Holy crap, what a complete moron this kid Kijib is... I'm just glad to learn he's not American (if you read his reviews you'll see he's Iranian).
Been thinking about getting this game for a while, so when I saw it was free I immediately downloaded it. I must say, this game is INCREDIBLE! you guys did an Awesome job on this!
Kijib is a flaming dink. The 1-star raters are idiots too. I just realized that I hadn't rated this game -- and I swear I rated it on the US store shortly after I bought it. OH well, just left a 5-star as it deserves, with a mini review and a jab at the one-star morons.
Cool, I'll be there, Paul. Keep both Fargoal threads as constant open windows on my iPad. Don't want to miss nothin'.
Yeah, it's unfortunate, but the game's rating has gone from an overall 4.5 stars to 3 stars...that's the tradeoff for going free... I'm glad so many people here are enjoying the game. Hopefully this will help to create a larger audience for Roguelikes, so we fans of the genre can see more of them come to our favorite mobile device.
So uh, I was playing legendary the other day, and I died on level 3 by a red dragon! I was just walking along, and it breathed fire on me from out of the shadows - killed me instantly. What's up with a red dragon being on level 3?? My character was only level 4 or 5, so it's not like I was lingering around forever, waiting for the monsters from lower down to come up. Is that a bug, or was I just seriously unlucky? I can't imagine that's a regular occurrence (otherwise I'd say that mode is very unbalanced).
That mode is very ... legendary. What were you expecting out of an insanely hard mode? You could hardly call yourself a legend until you've come face to face with impossible odds and tweaked its nose.
Teh Ninja, update has bug fixes, refinements and some new gameplay-related stuff. Artfoundry, yes that is an out-of-depth monster. They are not common, but they do happen sometimes, so you have to be wary of the possibility. Walk around a dark corner in a dangerous dungeon, expect to get flamed. That's just life.
Hi folks, Just left my review (my first store review!) in the App Store, five stars of course. Cheers! "I've been playing SoF since the day the iPhone version was released. It is such a great game, and gets even better with every update. Easy to learn, hard to master, even harded to put down! It's a great value as well - 20 dungeon floors (navigable via stairs) with 4 maps per floor (connected via side tunnels), all randomly generated each time you start a new game. Item placement, monster spawns, trap locations, and more, everything is randomized with each new game. Never the same quest twice! The graphics are slick and polished with a hint of retro appeal. The sound effects are true to the game's C=64 origins produced via SID chip emulation. The background music, wow, I love the BGM, so moody and mysterious. Load times are very short, resuming a saved game is easy and brings you exactly where you left off. SoF is not an action game and not a quick-thrill casual game, SoF is a long adventure and if you take the time to get in and learn it, you will be rewarded with many hours of entertainment."
I guess I had figured it was just REALLY hard (similar to the typical Rogue-like games) - didn't expect there to be random occurrences of instant unavoidable death. Guess I'll stick to the Hero level. At least when I die instantly in that, I generally have no one to blame but myself (like the last time when I opened a deadly chest around level 15 when I only had around 30-50 HP remaining - that sucked, but I realized I had simply pulled a Homer Simpson).
