Relinquish
A downloadable game for Windows
"But something is weighing him down.
The memories of killing everything in sight and the treasure ripped from the dying hands of a once great civilization.
He must atone and shed not only his earthly possessions, but also his knowledge of combat and the macabre.”
Relinquish is a top-down roguelike dungeon crawler that flips traditional progression systems. Atone for unforgivable actions by giving up your abilities and grow weaker as you ascend to salvation. Battle the angered ghosts, give back what you took and ascend to your freedom. Decide which skills to let go of first, but if you want to escape you will have to lose them all. A game in the vein of contemporaries like The Binding of Isaac and Enter the Gungeon.
LEVEL DOWN! - Grow increasingly weaker as you give up everything you have learned, from the map layout to the power of your weapons.
INVERSE SKILL TREE! - Want to play as a glass cannon or a tank? Create your own unique playstyle with THREE distinct skill trees. What are you willing to give up first?
EXPLORE! - Mysterious, procedurally-generated floors of enemies, bosses and secrets - and maybe even a fairy fountain.
WATCH OUT! - You might grow weaker, but enemies don’t - watch the once puny enemies become more and more dangerous as you experience this unique difficulty curve.
THE GAME ONLY SUPPORTS CONTROLLER (for now...).
Thanks for playing!
Credits:
Jesper H. Eiholt - Design & Narrative
Anne C Elsberg - Design & project management
Magnus Wahlers - Artist & Designer
Jeppe Faber - Programmer
Francesco Frassineti - Programmer & Music
Magnus R Peterson - Procedural Generation
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Comments
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A very interesting concept. I was disappointed by the lack of variation in enemies and scenery, and my game soft-locked one run because there was a room with pits blocking the boss room and I had already revoked my pit-dashing perk.
However, the idea of taking away perks as the game continued eventually became difficult and interesting, and the animations, as well as the pixel art, were pretty great.
6.5/10
Definitely an interesting twist of the classic Roguelike formula, in a very well made pixelart style! The music is super immersive even if it's a single track thanks to subtle but incisive changes to the arrangement to highlight different, specific moments of the game (menu, gameplay, boss battle).
Animations, VFX and SFX are very satisfying to watch/listen to.
Only downside is the low number of different enemies which makes the game feel a bit repetitive once you've dropped 18-20 perks.
10/7 would playtest again.