Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Dec 4, 2021

  I got married, I bought a new house, Had two kids, and one is in Kindergarten, and this game is still in early access.. I might see it on my death bed.
• gamedeal user

  May 5, 2022

  [quote][b]Personal Rating:[/b] 8/10 [b]Early Access Review:[/b] v0.920 beta [b]Disclaimer:[/b] This review will focus primarily on Story Mode.[/quote] [table] [tr] [th][h1]✅Pros:[/h1][/th] [th][h1]❌Cons:[/h1][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]* Beautiful, detailed pixel graphics. * Great controls. * Good variety of combat builds. * Excellent soundtrack. * Extended gameplay with Arcade Mode.[/td] [td]* Very slow beginning. * Combat can feel very repetitive. * Boss fights rely on projectile spam too much. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [h1]🧭 First notes on Secrets of Grindea[/h1] Secrets of Grindea is highly reminiscent of old, 16-bit, era RPGs. From the pixel graphics to its gameplay, everything is done to give veteran players a healthy amount of nostalgia and give to people who are trying the genre for the first time a great first impression. It features two main game modes: the first is Story Mode with a somewhat linear progression, focus on the characters, the world and dungeon exploration. The other is Arcade Mode, which amounts to a standalone game being a Roguelite with randomized dungeon layout, permadeath and upgrades you can buy with gold earned in your run. Some people may end up putting way more hours in this mode than in Story Mode and this wouldn't be surprising at all. [h1]⏰ Early Access?[/h1] Is it finished? No. But it ends before its final dungeon, so you’ll get around 15~20 hours of game for the Story Mode. Arcade Mode, the roguelite mode, is finished, however. This game is very polished and all skills and abilities function properly and so far I haven’t met any gamebreaking glitches, glaring bugs, or game crashes. [h1]🎮 Controls[/h1] The game was played entirely on a keyboard (no mouse or controller involved). The movement is responsive and smooth and the attacks feel satisfying to use. There weren’t any major issues at any point while playing for over 50 hours. Something that was I really liked is that the game allows you to bind NumPad keys, which doesn’t sound like much, but many keyboard-focused games don’t let you do that. It even lets you bind Ctrl and Shift+Key as well and this gives an impressive versatility to customize the controls to suit whatever particularity you may have. One of the best aspects of this game is the freedom it gives when it comes to quickslots: it allows you to set skills, items and even weapons or armor. This allows you to quickly change some of your equipment mid-combat if you like to switch between weapons to min-max damage. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2798388760 [h1]🗺 The colorful world of Grindea[/h1] As it is with any self-respecting fantasy game, especially when it takes so much inspiration from the older games, this title has a great variety of environments for you to explore. It has the generic green fields with cute creatures, haunted forests with creepy monsters, the mandatory snow and desert levels as well, and, of course, caves and abandoned locations for you to explore. The game thankfully has a fast-travel system that allows you to quickly go to places where you’d want to revisit to get a missed item/card or quest. All locations feel unique which is aided by Andrew Riley’s soundtrack, one of the high points in this game as well. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2798387618 [h1]💥 Combating and Collecting[/h1] Combat in Secrets of Grindea is its "main course" and it is delicious. From dealing with enemies with a stick to exploding them with a spell, it all makes you feel satisfied. One of the best features is that every combat zone has “grinding areas” where enemies will spawn much faster after you spend some time killing them which is excellent to get lots of items and cards, which grants you permanent bonuses. This alone prevents the hassle of having to enter and exit a screen like most games, also making regular combat an intense and fun experience. [h1]💎 A good diversity of combat styles at your disposal:[/h1] There are many, many skills (active abilities) and talents (passives) to create a character that will suit your combat tastes as you like. Whether you like the simplicity of mashing the attack button and seeing numbers flying and enemies going down, or the ability to strike more surgically with well placed skills, or perhaps a mix of both– this game has skills for these styles, and even better: both for fighter and mage type characters. There's also the option to summon a few buddies to fight with you too and you can let them to most of the fighting while you strike from afar or hop into the thick of the battle with them. Sadly, there is no skill tree focused on bow and arrow builds. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2798388359 [h1]🔙 An important question: Can you respec?[/h1] Yes, you can. Any game with this many skills that respect its players has to feature an accessible skill reset. It does cost some gold and, while you shouldn’t be afraid of doing it, be warned that respecing fully upgraded skills DOES get costly. [h1]🗡🔥 Warrior? Mage? Why not both?[/h1] With so many skills and talents you’re bound to go testing whatever fancies you the most and this is a game that allows you to create a hybrid protagonist that can wield both magic and weapon skills at the same time. You can have a character that throws fireballs and their weapons like a boomerang, or a lightning slinging character that also has shadow clones, because why not? There are plenty of skills to mix and nothing feels better than finding that one build which allows you to unleash your destructive imagination on the enemies. A particular thing that I like about this game is that you don’t have to worry about status point building: everything comes from your equipment, so you can change from melee to magic anytime you want. [h1]💠 How grindy Grindea actually is?[/h1] First and foremost: if you dare complain about grinding in a game called “Secrets of GRINDEA” you deserve to mistake sugar for salt on your next meal. Jokes aside, unless you’re aiming for 100% collection in Story Mode, going for side-quests or the more powerful equipment, there isn’t a lot of grinding in this game. If you wish just to go straight to the next part of the game you’re free to do so. There is some degree of level grinding if you don’t want to really suffer, though. It isn’t much and the game actually discourages too much level grinding by severely reducing the amount of Exp you earn from monsters killed if your level is too high. However items will drop at normal rate which will allow you to grind for materials for more equipment/quests. Arcade Mode presents another type of grinding: by progressing and finishing (or not) your current run you’ll earn money to get improvements to enhance your chances of getting further into it, or beat it again with more ease. There are many structures to build, so you’ll be busy with this game mode for a while. [h1]📉 Low points...[/h1] This is defintely not a game for people in a hurry. You'll need more than just a few hours to to have all the freedom to make the crazy builds you want. Boss battles, while nice, rely too much on a specific gimmick: filling the screen with projectiles not unlike shoot-‘em-up games. This is fine for some bosses, even fitting their thematic, but nearly every boss does this and it can get tiring having to stand back for several moments until you get a chance to attack the boss. Combat is fun, yes, but it can become very repetitive even with the myriad of builds you can make, especially if you’re hunting for enemy cards, usually the rarest drops in an area which can take very long, especially if you’re hunting a rare enemy. [h1]👍 Conclusion[/h1] Secrets of Grindea, while incomplete as of this writing, is still an amazing game that might scratch that itch for an Action RPG and may lure newcomers with its rock solid gameplay and fantastic pixel graphics.
• gamedeal user

