With less than a day left to try out the demos, which ones have you tried and what are your comments with it? Would you recommend any game from the event?
I was only able to sample 3 demos so far since I forgot until way too late about it.
- Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault
Playtime: less than 1 hour
I played Moonlighter, the first one, a long time ago so I'm semi-biased about the demo.
I don't understand why popular 2D indie games that made a sequel to their franchise shifts their art style from 2D to 3D (e.g. Moonlighter 2 & Wizard of Legend 2). Don't get me wrong, they look nice, but it feels like a totally different game because of it.
I also felt like the enemies were very tanky and I lost interest because of this. I barely scratched the surface for the shopkeeping aspect of the game too.
The charm of the first game was being able to revisit the areas you've been in, but they went for the Hades approach instead. Also, the prices for each valuable/in-valuable item you're selling is shown compared to guessing every item's sell price.
Overall, I'd give the demo a 5/10. There's still a lot of balancing they could do with the combat system. - Ratatan
Playtime: more than 6 hours
From the same studio that made the beloved PSP game, Patapon. To be honest, I didn't play Patapon much as a kid; I sucked at rhythm fighting games, too much thinking. They included multiplayer where you can play with up to 4 in the party to do the runs, but you can definitely finish the demo on your own. It's pretty easy to grasp once you get the rhythm and attack combos.
I'd say that the rougelite aspect of this game was done nicely. I'd definitely buy this game once it comes out.
Definitely a 10/10 demo. - Starlight Re:Volver
Playtime: more than 11 hours
This one's new. I've seen multiple ads for this or rather I've seen other people talk about it on twitter/x. I feel like they really marketed this game right. They gave out free stuff on twitch and some limited time items via referral codes. The devs were heavily inspired by Club Penguin, Hades, and Sailor Moon.
I really like the social aspect of the game. They have minigames inside like Suika and Fishing. Though I would say they need to fine tune the rarity of fishes. I fished for hours on end just to have more epics than uncommons.
The Hades part, well, they need to put more tutorials on this. You can team up to 4 to do a dive/run or go solo. There's also 3 different characters you can play as in the demo. However, the text for the items are too small. You'd need to lean into the monitor just to read what it says. Fighting is good, but the lag is real.
I'd give it an 8/10 since it's got potential.
An honorable demo mention: Holstin.
I played the demo for Holstin last year, but they definitely added more stuff in their NEXTFEST demo. I saw someone else playthrough it, and it's still every bit interesting in my opinion. The way the game shifts from 2D isometric to 2D first person is something I will always speak highly of. I don't think I'll ever play the game (much too scary), but this is by far the top horror zombie game I'm looking forward to.