#mana spark

[tadesart]

I love Mana Spark

[belmonteiro]

Mana Spark: um combate brilhante para um jogo frustrante - Backlogger

Mana Spark era para ser uma pequena joia do cenário de jogos brasileiros, mas além de ser roguelike ele tem outros probleminhas

Depois de mais de quase um mês, finalmente consegui fechar esse texto sobre Mana Spark. Mais outro título de roguelike que é um gênero que supostamente eu detesto e por algum motivo estou sempre jogando

[blink-slam-studio]

Mana Spark (Switch) Review - Should You Buy It in 2024

An Entry Point For Rogue-lites

A while back I was trying to convince a friend of mine to play Risk of Rain 2. “Yeah man, you run around the stage, gather up a bunch of random items, fight a boss, then move to the next stage. The game ends when you die. Then you do it all over again from the start!”. I feel like I summarized the gameplay loop pretty succinctly and beamed a big smile at him, thinking how could he say no to that. “Wait, you lose everything when you die?” he asked. “Yeah, then you do it again!” I replied. His face gave away what he was thinking. I could tell he was unimpressed. “I don’t want to lose my stuff when I die.” he said. I then spent another ten minutes or so spinning my wheels trying to explain how this was different from other times you lose your gear in games, and that dying was half the fun. I somehow managed to convince him to pick up the game (which he ended up loving) and after he played it a bit it all made much more sense. 

I thought about that conversation a great deal while I played Mana Spark. I’m sure that if I handed this game to my friend that I could have avoided a lot of the confusion of explaining a rogue-lite, while also convincing him of the genre’s merits. That’s what I think Mana Spark’s biggest asset is. 

Mana Spark condenses many of the aspects of Soulslike and rogue-like and keeps what works. Combat is king for any souls-like game, and Mana Spark does a good job of simplifying it without losing too much fidelity. Your weapon of choice for a good portion of the game will be your trusted bow and arrow. It will do decent damage to small enemies, but will require multiple hits on tougher foes. Your biggest weapon, however, is your muscle memory; enemies follow predictable patterns and learning how each one attacks will serve you well. Mana Spark also builds onto the combat, making enemies responsive to their environment. For example, the simple Goblat enemies are fragile enemies that shoot slow, easy to dodge projectiles. If a Goblat finds a Grey Wolf or a Wild Boar they won’t hesitate to hop on its back, creating a much more difficult enemy to take down. 

The souls-like combat sits inside of a rogue-lite framework. Each time you play the game (“run”) there will be slight, but impactful, differences that will change some aspect of your character and how the game plays out. No two runs will be exactly the same as both items and stage layout will change. This variation keeps the game fresh and adds a lot of longevity. There is a surprising amount of depth gained from the meta-progression that is available through your encampment (where you will go in-between runs). Different characters that you recruit along the way will show up and provide various upgrades and buffs that will help get you closer to beating the game. This is done by collecting currency called “runes” in your runs. This is one of two currencies in the game, but is the only one that can be stored for use outside of a run.

The game does have its limitations, though. Mana Spark has a standard price point of $9

.99, which isn’t an outrageous price. The ten dollar price point sets Mana Spark at the same level as fully fleshed out, classic indie rogue titles such as Risk of Rain and Spelunky as well as overall picks like Terraria and Undertale. I think I would feel more at ease if this game was around the five dollar mark, which seems to be a more fitting weight class for it. Mana Spark does have a consistent track record of being on sale, which is a bit of a saving grace. I picked up the game at $1.99 which is a great price for it. 

My biggest gripe with Mana Spark is a flaw in the game loop. Traditionally, after defeating a boss there is a moment of respite. A time to gather your thoughts, check your gear, heal, etc. At the very least you can save your game. Mana Spark eschews this dynamic and chooses to throw the player right back into the Buried Tunnels, which they will need to fight through to reach the next rest area. I’m sure this will become trivial as players gain more experience and can clear the stage without much hassle but it can be a major roadblock.

This formula creates a “feel bad” scenario. The boss you have just defeated has rewarded you with the same amount of runes you would have gotten from the starting area ten times over. I mistakenly assumed that I would be able to put this new loot towards my camp as I had unlocked the Turret in a previous run and was eager to unlock it. I was low on health and excited to get to the rest area only to find that I would have to fight my way through a massive stage filled with enemies and more rooms than I had ever seen. I promptly died and lost everything. 

