But, as the game tells you, one dead Daughter is better than two. When you do they’ll usually absorb a portion of their sister’s soul, gaining higher attack or defence, maybe greater initiative, but it can be a hard choice to make, especially when you have two high level daughters and both are wounded. Instead, the only way to heal one Daughter is to sacrifice another of equal or higher level. The downside to the Reactions and buffs is that they cost 5 or 10% of the Daughter’s remaining health to activate, and healing has a price of its own.īecause each run is designed to be a fight to the death, there are no curative items or skills in Othercide. Or Shieldbearers can use the “Saving Grace” attack to switch places with another Daughter and absorb the damage while returning her own. These skills, used correctly, allow you to stack up combo attacks for massive damage.Īs a brief example, you can activate a Reaction on your Soulslingers called “Intercepting Shot” which will shoot any enemy in range who attempts to attack one of her sisters. And finally there are buffs and debuffs that last for a set amount of time. Reactions are skills which will only trigger as a result of another action taking place.
Then there are Delayed Actions, which will trigger a little way up the timeline. These are usually high damage attacks or evades. There are four types of skill in Othercide: instant actions are just that – abilities that trigger as soon as you hit the Spacebar (or A/X on a controller). Combat takes place on a dynamic Initiative timeline, which determines in which order you and the enemy will move.Įvery few levels you’ll be given a binary choice of which new skill to unlock, and deciding which works best is as much about your other Daughters as it is about the one you’re upgrading. Blademasters are defensively weak but offensively strong Soulslingers come armed with twin pistols and heightened agility and Shieldbearers act as tanks, soaking up damage and throwing themselves in harm’s way to protect their sisters. Initially they come in three classes, each spawning with randomised looks, stats and personalities. Your army is made up of Daughters, ashen-haired warriors germinated by the Mother to be set loose upon the minions of evil. Like a roguelite, Othercide expects you to fail, and you most certainly will, many times. Each Day you must complete at least one Synapse in order to rest your Daughters so that they can fight again. You’ll advance through Eras, which are split into Days, each containing a selection of Synapses that lead to a boss on Day 7. From the latter it takes its punishing design, forcing you to inch forward a little at a time, each failure leaving you with none of your upgrades but some of your unlocks. From the former it takes its world: a gothic, Victorian-era city in the grip of a nightmarish disease. It’s an isometric turn-based tactics game, but it cross-polinates its DNA with other titles and genres, most notably Bloodborne and Dead Cells. Shades of grey clash with sharp shocks of brilliant red, and each of your Daughters is beautiful, elfin, yet as deadly as the Plague itself.Īt surface level, Othercide shares similarities with XCOM. It’s a stunning universe, dripping with macabre menace like a viscous toxin on the tip of a blade. If I am right, then I’m a little more impressed with Othercide’s world, even more than I already was with the atmosphere and artwork. I could be wrong, of course, but even picking apart the flavour text reveals clues to this end. I’m no scholar, but I’m pretty certain all this fits nicely as a metaphor for a frantic mother desperately trying to heal her dying child.
To fight it, the Mother sends her Daughters, white-haired chosen ones who must put an end to hordes of nightmare creatures and depraved bosses such as the Surgeon, Deacon and Maid. He is in the grip of the Suffering, a mysterious malaise that distorts all it touches. Part of me thinks it must be, as your overlord-like Mother is defeated in the opening scene by The Child, a corrupted vessel she once loved. I can’t tell if Othercide is an allegory or not.
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