Game Overview

"Embrace your sanity—or descend into chaos—in this roguelike journey of transformation."

Genre: Roguelike Action RPG

Platforms: PC, Android, iOS

Release Date: TBA

Developer Info: Man vs Skeleton Studios - Indie studio from Costa Rica.

Description

Echoes of Descent is a dark roguelike RPG where players explore a haunting world shaped by choices and transformations. Beginning at a mysterious bonfire, you embark on a journey through three distinct biomes—forests, deserts, and snow—each consisting of three levels filled with unique challenges and enemies. At the end of every biome, a formidable boss awaits, testing your skills and decisions.

As a man trapped in a relentless cycle of death and rebirth, you must navigate the fine line between sanity and madness. Collect shards, balance your humanity and inner demons, and choose a path that defines your fate. The alignment you follow—sanity, insanity, or neutrality—shapes not only your abilities and gameplay style but also the ending you achieve.

The game offers a unique blend of tactical combat, branching skill trees, and dynamic mechanics that challenge you to adapt and overcome as you unravel the secrets of a decaying world. Will you hold onto your sanity, embrace chaos, or forge a neutral path?.

Key Features

Sanity/Insanity

Dynamic Duality: Players must balance (or not) their sanity and insanity as they progress through the game.
Shard Collection:
- Sanity Shards: Gain these by defeating enemies in human form, restoring your grip on reality.
- Insanity Shards: Earn these by killing enemies as a demon, fueling your descent into chaos.
Bar Mechanics: The Sanity/Insanity Bar changes based on the shards collected, influencing the character’s abilities, appearance, and interactions with the world.

Transformation

Human vs. Demon Forms:
- In human form, players rely on balanced stats, tactical combat, and raw skill. Humans will make some friends along the way.
- In demon form, players gain immense power but riskincreased number of enemies in each biome, facing unique threats tied to their insanity.
Path-Specific Skills: Unlock form-specific abilities that change how players approach enemies and environments.

Skill Tree

Tailored Builds: Players invest points in four core stats: Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, and Intelligence, each affecting gameplay in distinct ways:
- Strength: Increases attack damage and boosts certain melee abilities.
- Dexterity: Enhances movement speed, dodge effectiveness, and ranged attacks.
- Endurance: Improves stamina regeneration, defense, and health pools.
- Intelligence: Amplifies magical damage and unlocks advanced abilities for strategic play.
Branching Choices: Skills are tied to sanity and insanity paths, offering distinct advantages based on your alignment.

Run Currency

Gold Economy: Earn gold by slaying enemies and looting treasure chests.
Spending Options: Gold can be used to purchase:
- Health refills for survival.
- Relics and upgrades from merchants, offering powerful gameplay modifiers.

Relics

Lootable Power-ups: Players can discover relics by:
- Defeating special enemies.
- Opening rare chests.
- Purchasing them from merchants.
Relic Types:
- Common Relics: Provide minor buffs, such as slight health regeneration or stamina boosts.
- Rare Relics: Offer unique benefits like chain lightning effects or faster skill cooldowns.
- Legendary Relics: Transform gameplay with powerful effects like damage immunity under certain conditions or area-wide attacks.

Merchant

Unique Offerings: Merchants appear during runs to sell:
- Rare and unique relics tied to specific paths (sanity, neutral, or insanity).
- Health refills for survival.
Relic Rarities: Each merchant may offer one-of-a-kind relics that can define your build for the run.

Combat

Parry System: A high-risk, high-reward mechanic where perfectly timed parries negate enemy attacks and open them to counterattacks. Also, you can parry deflect arrows and spells, with send back to sender.
Movement Precision: Responsive controls for dodging, and weaving through enemy attacks.
Attack Variety:
- Basic Attacks: Quick and versatile for all classes.
- Class-Specific Attacks: Unique moves for the warrior, ranger, and mage, allowing for creative strategies.

Bonfire/Homebase

Shard Spending: At the start of each run, players return to the bonfire to:
- Spend permanent sanity, insanity, and neutral shards on upgrades.
- Decide on their next run’s path: sanity, neutral, or insanity.
Customization: Unlock enhancements for abilities, stats, and unique class upgrades that persist between runs.

Lore

The world of Echoes of Descent is shrouded in uncertainty and mystery. You awaken at an ancient bonfire, with fragmented memories and an inexplicable sense of dread. The landscapes you traverse—forests thick with twisted roots, deserts scorched by an unrelenting sun, and snowfields cloaked in eerie silence—all seem to bear the scars of a cataclysmic event that has left the world fractured and surreal.

Whispers of an enigmatic order and long-forgotten rituals echo throughout the biomes, hinting at truths hidden in the shadows. The very air carries a sense of unease, and the ruins you encounter speak of civilizations that fell to forces beyond comprehension. The enemies you face, grotesque and otherworldly, often seem to mirror fragments of your own inner turmoil, as if your journey through this broken land is also a descent into your own fractured psyche.

Strange characters cross your path, offering cryptic advice, tantalizing relics, and veiled warnings. Their intentions are as unclear as their origins, leaving you to question their role in your story. Are they allies, manipulators, or manifestations of your own mind?

As you progress, the line between reality and delusion blurs. Nightmarish visions seep into the edges of your consciousness, leaving you to wonder if the horrors you face are truly external or born from within. The choices you make—to cling to your humanity, embrace the chaos within, or tread a neutral path—will shape not only your abilities and alignment but also the ultimate fate of the world around you. The deeper you delve, the more you feel the presence of an unsettling revelation just beyond your grasp—a truth waiting to shatter everything you believe