Knights of the Phantom Castle [Universal App] $1.99 Sale

[ImNoSuperMan]

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/knights-of-the-phantom-castle/id364183462?mt=8

[ImNoSuperMan]

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/knights-of-the-phantom-castle/id364183462?mt=8

[ImNoSuperMan]

Now on sale for $4.99

[Karma32]

The developer should have done more to get the word out about this game. Released on iPad launch day and never heard about it once.

So, looks like this is an RPG? It says strategy in the description, it's not not another TD game is it?

[don_k]

Wow, looks cool!!

Will it be on the iPhone too?

[rogerchiu]

I searched and found it will release iphone version in 2009.
But it is iPAD version now.
I want to watch the gameplay video before buy.

[powersurge]

Anyone know what the gameplay is like? Is it a Tactical RPG?

[h0130j03]

judging by the screenshots, the gameplay looks similar to Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for DS

[rogerchiu]

I think it should be SLG.

[Dorfdad]

Review in progress will post something when i get better feel for it

[Psykikgmr]

Even I'm a little confused what kind of game this is supposed to be.
No wonder people don't talk about it or buy it :eek:

[BazookaTime]

I love the look of the game but a gameplay video would really be nice. I won't have my ipad until next week but this game looks interesting.

[Dorfdad]

Ok been playing the game for the last few hours and I will tip my hand just a little prior to sitting and writing a full review. I will just give some bullet points.


1. The game is NOT a turn based game it's real time battles
2. Game has two profile slots so multiple players can play (Nice)
3. 12 Areas of battle each "area" has approx 7-8 battles in each section (total of around 80 battle im assuming)
4. Unique items can be created using the foundry in the Camp in between levels
5. Controls are going to require some time to grasp. You block yourself alot, and the "flick" to fire is horrible implemented sometimes takes 4 attempts to fire off my skill.
6. Before each round a written story (Nothing to write home about just kill goblins attacking castle stuff).
7. You get specific points to spend before each battle. These points are used to hire your crew. Some classes cost more than others
8. Ive not experienced any level up options, deaths for non crucial players (leader) does not carry over after level completion.
9. Each characters weapons 1 and 2 can be assigned, offensive and defensive actions can be set per character as well.
10. The controls are going to take some getting used to!
11. The graphics are PSX quality like Chrono Cross etc.. Though the entire screen looks nice it's just not HD quality.
12. Three controls per character TAP(change weapon or build defense based on character), Flick does a power move (Dash, Fire Arrow Lines, etc), and charge (use super moves - Resurection, Hurricane, etc depending on class)

The game is really challenging so far! I do like it but it does have some flaws. Each character has a special skill which can help change the battle outcome.

You will want to have ranged characters and a healer for almost every battle.

Sorry this is poorly formatted and all over the place, but I'm swamped with reviews and I need to get back to them.

Ill post a summary once I get completed probably in the AM I'm planning on playing thorough this tonight.

The game has some great potential but I feel this might have been a GREAT turn based game, as an action title it's a bit frantic and extremely hard at times bordering on "Oh COME ON WTF" in cases where you think you finsihed a level to only find 30 more enemies and you have 2 dead companions.

PS I will do a video as well..

[NCBandit]

Great info - thanks for the rundown - im sure a lot of people who saw this pop up on the forums are very interested. :)

[GordonFreeman]

Thank you Dorfdad for the review! I was kind of in the air about how this game was supposed to be until now. I'll be waiting for the video whenever you have the time to shoot it.

[Dorfdad]

OK guys I'm sorry to put you through this I know that some of you are waiting for a good review and I have it 90% done. The game took alot more time than I thought initially.

I have a real Job interview this am so the earliest I will have a review up will be this evening. I need to make the video as well. I just wanted to tell you that I haven't forgotten about you.

Here is a brief taste of the intro to get you ready for the full thing once Im done here.

Please forgive any grammar or issue I have not gone through my proofing yet, and I must get going"


Hudson Entertainment the company behind megahit sensations like Bomberman and Diner Dash have released what one can only call a real time strategy action based role playing game for the iPad entitled "Knights of the Phantom Castle." The goal was to create a deep and engaging title using three simply moves in Tap, Flick, and Charge. Were here today to find out if Hudson has succeeded and has another hit on their hands or if gamers should avoid this title at all cost?

The first thing I do when I prepare myself for a review is to look at a games screen shots and formulate my initial opinion based solely on the images provided. I than challenge the game to change my opinion based on actually gameplay. Having reviewed quite a number of titles it gets pretty easy to do this as there are very few differences in most of these games. Some have better graphics while others offer a slightly different take on controls but for the most part my initial impressions are usually pretty accurate.

Having said that Knights Of The Phantom Castle is one of those titles which confused the hell out of me using my method. It looks like a turn based type of game which it is not. It looks very shallow which surprising it isn't, and while it gives off the feeling of having casual gameplay I couldn't have been any more wrong. In fact I would say the game could be considered to challenging for most people as the game at times will push your ever so close to muttering one or more of the seven forbidden words (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words).

[Dorfdad]

OK everyone I told you I would complete it tonight and here it is..

First let me say the review I created was substantially larger than normal as I wanted to give you a real feeling for this application. So I won't be posting anything more than the summary of the review on these forums as I need to save some of this for my site :) which you can visit and read the full review. The URL is embedded in the videos and a link is listed below for the full review.

http://tinyurl.com/knightsofphantomcastle

The games not perfect it has some design flaws, a few typos, has a suspect storyline, some control issues, doesn’t take advantage of the iPad graphically prowess to the fullest, and presents some real challenging missions that are sure to frustrate casual gamers. So taking all those things into consideration it might come as a surprise to hear that I actually really enjoyed and recommend this game to fans of this style of gameplay or those looking for a game willing to bite you back.

Frustrations aside the game kept me coming back. Maybe it’s my ego getting the best of me but I refuse to let some google of goblins best me more than once. I kept trying new strategies and swapping in and out different party members attempting to gain a better understand of each characters and enemies strengths and weaknesses which really helps as you progress.

Knights Of The Phantom Castle does offer a surprisingly deep strategical orientated real time role playing experience that doesn’t exist on the iPad and and offers an excellent amount of gameplay for the price.



Please forgive these videos being in 2 parts as YouTube does not allow videos over 10 minutes in length and this would up being slightly longer so I broke it into two sections.

PLEASE GIVE THIS SOME TIME FOR THE HD FORMAT TO ARRIVE (Its currently blocky as YouTube is Processing it)

PART 1
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PART 2

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[GordonFreeman]

Thank you for taking the time to make the video!

[starcat]

Thank you for taking the time to make the video!

im kinda pissed because i bought this game when it was on sale and it charged me for 9.99 this game is definantly not worth 10 dollars.

[GordonFreeman]

im kinda pissed because i bought this game when it was on sale and it charged me for 9.99 this game is definantly not worth 10 dollars.

Are you saying that you bought the game when the price was $4.99 buy you they itunes charged you $9.99? If this is the case you can complain to itunes and I'm sure they will return the difference.

