13Z Preview

13Z is a hack and slash roguelike from the minds of Mixed Realms, and recently I’ve had the chance to give the playtest a try. It’s a Chinese mythology inspired title, with some similarities to some of the best games in the genre, and one that I’m quite looking forward to seeing release. There are a few playable characters, who are all participating in the trials, for a chance to become the 13th Zodiac: essentially, a god.

During the playtest, you take the reins of Lyra, one of the game's multiple playable characters; she’s quick, nimble, and feels wonderful to use in action. Characters each have four abilities, and in Lyra’s case, they flow and combo into each other incredibly naturally, allowing for some satisfying combo opportunities. Overall, the game controls incredibly well, and doesn’t often feel stilted or awkward, outside of some edge cases. These cases typically came in the form of environmental issues, sometimes I’d find myself dashing off a small ledge and would suddenly be airborne, when I expected that I would have just fallen. It’s a minor gripe, but did lead to some moments where I felt lacking in control. The moment to moment gameplay is incredibly satisfying, but I did find some attacks didn’t feel quite as punchy and tactile as I had hoped. Attacks flow through enemies with ease, allowing for a smooth feeling system, but this makes the heavier attacks lose some of their lustre. There were also some issues with visual clarity, primarily in the standard encounters. As I got more powerful, the enemy variety increased — which I do like, as it makes for a pleasant difficulty curve — yet there was an insane amount of information on the screen, from my own attacks, to enemies attacks and the enemies themselves. Sometimes the effects of my own attacks got lost in a mess of visual effects, leading to me being hit by attacks I couldn’t see, or even simply being hit by enemies from off-screen.

As you progress through the trials, you’ll find a multitude of upgrades: Blessings, Scrolls and Anvils. Blessings are found at certain statues after encounters, and cost either health, or gold to purchase, and provide relatively small and basic stat improvements. Scrolls lend more to build crafting opportunities; each scroll is focussed on a specific element, which all have their own effects, in combat. There are limited slots for these, similar to the boon’s system from Hades, often giving you the option to trade out certain Scrolls, if you have no slots left. Scrolls also lend to a system known as Resonance. The amount of scrolls you have for each element dictates your Resonance with the related element, and this grants a stacking stat increase dependent on the element itself. Finally, Anvils allow you to directly upgrade your skills themselves, which can lead to some devastatingly powerful build options, as everything synergises incredibly well.

As is necessary for all roguelikes, 13Z has a meta-progression system, utilising a couple of new currencies. These all lend to upgrading the village: a very pleasant location you’ll return to in-between runs to gather new quests, and purchase some upgrades. As it’s only a playtest, this system isn’t the most fleshed out / accessible yet, but it has some fundamentally solid roots, and looking at some of the future upgrades, it seems like a well varied system.

The presentation of 13Z is one of its best aspects. From the sound design, music to the visuals and voice acting, it’s all solid. I played the game in 1440p and did find some of the UI elements to be a little lacking in clarity, never enough to really damage my perception of the game, but it was definitely noticeable. And I did also notice that a couple locations and textures were also somewhat lacking in clarity. Despite these issues, there’s a very clear artistic vision here, and one that I think is being executed fairly well. While it isn’t perfect, there’s absolutely a strong foundation here.

13Z is absolutely drowning in potential, and this playtest makes me confident that with a little extra care, it can live up to that. I look forward to giving this a try once the full version is out, and I’d urge fans of hack and slashes and roguelikes to keep this one in your view!