I just wanted to gush for a minute about Mark of the Deep, Tombwater, and Hunt the Night. All of them are top-down (or isometric) exploration games with eldritch horrors and difficult combat. I’m terrible at “real” souls-like games but these top-down games are definitely scratching my itch.
Mark of the Deep has an isometric view and more modern graphics (compared to the others). The map is a set of interconnected regions where each region is a labyrinth of hidden paths. This one is very easy to get lost in but I think it’s well-made. It does a good job of letting you unlock shortcuts as you progress so you don’t have to backtrack too much after dying and restarting at the last save point. It took me ~20 hours to beat.
Tombwater is a new game that feels more like A Link To The Past than Mark of the Deep. It’s a spread-out open world with optional bosses and 32-bit graphics. I really like how it lets you disable the “corpse run” mechanic that is common in souls-like games. Like I said, I’m terrible at “real” souls-likes so this is a huge selling point for me (Mark of the Deep doesn’t have corpse runs either). I’m ~8 hours into Tombwater and I’m really enjoying it.
I’ve only played the demo for Hunt the Night but I absolutely loved it and since there was a bundle with Tombwater, I bought it on an impulse. I’m looking forward to playing it after I beat Tombwater though.
I know Tunic and Death’s Door both have great reviews and souls-like aspects but those are too cute for me. I don’t just want a zelda-like with difficult combat, I need that eldritch horror aspect to really scratch my itch. And I’m not sure about Mina the Hollower yet. It isn’t nearly as cute as Tunic or Death’s Door but I don’t know if it’s all that “dark” either with that artstyle.
Anyway, if you know of any other top-down/isometric action games with an eldritch horror aesthetic, please let me know. I can’t get enough of them right now.
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They’re just zelda-likes. You don’t need to call everything a souls-like these days. I swear people would call Ocarina of Time a souls-like at this point…
Unlocking shortcuts leading back to hubs or area entrances is also not something Dark Souls came up with.
Haven’t played the others but for tunic at least it also features ‘bonfires’ that refill flasks and respawn enemies, dodgerolling, and dropping currency to incentivize you to return to where you died (dont remember if you drop all or just some in Tunic).
So more similarities than just soft-checkpoints.
Also was one of my favorite games so highly recommend.
Is a croc not also a shoe or is it only a clog? Why can it not be both?
I love Mina the Hollower but I’d would consider it more of a platformer than a Zelda game. The map and levels are more structured to be about some combat and platforming and honestly remind me of the NES Castlevanias.
But it does remind me of Oracle of Season, and outside of 1-2 “puzzles” which require moon logic it’s a solid game and worth playing.
Yeah Mina is essentially an action platformer. I’ll admit I bounced off of it after a few hours because top-down action platforming, as opposed to side-scrolling or 3D, just felt wrong. I could never reach a point where it didn’t feel like I was fighting the game.
I think that comes down to the lack of a linear progression system. I felt the same for the first part of the game, but once I got a few upgrades and power ups added to my arsenal the game started smoothing out.
I just wished the game explained these mechanics better.
I think that a lot of those early upgrades should just be inherent.
Like losing your subweapon on death sucks ass. There’s an upgrade to where you can hang onto it. Why isn’t that just default? Getting that upgrade doesn’t feel like improvement or progression, it feels frustrating.
Why isn’t that just default?
Late game spoiler:
spoiler
Because there is a base upgrade with this functionality.
Yes, I know that. I’m saying it shouldn’t be an upgrade, it should just be default. It’s such a staggeringly stupid decision.
Tunic may be cute… But that’s not the only thing it is, you should try it again ;)
Death’s door is OK, but I wouldn’t generally recommend it
Thanks for the warning on Death’s Door. It’s currently 80% off during the steam summer sale so I’ve been tempted, but I just don’t know if I’d enjoy it. I can honestly put up with most games if I’m enjoying the aesthetic/artwork but it’s hard for me to care when I don’t enjoy the aesthetic.
And I have actually played Tunic for a couple hours. It’s very well-made but I set it down for like a month and now I have no idea where I was or what I was doing. I should probably just wander around that world some more…
If you like meta puzzles a la Fez, then you should definitely dive back in to Tunic.
You might give Sands of Aura a look.
Hyper Light Drifter may have the atmosphere you seek. And a fantastic sound track to boot!
Hyper Light Drifter is a very good game and I totally forgot about the eldritch monsters in it! For some reason I always think of it as a sci-fi game even though it’s mostly about a dying/dead civilization with very little sci-fi.
