I was seriously excited when I read about the Guided Fate Paradox, as I'm a huge fan of both the Disgaea series and various roguelikes (Nethack, FTL, Rogue Legacy to name a few). Expectations were high, but as I played, I couldn't help but feel increasingly disappointed. Yes, it has very little in common with the Disgaea series apart from the sense of humor. That's fine. But the roguelikeI was seriously excited when I read about the Guided Fate Paradox, as I'm a huge fan of both the Disgaea series and various roguelikes (Nethack, FTL, Rogue Legacy to name a few). Expectations were high, but as I played, I couldn't help but feel increasingly disappointed. Yes, it has very little in common with the Disgaea series apart from the sense of humor. That's fine. But the roguelike elements also failed to really click with me, the whole experience felt like a rather shallow attempt at mixing different genres (and failing, for the most part).
The game starts out as being way too easy, with little challenge until the boss of the second chapter (called a "lesson".) The single levels that make up the "dungeon" for each lesson are tiny, some can be completed in a couple of minutes, and while the different lessons do a good job at representing different themes with varying looks and room layouts, they're pretty much copy paste of each other within the same theme world. Just like the levels, there is very little variation in monsters within the same 8-level dungeon. You'll Encounter the ecactly same 4 or so monsters over and over again, with the same skills, and same strength. The difficulty increases a lot, eventually, BUT: see below.
There is little variety in loot drops, as well. For instance, every single zombie hat is exactly the same as every other zombie hat that will drop, and you'll see a lot of them drop, because the items are as copy paste as the levels and the monsters. All of them only give you skills, and those skills are as similar to each other as everything else. You don't hit Monsters with the sword you equipped, it only allows you to do damage to a mob on any tile up to 3 tiles in front of you, for instance. Or maybe it's a T, or every adjacent square, and the damage type varies, but that's it. You still basically hit with your fist despite Holding a sword. Every single equipment slot does the same things. Yes, pants generally give you damage skills too. There's the occasional heal or mini-teleport but overall, there is very little variation. And the worst part of it is that if you use those items too much, their burst gauge fills up and when it's full, the item's skill is only half as effective until you go upgrade it. It is considered a valid "strategy" to rush past Monsters Level by Level all the way to the boss, and only start using your items there. Not my idea of fun.
The Guided Fate Paradox is too simplified to really "click" as a challenging roguelike. There are no secret levels or bonus rooms to discover (I found ONE shop room in a dungeon in some 12 hours of playing, and it only sold the same cookie cutter items I already had too many of). Yes, it gets "hard" after the first few lessons, but it's not a kind of challenge that requires you to think and plan your strategy carefully. Monsters respawn, you can grind for as long as food lasts, and then use an exit item to head back to the base, sell, bank, and go back in. You can even use exit items anytime and anywhere if you're about to die. I suppose they intended for this to ease the difficulty and frustration, but it really just turns the "challenge" into a repetitive grind. And as described before, the dungeons are too simplistic to make x repetitions of them fun.
You could argue that Rogue Legacy is grindy, to a degree. That's true, but it works because its overall "character progression" (expanding the starter castle) is much more varied than the Guided Fate Paradox' character development system. Rogue Legacy allows you to gradually unlock bonuses like new starting classes with different skills, resistances, critical hit chance and so on. The Guided Fate Paradox, in comparison, only lets you permanently improve 4 basic stats. You don't get new skills, as those are tied to equipment only. There's holy artifacts, as well, but you can only power 3 of them at most, and their effects aren't that interesting.
What was truly enjoyable, to me, is the story. NIS did another great job at delivering an absolutely hilarious plot full of self-irony ('sup? I'm god.") The story Progresses in small episodes after most dungeon Levels, but only on the first playthrough. Overall, it wasn't enough to keep me motivated through the repetitive gameplay drag for longer than the first few chapters. If you're looking for a challenging roguelike without grind, look elsewhere.… Expand
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