Here's why you should be interested in Massive Chalice

First of all, I don't care that it is on Xbox One for the sake of itself (it's also on PC and Linux). By the way, it's weird the same studio decided to team up with Sony for one game (Grim Fandango remake) and with Microsoft for another one (Massive Chalice). Oh then there was Broken Age.

Anyway, I've been keeping an eye on this game for a very long time. It is made by the other Double Fine mastermind, Brad Muir, who was a programmer of Psychonauts, lead designer of Brutal Legend, and a director behind Iron Brigade.

There are not a lot of turn-based strategy games on current-gen consoles. What makes this one unique is injection of roguelike elements within the gameplay frames: like permadeath of heroes (you have to make a choice if you want to let them stay in combat for longer or you want them to live long enough to have some posterity which would make a new generation of warriors) and randomization of world, its heroes, and skirmishes. It's also "built for replayability". Apparently:

Your knowledge and skill will increase over multiple playthroughs, but the details of every game will change based on your decisions and the whims of fate.

I'm beyond happy this game that I hugely anticipated somehow ended up as a Games with Gold title. And you should, too.

What are your thoughts?

Pump it up @freedomfreak@jg4xchamp !

Double fine... not interested.

It's a Brad Muir joint. I wanna see what he is doing. I like him. He's a charismatic character. His wedding story was great. I'm more than glad to support him in it.

So looking forward to playing it.

This is the one game when it was announced as an X1 exclusive actually made me entertain the idea of buying an X1.

I'll try it.

What's wrong with Double Fine?

For reference if you're like me and don't like Doublefine's games because usually they play pretty poorly or are mechancially lame, Brad specifically is a mechanics driven creator and it showed in Iron Brigade. Hence I'd imagine Massive Chalice might actually be worthy of merit as an actual game, and not another doublefine production where you go "Man that is a creative game, to bad it plays like shit".

I backed this on Kickstarter, and played the early access build...last year?

It has potential, but it's no Fire Emblem. I mean, the combat mechanics are fine...but it didn't hook me at all.

Hopefully a lot has improved over the months leading up to launch.

I'll give it a try.

My thoughts? "lead designer of Brutal Legend"

Luckily you don't have to waste your money on an X1.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/246110/

I hate strategy games. Another fail month for GwG for me. It might turn out to be a great game for the people who like the genre though.

To be honest, of all the names dropped on that project the only one whose games I have the most amount of experience with is Iron Brigade guy, and I barely got that into that game honestly. Still, I'll try playing this with an open mind, if I can. Still, I have a lot on my backlist, wonder when I'll get around to it.

Relevant. Someone embed this, I'm on my phone

https://youtu.be/bQlnzpQ1sDM

@Minishdriveby said:

@Salt_The_Fries said:

First of all, I don't care that it is on Xbox One for the sake of itself (it's also on PC and Linux). By the way, it's weird the same studio decided to team up with Sony for one game (Grim Fandango remake) and with Microsoft for another one (Massive Chalice). Oh then there was Broken Age.

Anyway, I've been keeping an eye on this game for a very long time. It is made by the other Double Fine mastermind, Brad Muir, who was a programmer of Psychonauts, lead designer of Brutal Legend, and a director behind Iron Brigade.

There are not a lot of turn-based strategy games on current-gen consoles. What makes this one unique is injection of roguelike elements within the gameplay frames: like permadeath of heroes (you have to make a choice if you want to let them stay in combat for longer or you want them to live long enough to have some posterity which would make a new generation of warriors) and randomization of world, its heroes, and skirmishes. It's also "built for replayability". Apparently:

Your knowledge and skill will increase over multiple playthroughs, but the details of every game will change based on your decisions and the whims of fate.

I'm beyond happy this game that I hugely anticipated somehow ended up as a Games with Gold title. And you should, too.

What are your thoughts?

Pump it up @freedomfreak@jg4xchamp !

My thoughts? "

lead designer of Brutal Legend"

Eh with Tim Schafer as the director though, so he was still the running mate in that equation. I would argue Trenched/Iron Brigade is a more appropriate representation of something he would make.

I backed it, played it in Early Access. I know early version is an early version. But I wasnt too impressed by it - I've been impressed and have still managed to enjoy several Early Access builds, but not from this game. Combat was slow and shallow and I didnt think its legacy mechanics were all that comprehensive as I would have hoped. The best thing I can honestly say about it was the amount of progress updates they communicated to the backers/owners of the game throughout its development.

People wouldnt care for the game if it didnt have Double Fine on it, ayy as if they're like some beacon of quality these days. And it's hilarious how people give them praise for stupid/mediocre efforts, recent fumbles in terms of mismanagement and double standards from PC gamers because of legacy (their PC games are still locked at 30 FPS) yet nobody grills them for it.

There's a better Turn based tactics game that released some week ago by the name of Invisible Inc. You can go play it now. It's by a developer that's actually good.

@jg4xchamp: Yeah you're absolutely right. It doesn't mean I can't take a jab at Brutal Legend any chance I can get though.

It was never an X1 exclusive. The game development had started as a PC exclusive, and later they made a deal with MS to port it to X1.

I think I would too.