The team behind Monster Train have worked hard to create their latest twist on the roguelike formula. The studio’s previous project saw players navigate a train on its way through hell, using deckbuilding card mechanics to battle from one challenging battle to the next. In Inkbound, the team stuck to the roguelike formula, but almost everything else went in a new direction.
Each player controls a character who travels through a magical world called Atheneum, a place from which countless stories emerge and come to life. Players enter the realms defined by the books and help shape and define the worlds and stories within. Inspired by classy RPGs and MOBAs, each player moves through fictional lands and paints the ground with zone effect powers aiming to take down creatures encountered along the way.
Inkbound can be played solo or with up to four players at a time. In the turn-based tactical battles that follow, Shiny Shoe is testing an engaging approach that allows multiple players to act simultaneously.
The focus is on character growth throughout certain runs through new power-ups and bonuses, but you can also collect glyphs that yield between your runs; glyphs can be used in any given session to open up new quests, paths, or other beneficial situations, but there’s also more to spend in a given run than the glyph you can be earned, so it’s important to save those glyphs to run across where they will make a difference.
Each player can specialize their efforts around a favorite gameplay or experiment with the original class selection, and the classes I took were unexpected and unusual. Magma Miner is a heavy melee melee melee who can burn enemies. Mosscloak is a fast-moving fighter who specializes in critical strikes or quick attacks. Obelisk carries a dual shield and unsurprisingly gives the party a buff; The more damage they take, the more this layer can disappear. And Weaver creates themes for enemies to damage and debug, with the obvious direction of setting up complex combos.
Aesthetically, Inkbound’s isometric presentation is bright and engaging, with its vibrant use of color and lighting, subdued animations, and frenetic pace of exploration and combat that keep the action light. and comfortable. At certain moments, it reminded me of the visual palettes I’ve seen in games like Torchlight and World of Warcraft. In the battles that I witnessed in the first demo, the characters will appear in the circular arena space in which the battles will take place. Success often comes from a combination of good upgrade selection before a fight and smart positioning while dealing with the many monsters that spawn.
Whether it’s decks or epic turn-based arenas, tactical battles live or die by intense decision points, challenging yet balanced combat and smart upgrades that let you overcome the odds. Odds seem impossible. Shiny Shoe has proven its ability to iterate and build a game of supreme depth and challenge with its final project. Inkbound is still available Soonbut I Soon (a different word could have been used so it’s not essentially “soon” back as such) a glimpse that the team is applying lessons learned and shaping a new project that could be as compelling as it is. its final project, albeit with a completely different look and vibe.
Inkbound is aiming for a 2023 release on PC.