Ok, I bought it and played a little with it. I won't go over the details which were presented so kindly by Dorfdad right on the spot. What I would add is that the game is very addictive, and I can see myself playing it a lot. I believe a read that a iphone version is coming along.

[Dorfdad]

I have had prices come up wrong on my account as well. Just contact iTunes support and explain what happened. Have them look at your purchase history and the date as well as the sellers deals and dates. If you bought it an hour before the sale went live your screwed..

As for the game not being worth it. Clearly you fall in line with those who are getting the crap kicked out of them and you have become frustrated with the game, which I can understand however I and Gordon seem to be on similar wavelengths while it's got issues its addictive as hell.

[starcat]

I have had prices come up wrong on my account as well. Just contact iTunes support and explain what happened. Have them look at your purchase history and the date as well as the sellers deals and dates. If you bought it an hour before the sale went live your screwed..

As for the game not being worth it. Clearly you fall in line with those who are getting the crap kicked out of them and you have become frustrated with the game, which I can understand however I and Gordon seem to be on similar wavelengths while it's got issues its addictive as hell.

..or i could just not think any app is worth 10 dollars.

[Dorfdad]

..or i could just not think any app is worth 10 dollars.

Tucha my friend tucha I should have thought that through!

[severinggecko]

..or i could just not think any app is worth 10 dollars.
It's this mentality that has caused the app store to be full with crap. You wont pay $10 for any app, so only crap that is cheap gets made because it is not viable for a company to make a great app and sell it 99c, so many of thte truly good potential apps and games do not come out because you and many people like you that don't understand that good apps cost money.

I on the other hand have bought many apps at full price because they to me were worth it because i understand that making a good app takes money and in the long run developers make apps not must because they enjoy it because they have to make money to put food on the table just like anyone else.

So think about that next time you look at an app that you want and scoff at it's price or when you complaine that game devs don't take the iPhone/ipod touch serious

[arta]

Just stumbled onto this on youtube, looks interesting.

[Revlisoft]

Definitely looks interesting.. $5 a bit too high for now though but I'll keep an eye out for it. :)

[pka4916]

Is there any sale coming up for this one?
From reading the reviews in Itunes, it seems to crash at a specific city.

[Thunder82]

I'd also love to see the crash bug around goblin city fixed. Ive been holding out on purchasing this game for this exact reason.

Game looks great except for this issue.

[goiMot]

The game is now Universal, and it's showing at $1.99 on the NZ store, so probably we will see that price tonight in US/Canada.

[aznriceboi13]

i'm seeing $9.99 o.o

[goiMot]

i'm seeing $9.99 o.o
It's showing at $1.99 on the NZ store, so probably we will see that price tonight in US/Canada. :D

[LordVader]

Had to bold it, huh goiMot?

[aznriceboi13]

It's showing at $1.99 on the NZ store, so probably we will see that price tonight in US/Canada. :D

okies :p, haven't seen this game in awhile, you made me think it was a new game when you made that thread

[pka4916]

I'm glad I waited. hopefully they fixed the town bug

[ImNoSuperMan]

It's showing at $1.99 on the NZ store, so probably we will see that price tonight in US/Canada. :D
Yup. I checked the price in NZ and Aus stores a while ago and only NZ store had it on sale. Now that it's past the time when NZ releases show up in Aus, its on sale there too. So its definitely going to roll out like NZ releases.

[CzarCastic]

Is that $1.99 NZD or have you already converted the money to USD?

[ImNoSuperMan]

Is that $1.99 NZD or have you already converted the money to USD?
NZ $2.59 http://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/knights-of-the-phantom-castle/id364183462?mt=8

Aus $2.49 http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/knights-of-the-phantom-castle/id364183462?mt=8

[goiMot]

Is that $1.99 NZD or have you already converted the money to USD?
It's US$1.99

[CzarCastic]

OK. Thanks, guys!

[EB1089]

So is everyone running into the bug where the game crashes after passing the goblin stage? I don't have the game (yet) but owners are saying this bug occurs in like the very first part of the game.

[Qordobo]

Ho men that's not a RTS but a team party based tactical RPG with real time fights and a team roster. Not the classical RTS, no building not hundred of units to manage.

Too bad it is too hard, but I will not be able to resist to this one, and the price is cool.

EDIT: Too hard and the controls seem suffer an important lack of polishing and well I'll probably whine after but I won't resist this one.

[Qordobo]

So is everyone running into the bug where the game crashes after passing the goblin stage? I don't have the game (yet) but owners are saying this bug occurs in like the very first part of the game.

Arg I hope not, I'm probably close to this point as the battle I have to do is with the Goblins King. That's only the first "map" but it means 18/20 stages and there's 12 maps. The game is very good despite some details. Not at all the standard RTS but much more a party RPG with real time fights and no real exploration. For now the difficulty seems ok, not easy but not that rude, but I have to beat this king.

Here the main points that would really worth a tuning/polishing:

The "flick" actions requires a swipe but tend conflict with the drag & drop commands, ie you often end in doing the drag & drop command instead of the flick action. That really need a fix.
No easy way to identify current target of each character. Perhaps each of the 4 hero could have a selection color used to highlight his current target.
Some spells are like aura but you have no visual hint of the range.
Often the path finding isn't cool so when you try move a character somewhere sometime it's difficult to achieve because of obstacles and path finding.
When you move a character to a goal he can't reach he will continue try move even when stuck.
Panels with a help should have a "?" button to allow show the help of the panel.

Well very cool game anyway, if at least the flick commands could be changed to something more easy and less conflicting that would be a significant improvement. To avoid the problem I tend almost never use the flick commands and that's not cool.

[Qordobo]

So is everyone running into the bug where the game crashes after passing the goblin stage? I don't have the game (yet) but owners are saying this bug occurs in like the very first part of the game.

I never crash a single time and finished goblins part and started second map still no crash. Last stage (19th) of first map is a little tricky I think, I made it with a trick mainly.

[Qordobo]

Ok so I met the second boss and this time the game is over for me, so sad. The hint the game provide for this boss is "Skillfully use the Flick command to aim at moving enemies!", lol.

I had huge fun and played incredibly long sessions. I played the 9 goblins stages plus 14 other stages including the second boss I haven't beat and will never if the game isn't fixed. This is 4 maps for 23 stages and if there's no bug in game auto counting it's a bit more than 40% of the game. But I'd be curious to see if anybody can go past second boss and if some can I'd be curious to know how many. :)

For the normal stages (not the bosses) the game difficulty is fine. There's one thing to understand, all stages have various tricks to make them more easy, sneak, destroy a spawn source, move out of an area to stop a spawning, long range attacks above obstacles or through grates, run and flee tactics, attract attention of an enemy and hove another unit hit it when he is busy, place units so they ambush enemies, use traps to kill or damages enemies, teleport enemies to isolate and ambush them, use obstacles (and weak pathfinding) to slow enemies, use some mechanisms at your advantage, find what are the units combinations and placements that will kill opponents without they reply because of the break mechanism, break some walls to open easier paths, and more.

There's also another thing to understand it's that in many stages pick a Healer won't be the easiest path, the reason is it means one attacker less isn't only less damages done but also less opportunities to break and stop enemies attacks.

