While Star Wars: Zero Company and Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave have garnered attention, it is Ex Sanguis that has captured the focus of players seeking a new tactical experience. Developed by Lightbulb Crew, the studio behind the 2020 title Othercide, Ex Sanguis shares a distinctive visual style characterized by grayscale environments punctuated by striking crimson, and features turn-based combat that rewards strategic chain events. The game offers a more accessible entry point into the roguelike tactical genre compared to its predecessor.
Ex Sanguis distinguishes itself from Othercide through its embrace of the roguelike genre's core tenets, resulting in a more expedited gameplay cycle. Runs are designed to be completed in 20-30 minutes, allowing players to achieve small victories that contribute to future attempts. This contrasts with Othercide, a more punishing tactical game where success hinges on prolonged strategic planning and unit progression.
In Othercide, players command an army of 'daughters,' sending squads of three on missions to unlock weekly objectives and permanent upgrades. The game features a harsh permadeath system: fallen units and their acquired perks are lost permanently, and healing remaining units requires sacrificing others. Birthing new daughters consumes valuable resources, creating a loop of sacrifice for mission success. This approach, akin to playing XCOM or Zero Company with permadeath enabled and a focus on the tragedy of losing units, requires significant player investment and patience. Othercide is a long and challenging grind, often necessitating multiple attempts to overcome bosses due to randomized levels and the need to accumulate permanent upgrades. The game's cryptic lore, delivered through dialogue snippets and codex entries, provides a narrative hook, but its challenging nature and reliance on player interpretation can be frustrating.
Ex Sanguis streamlines the roguelike formula for a smoother experience. Each run is shorter, making failed attempts less punishing and encouraging players to try again. Units, referred to as 'stillae,' recover health between missions, and fallen stillae are automatically replaced. After each mission, players can choose one upgrade from three options for each stillae, with a limited re-roll feature to influence build variety. This system increases the chances of replicating successful builds. Ex Sanguis emphasizes quick runs and party building to tackle bosses, whereas Othercide focuses on perfecting tactical gameplay and adapting to the roguelike elements to survive boss encounters. While Ex Sanguis encourages accumulating small victories, Othercide prioritizes achieving those singular large successes, even if it means enduring numerous failures.
Structurally, Ex Sanguis maintains similarities to Othercide, but its gameplay loop is less demanding, alleviating the despair associated with lengthy setbacks and restarts. Both games excel as tactical experiences. Time management is critical in Ex Sanguis's battles. Each action taken by a stilla consumes points from a total pool, with movement and attacks costing varying amounts. Going beyond a stilla's available points to perform extra actions pushes their next turn further down the timeline, requiring a longer recovery period. Success often depends on carefully managing these risks and strategically combining effects. Environmental hazards can trigger chain reactions, and some stillae abilities activate based on specific triggers, such as enemy proximity or another stilla reducing an enemy's health. This system requires players to consider enemy movements and attack patterns alongside their own strategies, a complexity that increases with new enemy types and unlockable stillae abilities. The satisfaction of executing intricate setups to defeat enemies is a key draw.
However, Ex Sanguis falters in its narrative presentation compared to Othercide. Othercide boasts a rich, gothic atmosphere and a cryptic story about a mother's struggle to save a fractured world. Its narrative is woven through lore snippets and codex pages, offering depth for players who enjoy unraveling mysteries. In contrast, Ex Sanguis has a less developed story with minimal lore and no codex. While the game implies a struggle against an unspecified threat, this narrative is not strongly reflected in the gameplay. Ex Sanguis launched into early access with its first three bosses and limited difficulty settings, suggesting that further narrative content may be added post-launch. Despite its narrative shortcomings, Ex Sanguis is a recommended title for fans of tactical games, especially after experiencing the foundational Othercide.