HellSlave II: Judgement of the Archon is a dark fantasy RPG with beautifully macabre hand-drawn art, a large amount of build diversity, and a relatively unique turn-based combat system that rewards patience and good decision making.
I messed around with the demo for a few hours and went through two runs with very different builds. Here are my thoughts on its current state.
NOTE: I received a review copy of the game in advance and will look into writing a full review when the full version releases.
A Tactical Time Twist
Long-time readers know that I’m a fan of turn-based RPGs, as I’ve covered the likes of Clair Obscur and Baldur’s Gate 3 in the past (and I’m currently playing P4G!), so me covering this shouldn’t come as a surprise anymore.
HellSlave II caught my eye with its visceral comic-style art and time-based combat system somewhat reminiscent of Ruined King‘s, and I played the demo far longer than I thought I would because of how much fun I had with it.
Rather than the usual system where you take turns smacking each other, HellSlave II adds an extra twist where combat happens in “real time”… kinda.
Basically, the flow of combat is dictated by “seconds” on the timeline above the screen. Certain actions take more seconds to execute than others, and you can keep using actions as long as you still have time before the opponent’s next move.
It’s a simple system, but it’s so engaging because of how smart timings can lead to some absolutely nutty sequences. In the same vein, mistakes or overzealousness can lead to a swift and brutal death.
Impactful Combos Galore
Because of how some spells take no time to cast, there’s a lot of potential for combos that absolutely clear the screen, even in this fairly limited demo.
Now I’m not gonna pretend like I’m an expert in balance, but some archetypes do seem to be much better than others. For instance, I rolled a Black Death Sorcerer in my first run, and while I did finish it, there was significant effort in making a poison build work.
On the flip side, my next run was a Warrior with the Unleash Hate discipline, and they just steamrolled through everything in the demo. Large groups of enemies above my level? Two cleaves and an AOE fire breath, then execute any survivors with rage-fueled single target attacks (rage is a damage-boosting resource you can generate).
This is something that the dev can figure out by release, and to be fair, they have been releasing patches for the demo. It’s also entirely possible that builds that don’t work too well in the demo will ramp up to become absurdly good throughout the full game.
A Compelling, But Admittedly Confusing Story
I’ll chalk this up to the game not being fully out yet, but I have to admit that I barely understand what the game’s story is going to be with what’s essentially a teaser that we have right now.
I look forward to learning more about whatever the hell (literally, it seems) is happening, because the opening sections feel like they expect you to have some prior knowledge of the lore. It’s like being thrown right into a world where you run into a seemingly important Glup Shitto in every corner, and suddenly I have to pick a demon lord to borrow powers from?
Mind you, I never played the first HellSlave, and I have too much on my plate right now to give it a fair shot. I’m hopping into this world completely blind, and everything just kind of moves along too fast, even for a demo.
Cautious Optimism
While the combat system and beautifully-made art are enough to reel me in, I do worry that the story might start becoming a mere exposition dump that takes a backseat to the gameplay the further we go. It’d be a shame if that were the case, as I do still expect an engaging story in an RPG.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the game’s art, and the cutscenes got me appreciating every comic-like panel that pops up on the screen. However, the story’s presentation seems a bit too messy with how much information is being frontloaded to the player right from the start.
The demo has what’s practically an info dump of worldbuilding, from the dialogue to the notes found in the world. What the heck is the Demiurge? Who are the Order of the Secret Gnosis? What are all these different races and names being thrown around? I suppose we’ll have to wait until the full game to unravel more mysteries and see how this all pans out.
With all that said, I am very optimistic for HellSlave II as I do enjoy actually playing it. It’s almost like a more forgiving Darkest Dungeon with some heavy ARPG inspirations, and the open world exploration has been a treat with the game’s handcrafted visuals.
HellSlave II doesn’t have a set release date as I’m writing this, but I’ll gladly revisit this game once it’s finally out. In the meantime, I’m gonna go clear out my backlog of summer sale games.