Sometimes we play many games that demand more painstaking action of dodging via timed button press or merely swinging with another set of button mashing and rarely at times a game like Beneath Oresa comes along that gives players the opportunity to experience a whole cinematic approach action at the forefront while players manage character stats and action cards in the background. Beneath Oresa uniquely combines elements of RPG deckbuilding as well as a roguelike and 3D “spatial’ fighting with cinematic action to boot. I got a try it as the demo version is available now on PC and I am pretty psyched about it even after finishing it – wishing there was more.
In my perspective, the game’s art style is a much more refined western comic book art in motion reminiscent to me of Borderland’s art style if they were to hold a sword instead of a gun. In Beneath Oresa, I play aa a blind knight wielding a sword with his mechanical hand but my enemies too at times use steampunk-like guns to shoot out lightning or a mutant melee attack with a grotesque branch-like hand so I am not too sure about the settings of Beneath Oresa if it’s primarily focused on futuristic or medieval or perhaps its a mix of both world settings.
The animations are well executed of attack and the sounds of attacking clank triggered were pretty spot on but rarely sometimes the animation does slow down, be it a bug or processing the action taking place. Music on the other hand seems to heavily hit me in the classical department where somber guitar tunes strike a chord that harkens me back into Tristram (Diablo) outside combat while accompanied by mild cyberpunk-like synthwave tunes tucked behind gently during combat.
In the gameplay department, Beneath Oresa starts off with randomized fully generated maps mixed in with branches of nodes of combat encounters called breach where I am to pick harder fights for better rewards or start out a fight with a better boost in stats before a fight depending on the cards that appear in the choice selection. Besides that, there are also branching reward nodes segments aka scavenging and regroup where I am to pick either better card rewards, upgrade of current cards, teamwork, or percentage of healing HP. Each segment will have a short (duration given) sequence showing the characters running in the background or peering around corners.
We’re so excited to bring you more of #BeneathOresa soon! The best way you can support #indiegames is to make sure to wishlist the game on @Steam ? What indie games are you most looking forward to this year?
✨Wishlist: https://t.co/SyHmmKCipz pic.twitter.com/V7ljnrndx5— Broken Spear – Beneath Oresa Demo Out Now! ⚔️ (@BrokenSpear3) February 10, 2022
Entering combat will place the player in a 3D turn-based environment with enemies standing in your area or a separate tile far away with a deck of cards shuffled at the bottom. I have to choose to attack with the attack card or boost my defense with a defense card with a limited number of action points per turn. While this is fine and dandy, the drawback is that I’m not sure how much damage enemies will be dealing beforehand on their UI at the top of their health bar. So it is pretty much a blind guess of how many numbers they are dealing with as I pump up the defense points with the cards to fully block the attack or lessen the damage of the blows.
As I replay more often, I can actually get the feel for it and assume a better range of damage numbers to block whether it is the lesser or bigger baddies. In my opinion, the 3D spatial of two distances between the enemies attacking you from afar via guns or near-range enemy smoke attacks; this mechanic alone doesn’t actually impact much of the decision-making as running and attacking an enemy from afar doesn’t deplete my stamina, discard cards, or have any repercussions doing so. Successfully ending combat will reward me with cards too, with many types of variety to choose from which is actually pretty sweet.
Each card has stats boosting like increasing the number of action cards you can deal in a turn before you throw and reshuffle back into a new set of cards, increasing damage or chances to deal counterattacks, and so much more in varieties. However, using the wrong card at the wrong time may have detrimental effects in the long run, for example, using the strongest attack card on an enemy with a shield that blocks my attack. So carefully choosing cards ahead is crucial to winning combats unscathed, giving me more options to choose better card rewards than merely focusing to heal me in the reward nodes segments.
At times, this is also due to the fact that previously upgraded cards look identical to their other predecessor cards, with mere changes of increased numbers on the side and no color changes, so it’s easy to mistake one for the other, especially if I were to click all the cards in one go.
Overall, I do really enjoy Beneath Oresa, but the main gripes I had were the slow-down animations during combat and the unknown attacking numbers dealt by foes. As for the card text writing itself, I wish to have the option to have bigger texts, as well as abit more clarity on the terminologies, used such as Zeal, and perhaps a tutorial mode before starting out in the near future may clear things up for new players.