As some posts already quoted it, the games has many polishing elements but also many little lack of polishing that are a probable hint of a project brutally stopped to be released as is.

The parts after the goblins have more a RPG mood, there's a very nice diversity, a dark wood follow the goblins, then a castle full of traps, then catacombs with also traps but different. But also the stages are well diversified, like a forced run through enemy fire, a real survival in forest, a 1vs1 in an arena against a Troll (but you have an alternate choice than beat it), a map cut in two corridors and manage traps and some tough monsters with some tactics and teleport skill, a false labyrinth in the forest, set an ambush against a Troll with the help of a trap, manage a progression under the threatening of devices targeting and following slowly a target detected, and more.

I'm so sad that all of this fun is wasted by a stupid and probably untested boss design. And sure if you can go over the multiple points that lack of polishing some are a real burden and certainly waste a bit too the game.

It's weird to waste so much work and talent because of stupid points like that. :(

The worse is that those awful points will never be fixed for sure, I have gone through the few reviews and none pinpoint the bosses difficulty problem nor how bad is the Flick command and none of the main problems that could be quoted, those idiot reviewers that don't really play games they review. :mad:

[Harpua]

Can someone tell me how to get higher than a D rating on the first level?.. The one with the slimes. I have no problem beating the level. I just can't get anything higher than a D & it's driving me crazy!

[Qordobo]

Can someone tell me how to get higher than a D rating on the first level?.. The one with the slimes. I have no problem beating the level. I just can't get anything higher than a D & it's driving me crazy!

Woa you bother about the rating? So I suppose you finished the game and then can explain me how beat the Chaotic Insect King boss?

That said I admit that as I have access to only of a bit less than half of the game because of this dam boss, I also replay levels, and yeah try improve the rates is an idea.

I have D too on first level. Let see if I can do better.

EDIT: Lol I finished it in 23s and it's still D.

EDIT2: Ok finished in 18s gave me S ie the best possible rate. So the answer is kill them fast.

[Qordobo]

Can someone tell me how to get higher than a D rating on the first level?.. The one with the slimes. I have no problem beating the level. I just can't get anything higher than a D & it's driving me crazy!

Ok By getting the best rate S I got at end of level description of the bonus conditions (ie to get S):

Clear without taking damage
Clear in 20 seconds


EDIT: So now if you can explain me how beat the Chaotic Insect King boss that will solve your debt. :p

[Harpua]

Ha, def haven't finished the game, in fact I'm still on the first levels. I just can't figure this rating system out. 23s on lv 1 is exactly what I have, so I'll try for the 18s. I guess the ratings are related to speed, so I'll worry about them later. Thanks for the tip though. If I ever do beat the second boss I'll let you know.

Edit: to clear my debt, I will play through the night... The insect king will be dead by morning!!:D

[Qordobo]

Ha, def haven't finished the game, in fact I'm still on the first levels. I just can't figure this rating system out. 23s on lv 1 is exactly what I have, so I'll try for the 18s. I guess the ratings are related to speed, so I'll worry about them later. Thanks for the tip though. If I ever do beat the second boss I'll let you know.

Edit: to clear my debt, I will play through the night... The insect king will be dead by morning!!:D
Lol ok hurry up!

For the Goblins King boss it's a hard one too but probably can be beat. But I win through an ugly way, here the ugly trick I don't advise use, I have seen some other possibilities now I have more experience but didn't tried them. Select to highlight and show the text or copy/paste it if highlight doesn't work:
SPOIL:
If the fight last long enough the whole structure starts moving down then if you constantly flee up to end, it met an obstacle and explode and you win.

EDIT: The S rating depends of the stage but the other rating probably depend only of time, perhaps. Don't bother much about them apart for a replay challenge, the only bonus I quote is for S and is only some gold. But it's not that important.

[Pawtklok]

I love this game but I'm stuck on the goblin ambush level.... There's gotta be a trick to it I'm just missing....

[Qordobo]

I love this game but I'm stuck on the goblin ambush level.... There's gotta be a trick to it I'm just missing....

Yes all levels have their tricks, but there's many levels with goblins and sort of ambushes, what's the stage name exactly?

[gis]

It looks funny and cool!

[Qordobo]

It looks funny and cool!
And it is, not a game for everybody nor a perfect game but it has a lot of fun.

If you want a false comparison point, false but probably the closest then you'll have to search not in RTS history, nor RPG history but in the game line of Syndicate and Cannon Fodder.

In fact you can consider that it is in direct line from Syndicate. In Syndicate you control 4 cyborg agents that you manage in real time and each level is a lot about fights and progressing through the level. There's also a global story, mostly told between the levels, you improve gradually your equipments through research costing money you get from taxes on territory you control.

Here you get a description rather close of KotHC. But if despite I'm a fan of Syndicate I didn't recognized instantly the strong links between the two games it's also because KotHC used a lot of shift.

Here some of the shifts from Syndicate:

In Syndicate you control 4 cyborg agents each the same but you'll provide to each of them the equipment of your choice before each mission. In KotHC you control 1 to 4 knights, each knight has a class like Range, Mage, Warrior, there's 6 classes. The deployment for each mission is different in KotHC:

You can also equip each knight for each mission but the equipment choices are less significant than in Syndicate, there's still some interesting choices to do.
For each mission you have a sum of deployment points and you spend them to choose what you'll deploy for the mission.
Each class has a deployment points cost, and the cost of a second units of same class is a lot higher, this disable the use of 2 units with same classes apart for fun of for few very special missions.
But also each unit can bring 0 to 2 sub units, that are depending of the class (summons, phantoms, soldiers) each have its cost of deployment. Often instead of using 4 units it will be better to use three and use some sub units. You don't control sub units, they follow their leader and do the same support or base attack action that does the leader.

In Syndicate (and more in Cannon Fodder) there's a spirit of miniaturized RTS when KotHC has a much stronger RPG spirit. This is coming from the Fantasy background and story, from classes, but also because many levels are RPG inspired like find your way through a forest maze or progress through a castle full of traps. When in Syndicate it's more fights and progression in the town and in Cannon Fodder it's about war.
You don't improve the knights through classes skills improve but only through items like in Syndicate. But instead of doing researching through money, KotHC probably get inspired by one of the brilliant design idea from Etrian Odyssey but simplified it a little:

You find during levels explorations money and base components. Components are mainly drop from monsters you kill, perhaps only not sure if chests provide only gold.
Those components will unlock new items to build.
And you build an item with components and gold.
Also to temper a little the limits coming from the monster drops, like in Etrian Odyssey you can replay a level so if you want grind a little to get more items you are free to do it.

