I forced myself to stop playing 13Z: The Zodiac Trials. At some point, I needed to start writing, but I was captivated by my ability to obliterate the enemies within this Eastern Zodiac-themed hack-and-slash roguelite. I was having fun, but was equally confused at how I never died, and was only hit four or five times in one hour. I became so good at fighting and at choosing perks, I wondered if it was too easy.
I chose the hardest difficulty, and I performed even better after taking time to equip myself with permanent passives and upgrades to the attribute tree. The demo was too easy. But I want to play more.
The world is filled with fascinating art, symbols, and characters. I know nothing of Eastern Zodiac mythology. All I know is of the uber-mainstream version of Zodiac. 13Z is not based on that, though you can see parallels. The world isn’t lit properly with or without global illumination, yet it’s still mesmerizing to look up and see the stars and notice the rest of the architecture surrounding you.
The attacks also kept me interested. They’re swift, and the main character swings her sword with elegance like Xianghua from Soul Calibur. Perhaps that has more to do with the sound than the animation, as the animations in the demo are extremely clunky when slowed down. But I can’t deny that watching the attack performances encourages me to keep my combo going as long as possible.
That’s something I wished 13Z had (and maybe it will when the game launches): more attack variation. Your light attack has three slashes, like a typical three-button press combo. You can combine that with a heavy attack that goes up to two combos. From there, you can combine it with your special attack. There’s no difference if you do your light attack twice, then go into your heavy attack. That animation simply interrupts the light attack combo. So finding the optimal combo is rather simple, even if you’re not looking to optimize.
The choices between levels have an interesting twist. You can choose the type of upgrade you’ll receive before the next fight. After you finish a section, you usually can choose something that buffs the abilities you have or adds something new. In 13Z, you can choose something like “Change or improve your Light Attack, Heavy Attack, or Special Seal” or “Change or improve your Dash, Parry, or Walk Seal.” Let’s say you chose the former. After you finish a section, those choices that any other roguelite has will appear, but they’re based on what you chose before you started the mission. And then once you choose the actual buffs, you’ll choose another, sort of, pre-choice again.
I wonder if this is why the demo felt too easy. It felt like I was manipulating my choices, like using the Artifact of Command in Risk of Rain 2. I don’t get to decide the color, but I get to decide what’s inside. This is the opposite. I don’t get to choose which perks show up, but I do get to choose the type of perk. And to be clear, there are two choices (they are random, although pairs seem to be common), but the choice still gives immense strength to a build.
I can’t tell if this is the intended design. If it is, I suppose there’s nothing wrong with being overpowered early, but part of the charm of rougelites is hitting a wall and needing gradual upgrades to break it down. Upgrades seemed to bring my power over 9000, making the hardest difficulty easy. That kind of fun will only last so long. I’m not in the camp that every game must be played for hours, but as a roguelite, the assumption is that it will be challenging, and 13Z isn’t.
I’ve heard some say the attribute tree could use variation. All the upgrades are flat. +20 health here, 10% attack increase here, etc. That doesn’t matter. Granblue Fantasy Relink has the same kind of tree. It serves as a means to increase power or unlock other abilities. 13Z has a method for unlocking other abilities. But it is too easy to unlock those attributes. That has something to do with how much I breezed through the demo, but I’m positive that had something to do with my ability to crush the enemies on hard. There are several consequences I can imagine for making them cost more versus reducing the buff amounts, and none of which would be easy fixes, but that is a bigger problem than simply adding useless choices just to trigger another hit of dopamine.
This could be one of those demos that is far outdated compared to the current internal build, which is why I’m still optimistic about 13Z, but I think its fair to say those concerns are real. But so is the potential.