NEODUEL: Backpack Monsters

by Aethyna Oct 12, 2024 | 1 Votes | 35 Played | 0 Reviews

9 rate

Genres:

Strategy

Graphics:

Labels:

Monsters , Auto-Battler , Player vs Player (PvP)

Platforms:

Publishers:

Rogue Duck Interactive Defeat every opponent that comes your way and climb the leaderboard to “be the very best like no one ever was” in this backpack management-based roguelite that features an exciting online PvP aspect along with a fun monster trainer-style theme and an auto battler gameplay! Will you make it? Play Now Similar Games

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Summary Gameplay Graphics/ Sound Conclusion

Summary

NEODUEL: Backpack Monsters is a backpack management-based roguelite that features an exciting online PvP aspect along with a fun monster trainer-style theme and an auto battler gameplay. Here, the goal is simple: to defeat every opponent that comes your way and climb the leaderboard to “be the very best like no one ever was”! Will you make it?

Gameplay

Usually, games provide a tutorial to guide the player whenever they start a new game as a new player. Most of the recent games opted for a more interactive tutorial, so basically, you’ll be playing through the “introduction” of a game while learning the basics to eventually play the game on your own.

However, in NEODUEL: Backpack Monsters, the devs change things up a bit. After hitting the New Game button, you’ll plunged into a new tournament, dropped into the battle preparation phase (prior to a duel/ challenging an opponent), and be shown the tutorial in text and visual form. The tutorial is presented as a sort of a manual – a Codex, specifically – and the player is expected to read through at least the basics. It can be tricky to understand some of its more jargon-filled parts, unless you’ve played a few rounds… and that’s where the game’s subtly disguised AI opponents come in.

I’ve noticed that in my earlier playthroughs, I’m matched up with AI players for the first few matches. The only reason I know this is how often I’d get matched with the same players (and with some funky names too)… something that I think is rather unlikely considering that I don’t meet the same players as often (or at all in fact) after winning a couple of rounds.

Now, if you’re already a fan of games like Backpack Hero, the gameplay is very similar at its core, but with a fun multiplayer spin. It’s all about arranging and rearranging your “backpack”, a.k.a. your inventory, as you gain or purchase new items or cosmions – the Pokemon-like creatures in this game that usually “do something” be it attack at certain intervals (the game’s an auto battler after all), provide buffs or debuffs at certain intervals, or generally be “triggered” (or activated) whenever certain conditions are fulfilled – as well as new inventory spaces, some of which even comes with bonuses if certain type of item or cosmions are placed inside, to maximize the spaces you have.

Here comes the twist though – unlike Backpack Hero where space is mostly your main concern, NEODUEL adds in another strategic, albeit opaque, feature – energy. You see, the game is an auto battler and your cosmions that are put into the field (your backpack) will automatically attack at specific intervals, but they will require energy as well.

The energy requirements are all clearly indicated, but what’s not as transparent here is how your total energy is calculated, after all the cosmions’ effects are considered. There’s just no itemized way to know for sure and the game only gives you a general battery indicator to indicate that the green area is where you want to be, but in reality, sometimes, dipping in the yellow zone could actually allow you to add more attacks in since you have a strong energy regeneration game going when the battle is ongoing. I guess, this is one bone that I can’t help but pick about the game, as much as I’ve enjoyed reviewing it.

On the right side of the battle preparation screen is the store where you can spend your hard-earned in-game currency (₡) to purchase more powerful or more synergistically charged cosmions to add to your team. Of course, there are other items here as well, including equipment, which functions much like those cosmions, who can’t directly attack and only provide buffs or debuffs, and elemental essences, which allow you to evolve your cosmions and sometimes even change their elemental typing.

A quick side-note here: there are five elemental types in this game, namely Nature, Fire, Electric, Air, and Water, and they can really change up how you play the game depending on which one/s you decide to create a build around. There’s also a non-elemental-oriented typing, called simply as Attacker. This typing typically applies to all cosmions that can directly attack the enemy. Similar to many monster trainer games, each cosmion can be of multiple typings, with some having up to three different ones.

Now, you can pull the lever to pay 1₡ and have the store restocked with fresh randomly selected items/cosmions. You can also sell whatever you don’t need by dragging and dropping them into the pipe. How much you get back depends on the original cost of the item/cosmion you’re selling. You basically will be getting half price back unless there are decimals involved, in which case the game rounds up the total for you. i.e. a 1₡ item can be sold back at 1₡ because there’s no 0.5₡ in the game and it’ll round up the number for you.

Interestingly enough, you can “save” an item in the store and not have them be refreshed when you pull the lever or when you return from a duel. This is a great strategy to use whenever you ran out of cash but really want that cosmion to add to your team – you can just hop into a duel, gain some cash, and buy it after… as long as you’ve saved it beforehand, of course.