In Syndicate the speed is quite faster plus it's modern weapons involving bullets with high speed. To compensate the problem of controlling 4 units with that high speed Syndicate use a complicate AI system giving you possibilities to exploit it to lower the micro management. In KotHC everything is slow down, even missiles or long range magic are slow, the AI is less smart and do less work for you, but enough to let you micro manage multiple units by alternating and sometimes by using multi touch for some parallel controls.
In syndicate you have different weapons but each cyborg is equipped with one weapon for a mission. In KotHC each class has two base actions, standard attack and support, the AI take them in charge and you have a simple AI setup for each unit to define if he attacks auto/counter attack when attacked/attack an enemy he bump into. But you have also for each unit 3 special actions that depend of the class. Each has a cool down and each are triggered through a finger command (tap/flick which is a swipe with a light touch/charge with is a touch during a time to activate it).
Also it is multi touch so on iPad it kick ass offering many possibilities for controlling 2 units in parallel like a charge with a finger of one hand and you concentrate on another unit to micro manage it more with the other hand, or move two units one each each hand. Also a lot of your management of multiple units will be done by alternating, making it like a sort of parallel control because of the slow speed. Mmm Syndicate with multi touch controls and a speed a little slower, that could be great.
In Syndicate the story is told, mainly between motions with series of polished sequences and dialogs and so on, and also few time during missions. In KotHC, it's also between missions but with a much more dry mode, but if you take care of it, it can be very fun. It's through reports. Reports are text description of the mission done, often includes some hints, and some reports include elements about the next mission. Plus each report is done by a different class, once a healer, another an assassin, and so on, and they add often a short more personal comment plus a touch of humor.

The game is far to be perfect and isn't as fully polished as was Syndicate. But a second game in the series could kick asses and storm gaming world or at least imaging world because there's a lot of ways of improvement open that clearly time and some cost limits didn't allow. Also despite the weakness I think KotHC steal the place of Syndicate in my heart, at least in part, because despite all KotHC weakness it has so many points better and, for me, an even more fun gameplay.

What's sad is that how it is going this game will be a total sell failure with almost no acknowledgment, not only killing a possible follow up but also making think other team that a game like that in the tradition of Syndicate won't please to modern players. So sad.

[Harpua]

Qordobo, it looks like my debt will never be repaid... Sorry my friend:(
I had to accept the fact that I completely & utterly suck at this game! Can you give me some tips on beating level 4 "to the phantom castle". I know if I can't complete this level, I'll never defeat the 2nd boss that you are having trouble with. I just can't seem to figure out the tactics that it takes to win... or maybe my brain is just to slow:eek:

Anyway, if you could tell me how you beat the 4th level, I would really appreciate it

[Pawtklok]

Yes all levels have their tricks, but there's many levels with goblins and sort of ambushes, what's the stage name exactly?

Sorry... The name of the stage exactly is goblin village.... It's where you gotta go and ambush the Gobbie in their own village..... It's on the first map.....

[Pawtklok]

Qordobo, it looks like my debt will never be repaid... Sorry my friend:(
I had to accept the fact that I completely & utterly suck at this game! Can you give me some tips on beating level 4 "to the phantom castle". I know if I can't complete this level, I'll never defeat the 2nd boss that you are having trouble with. I just can't seem to figure out the tactics that it takes to win... or maybe my brain is just to slow:eek:

Anyway, if you could tell me how you beat the 4th level, I would really appreciate it


That level is tough, but once you get the trick down it's easy.... You wanna have in your party a defender, a healer, and an archer....

On the first mission, use the defender on each of the small bridges, have him use his tap ability to make it so none of the baddies can cross the bridge... Then of course the healer heals him, and the archer picks off all thebaddies one by one....

Second mission is the same idea.... Have the defender taunt then block the slimes, then work your way up the bridge with the defender blocking everything.... Now when you get to the end of the bridge, have the defender block and slowly pick off the moving baddies.... Don't go for the ranged ones yet.... Wait until the chest spawns, then send JUST the defender to the chest, then when the second wAve of baddies appears have the defender run back to the mouth of the bridge, and have him go back to blocking.... That takes care of everything... Then you can go and open the chest and kill off the stragglers....

Hope this helps

[Harpua]

That level is tough, but once you get the trick down it's easy.... You wanna have in your party a defender, a healer, and an archer....

On the first mission, use the defender on each of the small bridges, have him use his tap ability to make it so none of the baddies can cross the bridge... Then of course the healer heals him, and the archer picks off all thebaddies one by one....

Second mission is the same idea.... Have the defender taunt then block the slimes, then work your way up the bridge with the defender blocking everything.... Now when you get to the end of the bridge, have the defender block and slowly pick off the moving baddies.... Don't go for the ranged ones yet.... Wait until the chest spawns, then send JUST the defender to the chest, then when the second wAve of baddies appears have the defender run back to the mouth of the bridge, and have him go back to blocking.... That takes care of everything... Then you can go and open the chest and kill off the stragglers....

Hope this helps

Thank you! I'm about to give this another shot. I think the problem I'm having is that I just use the recommended party set up. I'm gonna explore each members abilities & start setting the party to my taste.

Again, thanks for the help!:) I'll let you know how it goes.

[Qordobo]

That level is tough, but once you get the trick down it's easy.... You wanna have in your party a defender, a healer, and an archer....

On the first mission, use the defender on each of the small bridges, have him use his tap ability to make it so none of the baddies can cross the bridge... Then of course the healer heals him, and the archer picks off all thebaddies one by one....
...

Cool I never used the block + Defender tap trick, it's certainly something working also for fourth level.

EDIT: Oops I forgot there was the second part lol.

[Qordobo]

Sorry... The name of the stage exactly is goblin village.... It's where you gotta go and ambush the Gobbie in their own village..... It's on the first map.....

Ok the Goblin Village, there's multiple way to beat it.

There's three parts. Firstly I suggest pick Mage + Defender with 1 subunit + Assassin with 1 subunit. But Mage + Assassin with 2 subunit + Ranger should be fine too.

First part, the easier way will skip most enemies, there are other way easy too but to demystify the level it's good to first beat it with the easier path:

With your mage attack trough the door the Goblin you see, don't open the gate before. Kill this Goblin will avoid he could call some reinforcement from North at some point.
Once you have killed him the gate open.
Don't rush in, first make your mage attack the hut close to barrier to the right, one fire shot destroy it. This will avoid Goblins reinforcement from the South once you move enough further to North.
Then all your team run to north and position at the first Turn.
Position your Assassin with his shadowmore at south. They will do most of the job.
But important, position the mage a bit north to Assassin so at each Goblin fighting with the Assassin will be in range of the mage and the mage will attack him.
Also take care the shadow position well to support his assassin leader.
Use first fight with Goblin coming from south to tune all position. Your defender isn't useful for now.
Goblins will come one per one from south east, so easy, let your knights kill them one per one until this part is finished.


I'll post more for the two other parts, have to replay them first before to refresh my memory, but here some points to make them easier:

Use the teleport Assassin skill to teleport any enemy mage you see from far. You teleport them right between your defender and assassin and they kill the game easily and will take no damage.
For last part skip the Troll and take care to kill the Goblin mage asap.

[Qordobo]

Second part only now, sorry but those forum are so slow today for me it's a burden (2mn to show the thread, 2mn to get the reply empty page, 4mn to see the preview of my post).

