In Spectral Sword, you *only get one chance* to hit an enemy. If you miss or use the incorrect phase colors you will die. The aim of the game is to get to the exit (a glowing blue-white particle thing) while collecting coins and killing evil knights to increase your score.
Use the WASD keys to move forwards, left, back and right. Q and E turn you left and right. To kill a knight you have to cast the correct spectral phases on your sword:
There are 3 phases and each phase can be a different color. Click a color chip under a phase name to charge the phase with that color. Phases take a little time to charge. Make sure all phases you want to use are fully changed before you attack.
* Phase 1 color should be the same as the color of the Knight's body. * Phase 2 color should be the same as the color of the Knight's shield if it has one. * Phase 3 color should be the same color as the aura/glow surrounding the Knight if it has one.
You have to be right next to the Knight to hit it. If the knight doesn't not have a shield or an aura, you don't have to set the phase 2 and 3 powers.
Well, I've been trying many times to realise how to play, but finally I understood c: So, the gameplay is very brave, but at all is really good. And I fell in love with that graphics, but I can't explain why exactly ;_;
I liked, it bought back a nice memory of old dungeon crawler games like Wizardry.
The only downside, in my opinion as the audio.
The only issue I could see was with the graphics, the coins look stretched from afar they look stretched from a far... I'm not sure if that's just the animation though.
Very interesting concept, very hard to get used to it gameplay wise. But once you know how it works the fun starts to rise. A well made game it is! job well done!
I had really hard time defeating the enemies. :P All the time it took for me to look at their shields and armors, I was already getting killed. :D Decided to donate a few dollars to support you, I really admire people who can make these kind of dungeon crawlers.
The art is very cool, it reminds me of the good old C64 times, but it might have helped to also be able to use the mouse to turn the camera. Also it took a while to figure out how to kill the enemies; an instruction screen at the start might have helped there. Yes, I know, it was in the text, but if there is the Unity webplayer above it, you tend to not read it because you think you know how to play games by now :)
That was very fun! I haven't really played the classic dungeon crawlers, but it reminds me of Legend of Grimrock, so you're doing it right. That said, it is quite frustrating to get your attack all lined up right a long way into the dungeon and then attack when the enemy is one tile too far away and lose all your progress. I think it'd be a more fair punishment for _missing_ to just lose all your charge and have to run away to recharge again.
Nice art and cool gameplay mechanic - would be nice to have the instructions in the game rather than on the page, as having the game start and immediately dying due to not knowing what to do was a little frustrating. Might want to list the movement controls on the page (unless they are already there and I just missed them) as I didn't figure out how to move at first, either.
Very cool idea! It's quite a frantic game and I'm probably going to come back to it. I really like the charging mechanic, but it felt too long among hordes of enemies with nowhere to retreat. The ability to look around easier would be very helpful, or to see to your left and right a little. Enemies can sneak up on you with zero warning. Even some directional audio cue when enemies approach would help with this. I'd really like to play this game with full mouselook and freedom of movement (for enemies too)! Nice procedural generation (or what seems to be that) aw well, though some balancing is necessary. It shouldn't be too hard to start you in a room with no enemies. I'd also like to start with my back against a wall so I can get my bearings before things start stabbing me XD. This could also work well as a turn-based system, where you have a limited # of actions before enemies move. The them tie-in was a bit dubious to my sensibilities though.
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hamster_mk_419 Dec 2013, 06:10
The game starts a bit suddenly and I was dead the first few times before I could read the rules or understand the controls. A title screen or even a tutorial level would have been nice.
I love it, but I think it was too easy. I think you should've made it so you can only charge one phase at a time, or not being able to move when charging a phase.
I really liked the idea of the game. The dungeon was really cool. Good job.
X
Xavier19 Dec 2013, 17:59
Pretty nice graphics. After playing three times I feel a bit frustrated because the "e" key to turn around the player's point of view. Perhaps, instead of a turn-based, it would be better a free movement approach... for me :)
Good work! Cool gameplay and graphics! Doesn't feel perfect, but cannot put my finger on it. One of my favorites this LD so far.
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Jiggawatt19 Dec 2013, 21:54
I like games like this that question the basic tropes of game design. This one essentially swaps hit points for a more unique and engaging way to measure damage. It seems to even produce some interesting gameplay despite being simple, and the flashback to dungeon crawlers is appreciated.
Gets my seal of "please develop this further".
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errorage20 Dec 2013, 22:56
Wow, you actually managed to make me nostalgic for games like lands of lore, or eye of the beholder. Maybe the idea of having a 3D first person tile-based game is not as outdated as I may have thought. It'd be interesting to see someone explore this farther.
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The only downside, in my opinion as the audio.
The only issue I could see was with the graphics, the coins look stretched from afar they look stretched from a far... I'm not sure if that's just the animation though.
Decided to donate a few dollars to support you, I really admire people who can make these kind of dungeon crawlers.
That said, it is quite frustrating to get your attack all lined up right a long way into the dungeon and then attack when the enemy is one tile too far away and lose all your progress. I think it'd be a more fair punishment for _missing_ to just lose all your charge and have to run away to recharge again.
Gets my seal of "please develop this further".