Dying in a rogue-lite shouldn’t feel bad. As I explained to my friend, dying is a large part of the rogue-lite experience. What keeps death from “feeling bad” is that the meta-progression is in my skill as a player, and not always about what I unlock in the game. I found an item in the game (Turret) that I wanted to unlock. In an ideal world, finding the Turret would have unlocked it. In Mana Spark, finding the item is only half of the battle as you must also gather enough runes to purchase the item from the blacksmith. Because the rest area is placed poorly, I am incentivized to grind the first two stages for one or two runes and then promptly die to get back into a run to do it again. 

There is an obvious solution: move the rest area one stage backwards. If a player defeats the boss, they should be able to secure their reward. Simple as that. There is another more nuanced answer. I said that in an ideal world finding the item should unlock the item. Mana Spark already has a built-in upgrade system. If a player finds the item then it should be unlocked at the blacksmith, but it doesn’t need to be very good yet. In this scenario, the player gets to use the item they found, engages with the upgrade system that is already in place, and the developer can keep their level layout. Or just let me keep my runes. That works too.

Performance: The moment-to-moment gameplay is sharp and responsive. I think that things move a little too fast at times and can become hard to see, but this is usually after the stage has been cleared so it is mostly a non-issue.

Music: The music largely contrasts the gameplay. Even though the combat on screen might be chaotic, the music over top of the gameplay is calm and relaxed. It’s a nice fit.

Art Style: Character models are minimalist pixel designs that showcase just enough character to make them identifiable. 

Game Length: A person could reasonably beat this game in ten hours but because Mana Spark is a rogue-lite there is increased replayability.

Should you buy Mana Spark?

Mana Spark is an entry point into the rogue-lite genre. If you have played other rogue-lites then this game won’t necessarily be for you as it doesn’t do anything other games haven’t already done. This is a game for somebody who is completely new and is looking to enter the genre at a reasonable price. Mana Spark goes on sale frequently and can be picked up for around two dollars. I would highly recommend this game at that price point.

[darkyrus]

So

I started Mana Spark

Thank you, Galiana for coming to my aid

This is hell

[everygame]

Qubic Games Flash Round (Nintendo Switch)

Mana Spark (BEHEMUTT, Kishimoto Studios): Uhhhh wow! Now I liked Rekt as I’ve said, but Mana Spark is… legit. A twin-stick rogue-like-like, you play one of three characters making your way through a dungeon fighting off skeletons and that while collecting upgrades that last for the length of your run and upgrading your camp to improve your chances on the long term (up to a point, anyway). This definitely isn’t perfect; issues include that aiming is very exacting, terrain can catch/trap you and loads of the enemies are armoured (which is to try and force you to engage with a sort of Dark Soulsy dodge and attack, but it often feels like time wasting). However, I found this extremely compelling the way any good rogue-like adjacent title is, with me excited to find out what upgrades I’d get on each run and testing my luck by doing things like trying to beat mini-bosses I didn’t have to. The game feel is strong enough that I only rarely got annoyed at my deaths (uhh, once you’re past the first boss, who is definitely a challenge with the default character) and a single run is nice and short too (the amount of content isn’t honestly that high, so they cleverly didn’t stretch it out too far.) I feel like there are probably better twin-stick rogue-like-likes out there that I just haven’t played but that’s not to talk this one down.

Should anyone pay money for this? Absolutely. This definitely drops to a dollar or two regularly as is Qubic’s MO and it provided me far more value than that in that I was more than happy enough to play it until I beat it, so it’s officially an Every Game I’ve Finished.

[notpreparedblog]

Review: Shalnor Legends: Sacred Lands

Is this $0.99 Nintendo eShop purchase worth playing? Review: Shalnor Legends: Sacred Lands #nintendo #nintendoswitch #shalnorlegends #zelda #manaspark

Introduction and Story

Out of the depths of quarantine comes the first game I’m actually able to complete in recent months (thank a newborn for that). Shalnor Legends: Sacred Lands appealed to me for no particular reason other than it’s $0.99 price tag. Yes, pixel art and yes, Zelda similarities, but that price…

Famously in my own mind, I’ve attempted a game at this price range before and it was…

View On WordPress

[pixelpoppers]

Mana Spark

A short roguelike dungeon-crawler with smoothly-animated pixel art, a beautiful moody soundtrack, and twin-stick shooter combat. There are only a few areas and bosses, but the three playable characters all work differently and there are a variety of builds available through semi-random upgrades per run, helping keep gameplay fresh along the way - and the atmosphere and game feel are polished to a shine.