Anyway some suggestions for level Goblin Village, part 2:

First you'll see a mage at North on a sort of Island. He can be a burden so use Assassin Teleport to teleport the Goblin mage right between Your Defender and Assassin, the mage won't survive long and won't be able to hurt your units.
At right border there's the road leading to North, the more simple is keep a unit at south of this road, this will give you a maneuvering space for you fights.
Move second unit closer to north of this road trunk, this unit will help fight coming enemies.
Use the third unit to scout, the Assassin for his walking speed.
So move forward the Assassin, follow right borders until some Goblins run out of houses, then retreat the Assassin.
A nice trick to make Goblins get out of houses is to break barrels at right with rout scouting assassin. This seems work very often.
Goblins of right house will follow, when the Assassin attract them have the Defender attack the coming Goblin mage, he should kill him in one attack even with base sword.
Goblins of left house should have stay at their house entrance so use Assassin teleport to kill them one by one.
Repeat until no more Goblins get out of houses.
Some Plant will attack but use similar tactic scout, attract, make another unit attack the hunter and have your units ambush the attacker.
Then move more North, and this should attract few waves of Goblins coming from South.
There isn't much, two waves it seems, one mage Goblins, have your Knight front them and the Assassin help him, subunits will be handy there.
Once the Goblin mage is coming have a unit move right and attack him.
Use the mage for support and faster kills.
Once all are killed it's the third part.


Some suggestions for level Goblin Village, part 3:

Dodge the Troll and don't fight him.
Move unit to avoid the Troll and move to its back.
Be sure to have one or two units that attack asap the mage with the Troll.


Those are just a way to do it and make this level easier, there's many other ways to manage this level.

[Benegesserit]

Only worth it at its current price point (today).

[Qordobo]

Only worth it at its current price point (today).

For Syndicate fans I doubt it needs to be that low price. There haven't been so many Syndicate clones and if this one is missing some obvious polishing the gameplay has a lot of details care, the levels are well designed and diversified, and so on.

It's a quite rare game and I bet that many fans (not all) of Syndicate will enjoy it even if it hasn't the same level of polishing nor the same background story.

[Pawtklok]

Awesome.... Thanks for the help on the village.... Work all day today so just got home... But will try again (and again) till I beat it.... Then there will be two experts of the game on the boards ;)

[jsrco]

I am from the iphone thread, its kinna dead there. Are you guys sure the S rank doesn't do anything? I am 28 missions in (training included) and I am obsessed with going back and upgrading to S rank if I didn't achieve it the first time. 22/28 so far, but some of them completely boggle my mind.

The Goblin village for example, is beaten in under 4 minutes, taking no damage, and killing the troll and I only get a B!?! The Goblin King level I got lucky and got an S on the first try with 2 units dead because the bonus goal was 100% flick ability accuracy. So I guess there are some weird ones.

I think getting a higher rank unlocks the item combine recipes faster. After upgrading ranks on a mission, I am unlocking recipes for the item combine, even though the items received on the upgrade replay are not used in the new item combine recipe I have unlocked.

[Qordobo]

I am from the iphone thread, its kinna dead there. Are you guys sure the S rank doesn't do anything? I am 28 missions in (training included) and I am obsessed with going back and upgrading to S rank if I didn't achieve it the first time. 22/28 so far, but some of them completely boggle my mind.

For the items unlocking here what I quote: The items unlock mechanism is a little basic and always occurs when you have enough material in your inventory to build the item, that's all I quote, but I could be wrong.

I think it is working like that because: Each time items are unlocked I have enough material to build them. Also I achieved some S stages rates (few as I haven't target them yet) and never noticed any item unlocking. But perhaps boss are different, I never killed any yet.

In fact this mechanism is like in Etrian Odyssey but there's a huge difference it's in Etrian Odyssey you only bring new material to the merchant and once you bring enough to build an item it is unlocked and you can buy it at merchant.

Here it's a little more perverse and objectively less well done, to build items you not only need buy them but also use elements and then lower number of elements available you have to unlock more new items. But also if you don't use elements to build an item you keep them and they can be counted to unlock more items.

I also noticed that some items are build from another item. So you have to build the required item to unlock such item. And if you don't take care you could unlock an item like that, then perhaps get the message at next mission, not sure. What I'm sure is that I see once that build an item instant unlock another not yet unlocked.


The Goblin village for example, is beaten in under 4 minutes, taking no damage, and killing the troll and I only get a B!?! The Goblin King level I got lucky and got an S on the first try with 2 units dead because the bonus goal was 100% flick ability accuracy. So I guess there are some weird ones.

You killed the Goblins King at first attempt? Impressive, yes I noticed the flick attacks seems not trigger King long range attack but have the time to kill him is impressive.

The condition to achieve S rate are listed when you reach them but not those for other rates. Really another of those little points the game could polished better.


I think getting a higher rank unlocks the item combine recipes faster. After upgrading ranks on a mission, I am unlocking recipes for the item combine, even though the items received on the upgrade replay are not used in the new item combine recipe I have unlocked.
That's possible, it's not what I quote but I achieved so few S. As you made so many S, perhaps you could list conditions for each level?

For the items unlocking relation with S rates I have a good profile to test that, if I can achieve some more S rates :) Because I played a lot so collected many components but have very few S apart from training missions.

Achieve S in training missions is often easy I wonder if this can unlock items too or give any bonus.

[Qordobo]

...
The Goblin village for example, is beaten in under 4 minutes, taking no damage, and killing the troll and I only get a B!?! The Goblin King level I got lucky and got an S on the first try with 2 units dead because the bonus goal was 100% flick ability accuracy. So I guess there are some weird ones.
...

Goblin village is 3 parts for each parts there's conditions to reach the bonus level. But to really get it for the whole stage it's quite probable that you should achieve the conditions for each part.

For first part it's 2 mn and no damages but I have yet to achieve S to other parts of this level.

A question, how you beat the Troll in 4mn and without taking damages? Again with flick? But how you blocked it?

28 stages don't say much because you don't quote how many stages of the training you have done. The number of stages the game show is only the number of those cleared but you aren't forced to clear all training stages so the number 28 is ambiguous. Before Chaotic Insect King boss level there's 14 training levels and 22 standard levels ie a maximum of 36 before second boss but many training levels aren't required.

You could be very close or not to the Chaotic Insect King boss. Don't forget report here if you beat it, and explain all in details. And a video would be amazing.

[Benegesserit]

Any tips to making the flick command more responsive? It spends more time issuing a move command more often than not.

[Qordobo]

Any tips to making the flick command more responsive? It spends more time issuing a move command more often than not.

jsrco seems a champion about that so you'll have wait his answer but here what I quoted: It's really like the in game help explains, it's a swipe command where you have a light touch ie you don't pressure the screen at all. It's like a very light caress of the screen.

[Pawtklok]

Any tips to making the flick command more responsive? It spends more time issuing a move command more often than not.

Honestly.... Just run the flick control training mish a few times.... Helped me get it down....

[Harpua]

Any tips to making the flick command more responsive? It spends more time issuing a move command more often than not.



I've had the best luck when using a very short, very quick swipe. So I use about a 3 inch swipe & as quick as possible. I've found that if my swipe if too slow, it just triggers movement instead of the action. As Pawtklok suggested, run through the tutorial a few times & test out these tips, find what works best for you. Hope that helps.

