Tyrant's Blessing
- August 8, 2022
- Mercury Game Studio
In "Tyrant's Blessing," players navigate a sprawling, interconnected metropolis as they uncover the secrets of a tyrannical ruler. Using a blend of stealth, combat, and puzzle-solving, they'll interact with a diverse cast of characters and make choices that affect the city's fate. With a striking art style and immersive atmosphere, this game offers a unique and thought-provoking experience for fans of narrative-driven adventures.
Reviews
- If you enjoyed Into the Breach, you'll likely find Tyrant's Blessing to be a fun and engaging experience with its own unique mechanics.
- The shade mechanic adds an interesting twist to the gameplay, requiring players to think strategically about positioning and movement.
- The game features a variety of characters and abilities, providing opportunities for different team compositions and strategies.
- The game feels unpolished and lacks the depth and balance found in Into the Breach, leading to frustration with mechanics like enemy respawning and the shade system.
- Many players find the game repetitive, with limited variation in maps and objectives, making it feel like a grind after a few runs.
- The user interface and controls can be clunky, especially with controller support, which detracts from the overall gameplay experience.
- gameplay148 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 70 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The gameplay of this title is heavily inspired by "Into the Breach," featuring a unique "shade" mechanic where units leave behind vulnerable afterimages that can complicate strategic planning. While some players appreciate the depth and challenge this mechanic introduces, others find it unbalanced and frustrating, particularly due to unclear tutorials and convoluted mechanics. Overall, the game offers a mix of engaging tactical elements and notable flaws, leading to a varied reception among players.
“Everything about the gameplay is better: graphics, interface, abilities, meta game, etc., and the mastery curve is incredibly rewarding, without relying on punch-you-in-the-face pain mechanics that it heavily relies on.”
“By leveraging positioning, cover, and enemy turn order, the tight mechanics of Tyrant's Blessing allow customizable squads of just 3 characters and a pet to skillfully weave their way through mobs of instantly respawning undead in groups of up to 6-7, without taking any damage.”
“The shade mechanic is unique and interesting.”
“A lot of the mechanics don't even make sense, like enemies having to be reborn a set number of times each battle.”
“The cheat death mechanic also removes some of the stakes that Into the Breach had.”
“It's gameplay, while unique in how they approach the combat system, is highly flawed, and a bit confusing at times.”
- story72 mentions
- 8 % positive mentions
- 86 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The story in the game is generally considered weak and unoriginal, often described as generic fantasy with cringy dialogue that lacks character specificity. Players find the narrative to be a mere backdrop to the gameplay, which is repetitive and puzzle-like, leading to a lack of engagement with the story itself. While the game features some interesting concepts, the overall execution leaves much to be desired, resulting in a feeling of monotony across missions.
“The story is alright, the pixel art is gorgeous and the mechanics are on point.”
“The story's concept is interesting, but I found myself skipping through most of it.”
“It feels like a picture book with a story.”
“The story is kind of a nothingburger, so that's not it either.”
“It's not even like it would ruin the story because the story just consists of cringy dialog chosen at random with a lot of it not even being character specific.”
“For such a repetitive uncreative gameplay loop, uncreative plot with uncreative characters, no voice acting and pixelated graphics?”
- graphics28 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 61 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the charming pixel art and simple visuals that enhance gameplay clarity, while others find certain elements, like equipment graphics and monster effects, out of place or lacking detail. The aesthetic is noted for being different from typical mobile puzzle games, and while some enjoy the overall artistic style, others express disappointment in the graphics' creativity and presentation. Overall, the visuals are described as solid but not groundbreaking, fitting within the traditional Japanese tactical RPG look.
“The fantasy setting is charming and the pixel graphics are beautiful.”
“The graphics are good, the audio is fine, the tactics mixed with puzzle style combat like Into the Breach is fun.”
“Graphics are solid, resembling the isoteric turn-based RPG look of the Japanese tactics genre.”
“Equipment graphics look out of place.”
“Monsters with special effects have no visuals or special icon easily viewable for easy reading of the complicated battlefield.”
“Graphically, I'm disappointed.”
- music10 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 30 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players finding it decent and fitting for the genre, while others describe it as exceptionally boring and repetitive. Several reviewers noted that the soundtrack bears a resemblance to "Into the Breach," though they feel it lacks the same quality. Overall, while the music complements the game's aesthetic, it fails to elevate the experience significantly.
“I like the sprite work and the music fits the genre too.”
“Music is decent and it appears to be roguelite with how the missions play out and rewards you get, but characters and abilities are static, again, very much like 'Into the Breach.'”
“I loved the game in my first hour of playing it; it has all elements that would make me love it: cute pixel art, great music, a tactics game with RPG/puzzle elements.”
“The only bad thing so far is exceptionally boring music.”
“There's only so much I'm willing to put up with when it comes to games that copy other games... and this one really blurs that line between 'taking inspiration' and 'blatant plagiarism' a little too much for me (even the soundtrack manages to sound eerily similar to 'Into the Breach,' not nearly as good, but a very good imitation).”
“Music is decent and it appears to be roguelite with how the missions play out and rewards you get, but characters and abilities are static, again, very much like Into the Breach.”
- grinding6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players note that while the game offers engaging party-based strategy, it suffers from grinding elements that detract from the experience. The lack of predetermined squads and the introduction of random enemy shields contribute to a sense of tedium, particularly on harder difficulty levels, making the gameplay feel less focused and more tedious than challenging.
“But there's also some grinding involved, and the fact that there are basically no predetermined squads makes the gameplay less focused than it could be.”
“Hard doesn't feel like it makes the game harder as much as it makes it more tedious with random enemy shields.”
“I found this game by chance during the preview period when I was looking for a party-based strategy or tactical RPG game without tedious leveling mechanics, and was excited for the full release.”
- replayability4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game offers significant replayability through its "nightmare mode," diverse party combinations, and a variety of unique maps and scenarios, ensuring players have ample content to explore even after achieving 100%.
“It took me about 14 hours to get 100% of achievements, but thankfully there's still replayability due to the 'nightmare mode' and plenty of party permutations.”
“Lots of unique maps, scenarios, and characters, so definitely a lot of replayability here.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by the absurdly unbalanced nature of the heroes, which adds a comedic element to the gameplay. This imbalance is consistently noted as a source of amusement, enhancing the overall experience.
“The heroes are hilariously unbalanced.”
- emotional2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Many users express difficulty in forming emotional connections with the characters due to dialogue that feels disjointed and out of place, despite the presence of a large cast.
- optimization2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game is well-optimized, running smoothly even on mediocre hardware without any reported bugs.
“Performance is good on my mediocre computer, and I encountered no bugs.”
- character development2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate that character development is hindered by subpar animations, character design, and environmental integration, leading to a lack of depth and engagement in the characters.
“Animations, character design, and environment all feel lacking.”
“The character development is shallow and fails to engage the player.”