  May 16, 2022

  I've had three kids since buying this game and it's still in Early Access. Please finish the main story. I'm giving this a recommendation because the Arena (Roguelike) mode is worth the price by itself. It's not going to blow you away like Hades, but it's still fun and definitely worth picking up when discounted.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 27, 2022

  I bought this game in 2016 and it's still not finished lol
• capitanmercury

  Oct 6, 2022

  Absolutely love this game, but the fact that I've owned it for probably 6 years or so and it's still in early access and very little progress has been made on the story makes it so that I cannot recommend it.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 3, 2022

  I bought this early to support the devs and was just waiting until it was finished to play. Well I guess that's just never going to happen I guess. A little too late to get a refund now.
• DsRain

  Dec 25, 2022

  Secrets of Grindia is a well-made role-playing game that harkens back to classic games in the genre. It has an interesting plot that transports the player to a world filled with fantastical creatures and magic, and tasks them with solving mysteries and saving the world from threats. The game features a variety of character classes that differ in abilities and playstyle, allowing the player to choose the one that suits their preferences. There is also a diverse range of weapons and armor, adding to its replayability. The graphics in Secrets of Grindia are good, and the accompanying music sets the right mood. The controls are intuitive and easy to understand, making the game accessible even for beginners. Overall, Secrets of Grindia is a solid RPG that offers a good balance of story, combat, and character progression. It is a worthwhile addition to any fan of the genre.
• DatRandomkid

  Jan 8, 2023

  I've been following this since late 2016, so I've seen a lot of the progress that has been made, with the game being pretty close to fully releasing now I thought it would be a good time to give a review on this game. So, what type of game is Secrets of Grindea? Secrets of Grindea is an RPG that gives off that classic game feel while also having pinches of modern game mechanics sprinkled in. The game has a decently sized group of locations and puzzles for you to both explore and solve. There's a variety of skills and different playstyles to choose from, the main three being: one-handed, two-handed, and magic. Each playstyle comes with multiple different skills and perks you can choose from every time you level up, there's also special abilities not tied to any playstyle regardless of weapons. Each of these skills have a different level of charge, these levels can be obtained when you put enough points into a particular ability. Due to the variety of different skills, combat in the game never gets old. Don't like your current skills? No problem, you can just respec your points and put them into different abilities. As stated before, the combat in the game never gets old, this is due to both the variety of skills AND the variety and uniqueness of almost every enemy in the game and how they vary in how you can approach them. Perfect blocks are fun to pull off and are beneficial, completely negating damage and instantly giving you a level 3 charge for one of your special abilities. The bosses are also unique and also fun to fight, especially on hard mode where they gain increased stats and new attacks, definitely play on hard mode you want to challenge yourself(though I would recommend at least to play the game on normal first). The story is interesting and provides quite a few likeable characters that you will meet on your adventure. The story can take upwards of 20 hours on your first playthrough, and that's not counting the side quests and all of the other side content such as Arcade mode. What is arcade mode? It's a completely separate way to play the game. Arcade mode is a rogue-like mode where you go floor to floor clearing out enemies and bosses while gaining new items and leveling up skills while also building the hub world, which can help you in future runs. Something also unique about arcade mode is that you have the ability to unlock cosmetics that you can wear in both arcade mode and in story mode. Overall, I would give this game an 9/10, even in it's early access state there's more content in this game than quite a few triple A games. The game has nice pixel graphics, good music that will get stuck in your head, and the devs also post almost weekly updates on the game's progress on their developer's blog, and are quite nice.
• big guy

  Jan 21, 2023

  the game's great but your grandchildren are gonna have to finish it for you if development keeps going how it's been going for the past 12 years.
• R1k0

  Feb 5, 2023

  2015 early access game! That being said, make your choice!