[Harpua]

I think getting a higher rank unlocks the item combine recipes faster. After upgrading ranks on a mission, I am unlocking recipes for the item combine, even though the items received on the upgrade replay are not used in the new item combine recipe I have unlocked.

If I'm not mistaken, item recipes unlock when you get enough ingredients to create them. I've been playing through some of the easier levels to get more ingredients. So after I get a certain amount of something, then the recipe unlocks. For example, after you get X number of copper ore, then you unlock the copper weapon recipes. I could be completely wrong, This is just the way it appears to work for me.

[jsrco]

I have been going slowly becuase I have an OCD issue with getting a good rank then progressing. But it is easier to go back and get S once you have better equipment.

For the troll without damage and the Goblin King, I always make sure I take a mage and assassin. For large groups of goblins, I send in the assassin stealthed. Depending on where it is standing its attack can hit multiple enemies and they will not attack back since he is invisible. The also cannot walk past him becuase of such. Its a cheap move but it works for getting the s ranks.

- Make sure you have the best blade and ring available so his attack and action speed are at their highest.

Secondly with those two levels, I bring out the mage and use her charge attack with the fire element. If you drag very quickly once the pumpkin appears you will get most of the spells attack dots to line up on your target. They stun the goblin siege tank with the king on it as well as the troll each time it hits. I use stun lightly because I mainly mean that it stops them from moving. Once charge can take half of the trolls life and set him on fire which cancels out his health regen.

- for the goblin king just have a melee guy walk back and forth in front of the siege tank to get the spear throwing goblins to attack him while you charge the mage. This game acknowledges mutli touch commands so you can do a lot at once.

- My biggest tip, is that for a majority of the beginning missions, never bring a defender, healer, or sub unit. Your command isn't high enough for sub units to attack and move quick enough. Healers aren't really needed early on. Defenders are too slow.


I will get the Rank bonuses for the missions up when I get a little further in. I know I am missing some, becuase I still have 1 B and the rest As in the game so far. Also if the mission has multiple parts, like the goblin village and you do good on the first part and hit the objectives but you don't get it on the second or even the third, just die for that part of it and you can restart it with the first part of the mission completed with a bonus. No penalty is administered to your time. But the bonsus I have found:

-Kill 40 monsters
-Kill 80 slimes
-100% flick accuracy
-Beat under a specific time
-Beat taking no damage

The flick controls... imagine that you are bowling with the character and you have to roll the ball where they are going. That is the best way I can describe how I got used to it. Practice it in the tutorial mission for flicking till you get it down properly. But the mage and archer flick controls are really awesome to use and help out a lot. (at least for me so far)

[Qordobo]

I have been going slowly becuase I have an OCD issue with getting a good rank then progressing. But it is easier to go back and get S once you have better equipment.
I don't think it's useful to achieve better rates for the levels not even S, for me it's just a secondary goal to use for replaying levels. But I could be wrong.


For the troll without damage and the Goblin King, I always make sure I take a mage and assassin. For large groups of goblins, I send in the assassin stealthed. Depending on where it is standing its attack can hit multiple enemies and they will not attack back since he is invisible. The also cannot walk past him becuase of such. Its a cheap move but it works for getting the s ranks.
Thanks for the details I never tried much Stealth.


Secondly with those two levels, I bring out the mage and use her charge attack with the fire element. If you drag very quickly once the pumpkin appears you will get most of the spells attack dots to line up on your target. They stun the goblin siege tank with the king on it as well as the troll each time it hits. I use stun lightly because I mainly mean that it stops them from moving. Once charge can take half of the trolls life and set him on fire which cancels out his health regen.

Cool never used well this skill and didn't noticed that it stuns, I'll try, and I should also try to see the effect on the Chaos Insect King.


- for the goblin king just have a melee guy walk back and forth in front of the siege tank to get the spear throwing goblins to attack him while you charge the mage. This game acknowledges mutli touch commands so you can do a lot at once.

I'll try but in fact tried a bit that and the turn was rude to manage. Also I don't see much why the goblins spear are concerned because the mage could be out of range and unnoticed. But that run is perhaps useful to catch the attention of the King. It's weird but I didn't think try this mage skill and only the flick skills.

I'm very surprised it's enough to kill the king before the structure starts to move, it should do a lot of damages.


- My biggest tip, is that for a majority of the beginning missions, never bring a defender, healer, or sub unit. Your command isn't high enough for sub units to attack and move quick enough. Healers aren't really needed early on. Defenders are too slow.

Well that's a bit extreme. Subunits don't need be fast and hit hard to help break constantly an opponent. The Knight is slow but can be handy if something get out of control, plus his skills can be useful. For the Healer I think too it's better not using him in most missions but in some he can make things easier.

Thanks for all the explanations, there's many tricks I haven't quoted myself.

I tried quickly the mage charge skill against the Chaos Insect King and well I don't think for this it will be useful because it moves a lot. Also his summons are spread everywhere and if this charge can help its not easy to synchronize nor to use it efficiently against many little target spread.

EDIT: I tried the mage charge against the Goblins King, yes this does many damages, very good trick. I didn't used the trick of running only mage charge. When the structure starts moving it became a little trickier, I'm surprised you can kill before. Anyway I could do few more mage attack after structures moving and before have him killed. Then one Assassin stealth attacking was enough to win. Well my equipment was better than when I first played this level so it make it a bit easier.

Ok now I wait your tricks (or from anyone who can provide any!) to beat the Chaos Insect King. :D

[Harpua]

Do either of you guys (Jsrco, Qordobo) have a way to record & post a gameplay video? I would love to see someone play through the goblin village level. Honestly, I'm just awful at this game! A visual reference would be a huge help in understanding game tactics.

[Qordobo]

Do either of you guys (Jsrco, Qordobo) have a way to record & post a gameplay video? I would love to see someone play through the goblin village level. Honestly, I'm just awful at this game! A visual reference would be a huge help in understanding game tactics.
I have no way to record a video sorry, perhaps Jsrco could.

At least have you tried the first part as I explained? Is this part ok?
Kill the Goblin this open the door, destroy the hut to right with a fire spell, run to north and stay here then pick them one by one coming from south.

EDIT:
You should experiment and you'll see many things could be easier:

Attack with a fast unit like soldier or assassin, then flee to dodge next opponent attack, see opponent move again, so attack again, and so on. This trick can work with any of your units.
Also try using Sneak then attack, then flee.


A trick using 2 units that can work against an opponent attacking faster than your units:

Move unit 1 to attract attention of enemy unit.
Once enemy unit is busy run after your unit 1, have unit 2 attack him.
Then enemy starts focus on your unit 2.
So make your unit 2 flee a little and attract his attention
Then unit 1 can attack the opponent.
And so on.


Another trick working well against any long range not too fast but firing faster than your long range unit (ie most but not easy against Goblins mage):

Move in range of enemy unit.
See it starts prepare attack.
Then move to dodge the coming attack.
From this new place attack the enemy.
Then opponent starts its attack to your current place.
So move again and attack from this new place.
And so on.

