Hello again, survivors. Early Access and the Infestation are almost upon us!
Before you dive in, I’d like to introduce the development intentions and recommended routes for the three difficulty levels - 'Vengeance', 'Suffering', 'Despair' - and the two additional options, 'Recurring Nightmare' and 'Iron Will', that we have prepared for Early Access. We want to make sure the player chooses the difficulty that is best for them!
In the NEXT FEST version, only two difficulty levels, 'Vengeance' and 'Suffering', were available. It was very useful observing the gameplay patterns of players based on which difficulty they chose. It allowed us to directly assess how well the intended challenge level was conveyed and where there were differences between what was planned and what was experienced.
REMORE: INFESTED KINGDOM portrays a medieval land on the edge of destruction, focusing on the desperate struggle of the protagonist, Willam, and his companions as they navigate through it. The game was developed with the goal of players being able to fully experience the survivors' struggle not just through the art and story but also the gameplay. Therefore, the game was designed to provide a level of difficulty that is challenging. However, the challenge should feel conquerable and doing so should give a great sense of accomplishment.
However, since players have different ideas about what they consider a challenge, the criteria for judging how difficult an experience is can differ from player to player. Consequently, the development objectives for each difficulty level were centered around providing the most optimized challenging experience based on individual player preferences and previous gaming experiences.
Which difficulty should I choose?
The main difference between each difficulty is primarily how strong the enemies you face are and the amount of health restored when resting in the camp. In the lowest difficulty level, 'Vengeance', a certain amount of health is restored even without eating food, while in the highest difficulty level, 'Despair', health can only be restored based on the food you consume, aligning with our original intent.
‘Vengeance’ difficulty is designed to be manageable for players who understand and utilize the game's basic systems. If you have little experience with grid-based turn-based games or games with high systemic complexity, we recommend starting with the 'Vengeance' difficulty level! All systems except for numerical settings remain the same, ensuring that even at the lowest difficulty, the experience does not feel dumbed down.
‘Suffering' difficulty is a challenging experience optimized for the first playthrough, shaping an experience closest to our intended vision. We recommend this level for players who have experience with high-difficulty Tactics RPGs like XCOM, Battle Brothers, Darkest Dungeon, or strategic games like Hearthstone or Slay the Spire that involve utilizing various skill effects.
'Despair' difficulty is for those who want to overcome harsh challenges and experience a sense of accomplishment. It is balanced with the assumption that players will consider synergy in actions such as weapon modification and special mission selection, in addition to performing all actions with next to no mistakes. If you are not familiar with the game mechanics and optimal tactics, progressing can be tough. We strongly recommend choosing this level for your second playthrough, or even for those who are very familiar with other strategy games.
Beyond the Second Playthrough
If you've cleared the final stage of Early Access, 'Stag Manor,' why not attempt a second playthrough? You could challenge yourself with higher difficulty strategies, experience the unique character perks from different branches of the skill tree that you didn't choose before, or even experiment with weapon traits that caught your eye but haven’t tried.
If you decide to embark on a second playthrough for any reason, I recommend selecting the 'Recurring Nightmare' option. This option unlocks only after clearing the current final stage and is designed to make your next playthrough more convenient and unique.
In the first campaign playthrough, considering it as a learning process for the game, you start with a starting weapon that is intuitive, versatile, and suitable for early encounters. Furthermore, to allow you to explore the full range of the 14 weapons we have prepared, specific types of weapons are assigned to each stage. This ensures that you can evenly play around with various weapons throughout the game!
However, in the 'Recurring Nightmare' mode, you can purchase starting weapons from the wandering merchant 'Jaymes' right out of the gate. Additionally, the types of weapons you acquire during the campaign are randomized.
This allows you the opportunity to experiment with a variety of unique builds like, giving weapons the bleed modifier , leaning into the initial modifier, or specializing in the 'pain' debuff that increases collision damage, using 'push/pull' not as tactical support but as a high-damage form against enemies. The aim was to widen the possibilities for trying out various builds that might be challenging to optimize within the basic campaign.
And if you find that you don't like the selection of starting weapons, don't worry! Jaymes, the merchant, continues to visit each day. This means you still have the option to use the ‘Transfer Modifier' option, allowing you to grant better weapon modifiers to your previously modified main weapon or easily switch to a different weapon build.
In the 'Recurring Nightmare' mode, new unique weapon traits that did not appear in the basic campaign can also emerge. For example, the [Devil’s Temptation] trait which provides a very powerful damage bonus, but once equipped, cannot be removed. While these traits bring both strengths and weaknesses, enhancing the game's diversity, they were designed to appear only in the 'Recurring Nightmare' mode to avoid overwhelming first-time players.
Currently, the number of unique traits specific to the 'Recurring Nightmare' mode is relatively limited compared to our intended goal. After stabilizing the Early Access version, we plan to update and expand the possibilities for various builds or introduce weapon traits that offer 'unusual' enjoyment rather than just 'efficiency’.
Additionally, since the assumption is for the second playthrough, the tutorial is skipped when selecting the 'Recurring Nightmare' option. Events and story dialogue in camp are streamlined into a single journal entry to allow players to focus more on gameplay.
However, in-stage events are integrated with the actual level design, so they are not omitted separately. In the future, we plan to further simplify the progression during the second playthrough, excluding essential elements to enhance the overall experience.
Furthermore, if you’re looking for the ultimate tension, you can challenge yourself by selecting 'Iron Will' at the beginning of the game. Unlike the basic campaign, where you can choose the last checkpoint or the start of a battle as a desired restart point upon death, if you choose 'Iron Will,' the progress of the entire campaign will reset immediately upon the death of even one survivor.
If you manage to clear the game on 'Suffering' difficulty, familiarizing yourself with the game's basic systems, and then choose the 'Iron Will' option in 'Despair' difficulty for another clear, you will have completed the most challenging route we have prepared in the current Early Access version. We have also prepared related Steam Achievements, so we look forward to many players' achievement list screenshots!
The highest difficulty level, 'Doom,' is still in the works. We plan to start its development after reviewing player feedback about 'Despair' difficulty, clear rates, and improvement points based on your feedback
That’s about all for now. We hope you have gained some insight for choosing the difficulty level at the start of the game, and we hope our intentions for the experience after the second playthrough have been shown.
We are particularly focused on ensuring that each difficulty level provides an experience in line with what you expected based on the game's descriptions. We aim for a balance that is "sufficiently challenging and where means of overcoming challenges are well understood and utilized." We can’t wait for you to dive in and as always we welcome feedback through Discord, forums, or any other way you like!
Thank you, Survivors!