I’ve tried Mina a few times now, and I can’t get into it. I has that old school “unfairness” to it. If that’s your thing, fine, but it comes off as punishing for the sake of punishment. One example is that your weapon has a slight knockback when you connect with an enemy. It’s enough to knock you off of the very small tiles you often find yourself on, and then you lose a quarter of your health bar when you fall into the void. It also has the worse traversal mechanic I’ve ever come across. It isn’t a dodge like you’d expect. It’s a “jump and be completely vulnerable and then jump again and hope it works out for you,” button. Don’t get me wrong. I can play the game, and I can likely beat the game, but I’m not sure I’ll have fun doing it. The design choices are frustrating, and they don’t have that soulslike flavor of, “I messed up, and it was my fault.”
You messed up and it is entirely your fault. It is literally a skill issue. The game doesn’t cheat.
I didn’t like Mina much either but please don’t start conflating “I didn’t enjoy this” with “this is badly designed.” It’s such a lazy, egocentric way of thinking.
Also, only the daggers push you back on contact. The whip and hammer do not. I do think requiring the player to be locked into a weapon choice and then have to buy access to the other ones is a flaw because you won’t know if you like a given weapon without testing it first. Blasphemous 2 just overall did that kind of thing far, far better.
Take a deep breath. Count to ten. It’s only a game, bro.
What are you on about?
You said something stupid. Be an adult and accept your correction instead of trying to play it off as “omg that person’s just mad.”
I offered an opinion, you returned an unwarranted attack.
You literally called the game unfair and then suggested that your difficulties weren’t your fault. That’s not an opinion, that’s blaming the developer. Maybe you were just stating your opinion, but the wording isn’t you expressing a simple opinion, it’s making a statement.
As a counterpoint, I’ve not had any problem with the weapons. I went with the whip though. I think there are 4 or 5 - you pick one to start with and unlock the rest throughout the game.
It does take a minute to get the timing right on the burrow mechanic because you do jump up before diving underground and you’re vulnerable during that jump. I grew up with the NES though, so that old school style is what I got used to. I learned how to swim through the underwater plants in TMNT; I beat Link’s Adventure without the…cheat thing I can’t remember because I’m old now… Game Genie.
It is far darker than the art style let’s on though.
I haven’t played it yet myself, but doesn’t Mina have an absolutely insane suite of accessibility options?
It does, and that’s a great thing, but playing the game as intended is pretty rough for me. Like I said, if that kind of difficulty is your gig, go for it, or, if you don’t mind tweaking the difficulty and playing an easier version, then go for it. I’m playing a soulslike for the difficulty, so changing it to make it easier feels like going against principals.
So the developers put difficulty and accessibility options in the game, but didn’t intend for people to actually use them? You play the game for the difficulty, but you also don’t enjoy the difficulty?
To me this just sounds like you’re putting artificial restraints on yourself and then blaming the developers for it. They want you to customise the game to your liking. That’s why they put all those sliders in. They’ve said as much themselves (although it should be self-evident). The only principle you should care about when playing a single player video game is “am I having fun?”. If your principles lead to you not enjoying yourself with games, you need to re-evaluate your principles.
Thank you for this. These are exactly the moment-to-moment annoyances that really add up. It’s one thing to have a tough boss or an annoying level, but if the entire dodge mechanic is annoying then I don’t think I’d stick with beating the game. And this game doesn’t look good enough (to me) to get past those annoyances.
tunic has a cutesy style but it gets pretty dark towards the end
Never heard of Tombwater and Hunt the Night before, and both look excellent! Specially Tombwater (it gave me some Dark Tower vibes, loved it). Just wishlisted both and am considering buying them.
The first game looks like Hades, judging by the brief video.
Path of Exile 2 might be relevant here, the Souls games were what first came to mind when they introduced dodge roll, and the eldritch horror aesthetic is certainly there (albeit to a lesser extent compared to Path of Exile 1). It’s online though.
Path of exile 2 was at its hardest in 0.1, at this point it has fully embraced power creep and it’s going in the same direction as poe1, less challenging content and more clear screens with 1 button to get loot.
I’ll check it out, thanks!
Anyway, if you know of any other top-down/isometric action games with an eldritch horror aesthetic, please let me know. I can’t get enough of them right now.
I don’t, but insofar as “eldrich horror” means “Lovecraftian”, there’s a Steam tag for that, so you could use that in your searches.
There’s a “sort by user reviews, Lovecraftian, Souls-like” search:
You might also try “sort by user reviews, Dark Fantasy, Souls-like” search:
Wow, Mark of the Deep looks really good.
The combat seems similar to Hades, which I was a fan of. But I’m not a super huge fan of the random upgrades and things in a run, and this looks really nice.
I enjoyed the combat in Mark of the Deep. You have a light attack, a heavy attack, and a gun. Ammo for the gun is refilled with successful melee attacks. I think the light attack is a little too light (it takes too many hits to defeat an enemy) but the heavy attack actually swings through enemies so I used that constantly.
Ah, so more Hyper Light Drifter then.
