Victory Road
- March 10, 2020
- Strange Journey
Victory Road is a turn-based strategy game that takes you on a journey across a vast, procedurally generated world. Build and manage your party of heroes, encountering strange creatures and making difficult decisions that impact your fate. With ever-changing landscapes and permadeath, each playthrough offers a new challenge in this nostalgic yet innovative indie game.
Reviews
- The game offers a surprisingly deep and engaging gameplay experience, combining boxing management with RPG elements.
- The pixel art and sound design are outstanding, creating a visually appealing and immersive atmosphere.
- The developer is responsive to community feedback, showing potential for future updates and improvements.
- The game has been abandoned by the developer, with no updates or new content for an extended period.
- Many players find the gameplay repetitive and grindy, especially in the late game where content can feel limited.
- The pricing is considered high for the amount of content currently available, leading some to recommend waiting for a sale.
- gameplay23 mentions
- 57 % positive mentions
- 30 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The gameplay is described as surprisingly deep and engaging, featuring a straightforward yet compelling loop that keeps players hooked for hours. While some users noted initial frustration with repetitiveness and unclear mechanics, the overall experience is enhanced by fun fighting mechanics, a clean UI, and polished graphics. Despite minor criticisms regarding variety and certain mechanical restrictions, the game offers a rich and addictive experience that appeals to both casual players and aspiring game developers.
“Surprisingly deep and engaging gameplay, with a retro casual feel.”
“The gameplay is incredibly varied and addicting, and changes as your boxer progresses enough to make it feel like there's always something new happening, especially as you slowly learn how to play the game more efficiently.”
“The polished graphics and engaging gameplay are definitely enough to make this game worth the purchase, and it's only going to get better with time.”
“I was frustrated at first by some of the game's repetitiveness and by my own lack of understanding around how the game mechanics were meant to be used.”
“In my humble opinion, this game is still partly counterintuitive or mechanics not well explained.”
“I think the only negative I have for the game is that it lacks variety in the gameplay loop, and not being able to create a name for my own fighter!”
- graphics19 mentions
- 53 % positive mentions
- 32 % neutral mentions
- 16 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received widespread praise for their vibrant and beautiful pixel art style, which enhances the overall aesthetic and gameplay experience. Players appreciate the clean visuals, smooth animations, and the effective combination of management and action elements, making it visually appealing and engaging. While some may find the graphics simplistic, the overall consensus highlights their charm and effectiveness in complementing the game's mechanics.
“The game is visually nice if you like that pixel art style, really bright and beautiful artwork that works really well with this type of game.”
“Well-combined management/action game with great depth and beautiful pixel artwork; Victory Road is truly a gem.”
“Aesthetically, this game is 100% the best in pixel art I've seen in a while.”
“The graphics are very bare, which could be a turn off to some.”
“Smooth simple graphics.”
“The graphics sport clean pixel art showing every action, whether it be fast-paced knockdowns, eating food, or selling hotdogs.”
- grinding7 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be a significant drawback, particularly in the mid to late stages, where repetitive tasks and resource management can become tedious. While the game is engaging and fun initially, many reviewers express a desire for more varied events to alleviate the monotony of grinding for upgrades and resources. Overall, the grind can detract from the enjoyment, especially for those looking for a more dynamic experience.
“It can get tedious after a while since you're basically repeating the same things over and over again.”
“It's a bit grindy; I feel it could do better with some other events to break up the monotony.”
“Regarding the things I disliked about this game, I would say the mid-game gets pretty grindy when it comes to getting money for upgrading your gym.”
- music7 mentions
- 57 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
The music in the game is highly praised for its catchy and nostalgic soundtrack that perfectly complements the gameplay, evoking a strong sense of the 90s arcade era. While the quality of the music is noted to be excellent, some reviewers mention a lack of variety in the tracks. Overall, the soundtrack effectively enhances the game's atmosphere.
“It's enhanced by a great soundtrack that sets the mood perfectly.”
“The soundtrack is full of nostalgiagasms and oozes of the 90s arcade scene.”
“Great pixel graphics and the music suits the game very well.”
“- Lack of variety in the soundtrack”
“The music is repetitive and quickly becomes annoying.”
“The soundtrack feels outdated and doesn't match the game's theme.”
- replayability5 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- -20 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
The game's replayability is mixed; while some players appreciate the opportunity to experiment with different builds and fighting styles, others find the repetitive micromanagement aspects diminish long-term engagement. Overall, it offers moderate replay value, primarily through varied character development.
“Fantastic game with lots of depth, a good progression path and plenty of replayability.”
“Gives the game replayability as well to try out different fighting styles.”
“There's some replay value but it's not immense...just trying other builds.”
“The repetitive micromanagement of keeping up your energy, water, protein, fatigue, mood, and money just to train your character can get boring after a while; there's no true replay value.”
“There's some replay value, but it's not immense—just trying other builds.”
“While the game offers some replayability to try out different fighting styles, it ultimately feels limited.”
- humor4 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is consistently praised, with players finding it both hilarious and integral to the experience. The comedic elements, such as quirky items and unexpected character interactions, enhance gameplay and contribute to a unique visual style that players appreciate. Overall, the humor is a standout feature that many believe could elevate the game to a perfect score with further enhancements.
“Add more things to do, keep the humor, and stay true to the cool unique visual style and you got a game I would give this game a 10/10.”
“Very funny!”
“You’ll also control the coach, just in case you get knocked out, but the little bugger might have a few things up his sleeves to help you win the fight: a poisoned bottle, gloves with spikes (one of my favorites) and plenty of other funny things that helped me in many matches.”
- story3 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- -33 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The story aspect of the game is largely player-driven, resembling traditional RPGs where players shape their own narratives. However, some users feel that the multiple choice prompts, which add variety to gameplay, are infrequent and can become repetitive, indicating a lack of depth in the overarching story.
“I also wish the multiple choice story prompts would pop up more often, because they break up the monotony of eating, fighting, training, etc. really well.”
“There isn't much of an overarching story here, though.”
“I also wish the multiple choice story prompts would pop up more often, because they break up the monotony of eating, fighting, training, etc. really well, but I got a repeated prompt on just my fourth one; maybe there's not a lot of them?”
“It's in the vein of a traditional RPG where you (the player) create the story for your fighter as you go on.”
- stability1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The game's stability is marked by some bugs affecting the display of certain elements, and it occasionally struggles to clearly convey important information to players.
“Some issues persist, as certain elements are somewhat buggy in their display, and the game isn't always clear in conveying specific informational elements.”
“The game frequently crashes, making it frustrating to progress.”
“I encountered numerous glitches that disrupted my gameplay experience.”