I just wanted to gush for a minute about Mark of the Deep, Tombwater, and Hunt the Night. All of them are top-down (or isometric) exploration games with eldritch horrors and difficult combat. I'm terrible at "real" souls-like games but these top-down games are definitely scratching my itch.
Mark of the Deep has an isometric view and more modern graphics (compared to the others). The map is a set of interconnected regions where each region is a labyrinth of hidden paths. This one is very easy to get lost in but I think it's well-made. It does a good job of letting you unlock shortcuts as you progress so you don't have to backtrack too much after dying and restarting at the last save point. It took me ~20 hours to beat.
Tombwater is a new game that feels more like A Link To The Past than Mark of the Deep. It's a spread-out open world with optional bosses and 32-bit graphics. I really like how it lets you disable the "corpse run" mechanic that is common in souls-like games. Like I said, I'm terrible at "real" souls-likes so this is a huge selling point for me (Mark of the Deep doesn't have corpse runs either). I'm ~8 hours into Tombwater and I'm really enjoying it.
I've only played the demo for Hunt the Night but I absolutely loved it and since there was a bundle with Tombwater, I bought it on an impulse. I'm looking forward to playing it after I beat Tombwater though.
I know Tunic and Death's Door both have great reviews and souls-like aspects but those are too cute for me. I don't just want a zelda-like with difficult combat, I need that eldritch horror aspect to really scratch my itch. And I'm not sure about Mina the Hollower yet. It isn't nearly as cute as Tunic or Death's Door but I don't know if it's all that "dark" either with that artstyle.
Anyway, if you know of any other top-down/isometric action games with an eldritch horror aesthetic, please let me know. I can't get enough of them right now.
I've tried Mina a few times now, and I can't get into it. I has that old school "unfairness" to it. If that's your thing, fine, but it comes off as punishing for the sake of punishment. One example is that your weapon has a slight knockback when you connect with an enemy. It's enough to knock you off of the very small tiles you often find yourself on, and then you lose a quarter of your health bar when you fall into the void. It also has the worse traversal mechanic I've ever come across. It isn't a dodge like you'd expect. It's a "jump and be completely vulnerable and then jump again and hope it works out for you," button. Don't get me wrong. I can play the game, and I can likely beat the game, but I'm not sure I'll have fun doing it. The design choices are frustrating, and they don't have that soulslike flavor of, "I messed up, and it was my fault."
As a counterpoint, I've not had any problem with the weapons. I went with the whip though. I think there are 4 or 5 - you pick one to start with and unlock the rest throughout the game.
It does take a minute to get the timing right on the burrow mechanic because you do jump up before diving underground and you're vulnerable during that jump. I grew up with the NES though, so that old school style is what I got used to. I learned how to swim through the underwater plants in TMNT; I beat Link's Adventure without the...cheat thing I can't remember because I'm old now... Game Genie.
It is far darker than the art style let's on though.
Thank you for this. These are exactly the moment-to-moment annoyances that really add up. It's one thing to have a tough boss or an annoying level, but if the entire dodge mechanic is annoying then I don't think I'd stick with beating the game. And this game doesn't look good enough (to me) to get past those annoyances.
I haven't played it yet myself, but doesn't Mina have an absolutely insane suite of accessibility options?
It does, and that's a great thing, but playing the game as intended is pretty rough for me. Like I said, if that kind of difficulty is your gig, go for it, or, if you don't mind tweaking the difficulty and playing an easier version, then go for it. I'm playing a soulslike for the difficulty, so changing it to make it easier feels like going against principals.