Best yet
I’ve played all the games in the series and, while they are all good, this latest installment is fantastic. Well done, devs!
Fantastic writing.
Fun stories and action that keeps you wondering if you’ve made the right choices. All the Eldrum games are wonderfully engaging.
Love the game
I have played previous two episodes of this game and I love them! I hope you keep making more! I love that the fighting has gotten a little more challenging and I love the games. Please keep making more of these! The game is very, very blind friendly!
Simply Legendary
Third of the Eldrum games, and somehow they keep getting better!
Please be Gentle
I really never do this, I’m not that kind of gamer. I swear I’m not easy, this is my first time doing this with a game. I just really love this game, and I want my first time to be with a game a truly love. So here goes, this is my review: it’s good.
Deep, Rich Text RPG
Black Dust delivered for me—someone unfamiliar with the previous games in the series and someone pretty demanding of storytelling in games. Story choices are immediately and consistently stat-and-build based. NPC interactions evolve based on choices and actions. And even seeming minor tweaks can and do result in major changes in outcomes. I strongly recommend.
Like any game in this format, Black Dust also has limitations. Not every conceivable choice is available, and the third act feels a bit sudden and forced. In that third act, some big climactic fights become plodding and repetitive. On play through 1 1/2, I found myself wondering why I was wandering about with a stockpile of weapons and gems but nowhere to find meaningful upgrades (made it to Act Three on the first play through still wielding a 1 gold weapon from the second Pit fight, only to be presented with a full set of major weapon and armor upgrades!). But those are minor quibbles and I’m excited for further playthroughs to explore different builds and factions. Well done!
Like any game in this format, Black Dust also has limitations. Not every conceivable choice is available, and the third act feels a bit sudden and forced. In that third act, some big climactic fights become plodding and repetitive. On play through 1 1/2, I found myself wondering why I was wandering about with a stockpile of weapons and gems but nowhere to find meaningful upgrades (made it to Act Three on the first play through still wielding a 1 gold weapon from the second Pit fight, only to be presented with a full set of major weapon and armor upgrades!). But those are minor quibbles and I’m excited for further playthroughs to explore different builds and factions. Well done!
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Fantastic text heavy RPG
Third in series and still excellent. Lots of secrets to discover and branching story to explore.
Wow!
Is it expensive for an AppStore game? Yes. Is it one of the best text RPGs out there? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes.
Eldrum invented a brilliant genre
Choice-driven narrative branching is nothing new. There are a smaller number of text adventures that create a tiny, tight puzzlebox that unfolds into gorgeous alternative shapes on the richer basis of stat progression. Life of a Wizard and Choice of Robots are among these.
Meshing this rare style into a proper RPG is a daunting challenge. Hosted Games’ Lost Heir series tried, but being led through moment-by-moment choices in a very long game with no saves is not amenable to exploring the possibility space.
Eldrum addressed that problem in two ways.
1. You have free map movement, and can defer and even revisit many challenges as you progress your stats. Black Dust leans into this more heavily than previous Eldrum titles, and it’s deeply satisfying.
2. You have a deep stack of both manual and automatic saves, allowing you to rework recent segments until you’re happy with what you’ve achieved.
That said, you certainly can’t get all the content in a single playthrough. But in one playthrough you can explore and improve enough of a subspace of a game that you won’t feel compelled to repeat your previous run with minor tweaks. You can allow your second (and third and…) playthrough to be quite different.
The series’ combat system has always been ambitious. This iteration commits to training you on the different build options with dedicated puzzle fights in the pit and the arena. It works, and combat customization is a more balanced experience this time around.
Although, I will say, the balance between gearing stats for a particular combat build versus for exploration/narrative branching remains a pleasing conundrum.
Meshing this rare style into a proper RPG is a daunting challenge. Hosted Games’ Lost Heir series tried, but being led through moment-by-moment choices in a very long game with no saves is not amenable to exploring the possibility space.
Eldrum addressed that problem in two ways.
1. You have free map movement, and can defer and even revisit many challenges as you progress your stats. Black Dust leans into this more heavily than previous Eldrum titles, and it’s deeply satisfying.
2. You have a deep stack of both manual and automatic saves, allowing you to rework recent segments until you’re happy with what you’ve achieved.
That said, you certainly can’t get all the content in a single playthrough. But in one playthrough you can explore and improve enough of a subspace of a game that you won’t feel compelled to repeat your previous run with minor tweaks. You can allow your second (and third and…) playthrough to be quite different.
The series’ combat system has always been ambitious. This iteration commits to training you on the different build options with dedicated puzzle fights in the pit and the arena. It works, and combat customization is a more balanced experience this time around.
Although, I will say, the balance between gearing stats for a particular combat build versus for exploration/narrative branching remains a pleasing conundrum.
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Good Story and Gameplay
First time writing a review so not much to expect from me but the story driving this game is very indepth if you really connect all the pieces together. The combat is nice too, it is turnbased but with more actions: maybe something like grim. There are a few bugs here and there but they have mostly all been fixed
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