Din's Champion
- September 25, 2024
- Soldak Entertainment
- 260h median play time
Get on Steam"Din's Champion" is a side-scrolling action RPG set in the dynamic world of Aleria, where your choices and actions have real consequences. Monsters can form uprisings, start wars, and attack your town, while NPCs can get plagues, curses, and be killed. To survive, you'll need to explore, collect resources, slay monsters, build a town, improve your character, and craft items, all while dealing with the dangerous and ever-changing world around you. Survival is key in this living, evolving world.
PC
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- Din's Champion combines the dynamic world and emergent gameplay of Soldak's previous titles with the exploration and crafting elements reminiscent of Terraria, providing a rich and engaging experience.
- The game features a wide variety of classes, spells, and abilities, allowing for extensive customization and experimentation, which keeps the gameplay fresh and exciting.
- Soldak's commitment to community feedback and rapid updates during early access has resulted in a game that shows great potential for improvement and refinement.
- The game suffers from performance issues and some rough edges typical of early access titles, which can detract from the overall experience.
- Some players find the mechanics, such as placing tiles and resource gathering, to be tedious and overly grindy, leading to frustration over time.
- The user interface and sound effects feel outdated, which may hinder the immersion for some players who expect more modern design elements.
- gameplay12 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 42 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by a blend of familiar mechanics from previous titles and new elements, creating an engaging experience that emphasizes emergent storytelling and player-driven narratives. It combines ARPG and Terraria-like features, offering a living world with persistent towns and recruitable NPCs, while maintaining a chaotic and random gameplay loop that keeps players invested. Overall, it successfully caters to fans of survival and RPG genres, delivering a satisfying and dynamic gameplay experience.
“The core design philosophy I see is emergent meaningful gameplay.”
“It's an ARPG/Terraria hybrid with some very cool mechanics, with temporary worlds but persistent towns (which you create! They carry over each playthrough!), as well as NPCs you find to recruit, leveling them and equipping them with the items you find or craft.”
“I liked their previous games, but this one just has too stupid of basic mechanics to deal with.”
“The gameplay loop after you're in the game is killing your nemesis assigned to you, and as with all Soldak games, chaos and randomness engulfs the game until you meet your objective.”
“Terraria-style gameplay, and the same living world we've seen in the other Din games and Drox Operative.”
- graphics4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- -25 % neutral mentions
- 75 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are considered somewhat dated, but they are complemented by engaging mechanics that blend elements from previous titles. While the visuals may not be the main attraction, the game's indie charm and complexity make it enjoyable for players who can overlook this aspect. Overall, it offers a unique experience reminiscent of a Terraria roguelike RPG with enhanced graphics.
“Even at this stage, the game is worth its price, and if you can overlook the graphics, the game has its very own indie charm with the complexity of its older titles.”
“To give a brief but accurate description of what this game is: a Terraria roguelike RPG with HD graphics sprinkled with the unique Soldak sauce.”
“The beauty of this game is not the graphics, but many mechanics of the previous games interwoven with new ones.”
“Even at this stage, the game is worth its price, and if you can overlook the graphics, it has its very own indie charm with the complexity of its older titles.”
“To give a brief but accurate description of what this game is: Terraria roguelike RPG with HD graphics sprinkled with the unique Soldak sauce.”
- optimization3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- -67 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is considered a work in progress, with users reporting performance issues, particularly on high-end setups like the RTX 3080 and 5900x. However, many have noted significant improvements following the 8.05 update, indicating ongoing efforts to enhance performance.
“Still a little rough around the edges, and performance could be a lot better, but I currently love the builds, theory crafting, and questing.”
“Performance significantly improved with the 8.05 update.”
“Still a little rough around the edges, and performance could be a lot better, but currently love the builds, theory crafting, and questing.”
“I have some performance issues as well on an RTX 3080 / 5900X setup (edit: performance significantly improved with the 8.05 update).”
“I have some performance issues as well on an RTX 3080 / 5900X setup (edit: performance significantly improved with the 8.05 update).”
- story2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The story is characterized by a series of time-sensitive quests that accumulate, creating a sense of urgency and momentum as players work through them to ultimately confront a nemesis. This quest-driven narrative can feel overwhelming at times, but it effectively builds tension and engagement.
“Quest after quest pile up, usually at the same time, with all of them having some degree of time sensitivity.”
“It's that slog that builds steam until I'm checking off quests until I defeat that nemesis.”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players feel that the game requires an excessive amount of grinding for materials needed to upgrade equipment, leading to frustration and a sense of tedium.
“There is way too much grinding required to gather materials for equipment.”
“The amount of grinding needed to progress is exhausting and feels unnecessary.”
“Grinding for resources takes up too much time and detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game.”
- replayability1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players highlight the game's extensive content and diverse RPG classes as key factors contributing to its high replayability, encouraging multiple playthroughs to explore different character builds and experiences.
“There's a lot of content, and the many RPG classes make it very replayable.”
“The game offers multiple endings and choices that encourage you to play through it again.”
“With different character builds and strategies, each playthrough feels fresh and exciting.”