My review of Mana Spark. Bottom line: it's a short roguelike with great atmosphere and gamefeel for its tactical twin-stick shooter combat.

[pixelpoppers]

Sparking My Interest

I've finally gotten around to trying all the free QubicGames titles I picked up in December. Most of them I bounced off pretty quickly as not the kind of gameplay I'm interested in, but one surprised me: Mana Spark.

Mana Spark is a roguelike. I never get into roguelikes, but I figured I should give it a fair shot. I played it until my first death and then put it down.

The next day, I found myself thinking about it again. The combat had felt great and the music, sound, and art were excellent. I played another session, enjoyed the atmosphere and game feel, and thought it was a shame the game was a roguelike and I'd never be able to get into it. After a few more deaths I put the game back down.

About an hour later, I hadn't been able to stop thinking about the game and I picked it right back up and went on to play it obsessively for days.

I've thought a lot about why this happened. It actually reminds me of my experience with SteamWorld Dig 2.

Metroidvanias are all about remembering what's where and how to get back to it, so my terrible sense of direction renders most of them borderline unplayable. But SteamWorld Dig 2 has a fantastic map and generous fast travel. It fully solved my problem with Metroidvanias, allowing me to enjoy what's good about the genre.

Before, when I'd seen someone talk about how satisfying it was to bring a new tool back to an old area to conquer a previously-encountered obstacle, or to figure out how to skillfully use your tools to sequence-break and get somewhere early, I'd roll my eyes at this bizarre celebration of backtracking and subversion of carefully-designed pacing. But now I finally understood it! That stuff was fun, now that my poor sense of direction was no longer getting in the way. What I disliked was frustration and wasted time finding my way around with sub-par navigational aides - not Metroidvanias themselves, which it turned out I actually liked a lot!

Mana Spark provided a similar entry point into the roguelike genre. What I dislike about roguelikes is their permadeath punishment and their random layouts, and how those factors combine to create exactly the wrong kind of repetitiveness for me. Starting over each run from the beginning means you replay the early content long after it's ceased to be an interesting challenge, and if you die to a late-game challenge the randomized layouts/upgrade/enemies prevent you from practicing or retrying that challenge even once you get back through the early content again.

Given my reliance on novel challenges, it's unsurprising that I'd be turned off by roguelikes. When I fail, what I want to do is try again on the specific challenge I failed, to learn how to handle it. The last thing I want to do is be forced to make my way through the early levels that are no longer novel or challenging.

But Mana Spark has combat unlike any other roguelike I've played. Its deliberate pace and varied enemies requiring different tactics made for a high skill ceiling and kept even the early areas' combat engaging for me for quite a while - long enough for me to get hooked. With that problem solved, I could finally enjoy the things I'd heard people say they liked about roguelikes - experimenting with different upgrades, finding effective builds, having great runs that take you farther than ever before. And so Mana Spark showed me that it really is that reliance on novelty and learning, not the core structure of roguelikes, that causes my dislike of the genre.

More and more, I find myself thinking that most of the analysis we write about games is really about justifying automatic emotional responses that we're not even aware of and which vary widely between players.

For a while, I thought Mana Spark might be the first roguelike I'd actually finish. It's looking unlikely, though, because the novelty problem gets worse the further into a roguelike you get. By now I'm consistently able to get past the second boss and into the third and final area where the game's strongest enemies appear. It's taking me a while to learn to fight them effectively, and every time they kill me I have to get through the first two areas and first two boss fights before I can try again. And by now I've seen all the upgrades, and there's basically nothing new going on in those first areas - it feels like a run doesn't even really start until I get past the second boss, and it takes a while to do that.

If I could spend some in-game resources to restart a floor when I die, without starting completely over - or to skip the gameplay up through the last boss I beat, getting the random upgrades I'd have gotten along the way - I'd probably still be hooked, and would expect to finish the game. As it is, too high a percentage of my time is now spent on non-novel gameplay and I'm losing interest.

It's a shame that Mana Spark couldn't permanently solve my problems the way SteamWorld Dig 2 did. But I still had a good time with it for a while and am glad that I can now understand the appeal of its genre.