cosmic horror work of Junji Ito (伊藤 潤二) and the 1-bit aesthetics of early Macintosh computers. Armed with clues, spells, and your dwindling sanity, you'll investigate mysteries all over the city and in the realms beyond. World of Horror is a Lovecraftian-horror role-playing game where players must 'navigate a hellish roguelite reality with turn-based combat and unforgiving choices.' World of Horror was created by panstasz, published by Ysbyrd Games, and released on February 20, 2020. The End of the World as We Know It can be prevented by nerds playing an RPG. One of Miku's outfits is a t-shirt with the words 'SKELETON VOMIT' written on it. The mere fact that most of the protagonists are teenagers who have no business going up against eldritch horrors is already amusing in a certain sense, but what makes it even better is. Summary: Experience the quiet terror of this 1-bit love letter to Junji Ito and H.P. Navigate a hellish roguelite reality with turn-based combat and unforgiving choices. Experiment with your deck of event cards to discover new forms of cosmic horror in every playthrough.
Ihave no idea why I find this so fascinating. I have a weird thing forgames with 'Power' as a sort of generic stat, or all encompassingthing, but to me in World of Horror this seems perfectly fitting.Like the more powerful something is, the more impossible it is for avunerable human like yourself to actually fight it. It's not that itnecessarily dealing more damage to you, because enemies in this gamecan do more things then just damage your basic health or sanity. It'smore like it's 'presence' is more powerful. Harder to destroy andphysically harm, it's pull on the world is supernaturally stronger.While it rubs slightly against the concept of a clear division ofghost enemies (which can't be hurt by physical attacks at all) andmore regular monsters or creatures which can be anything from weirdmutant people to serial killers to otherworldly entities. The morepowerful they are, the more they transcend the physical reality youlive in, the less you can do against them. Like they seep into theshadows of the room, their malovelnce almost makes them intangible.Almost like they are more of a presence then a flesh and bloodcreature you ever hope to fight.
Butnow, let's talk about a few negative things. As far as an 'earlyaccess' indie game goes, World of Horror is really well polished.But the spread of content is weird to me. It feels like the developerput a lot of effort to finish a lot of things that aren't asimpactful as the obvious, main things that everyone will notice. Ifthat doesn't make sense, let me be more specific. The game hasmultiple characters with multiple costumes, you can also pick fromseveral backgrounds which have unique events and parameters that makeeach run harder- this is great. But the game only has a total ofabout 12 case files, which is something you will need to be doingover and over again on any given run.World Of Horror Wiki
Edit:While writing this, the developer came in and dropped a new case fileand a bunch of new events, so that's one me I guess. Like I said,this game is in development and has some great vision behind it!
Thecase files I think are the worst thing about the game; not the filesthemselves; most range from decent to really good. The idea to givecase files multiple endings was brilliant- it adds to replay valueand gives you an incentive to play a specific way if you're lookingto get everything. But you have to do five of them every run, whichalways ends at the lighthouse. Because of this, you'll be doingalmost half of the case files every single time you play, so the moreruns you do (and since you'll die a lot) you'll be seeing the samecases over and over.
Sohere's my suggestion- make it so you only do 4 case files. This wouldcut down on seeing the same cases over and over, though obviouslythat would make the game much easier. In that regard I could see anoverall increase in either the amount of Doom you get from events, orcutting down the amount of free healing you get after a case file.First you get a free +1/+1 for simply solving a mystery, then you getANOTHER +1/+1 for taking a bath, and finally you get to pick anotherpoint to restore for either Stamina (health) or Reason (Sanity). Thismeans you're getting a total of 5 stat points restored for completinga case file!
Second;the above issue is also present for Doom. In my first playthroughwhere I got to the lighthouse, I had about 90% Doom. I was excited tosee the end of the game so close to the wire; but then I saw that Iwas getting Doom for climbing the staircase at the end even withoutfailing a skill check. This I thought was terrible- since all gamesmust end at the lighthouse, and you can't go into town or do anything(unless if you have an item or spell or something that reduces Doom,getting to 100% Doom isn't actually an automatic game over. Have acertain 90%+ Doom is actually a game over, since it's unavoidableDoom. This I felt wasn't very fun, but it's ultimately a minorcomplaint, as any playthrough where you have such a high level ofDoom you're probably screwed anyway.
Finally;the events. After finishing a mystery, the game will have randomevents that can make it more difficult. I think these are great, butmy problem with them is that they are not at all 'balanced' witheach other. What I mean is that some are relatively minor, and someare almost crippling. If after doing the first mystery my event is'Contained Water', I just restart my run. Why? Because that eventprevents you from bathing between missions. This bath restores +1/+1to your stats, and you get to pick either +1 Reason, +1 Stamina, or+5 XP (usually not worth it unless if it's your first bath when youfull health anyway). As such, this one is pretty terrible to get,especially early. However some of them, like the TV signal going out,doesn't do anything as far as I am aware!
Sohere's my suggestion for this- make it so finishing a mystery doesn'tactually restore any stamina or reason. Why? Because this makes yourrecovery more reliant on the events, and ultimately more difficult.Instead, you can both bathe once after finishing a mission, and relaxonce, which uses the TV. Taking a bath restores +1 Stamina, and thenyou can pick another option- one option can be to restore another +1Stamina (hot water?), and one option could be to soak (removing aminor injury). This would better fit the theme of the bath being yourphysical recovery. You could also keep in the option to bottle upsome bath water (which I thought was hilarious, until I saw that itjust gives you the 'bottle of water' item you can drink- sostupid! Make it so you can sell your bath water to a perv. Muchbetter and more fitting). Then, the TV acts as your ability torecover your reason. You automatically restore 1 Reason, then canwatch a comedy (+1 more reason), watch the news (+5 xp perhaps?). I'dalso like to see an option here to reduce Doom, perhaps watching anature documentary reduces Doom somehow, or calling in things of whatyou found to science organizations as they work to understand it.
Thereason why I suggest these changes is because at the end of the day,it's actually less stats total (+2/+2 maximum instead of the +2/+2/+1choice of stat you get as vanilla) and makes the random events lesstotally punishing. You could also take the above and make it so onerecovery action (bath or relaxing) can be done to recover the otherstat as an option. So like in vanilla, you can take a bath to restore+1 Stamina, but can choose to use cold water which restores +1 Reason.This way, if the water is contaminated or the signal goes out, youstill have a small, steady supply of healing, it's just slowingdwindling. This I feel matches the game's tone a lot better.
World Of Horror Mermaid
Regardlessof my minor nitpicks; World of Horror is a great game. Even if thewords 'indie early access' frighten you, I already put about fourteen hours into the game with what it has to offer already. Themusic and art is enough to push it to yet another level- and I haven't even checked out the modding scene yet. This game isgreat and I'm eagerly watching its development- I can't recommend itenough.
