Dear reader, I wish to entreat you to learn the remainder of this highlight with an open thoughts. I’ve a little bit of a historical past on this website for advocating for the underdog—or the horndog, one may say. I do that as a result of I feel it is funnier to try to empathise with the abyss than it’s to level and snicker at it. Anyone can poke enjoyable, however to try to genuinely perceive one thing that strikes you as ‘bizarre’ is at all times going to be extra attention-grabbing than taking low-cost photographs. It’s with this strategy in thoughts that I cautiously approached Atlyss, a pseudo-MMO developed by lone developer Kiseff.
I’m going to have to handle the anthropomorphic elephant within the room first, and speak concerning the sport’s visuals earlier than I get into its mechanics. To be blunt, this can be a sport with visuals designed to enchantment to sexy furries. I’m not being judgmental right here, it is simply an inescapable reality. You can get stacked thicker than a Scooby Doo sandwich on this sport, creating Second Life-tier avatars which can be 90% wobble. There’s a butt slider which, when activated, shows a customized animation for every of the sport’s 5 races, the place they coquettishly spin and current their hiney to you. Which is like, technically useful. I suppose.
This outward-facing salaciousness is not misleading, per se, but it surely’s not a important focus of the sport, as a lot as it’s merely a consequence of an artstyle that is in any other case actually charming. As a gap discover mentions, the sport comprises suggestive designs, however “nothing specific”—and that is genuinely true. What’s extra, there is a trio of choices that let you take smaller doses of carnality. You can restrict extreme proportions, disable jiggle physics, and banish clear clothes client-side.
As far because the enemy selection and dungeon crawling goes, it is something however attractive. You battle a slime queen and a few magic goat carbuncles, however they’re conservative when in comparison with the stuff gamers can pull off. Seeping from room to room in my seven-hour solo playthrough of this early entry construct, I started to sink into ignorant bliss. The animations are fluid, the dungeons are properly designed, enemies are cute and attention-grabbing, and the music’s easy, however has sufficient character to vibe to. I’d forgotten, solely, that this sport additionally appeals to an viewers with particular tastes.
That phantasm was rapidly shattered after I went onto the sport’s subreddit to see if anybody had sorted out any builds, and was smacked upside the top with straight-up porn, like a nasty dragon-shaped baseball bat wielded by the world’s most particular crime syndicate. By far the funniest and coolest factor this sport does—one thing I can solely respect it for—is having the temerity to be actually goddamn enjoyable, whether or not you have obtained a fursona stashed away or not.
That furry can schmoove
Atlyss exhibits a ton of promise. It’s nonetheless in early entry, but it surely has about 8 hours of playtime for a single character (fully affordable for its present value level), and what’s there’s genuinely endearing. Structurally, it feels so much just like the MMOs of yore. You choose up quests—most of that are repeatable, for the XP grind—and stage up, grabbing gear as you go. There are two dungeons, every of which have round three variants to make repeating them much less of a chore.
There are additionally three lessons at the moment within the sport, Mystic, Fighter, and Bandit. You’re locked into these when you select them, however there’s additional customisability in your basic skills—learnt from spell scrolls—in addition to your weapon typing and stat distribution. While every weapon sort corresponds with an attribute, you possibly can enchant different weapon varieties to scale together with your stat of alternative, burning a stone to take action. For instance, my little mouse fighter has a bow I enchanted to scale with power. Respeccing is relatively low-cost, so there’s room to experiment.
Combat is easy, however enjoyable to grasp. Moving round and combating in Atlyss simply feels nice. Everything is tight and responsive. You have a touch on a one-second cooldown that may shoot you off in a course, and you should utilize it to cancel most animations. Depending in your weapon sort, you will have entry to a primary and powerful assault, in addition to a leaping strike. You can equip 5 skills and two weapons, as properly. Oh, and you’ll parry with a timed block. To present you what that appears like at the next stage, here is an image of me tearing by some boars:
Is it something revolutionary? Not precisely, however the form of vibe it goals to copy is completed in a pitch-perfect method. It’s a nice grind harkening again to the times of video games like Maplestory, solely with not one of the makes an attempt to swipe your pockets for bragging rights. Atlyss has a core viewers, one I’m not part of (I swear), but it surely’s additionally standing up by itself two paws for us normies, too.
I feel, greater than something, its wider enchantment actually does lie in how its salaciousness is an possibility, not a mandate. If you are into that form of factor, you possibly can wobble your method round ruins, going ga-ga in your goat lady’s derriere to your coronary heart’s content material. If you are not, then you possibly can simply… vibe. The character designs allow smut, actually, however when you aren’t maxing out your entire sliders, you are capable of make some cute little guys simply fantastic.
I’m, unironically and full-heartedly, recommending you give this sport a go when you like RPGs, no matter your tastes. It’s presently $10 (£8.50) on Steam, which is greater than definitely worth the 7 hours I spent with it—and I’ll even grind some extra to strive among the different lessons. I’m genuinely and completely charmed by it, and I look ahead to seeing what else its solo dev has to supply. I simply… may flip off the jiggle physics if I ever get courageous sufficient to enter multiplayer lobbies, that is all.
