Steam Game Festival: Clan O’Conall and the Crown of the Stag
Demo Thoughts
Developer: HitGrab
Publisher: HitGrab
Release Date: Fall 2020
Platforms: PC
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I played the demo of Clan O’Conall and the Crown of the Stag during the Steam Game Festival and I was impressed with what I played. I was mostly interested in the character swapping mechanics, as the game features a spear dude, an archer, and a stronger melee character. I was correctly expecting a Trine-like experience, but I was happy that the gameplay seemed to flow a bit faster in this, even in this tiny demo. Although I was a little bit disappointed the story wasn’t really introduced and the characters just seemed to come together with almost no background, the character swapping felt seamless with no lag, something I was worried about.
The puzzle elements in the demo were not that difficult, but fighting a tiny wave of enemies in one section really tested movement and character swapping because enemies attacked from both high and low. The most important thing is that every character is unique enough and enjoyable, but using the strong melee guy felt like the easiest way to go due to his rapid punching power, despite the archer being my favorite.
The demo also features a boss and that tests character swapping skills at an even higher level. What I really like about the boss fight in this demo is it feels like a boss fight and not just a beefed up enemy. The boss has stages and a boss health bar at the bottom, something that I always prefer to have in a video game that some developers omit. There were times the boss fight felt hectic, but I never felt like I was overwhelmed or the game was being unfair. I have no idea where this boss is in the game, but the experience left me wanting more.
Clan O’Conall and the Crown of the Stag is currently slated to release in the fall and I can’t wait to play the finished product once all the music is in there and the story. There is a charm about this game that definitely shows in its design so I highly recommend you play the demo if you get the chance.
