Children of Morta Reviews
Children of Morta may feature rewarding character progression but its combat-heavy campaign begins to feel like a chore after a while.
Children of Morta is an ambitious, beautiful, but unsatisfying action roguelike, light on content and feeling considerably unfinished at launch.
The Bergson's are charming but their quest is a bit too lifeless. A middling dungeon crawler elevated by its style.
However, even with these technical issues, I enjoyed my time with Children of Morta. The constant narration depicts the bonds of family with a kind-hearted pathos, which is a welcome palate cleanser between the bouts of monster slaying. Even failed runs are rewarded with new tidbits, tying us to the Bergsons’ struggle.
Represents a winning convergence of art, design, and narrative.
Children of Morta offers a unique twist on roguelike formula and wraps it up in a warm and engrossing story that will have you genuinely caring for its family of characters. Unfortunately, whilst the gameplay starts off strong, the dungeon crawling eventually becomes a chore due to repetitive combat and long load times.
Children of Morta carves out a nice little space for itself in the rogue-lite genre. It's a beautiful-looking game that's obviously had a lot of love and care poured into it. Its dungeons, although perhaps not the strongest in terms of variety of enemies, are certainly refreshingly challenging, and all of the upgrade systems, pickups and playable characters on offer ensure there's plenty here to keep things feeling fresh over the fifteen-to-twenty hours it will take you to see things through to the end.
Choose your favorite Bergson to take down into the dungeons in a roguelike that tells the story of the tight-knit family that form the Children of Morta.
Based on the perspective players approach Children of Morta, it is possible to frame it either as a disappointment or as a breath of fresh air.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Rather than simply chaining meaningless rooms in a "one-piece-a monster-a-treasure" adventure, even if, in the main, a rogue-like is always a bit like that , Children of Morta grafts us over a well-written story, with great music, dozens of cut-scenes and events that are unlocked, and a narrative made by a guy who has a voice comment animal documentaries with your neutral (especially those where we see a buffalo devoured by a dozen hyenas).
Review in French | Read full review
Children of Morta is a rewarding action RPG with a lot of heart, providing you can make it through its repetitive opening hours.
All in, I found Children of Morta to be an enjoyable experience. I wouldn’t say it was the best title I’ve ever played, but it is nowhere near the worst and I am quite looking forward to going back to continue the journey.
Children of Morta is a decent roguelike ARPG.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
Children of Morta, also published by 11 Bit Studios, presents a similarly top-down action-RPG with rogue-lite elements, retro-inspired pixel art, and immersive art direction and animation. But, like with Moonlighter before it, Children of Morta takes a different approach. The similar setup of failing, upgrading, retrying, and replaying dungeons, slowly growing in power thanks to upgrades is here, but in the guise of a story-driven party-based RPG. With combat and character progression that feels more in line with Blizzard's Diablo than it does Moonlighter's riff on classic The Legend of Zelda.
Despite the randomly generated dungeons, there is not much in the way of replay value to be had in Children of Morta. The storyline is linear and it is a somewhat short game. That being said, the journey through that first time is delightful, due in large part to fantastic visuals and also the interesting family dynamics found in both the gameplay and the narrative. The rogue-lite elements work well here, encouraging progress without being terribly punitive. Fans of the action-RPG genre should definitely give Children of Morta a look.
11 bit studios is surprising deweloper. Frostpunk is amazing, Moonlighter is great and now Children of Morta. It's a roguelite game focusing on family of fighters who fight with evil below. You can choose characters, skillsets and styles. Everyone will find something for themselves in this great action adventure roguelite masterpiece.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Whether it’s the name its carving out for itself as a rogue-lite title or not, this beautiful-looking game is one that is joining titles such as Hyper Light Drifter, Dead Cells, Rogue Legacy, and Slay the Spire rather quickly. This is one that isn’t holding back and due to the wide array of platforms that it is available on, it’s hard to not acknowledge the potential Dead Mage has to offer and if they stay the course, this could be the biggest success story yet.
With each passing dungeon, I knew I was getting closer to finding out what was behind the corruption. I also knew that meant the game was drawing to a close. This was a harsh reality as I thoroughly enjoyed every second of the game. The family members and their role to play is felt on almost every level of the game. The attention to detail with skillsets and the attacks is worth playing the game just for that alone. The controls during combat are responsive and work well. The game keeps a fluid motion even when there are hordes of enemies on the screen. You couple it with an amazing story and beautiful pixel artwork it’s hard to deny this game could find itself in the conversation for Indie game of the year. If there were any nitpicking it would be in the slow loading times and a few crashes I experienced. The dungeons did at times appear to not change much for stretches but overall they present too much fun to care. Children of Morta is a stellar dungeon crawler with a family that is worth fighting with and a storyline to take it over the top. The range of emotions the game will cause you to have is just one reason this is a must-own.
"Roguelikes can have good stories?"
Review in Finnish | Read full review