[Harpua]

Yeah, using your strategy I've made it through part 1 of the Goblin Village, now I'm working on part 2. Thanks!:)

There seems to be an infinite number of different strategies and ways to complete a level, I would like to see how others play the game... That's why i was asking about the video. Thanks for all the help, I'm gonna keep trying until I find something that works.

[Qordobo]

Yeah, using your strategy I've made it through part 1 of the Goblin Village, now I'm working on part 2. Thanks!:)

There seems to be an infinite number of different strategies and ways to complete a level, I would like to see how others play the game... That's why i was asking about the video. Thanks for all the help, I'm gonna keep trying until I find something that works.

Yes my solution for part 2 is complicate and a lot less easy to apply. I tried another variation abusing of teleport to pick them one by one and using sneak to make it easier:

First take care to alway have the road south of the river available for your retreats and maneuvering.
Using teleport take the first mage north to river.
Move your knight south east corner.
Keep you mage not far but to the west.
Move your Assassin more to north and before reach barrels use stealth, strangely this makes Goblins move out.
Flee far south you are in stealth they don't follow.
Then pick them one by one with teleport.

That way part 2 should be very easy, you'll get all Goblins mages of this part with no problem.

I just tried the tap Defender skill through the defender tutorial and wooo I hadn't noticed how strong this can be. Also the charge skill is very interesting as it never stops too until the Defender is attacked. Now I understand why it was so good for the level 4, I hadn't fully understand how this skill was working. :)

EDIT:
Once no more out from the houses you'll have 2 plants to take care of. Use stealth to make it easier and one of the tactics I mentioned in a previous post, using 2 units one attract the other attack and after switch the roles, is one of the cooler when like in this part you have maneuvering space.

Then you'll get waves from south when you move more north. There should be one Goblin mage, but you could try the teleport to isolate him any way, with all your units having move more north.

[Qordobo]

So nobody will ever beat the second boss in this game? I had put most of my hopes in faith of young bloods, but it seems a vain hope. :)

I send a bug report but if I have been alone to complain about this I won't be surprise they'll just laugh when they'll read my email. :rolleyes:

I wish this game have been released on PC (if controls could fit a PC something I'm not sure at all), first it would have caught a bit more attention from a handful of hardcore players, second those hardcore players would have made a bunch of noise about all lack of polishes and about his second boss, enough to hope get some attention from the teams behind the game.

[vitamindee69]

I've beaten the Chaotic Insect Boss. But later levels are just as hard.
My strategy was to use Soldier with 2 of his minions(weapons master) make sure soldier's equips are decent and a mage and assassin.
First of all, try to hit the boss with mage's charge up skill maybe one or two times at max because after a little bit the flies and other bugs will be all up on your knights. While charging up your mage tap the soldier so he has morning star equiped and charge up as well to make him go into berserk. Attack the Boss head on with the soldiers.
After that spam mage's charge up while protecting her with the assassin. With a little bit of luck, really depends on what kind of attacks the boss does, you will be able to take him down in no time. If he disperse into multiple bugs from the start, then just start over. Because it's a lot easier if he just keeps spewing poison. Good Luck!

[jsrco]

So nobody will ever beat the second boss in this game? I had put most of my hopes in faith of young bloods, but it seems a vain hope. :)

I send a bug report but if I have been alone to complain about this I won't be surprise they'll just laugh when they'll read my email. :rolleyes:

I wish this game have been released on PC (if controls could fit a PC something I'm not sure at all), first it would have caught a bit more attention from a handful of hardcore players, second those hardcore players would have made a bunch of noise about all lack of polishes and about his second boss, enough to hope get some attention from the teams behind the game.

He is weak to shock magic. Just use a mage, defender or assassin, and soldier. Charge up with the mage, if you use something to lure is smash attack so a majority of the mage's charge hits it should take 4 times.

[jsrco]

He is weak to shock magic. Just use a mage, defender or assassin, and soldier. Charge up with the mage, if you use something to lure is smash attack so a majority of the mage's charge hits it should take 4 times.

Also the previous mentioned strategy works well as well. I have received and S doing both.

I would like to know how to beat the forest level, Blue Scaled Warriors. I progress to the second stream then I get stuck. Can't go any further. Anyone have any ideas?

[Qordobo]

I've beaten the Chaotic Insect Boss. But later levels are just as hard.
My strategy was to use Soldier with 2 of his minions(weapons master) make sure soldier's equips are decent and a mage and assassin.
First of all, try to hit the boss with mage's charge up skill maybe one or two times at max because after a little bit the flies and other bugs will be all up on your knights. While charging up your mage tap the soldier so he has morning star equiped and charge up as well to make him go into berserk. Attack the Boss head on with the soldiers.
After that spam mage's charge up while protecting her with the assassin. With a little bit of luck, really depends on what kind of attacks the boss does, you will be able to take him down in no time. If he disperse into multiple bugs from the start, then just start over. Because it's a lot easier if he just keeps spewing poison. Good Luck!

He is weak to shock magic. Just use a mage, defender or assassin, and soldier. Charge up with the mage, if you use something to lure is smash attack so a majority of the mage's charge hits it should take 4 times.

Also the previous mentioned strategy works well as well. I have received and S doing both.

I would like to know how to beat the forest level, Blue Scaled Warriors. I progress to the second stream then I get stuck. Can't go any further. Anyone have any ideas?

Hey I haven't noticed the posts, thank you both for giving me some hope and some hints. :D Extra thanks to vitamindee69 who made the effort to subscribe to the forum to post the hints.

I'm a little worry how rude it seems be anyway, I believed have tried similar things already but perhaps not the exact details.

Could you both post your team stats when you beat this second boss? so I have an idea of their level?

[Qordobo]

First of all, try to hit the boss with mage's charge up skill maybe one or two times at max...Attack the Boss head on with the soldiers

He is weak to shock magic...Charge up with the mage, if you use something to lure is smash attack so a majority of the mage's charge hits it should take 4 times.

Well I tried a bit by following the advices but:

I don't see how stop the boss moving or disperse, I haven't yet found any tricks to force that. The result is for now mage charge attack is rather pointless for me, for now.
I don't see what means "Attack the Boss head", for me only attack the boss means something I don't see different targets.
Also for the shock attack I can't see any difference, to test more easily I tried with flick and haven't quote the differences. But I haven't yet tried change my equipment in this direction.
Kills it with 4 mage charges? Well it's hard to be sure because of the boss movements but few time I got most charge hit the boss and was far to damages for 25%HP. That brings me back to the question about party attributes, ie equipment.

Ha well I have few more things to try, I tried a bit send the Soldier with 2 sub units change to mass and attack the boss but with no impressive result but I forgot try berserk at same time. I have also to try some equipment changes and find how keep the boss from moving or disperse.

One trouble I get in this level is that if I enable auto defend almost required because of the spawning then I got units attack the boss when I don't want.

But really have an idea of equipments you used would be very helpful to know if I should persist or should before grind to improve equipments.