What an amazing game!!! Hi! I had written a very long post about Sword of Fargoal after playing it for some days (almost no stop as I could having a family and a child) before the whole 'it's free' turmoil started and somehow I managed to loose it, but in the end the message was: GET THIS GAME NO MATTER THE COST!!! Then I saw it's on free, which I do not kown if it's a fine thing or not. Wait, let me explain...I paid the game some hours before it went free, and I'm PERFECTLY fine with it...had I knew it will be free in a matter of hours, I would have still bought it (because I wanted to play it, because 4 euros is absolutely NOTHING, because I want to support devs with such a nice attitude towards their games...but maybe it's just me). But, and it's absolutely not Madgarden or Fargoal fault, I REALLY REALLY do not like this absurd App Store price policing that press everyone to lower prices and even set free (even for a short time) their games just to have visibility, shifting down ratings. Sorry, but that's just my sentiment on the matter. Now...on the game. Simply, it ROCKS. I would like to premit that, personally, I was never attracted by roguelike games, because I primarily search in game a STORY (no matter the genre, even if I prefer adventures and RPGs), a SOUL, something that make me feel my character, care about him and 'live' some experience. So...it was really a surprise when I first started Fargoal and read the background story...simple, but effective and well written (much more than many blasonated so-called story driven RPGs)..it managed to attract me even more in this 'strange genre' as I thought it was. Then I did the tutorial....and was immediately in LOVE with the controls, saying...FINALLY, someone who THOUGHT ABOUT a perfect control scheme in a TOUCH DEVICE. I almost immediately noticed the graphics...which I would call a 'next gen old style graphics'. If you stop to look to the simple no animated sprites, you're really making a disservice to yourself, but I doubt anyone who would play the game more than 10 minutes wouldn't appreciate the lighing, the fog, the mood, the elegance of the whole presentation. And I must add that I find almost MAGICAL looking at the stair transitions, in the anticipation of what I may find lower...will it be a prison? A vault? Caverns? Oh...and the music!!!! The music it really wonderful, perfect for the setting, captivating, intense and calm at the same time. But stop with technitalities...the ONE thing that REALLY was unexpected for me was how much I was absorbed in a 'randomized' game. I mean...every time I started a game (and I started A LOT, belive me) I was getting in my head stories, situations, images of dungeons, warriors, monsters...they were somehow linked in bigger plan and everything felt consistent like a well written book. THAT was really unexpected...hours and hours of buried in the past memories of playing Dungeons&Dragons come alive in my mind, living in this tiny screen. Probably my poor English is not aiding me, but I hope to have made myself clear. Another important thing that was unexpected was the great variability yet consistent of situations in the game (strange objects, monters, behaviours, dungeon maps) that keep it fresh every time. So...just to let you know my impressions, from a non roguelikes lover. I'm really in love with this game. As I'm here...two things I didn't yet understood. 1) Aside from the 'realod' thing, is the squire setting any different in difficoulty from the normal mode? 2) Madgarden...have you ever considered Twitter integration? I know I bought many games based on friends twitters....you could occasionally twitter something like: Pitta's hero decended till 10 level then died...or Pitta' hero have slain his first Shadown Dragon.... It could be sort of cool advertising. EDITED 3) Madgarden, any chance the iPhone version will get the 'smoothed' graphics option of the iPad version? (I'm on a 3GS, I think the guts are the same of the iPad). Anyway, thank you for making such a wonderful game, and adapting it so well for the iPhone.
same has happened on the UK app store, 1 star ratings have quadrupled, one reviewer even said they were miffed the game went free and they would now wait for paid games to go free before buying
i'm just on level 7 but i have to say that this game is very well done,i found a lot of fun here even if this is my first game of this genre and i didn't know anything about it before...oh and i love the sound,it's awesome! i leave a 5 star review in the usa and italian appstore
I got SoF over the weekend on its free day and have been enjoying it a lot. I've always been interested in roguelikes but have always been bad at them, because they tend to be extremely punishing. I find SoF to be very accessible, but still retains the randomized fun. A pile of rubble can kill you dead or give you an awesome spell. You never know what to expect. By the way, are there other uses for Gold, besides sacrificing it at a Temple? Edit: I left a glowing, 5-star review on the Dutch appstore.
The general point of the game is to reach floor 15, nab the Sword of Fargoal, and then go up the way you came again as fast as you can.
Thanks. I just don't really get the appeal of it. Slowly swiping around a foggy dungeon. Like I said, it must be me as a lot of you guys seem to like this game immensely. I shall persevere for the sake of Fargoal!
I downloaded this game when it first came out, but only started playing it a couple of weeks ago. I haven't been able to put it down. It has quickly become one of the two or three most played games on my Itouch. I can't wait to check out the Ipad version when my 3G model arrives in early May. I didn't have any experience with rogue-like games until now, but Sword of Fargoal has changed that for me. The controls are spot on, the replay ability is off the charts, and it's just a lot of fun. I also really appreciate the constant participation of Madgarden in these forums. It makes the overall experience that much better. I left a detailed 5-star review on Itunes yesterday. I just wish it could have been 10 stars. I look forward to future updates. Keep up the good work!