When it comes to strategizing, NEODUEL has plenty to offer. There are the synergistic effects as mentioned earlier where you can place certain cosmions in certain positions to link them up and maximize the bonuses you can get. Although not all links need to be filled, there are some very rare items or cosmions that require you to have all links filled for the bonus – usually something really powerful - be triggered. Some links may have very specific requirements, such as the linked cosmion or item needs to be say… of the air element. Note as well that each linked cosmion or item needs to also be individually unique… and by that, I don’t say that you can’t have the same cosmions fill up the links, but rather you can’t have a single cosmion fill up multiple links.

I should also point out that cosmions, items, and essences all come in different grades or qualities, with “astral” and “legendary” being the topmost on the chart and “common” being the lowest. This adds another layer of strategy to the gameplay, often with higher quality items, cosmions, and essences being more highly sought after. You don’t tend to typically get the best ones right at the start even if you think you’re super lucky. Instead, most of the legendary and astral items and cosmions only come out in the late phase of a tournament.

You can, however, make your way to having much stronger cosmions, items, and essences, by merging them up if you want to get a powerful team early on. Though I’d rather think of them as Evolutions, merging cosmions here can have some very specific requirements, unlike essences which only require you to have two of the same thing, and, more often than not, it’s not as simple as having two of the same cosmions to combine together. You may need to have a certain quality of essence to facilitate the “evolution” or even a different kind of cosmion, and they have to be placed adjacent to each other for the merge to go through. Everything you need is clearly written out in the tooltip so you can plan accordingly if you’re looking to evolve a cosmion.

However, if you don’t want a merge to happen, you can essentially lock either the cosmion or the one it is being merged with… or even both, just to prevent that from happening. This is definitely a nice feature to have since, sometimes; it’s a better strategy to keep your position as is.

As mentioned, every playthrough is considered a tournament in this game. To win a tournament, you will need to win a total of 15 duels. If you lose a match, you’ll then lose a life. You get only five lives (by default) per tournament, so basically, you can only lose five times… make sure to make them count! At certain duel milestones, you’ll also be presented with an Upgrades screen where you can then choose an Upgrade out of the three given.

After you reach either the victory screen, where you’ll be awarded a medal, or the game over screen, you’ll be rewarded with “elo”. This is something like rank points that will not only level you up but also determine your ranking on the leaderboard. There are three types of leaderboards here, namely Daily, Weekly, and All Time. The dream is, of course, climbing to the top of those boards.

Plus, as a fun little bonus, the more tourneys you play, the more new avatars you can unlock. They don’t seem to confer any bonuses to you, so they are mostly aesthetic in nature. I mean, you do look cooler if you have an avatar that’s not the default set of avatars, am I right?

NEODUEL: Backpack Monsters is truly a fascinating addition to this rather niche but increasingly popular subgenre of roguelites, but it does still have room for improvement. For instance, the UI. There are just so many times where the tooltip blocks off my view of the links my cosmion has, sometimes resulting in an erroneous purchase.

That also brings me to my next qualm about the game – there’s no way for you to test out a new addition prior to actually buying it. I guess this is kind of an optional feature to have, but it would have been nice if the player is allowed to get 100% refunds of a cosmion, essence, or item purchased if they are sold within the same battle prep phase. This way, it’s possible for the player to “try out” a potential new purchase and also ensure that the backpack has enough energy to support said new purchase before spending precious cash on it.

Graphics/ Sound

NEODUEL: Backpack Monsters features meticulously designed, cartoon-style visuals that really brings out the uniqueness of the many cosmions and items in the game. The effects and animations are very well done, too, treating players to a fun spectacle even if you don’t get to do anything when the battle is resolving itself.

In terms of sound, the game features mainly two types of soundtracks, one for the duel as it is commencing, and one for the battle preparation phase. Naturally, the latter is more chill while the former is more upbeat and intense. The game also included a commentor who will chime in at the end of every duel.

Conclusion

NEODUEL: Backpack Monsters is, without a doubt, a fantastic addition to the fairly new, backpack management-oriented roguelite subgenre, albeit with a thrilling online PvP aspect that both ramps up the stakes and allows you to really pit your skills against players from around the world. Not only does it have a monster trainer-style theme that may bring to mind games like Pokemon, but it also features a gameplay that perfectly marries the addictive roguelite system with the highly strategic backpack management-style combat complete with various synergies and upgrades, offering players plenty of options when it comes to sculpting their respective builds just so they could defeat their opponents and win the match.

So, if you’re a fan of games like Backpack Hero, or other games like it, and would love to enjoy a PvP version of it with a fun Pokemon-like theme, NEODUEL: Backpack Monsters is one game you’ll want to play. Check out the game now on Steam!

New Game Added: NEODUEL: Backpack Monsters

by Aethyna Oct 12, 2024

Defeat every opponent that comes your way and climb the leaderboard to “be the very best like no one ever was” in this backpack management-based roguelite that features an exciting online PvP aspect along with a fun monster trainer-style theme and an auto battler gameplay! Will you make it?