Let's Ascend - Cardinal Quest

[Essegi]

This is my experience with this game:

First try: fighter, don't remember if died on floor 6 or deeper.
Second try: mage, gone deeper than fighter, died for some stupid moves (and dunno if it's a bug, sometimes i was unable to cast some spells, or maybe was due to a status i dind't notice).
Third try: rogue. Win with no difficulties... I had 2 invisible (second found somewhere deep, great to backstab and to escape everything), duplicate (great to take on spirits or what is their name and slow down enemies if needed), fireball (dind't hurt to have this, but did hurt enemies ) and sleep (userful for enemy control, overpowered since enemies DIND'T wake up after being hit). I also had heal in backpack, maybe i've used it once and i don't remember if i used a health potion...

Maybe i jut got lucky since i'm not a good player.:

PS: i've tried the demo of the sequel... Somewhat it has lost immediacy, but at least it seems deeper.

[ido]

What do you mean by "immediacy"?

[Essegi]

Sorry, i don't know if it is the right word... I mean somewhat the first one is more fluent (and i must say it is very fast and enjoyable to play), but this sequel seems to have more options so it's normal that is a little slower (but just a little, not that i'm complaining).
Anyway from the demo i'm expetcing the sequel to be better a game than the first (wich is good game!).

[ido]

You don't have to walk on eggshells, I'm not offended I'm just trying to understand what you're saying

So you mean it plays slower? Do you think that is because of the inventory popups?

[Essegi]

Yeah, something regarding the popup, if i remember well if you find a worse weapon it's not automatically sold but you have to "manually" sell it. Not much anyway, and not related to combat and on the other hand if these are used to have more choices it's fine.
Anyway i like the new inventory system (and of course the talent graph), so you have to be careful on what have to be discarded.

[guest509]

  Yea there is more menu management in the sequel, but over all it looks like the experience is going to be improved. A bit less streamlined, but improved.

[deathknight1728]

Is it just me or does the game pretty much end at floor 5. Ive lost 3 characters to that lvl with my warrior. It seems that while attack boost and berserk are good, the warrior has no defense when it comes to fighting these spider creatures. So it would seem that the warrior class sucks. Is the rogue any better or does he suck too?

[Amnekian]

Wow, I actually beaten this on my third try! I should probably man up and play Thief or Fighter. This is a great game to boost your roguelike ego. Mine is really, really small after being killed countless times on Nethack. I still haven't seen the amulet yet...

[Paul Jeffries]

I've played this game a lot in the past as a fighter - on the basis that that's what the game tells you to start with - but kept dying around level 6.  Today I decided to give the wizard a go and managed to beat the game easily on my first try.  Then I decided to give the thief a go and beat the game again on my first try with him as well.  So, either I'm playing like a genius today or the character select screen is a big fat liar when it comes to which classes are most difficult.

Out of interest, does anybody know what the point of gold is?  I thought I'd read somewhere that if you got 100 gold you got an extra continue, but when I reached 100 nothing seemed to happen and it doesn't seem to fulfill any other function, even as a score.

[ido]

It says something like "fighter is easiest to get started with", not "fighter is the easiest to win the game with".

The rational being, as a fighter you can get quite far just mashing the keyboard and bumping into stuff until it dies. This of course will not win the game but it will get you to a fairly good depth with the fighter. Once you've learned how to play, the thief and wizard are actually easier to win the game with. But since they require you to "play well" they are therefor harder for new players.

Basically anyone who ever played traditional roguelikes before can disregard the char screen suggestion. Most players who come to Cardinal Quest (3/4 of a million have played the free demo) come from games like diablo & torchlight where its almost impossible to lose & the expectations are set in that context.

Also, if you find yourself dying a lot: if you had any potions left when you died your mistake was probably that you didn't use them. Don't hoard potions, use them when in danger.

[ido]

Gold was put in for shop-keepers, but I didn't get to implementing them in time.

You can find them in the free demo of Cardinal Quest 2 tho. The final game should be out by April-ish, I hope.

They were supposed to make an appearance in the original after an update, but a chronic case of featurecreepitis has transformed the update into a sequel. At the time of writing it is yet unknown if the ailment was fatal or not.

[Paul Jeffries]

...and now I've beaten it with the fighter as well!  It was definitely a lot harder and I ended up having to rely on thief-like backstabs to avoid taking too much damage.

It says something like "fighter is easiest to get started with", not "fighter is the easiest to win the game with".

It actually says 'the best choice for new players', which is a little ambiguous, but it does call the thief 'the most challenging character', which doesn't really match my experience.  I actually think the wizard would be a better starting character for newbies since he has a fairly well-defined 'lob a fireball then run like hell' playstyle whereas with the other two you have to wing it a bit depending on what spells you find.  Plus I'm sure even Diablo players can understand kiting!

Anyhoo; awesome game, Ido.  Looking forward to number two!

[ido]

 You don't realize the kind of skill disparity I am talking about. They don't miss any chance to strike, it's push into all visible enemies until everything is dead, no retreat, no setbacks, no any kind of damage avoidance.

Even someone playing diablo or torchlight at any level beyond "normal" is far removed from the common player.

[Valmond]

Just FYI, as everyone else I felt the warrior was harder and it was with him I beat the game the last (Wizard, Thief, Warrior I think).
My (winning) strategy was more or less: play until you find the polymorph spell and use potions to get to the last level where all minotaurs was transformed to lower level monsters.

The Heal is a Big Plus (no pun intended) too, really makes the game a lot easier.

Really liked it, very streamlined and slick GUI, the gameplay is just "just drop me right in it" and you "get" everything right away.
Can't say it too much, really nice job done there!

Good luck with the sequel!

ps. I saw the crowdfunding for CQ2 didn't work out (on some site anyway), can you pre-buy the game anyway? I'd love a beta key 

[deathknight1728]

Now that I think of it. I think if you wanted to make this game winable for all classes, I would add another difficulty and make an easy difficulty. As it stands I doubt I will go back to this game because its just too brutal. I did much of what I was supposed to do with powerups but died anyway.

I also think that not having to place stat points is a mistake as well. If this game was easier to win it would make sense to not have stats. However not having stats to place kind of defeats the purpose of almost any game. It's the same reason I wont go back to Baldurs Gate, there are no skill/stat combinations whatsoever. You pick a class and nothing changes.

Please note-I am not trolling against this game. I think that it has all the markings of a good game. The classes are cool, the setting is cool, the sounds and everything is good. I just feel that a few things would be good for change in the future.