LogFAQs > #979690511

KCF has beaten Go Mecha Ball

Well that was an awesome game. I feel like it probably isn't a great roguelike though. The in-run currency wasn't very useful. More often than not, I ignored the pre-boss shop since the selection was almost always bad (and overpriced) and put it toward unlocking characters instead. Good roguelikes that have a ton of build options like this make it easier on the player to get what they feel most comfortable or at least have plenty of chances, but that is not the case here.

Unlocking abilities and upgrades (weapons are the exception) may lead you finding something that you love, but it permanently decreases the odds you will get it on a run rather dramatically. There are no re-rolls for when you are offered abilities and upgrades, and the pre-boss shop (meaning you will come across it just four times) often had a poor selection like I mentioned before. I had runs that I had little hope of clearing because I just kept being offered mediocre stuff, or things that were not very compatible with my character or ideal/makeshift build. The simple solution would be to use that currency to allow you to re-roll the shop and post-fight rewards, but alas that wasn't the case.

Enough about that though because when looking at it as an arena combat game, it is amazing and one of the best games that I've played this year. It's fast, frentic, flexible, and has great ground and air control. You have three major ways to approach combat: collision (rolling), guns, and abilties. You will need to use all three a lot, but characters, personal preference, and whatever the RNG allows you to build will obviously lead you to favor certain battle strategies. I don't know how many runs it took, but this is what I beat the game with (I don't remember the specific names of anything except my character):

Character: Prot0N (collision-centric)
Abilties: Spin and forward stun quake
Weapons: Longshot (that could actually be its name) and laser rifle

I was constantly rolling (I probably spent 60% or so of the run in ball form) and led with collision and used my abilities when I had a lot of enemies bunched together (spin) or to get the jump on armored/jumping/deadly enemies (quake). If there were one or a couple of the lesser enemies, I would tend to pick them off from afar with the long or laser rifle. My hyper-aggressive approach did make me more suspectible to taking damage, but I wasn't really in any danger of dying on my final run. I found that it was better for me to hit hard and fast than risk seeing my health constantly chip away by being cautious and drawing things out.