Reviews of Some Demos I Played During Next Fest: October 2024 which include Border Pioneer, Urban Myth Dissolution Center, Star Vaders and Sultan’s Game.

Border Pioneer

Border Pioneer is an interesting deck-building tower defense strategy game. You draw cards and collect resources each round, and building your kingdom requires careful use of both. It’s really fun to discover different defensive options and create unique synergies, and the cards and skills you choose will significantly impact your playstyle in each run. The game can scale up to massive waves of enemies, making the battlefield extremely intense.

Urban Myth Dissolution Center

The pixel art style immediately caught my eye, but the gameplay itself is mostly a standard visual novel with deduction mini-game mechanics. However, I absolutely loved one particular section where you have to surf the internet to uncover hidden information. You start with a thread on a related topic and then use keywords you find to search for other threads—much like how Her Story worked. It reflects how we gather information nowadays, and I had a great time with this puzzle section.

Star Vaders

A roguelike deck-builder that gives me Into the Breach vibes. You have to defend against waves of enemies using your deck of cards. The overheat mechanic stands out from the typical energy system seen in most deck-builders. It lets you play an extra card per turn—but at the cost of disabling the rest of your cards. Overheating can be incredibly powerful in the right situations, but overusing it fills your deck with unusable cards. Should I overheat this turn or take a bit of damage? These kinds of turn-by-turn decisions are what make the game so much fun.

Sultan’s Game

Sultan’s Game pulls players into the action right from the start. In the tutorial, you play as King Sultan, who decides to participate in a deadly game just for fun, and you’re forced to kill numerous people in the palace. After the tutorial, the real protagonist is assigned to play the same game under the king’s orders, and the actual story begins. The gameplay revolves around making decisions during various events, with the goal of satisfying the king. As you progress, you’ll face increasingly difficult dilemmas and uncover the mysterious stories unfolding in the kingdom. The concept and art style are both compelling, though the game would benefit from improvements to the user interface—especially in helping players understand how events work and what their consequences are.

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