[jsrco]

Had the second set of armor and weapons on all of the characters. With the exception of the soldier who had a fine cloth cape accessory, the rest had iron rings.


This is the easiest I have gotten so far:
Slot A - Mage
Slot B - Empty
Slot C - Assassin
Slot D - Soldier x2 weapon masters

1. Charge up the mage (fire it doesn't matter enough to go to spark) and the soldier's charge abilities. Start with the mage so that when you send out the first flame attack you immediate re tap on the soldier to finish charging up its berserk ability. And then tap once to bring out the mace.

With the mage's charge ability you just have to guess the first hit. You should easily be able to tell where that will be by the poison gas attack it does. The rest of this dots for the charge ability should be in the same area because each time it hits it pauses for a split second.

2. Begin charging up the mage ability again. In fact, do this every time she uses it. Only be careful not to hit your soldiers with it. Send the soldier and weapon masters into attack the insect king. Move the assassin next to the mage so it guards it from any monsters.

3. Unless you are crafty enough and lucky enough to not get a lot of bug spit ups, tap the soldiers mace back to swords when the berserk runs out. If you get lucky enough just recharge berserk and leave the mace. But then continue to attack the king.

4. Once he is down to 25% health left, send in your assassin to help out and the mage using the flick attack.

Should give you the bonus objectives for an S rank:
100% flick attack accuracy.
Defeated in under 2 minutes.

[Qordobo]

Thanks for the added details, I'll have dig more the conditions with this boss not moving. For the equipements, not sure what you mean by second level. I haven't yet unlock fine cloth you mention but on another way second level seems to me quite low.

By replaying some levels I quoted at my surprise that there was crossroads, in fact like they are on the global maps. Which means they are alternate paths.

So I found this alternate path leading to a different second boss, the lizard king. I also notice that in previous path I had one more alternate path, should try play again the level to find our reach this additional choice.

The Lizard king seems more easy to beat but that's very relative because it hits extremely hard you better not get hit at all.

[jsrco]

Thanks for the added details, I'll have dig more the conditions with this boss not moving. For the equipements, not sure what you mean by second level. I haven't yet unlock fine cloth you mention but on another way second level seems to me quite low.

By replaying some levels I quoted at my surprise that there was crossroads, in fact like they are on the global maps. Which means they are alternate paths.

So I found this alternate path leading to a different second boss, the lizard king. I also notice that in previous path I had one more alternate path, should try play again the level to find our reach this additional choice.

The Lizard king seems more easy to beat but that's very relative because it hits extremely hard you better not get hit at all.

I have unlocked both ways in the first alternate patch branch. But I can't beat the level called :Blue Scaled Warriors:

I get to the second stream of water and no matter what I do it will not freeze. So I get stuck and nothing happens. I have even used an assassin to warp past it to no avail.

[Qordobo]

I have unlocked both ways in the first alternate patch branch. But I can't beat the level called :Blue Scaled Warriors:

I get to the second stream of water and no matter what I do it will not freeze. So I get stuck and nothing happens. I have even used an assassin to warp past it to no avail.

Yes I see this part here the hint (highlight or copy/paste to see):
The second water stream is here until you cancel the freeze on the first, that simple. :) The idea is probably roughly that the water is blocked creating the second stream of water.

[jsrco]

Yes I see this part here the hint (highlight or copy/paste to see):

You know... I figured it out last night before reading this, but ended up getting stuck on the next mission because of the lizard rush in the beginning.

[Qordobo]

This next mission isn't really difficult you probably just tried in a wrong way. I didn't notice much problem but I think I made it only at second attempt. If I remember well I just move north part, that trigger another wave at north but it is easy to manage. The south wave will take long enough to reach your units because the bridges will make their path finding rather slow. Anyway the bridges will just break the wave in smaller chunk.

I made it like other stages of this map with Mage+Healer+Assassin with sub unit. For the boss that follow it's not an interesting mix but for previous stages it's fine.

[ataloss]

Price drop to $4.99.

[Qordobo]

Price drop to $4.99.

Cool, it totally worth this price, there's a lot of work and game design put in it. The gameplay is rather unique and it's one of the deeper implementation of multi touch gameplay if not the deeper.

Yeah the difficulty is extremely challenging, perhaps a bit too much, but there's a lot of replay value even if like me you haven't yet finish the game. The point is that there's a lot of depth and diversity in tactical possibilities in this game and the action is very fun.

After have stick more to the game and not giving up, some negative arguments seems not fully fair. For example:

Controls are difficult, particularly the flicks: Not right, they aren't easy nor obvious to learn, but now I almost never fail any flick, even if my precision can be improved more. The whole set of commands is really very good and give many opportunity of multi touch controls.
The path finding doesn't work well: In fact it proves to be a part of the gameplay. This path finding is an additional tactical possibility to use against enemy units, and for your units anyway control them precisely and often is the core of the gameplay. It's not at all your standard RTS and making the parallel is an error.


In the gaming history I see only 3 games roughly with a similar approach, Syndicate, Cannon Fodder and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, but there's perhaps some real time party JRPG I don't know that could fit the comparison.

Syndicate has a much better story background and development, has bigger maps with more freedom but is very far to have the same gameplay depth.

Cannon Fodder is more deep but with no real story and the background isn't as good the satiric anti war approach is quickly tedious it's too much like someone cutting the branch where he sits.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is probably the closest and perhaps the real source of inspiration for KotPC, but the gameplay with the DS stylet is tedious, that Square game would worth a deep port on iPad with a deep adaptation to multi touch controls. I'm not fully fair with that game because I quickly give up play it, I should try again.

I only played deeply Syndicate, a little bit Revenant Wings and more Cannon Fooder so I can't make a very fair comparison but for me Knights of the Phantom Castle is the best despite some lack of polishing and it makes shine the multi touch gaming and the iPad. An easy bet is that it will be a future cult game, that not many will remember but those that will they'll have a very high nostalgia of it.

[ImNoSuperMan]

$4.99 -> $1.99　(October 14 - October 20)

[klako]

Since you can control multiple units at the same time, does it work as a two player coop game? Anyone tried to play like that? Is it comfortable to have two players with one Ipad, or you will get in each others way?

I am thinking you might even be able to always play the same character for each player. So play it like coop action RPG. And add extra 3rd/4th units type depending on what is required by the mission.

[Qordobo]

Since you can control multiple units at the same time, does it work as a two player coop game? Anyone tried to play like that? Is it comfortable to have two players with one Ipad, or you will get in each others way?

I am thinking you might even be able to always play the same character for each player. So play it like coop action RPG. And add extra 3rd/4th units type depending on what is required by the mission.

The game isn't setup for that, don't forget it's a lot of touch controls and maneuvering your units is an important element. Two players controlling each one 1 or 2 units will have limited maneuvering and hands collisions. Any ipad game setup for multiple players around the same iPad allocate separate area with each player. That said I never tried with this game and this can be fun for few sessions but I doubt for playing the whole game.

That's a great game, difficult but great and unique, you wont find much clone or equivalent games. I suggest you took the opportunity of the cheap current sale.

[Marcus70]

Knights of the phantom castle is just $0.99 now :)