Recent reviews by Beldarak

Really great, especially for a demo.

Tons of content (I played for nearly three hours, and didn't reach the end of the demo yet), great universe with a real visual identity and charming NPCs.

The game plays more or like like a Dark Souls with a central hub in which different NPCs will come over time as you unlock them, you can use and upgrade different weapons with each their advantages and weakness and you're more or less free to go wherever you want.

The talent tree is pretty good with upgrades usually being exciting.

Really promising :)

Great !

Really good survival game.

Lots of different craft, way scarier than expected (not sure it's a good thing :D), tons of content and each zone looks really good and are pretty big.

I'm usually not a big fan of MOBA-based gameplay but this one is fun, especially in co-op.

Each character plays very differently (there are even two, Romeo and Juliet who worked only in co-op with shared skills).

Not a lot to unlock and in co-op the game has no pause which can be very annoying but unlocking each difficulty, which gives access to a little more content is nice.

The theme of the game is really nice and it looks nice and clean (the action is usually readable), unlocking each character story is a nice touch.

Awful CEO. Bellamy needs to step down.

Awful CEO needs to step down

Awesome game.

Basically feels and plays like Oblivion but with a darker tone (which doesn't mean it includes tons of fun and humorous quests too).

Combat is simple but nice, a little more juicier than Skyrim or Oblivion's one. Armors looks good and most pieces have unique traits that makes looting exciting. The crafting system let's you improve pieces you like so basically, if you have tons of money, you can keep your really good gear leveled.

Speaking of leveling up, it's always exciting to gain a level. Gear and spells usually have stats needed to be fully functional so each stat point gained is really precious. There are also quite a lot of skill trees that gives you passive bonuses. It's nice at the beginning but they're sadly not that exciting most of the time: +10 regen this, +x that...

Content is hand-made and you'll find stuff to do everywhere.

Sadly, the optimization is really poor. Expect stuttering when you load assets for the first time and poor FPS most of the time :'(

That's the biggest flaw of the game and I hope it will be fixed soon.

Fun game.

The story's mistery is intriguing and getting new dialogues in the hub between mission is always nice with a nice writing and some nice lore.

The gameplay is good. There are sadly only three weapon types but each one plays VERY differently (really, it gives you different controls like the ability to block or not, to dodge or not, etc...) so I don't think this is a big issue. It has a very nice flow, almost feels like a rythm game (which means I suck at it :D).

The game lets you chose your difficulty which is nice and the stuff's build possibilities are really nice with lots of customization (like converting x% of a secondary stats to a primary, adding stats, rerolling them... You can basically edit every stat of a weapon/armor you like).

Regarding the levels, there isn't that much rooms variety sadly. Once you've played in a biome 2 times, you've seen everything it has to offer (except different bosses) and it can get annoying to loot the same rooms all the time. The different biomes have a very distinct look though.

I would advise against playing the demo. It's very confusing and hard. I almost skiped this game before of it before seeing a Youtube video showing all the game has to offer. The demo make it looks like you're playing a rogue-lite, which Empyreal isn't. It's more like a Sous-like with repeatable content.

Nice game. It's relaxing and fun to play.

The animation framerate while a design choice was kinda annoying to me and forced me to play a little at a time.

Despite that, the controls feels really responsive and to my surprise, it never feels awkward or unprecise when jumping around.

The enemies have limbs resistance. This is a really fun system that lets you, slice parts of them to make them weaker (if you cut the arms of an archer, it will run at you, trying to kick you :D). This works really well and is satisfying.

I also feel the stuff doesn't have much importance. I pretty much wore the same outfit (monk's) for the whole game. I wish each set would give you some passive bonus or something or have more meaningful stats. Basically how it works is each item has three types of defenses (which doesn't really matter because you never know if enemies in a zone will slash, pierce or crush you) and a weight.

The only thing that matters is weight. Decide if you want more or less stamina regen (you want more, defense ain't that useful imho) and that's it.

Weapons sets are more important and while I also wish each weapon would give more unique stats or skills (but to be fair they all have a different move set, kinda), it's fun to compose your set of 4 weapons as each one has its use. For exemple I mostly used a big hammer but some enemies have a very good head protection so it made more sense to switch to some piercing or slashing weapon for those. Some enemies were easier to beat sing a shield, etc...

The game is really short but it also costs less than a sandwiche so definitely worth your money. It's one of a kind, get it :)

Game of the year for me.

Drova basically feels like a Gothic game without the jank, so if you like the first Gothics, there is no doubt you'll like this game.

The world is really interesting with different layers of stuff to uncover: why are you here? What happened to the ancients who lived there and left tons of ruins but are nowhere to be found, each faction story...

The story and characters are well written and the game has a ton of "mood". A lot of characters are very likeable and can be touching.

While the map is pretty small by open-world standards it's packed with content and stuff to find. The game is kinda hard at first (and manage to keep a nice level of challenge all along) so it's always nice to discover some cool ruin that you can't explore just yet to come back later, more powerful to explore it.

The combat feels pretty good and requires some skill. Sadly, there are not a lot of options to build your character and magic becomes one way later in the game. That said, it's still exciting to level up as you'll improve your fighting skills or craft talents. You can still chose your style of combat through the weapon(s) you'll use.

Drova has some unique feature that let you look at stuff to find hidden treasures, secrets, etc... It leads to nice puzzles and some really clever exploration tricks that really rewards exploration and paying attention.

The game is pretty long, I was surprised at how much hours there are in it for such a low price. The end content can be a little annoying though when you try to complete every quest before the big finale, but I guess it can be said for most RPGs of that type.

It also has some replay values for a few years later when you decide to replay it as the faction you chose seems to change quite a big chunk of the game (only tested one so far). Multiple endings too depending on you actions.

All in all, an awesome experience :)