[프리뷰] Neowiz’Skull’, the birth of a well-made rogue light with familiarity and freshness

‘Skull: The Hero Slayer (hereinafter referred to as Skull)’ developed by South 4 Games and serviced by Neowiz is set to officially release on Steam on the 21st. ‘Skull’, which has been highly anticipated since the time of crowdfunding in 2019, is expected to face users in a completed form through a long development period.
Ahead of the game’s release, we were able to experience the full version with various system updates and new stages added in advance. The fun of squeezing the battle build through the personality and items of various skulls that were well received during the early access period is a look that shines even more with the new system’Awakening’.
We looked at the charm of the’Skull’, which tries to capture the hearts of not only domestic gamers but also gamers in the global market.

Roguelite action,’basic skills’ faithful to the genre

‘Skull’ is a 2D action roguelite genre based on pixel art graphics. This style is known as a classic genre that has been steadily loved in the domestic and foreign indie game markets. As such, it is a genre that is highly understood and popular by users, but on the contrary, it is evaluated as a genre that is difficult to achieve success due to scattered games of similar types.
‘Skull’ does not add bold attempts such as twisting the gameplay mechanism to this, but rather focuses on the basic elements of the genre and strengthens the essence of the game.

In the case of the control element, in addition to the basic attack, jump, and dash, it consists of up to two active skills and one additional essence skill. In addition, it emphasizes various action effects among simple operations to enhance the fun of battle.
Their basic skills can also be confirmed in terms of’difficulty’. As the stage progresses, the difficulty of field and boss battles is gradually improved, and the difficulty balance is adjusted so that it is not difficult for those who are not familiar with the roguerite genre to adapt. The element that made this possible is the skull, the core system of the game. It is a system in which the characters change, so that it can satisfy both those who want more hardcore difficulty and those who want to play more easily, and enhance the game’s completeness.

The ever-changing gameplay, even the elements to penetrate

The skull system in the game is a system in which the character changes by replacing the head, that is, the skull part of the main character’Littleborn’. Various skulls can be obtained through in-game play, and each skull completely changes the gameplay method with its own design, action, and skill composition. It is a kind of wearing equipment and acts as the character itself.
In addition, you can nurture your character with your own style through items that can hold up to 9 types. Each of them has a unique’imprint’ option, and it is positioned as a core system that increases the degree of immersion as the understanding of the game increases.
Through these, the element of’digging into’ is completed, which allows users to build ever-changing play, make each user’s desired build, and clear the game in various ways.

In the case of skulls, legendary-grade skulls, which basically have powerful abilities, are greatly loved, but skulls at the lower levels, normal, rare, and unique, also have their own strength and personality.
In addition, in the case of items, in addition to simple marking options, there are overlapping’imprints’ that increase various values ​​such as fuse, volcano, swamp, black magic. After determining the desired character development direction and concept in advance, looking at Little Born gradually evolving into the style by looking for items with the desired imprint, the satisfaction of playing doubles.

The emergence of the’awakening’ system, found’one more step’

The core of the new systems introduced in the official version is the’Awakening’ system. It is a system that can upgrade the existing skull, and the system can be used through the spider demon’Arachne’, a newly added NPC in the official version.
The skull that has been awakened changes its appearance, and the active and passive skills are strengthened together. While each of the existing skulls has a unique concept, it is possible to play more efficiently by reinforcing each concept.

The utilization of unused skulls through this system has also been added. Unwanted skulls can be converted into bone fragments needed for awakening. The skull awakening system can progress up to the maximum legendary level, and the normal grade skull can also reach the highest level through awakening.
Changes through the awakening system can be utilized in various aspects. In particular, in the case of existing low-grade skulls, if it was difficult to fully receive the effect of the’engraving’ system due to the limitation of skill composition, the fact that even low-grade skulls that have been awakened maximize the engraving system efficiency and make concept play easier. It is representative.

Debut of’Skull’, which has improved freshness and completeness in familiarity

Like this,’Skull’ has succeeded in finding freshness in familiarity through a unique system and high degree of completion, even though it deals with the action roguelite genre that gamers are already familiar with.
In addition, the fact that there are many ways to reinforce the protagonist Little Born in the game, and that it has numerous numbers, is expected to be welcomed by gamers who struggle with the genre.

The game, which was loved at the time of Early Access, is urging new challenges to users. What is the identity of the warrior who destroyed the Devils Castle, and what is the story of Little Born? Answers and endings are waiting for users.
‘Skull’ is ready to meet users with solid maturity. The game will be released on PS, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch consoles in the first half of 21 after officially launching the PC version through Steam on the 21st.
It is paying attention to whether they can be reborn as a blockbuster loved by global users beyond simple domestic indie topic.

[경향게임스=박건영 기자]

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