Glad you liked it! Yes, new abilities from attuning charms is on the planned list. It's going to be introduced alongside Hard Mode, wherein you will then NEED the new abilities to survive. Normal difficulty will still have them so you'll have lots to unlock.
I also added some "reminders" in 1.04 about talking to Tiro to get advice. Hopefully that makes the game better going forward. Thanks for the review!
Just wanted to leave a few thoughts as a sorta take from a recent player:
Firstly, I’ve been following your team’s works for a long time now and have 100% RoP, ST, and now this game. I have truly enjoyed each and every one of them, especially late game content in RoP (the paragons are hella fun). With that in mind however, I hate to be the one guy outta an entire crowd to be a cynic so instead I’ll be real.
Gameplay: I agree with Panazel, there needs to be more content past the halfway mark in the game (ideally in the form of new abilities). The loop for the game is quite fun and some enemies are fairly difficult however there are a couple of things that feel either abandoned or unfinished. For example, the job board was put in to introduce quests however it is only used once throughout the game in which it provides you with a passive ability for Caelyn. On top of that, where are the passive abilities? This one is more of a personal opinion but there are a total of 2 passives in the entire game and they’re both for Caelyn (show the other characters some love). Arrangements of enemies also feel extremely weak when you coordinate specific setups (I.E the whole Psyche Up thing). Lastly, gems are a final tidbit. Near the endgame, if you have been cutting gems you will have an absolute massive amount of space for them and yet no gems to slot. I know this could by counterbalanced by going out of your way to buy more however considering the sheer cost in adamantite to fully upgrade a gem, it makes it very unappealing to work with. (All in all, praying for that Hard mode and I’m looking forward to the challenge)
Story: Honest thoughts? I loved it! I really enjoyed how both RoP and IZH can really toy with making a game go from silly to serious in different ways. In IZH’s case, I won’t spoil it, but the massive reveal that was being created near the end of the fight with Verand was great and it reminds me a great deal of RoP’s deep lore drops (especially awesome that both are seemingly in the same universe [don’t quote me on that]). In addition to that, I have always enjoyed the very small bits of eldritch [I wanna say horror here but it feels like much more than just horror in terms of being eldritch] that each of the games had and I’m glad that IZH follows in their example.
Bugs: I’m happy to say that IZH had practically NO BUGS throughout my time playing. However, I did experience a crash here and there (more likely due to steam than anything else).
Final Thoughts: I highly recommend the game to people who haven’t played any of Bottled Starlight’s games before. The concepts of death not being the end and fighting your very teammates as they turn on you is quite different from your regular RPG experience.
HOWEVER, this game feels as though it is a mere DLC in terms of Runes of Pandemonium. Yes, the corruption mechanics are unique however; the gems, combat style and even upgrade system are all that of just chapter 2 in RoP. An interesting game nonetheless and I know the devs toiled a great deal to make it so I won’t give them too much of a hassle.
8.6/10 (GIMME MOAR CONTENT PLSSS)