Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch is Fire Emblem Meets Darkest Dungeon 2
Nov. 6, 2024Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch is Fire Emblem Meets Darkest Dungeon 2
In this Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch Article, we’re going to be talking about the turn-based tactical RPG that goes into Steam Early Access today that you can begin playing right now at the time of this article that kind of spins off the original title of the game and makes the game a bit more into the roguelike side of things.
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The general premise of the game is that you play asAshe, the main character, who is responsible for bringingparty membersalong on his expeditions and excursions into the world ofLost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch. The story is thatAshedies and makes a pact with a powerful being, who brings him back to do her bidding. You’re essentially roped into this, and your journey involves fighting your way through variousenemiesto reach aboss fight, much like inDarkest Dungeon. The game has amapwhere each point offers different options: you canrest at campto replenishhealth, fightbattlesforrewards, or visit atraderif you havegold. As you progress, you eventually reach aboss fight, and if you’re strong enough, you can defeat it. If not, you’ll die and have to start over.
The game is heavilyparty-based, similar toDarkest Dungeon, where you control Ashe and can recruit up to eight othercharacters, mixing and matching them for your runs. Each character starts with their basestatsandequipment, and as you make choices and engage inbattles, they gainexperienceand level up. You’ll have opportunities to choose newskillsandpassives, much like what you’d see in aroguelike, but with theLost Eidolonssetting. As characters level up, they grow stronger, and with each battle, they become more powerful. However, if you die and start over, your characters go back tolevel zero. Along the way, you’ll also collectresonance stonesafter completing combat encounters. These stones can be used toupgradetheequipmentof one of your characters, randomly selecting a piece of equipment for each character to improve.
Each character typically has twoweapon sets, so theresonance stonescan upgrade either one of theweaponsor theirarmor. These upgrades make the character stronger, and after each fight, you usually receive one or tworesonance stonesin addition to leveling up. Sometimes, theresonance stoneswill resonate more strongly with a specific character and their equipment, resulting in a more significant upgrade. Other times, the resonance will be lower, and you can choose which character to use them on. You can focus all the upgrades on one character to make them stronger, or spread them out to make your whole party more balanced. This system gives you a lot of control over how you build yourparty. For example, upgrading themain charactertends to be very effective, as they become powerful in combat. Another key character to upgrade is thehealer, since keeping them alive is essential for maintaining your party’s health. The flexibility in upgrading characters provides various strategies, which I appreciate.
It’s important to note that these upgrades, like leveling up your characters, are reset each time you start a new run. They are not permanent upgrades but specific to that particular run. For instance, one run you might make a character very strong, but in the next, theresonance stonesmight favor a different character, so you’ll focus on them instead. These resets mean you can’t carry upgrades from one run to the next. However, there arepermanent upgradesyou can earn calledSacred Embers. As you progress through the game, you can useSacred Embersat theAltar of Fireto improve certain aspects of your characters permanently. These upgrades are tied toskill trees, like increasing the effectiveness ofmedium armor, boostingsword damage, or ensuring your charactersheal to full healthinstead of only half when resting at camp. These permanent upgrades carry over to every run, so even if you fail, you’re still making progress, which is a common feature inroguelikegames.
What I’ve been enjoying about the game, aside from itstactical combat—arguably the best part ofLost Eidolons—is how random each run feels. There are so manyvariablesat play, from the wayresonance stonesresonate with each character’sequipment, to theskillsyou get to choose from when your characterslevel up. Sometimes, you getmythic skills, which are incredibly powerful and can turn the tide of battle in dramatic ways. I haven’t seen most of them yet, but the ones I have encountered are extremely strong. When a character has one, it really changes the way you approach combat and can shift your priorities about which character should attack which enemy.
The game also includes abase-building element, where you can interact with yourcompanions, check theirstats,equipment, andskills, and decide which ones to bring along. There’s areputation systemthat lets you bond with your characters, and the more you bond, the more abilities you unlock in combat. It’s a neat system, but I haven’t had the chance to fully explore it yet, so I’m not sure how impactful it will be, especially sincereputationtakes a while to build up.
In addition to theAltar of Fire, which allows for passive improvements to your party, you can alsopromote charactersby collectingrunesduring your runs. As you gather these, you can promote characters up to two times (at least for now), which adds another layer of progression. Beyond that, there isn’t too much else to do in the base. Therapport systemdoes play a role, but I haven’t seen much impact from it yet. If I had one complaint, it would be that I wish there was a bit more to do here, though that’s a small gripe.
When I first started playingLost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch, I wasn’t sure it was going to work. I was pretty skeptical in the first couple of hours. I kept wondering how they’d pull off aturn-based party RPGon atactical gridfor every encounter, while also making it feel fresh as aroguelike. But as I played more, I got deeper into it, and it really started to grow on me. I loveroguelikes, especially ones where you make actualprogressin each run, with some of that carrying over so you’re not starting completely from scratch each time. I really enjoy that aspect ofroguelikes, and I’m a big fan ofturn-based combat, which is a rarity these days. The combination oftactical combatand therandom elementsreally starts to work as you get further into the game.
One thing to note, though, is that this is anearly accessgame. While it’s technically feature complete—you can reach the end of the game—there are still some things missing that’ll be added duringearly access. For example, there’s novoice actingat the moment, and with so muchdialoguein the game, it can be hard to get through it all without that.
I’m looking forward to that being added. They’re also planning to addhidden bosses, including the final boss. Right now, there are three bosses, so you’ll need to complete three successful runs with one character to get through what’s available inearly access. That’s actually quite a bit of gameplay—I’ve spent around five to eight hours getting through the firstmapand defeating the firstboss. The game’s not easy. Every fight is challenging, and one of the tough parts is that your characters don’tauto-healbetween encounters. So, whateverhealththey have at the end of an encounter is what they go into the next one with. If you didn’t manage yourresourceswell, the next fight will be harder.
Duringearly access, morecombat mapsandrandom eventvariations will be added. I’m already happy with the level ofvariation, but the morerandomnessthe better. It’s therandom eventsand elements that makeroguelikesso engaging, and the more there are, the less repetitive the game feels. I’m glad to see these additions coming down the line.
And the last thing I want to leave you guys with is that because the game is launching onSteam Early Accesstoday, it’s going to be running at a20% discountfor the next13 days. The price is going to be$15.99 USDinstead of$19.99 USD, so if you want to get the game inEarly Accessand save some money in the long run, this would be a couple of weeks to do it in. If you like what you see and it makes sense to buy it for you, then you can spend that. That’s not very much money in my opinion. That’s like adinner out. It’s so cheap. I actually can’t believe it’s that cheap. Anyway, if you guys like what you see and you want to help support the channel, you can click our link below. Had a good time with this game so far. Definitely, definitely think that it’ll appeal to a lot of people in our audience. But I want to know what you guys think. What do you make ofLost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch? Did you play the first game? Do you liketactical turn-based combatlike I do? Do you likeroguelikes? Do you like something that might be a little bit of a mashup of the two? What do you think of the game so far? Let me know in the comments below.
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
