I have played Felvidek and i found it a rather... surprisingly fun and unique experience! It fels like a slovakia LISA with knights somehow.
(someone had fun posing for this art)
It's a low budget game from slovakia and it's somehow a mix of epic, horror and comedy, with very tight balanced combat. The soundtrack is actually very modern. I especially like the chill overworld song with the chill guitar (i guess it's hylics-esque) and the hyper energetic tavern theme that blasts a sudden trumpet solo.
The game mostly about two characters living in Felvidek (upper land) of hungary. The MC Pavol, an alcoholic and snarky knight who was dumped by his wife but still simps for her, and Matej, a wise and dedicated priest that can act very agressive and petty about his faith. They work under lord Jozef and they must unveil a conspiracy with invading hussites (czechs?), ottoman spies, and satanic cultists creating mutant monsters (like LISA).
(cool ps1 style cutscenes but rare)
Now what i like about the game
>It's very quirky in an obvious foreign type of humor way
The game is entirely in ye old english and non-english lines, and i'm not slovakian but i liked the humor cause it feels very different from usual. Pavol and Matej sound a standard comedy duo but they also alternate straight man roles depending on the context (very hard to pull off) and make it plot relevant. I like how one part of main quest involves interrogating a priest that is at the brothel, and matej is fucking pissed at him and accepts a duel, except Pavol interrogates him before that and says they dont need to fight only for Matej to insist anyway. He also tells the brother maids Pavol has pox so they won't approach him lol.
(we got robbed of our clothes in a funny optional sidequest)
Other things feel like accidental funny. Like how everyone in game fucking hates the hussites who are treated as completely evil scum, when even the monster cultists have regrets and get some sympathy. There is also THE JEW whose name is never spoken out loud and people talk about THE JEW being super intelligent and resourceful like THE JEW is some sort of rare magical creature. THE JEW is also, ironically, the only npc in the entire game that doesnt let you rob his house.
The jokes are delivered in this bizarre way you dont see often in western games but the writing is surprisingly great and human, i think Pavol and Matej are great MCs and they have clear flaws (simp and petty). The stakes get higher and the game gets darker but never depressing. Like, i found a secret passafe right before the final boss that had the most random out of place joke ever...
>Combat is well balanced and animations are cool
There is no experience system, enemies are not random nor respawn and you only ever learn new shit from gear. There is a weapon, a shield, armor, helmet, 2 ring slots and a ranged weapon slot. Every character has 1 natural skill, Pavol gets half-swording (atk+ defense debuff) and Matej gets heal + def buff. The only way to increase your personal stats is to find or drop Jam / liquor / Fig which are Atk / hp / TP upgrades and effectively your "level ups". Pavol starts with 10 TP so
every point is massive.
This means the game is essentially very tight on balance and gear centric. There are only a few spells, every weapon besides sword teaches 1 offensive skill, shields give shield bash (stun), ranged ones give piercing shots and 2 rings teach cleanse and dispel. There are like 3-4 max tiers of gear and the last two are mostly limited and exclusive to side quests so you want to do that (i only found 2 crossbows, 1 gun and 6 rings the whole game).
It's rpg maker so it's not complex, most enemies have 2 attacks they alternate between turns, but THAT is super important and so is being aware of defense values.
You also always attack first outside of two super bosses which is something you must exploit. You NEED to at least understand target priority and turn economy to get around. Lets look at this fight for example:
Enemy 1: This one is weak and only has 1 normal attack, dies in 2 basic attacks.
Enemy 2: This guy is a fucking tank (notice the shield) and uses a stun attack every 2 turns.
Enemy 3: This one has A GUN so it's fucking strong (50~) but no armor so it's a glass cannon.
Enemy 4: This one is the "captain" and hits very hard (30+) AND has double strike skill (does like 70+ dmg wtf).
So what do we do here? if you thought killing the weak 1 first you'll get fucking stunned and blitzed to death. The only way i won this was actually by repeatedly stunning the shield guy (so he doesnt stun me) and the captain, then kill the gunner and burst down the captain, kill the left one and half sword shielder again but now that is alone we can mash attack. I keep sleeping on half sword and using matej to heal but it's much better to be hyper agressive.
Fundamentals tl;dr:
1-Stun those stunners before they stun you (cant stun big monsters)
2-Burst down the gunner / double slasher / AoE monster ASAP
3-Use half swording to debuff armored foes (or else you'll do single digit dmg)
4-Bleed and burn and gun down the final bosses (also bring resurrection items)
5-Heal in beds and church altars between every fight to spare items (you can also cast matej heal outside fight to start with defense buff!)
6-Examine everything for items and hug walls for passages! There is an amulet at the jew house that is missable.
(you can pay this guy 20 bucks to pass or kill him. The game gives you non violent options a few times but killing gives money and drops ofc)
The only time i ever bought gear as an armor for the 4th party member which came very late, and it ended up redundant when i got lucky to drop one from an enemy right after. Either way as long as you do sidequests it should be fine, you'll probably die a few times but the knowlege of your enemies attacks will help in the rematch, i dont think the game is that hard if you played LISA or understand those fundamentals. It might take a few tries bu enjoyed the combat overall.
>What did i dislike tho??
1-First of all, this is a short game with a small world that you'll backtrack often. My save says 4h 14m but it was probably 5 counting resets. I did not feel like i played slowly but the steam page said 2-3 hours and i dont see that unless you're ignoring shit. Either way, 4~ hours on 11 dollar indie rpg maker game is probably a hard sell for most normies, but i'd still recommend pirating. There is a demo you can check out too.
2-The game has a few frustrating things to troll you. Right at the start of the game you can talk to an npc and join the cult only to get tricked into an unwinable fight. It's early so you dont lose much progress (and actually big foreshadowing) but it does it again later. You have the option to force your way out of the city and fight a ton of monsters but if you win (very hard) it starts another monster fight so it shouldnt even be a choice.
3-
There is a little too much non english. Jozef and Ida are especially bad at this and will drop entire phrases in hungarian and it's not funny, it just makes me confused. One thing i keep hearing is "Pali" which i never figured what it means so i assume it's Pavol's nickname??
There are also a notable amount of typos. Pavol calling the burgmaster the "bugmaster" is funny tho.
4-The last party members come a little too late to care. Adam is the third one and he's a badass but he kinda comes out of nowhere to help us at the finale. Kedench, is a seemingly optional mercenary that you get 30 minutes before the game ends (do not miss him!), he doenst even get mentioned in the ending slide. Apparently Ida (the thief who stole our clothes) is recruitable but i missed her somehow.
5-Some of the trailer was lies??? The trailer has Kandich before Adam and i dont know how since Adam joins first. There is also cutscene of Matej beating a cultist with his bible and a cultist point but i dont know how i could've missed that dammit.
But none of those negatives were enough to make me dislike the game, only get annoyed a bit.
(someone had fun posing for this art)
(we got robbed of our clothes in a funny optional sidequest)
(actual sonichu necklace lol)
