This patch is the biggest one we've had to this date. The changes are so numerous that they're almost beyond any attempts to recount them. I'll try, though. - New GUI: prettier, simpler and better organized. It should make a ship's assembly to be a much less complicated ordeal. It's also much easier to track your ship's combat status right now. - Constructor Demo: clicking on the equipment pieces will now provide a brief demonstration of their abilities so you can easily understand what exactly they're doing. X Caeli is a very complex game and so we've tried to smoothen the entry barrier as much as possible. - Gameplay Overhaul: I won't be listing the changes to the specific pieces of equipment as all of them has been changed. Yes, all of them. In many cases, rather dramatically. It's almost a new game. And much better at that (and keep in mind that the old one was not too shabby). So I'll describe the key points instead. Extra build flexibility: now you have the option to swap your second Gun for an additional Tactic or Spell. Which increases the number of available strategies most profoundly. - Color identity: now enemy colors are not mere indicators for the match-3 system, they also bear impact on the foes. Red foes explode better, green foes are slower, blue foes will give you more Spirit and yellow foes are not that good at attacking. Now you can manipulate your enemies' colors to shape their wave to your heart's content. - Spirit resource: we've added an additional currency to the in-game economy which mostly governs the spells. Previously, they relied upon cooldowns but that system is not as flexible as the new one. You get some initial Spirit and then the only way you get extra is by killing the foes and devouring their souls in most horrifying manner – Spirit is not being sold in walmarts, y'know. Spirits are but, uh, nevermind. We've also added some options for “breeding” the foes so you can harvest additional Spirit that way. And, of course, it's income will heavily depend on your ship's build. - Six additional Spells: Spirit would get rather boring without any fancy ways of burning through it so we've added them. From boss-killing to vampirism to invulnerability, our spells now cover a lot of ground. - Two additional Tactics: so now there's a dirty dozen of them. Many of the older ones have been reworked for the better flexibility and the bigger combo potential. - Better combo setup: X Caeli is a puzzle first and foremost and, previously, too much guns were focusing on sheer damage alone. Which is not what you need to solve stuff that can't be solved by brute force alone. Now, more guns are focusing on the various ways of enemy and environment manipulation. More ways to change their color, more options to reposition them and, as I've mentioned, even exotic stuff like breeding new foes. Which is much stronger than it actually sounds. As a result, there's much more interactions to discover. That's that. I've tried to keep the game short but the resulting changes made game anything but shorter – you can easily play additional 10-20 hours thanks to them. Enjoy. Next on the agenda – finishing the Visual Novel part (and applying some better editing to the English translation).
X Caeli: The Iron Hand of Love
Nerd Commando Game Studios
Nerd Commando Game Studios
2020-02-04
Indie Adventure Singleplayer
Game News Posts 20
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
🕹️ Partial Controller Support
Positive
(34 reviews)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/708970 
The Game includes VR Support
XCaeli Linux [1.82 G]
You're battling the waves of incoming foes in the style of old arcades. At the beginning of each fight, you're given a randomly generated assortment of starfighter equipment - you need to outfit your ship (actually called "Throne" - protagonist is a deity so his armaments are theologically flavored) so you can counter the advances of one of the game's 40 waves of enemies. The process feels similar to making an RPG build.
Each wave of foes tries to do their own thing - some flood the screen with so much projectiles that it's almost impossible to dodge so you need to build sturdy. X Caeli is euro-shmup inspired so you don't die from the first hit. Some return to you all the damage you cause so you need to act gently. Some don't even care about destroying you and instead just try to run for the win, forcing you to go in with your guns (aka "Powers') blazing. Each wave is a puzzle to be solved and there are no clear-cut answers.
There are 12 Powers (weapons) in the game, each with completely different main and primary shooting modes. You can also enable EX modes for those, modifying their utility in varying ways. There are 6 Virtues (main stats, providing basic bonuses and enabling EX modes), 10 Acts (traits with global modificators), 5 Thrones, 5 Dominions (protective shields) and 4 Souls (powerful and slowly recharging tools). All the equipment is vastly different from each other and there are many rarely seen options there. This gives the combat tremendous replayability.
There's also a soft match-3 element. All enemies are colored and, upon their death, they harm all adjacent foes of the same color. You are not obliged to fight in this fashion and its effectiveness depends on your build - some can easily ignore it, some profit a lot. Some armaments are color dependent, dealing damage to the foes of specific colors or protecting you from their attacks. It's yet another angle to take when fighting the foes.
The story happens in-between the combats and is centered around an ancient & very evil stargod Caelum who is forced to protect a spaceship full of beautiful babes. That's not something he's used to be doing, but life is not always fair. Our story is as devoid of cliches as possible - it's definitely not another visual novel. We have a nostalgic 90-s inspired art, our girls are actually in their twenties and they behave accordingly, our protagonist is neither high school kid nor a loli. We're especially proud of our art's composition because every picture is something that you will not see anywhere else. The plot is absurdly comedic and ends with the romance, of course.
- OS: Ubuntu 12.04+. SteamOS+
- Processor: 2.0 GHzMemory: 1 GB RAM
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: Shader Model 3.0
- Storage: 2 GB available space
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