Was Steamworld Quest Worth It?

Was It Worth It is a series here on Aggregator Reviews where we look at a given product and let you know whether you’re going to get your money’s worth from it. It can be hard to decide which items are worth your time, and most importantly, your hard earned cash. In Was It Worth It, we provide an overview, some tips and tricks (if applicable), and our personal brand of irreverent commentary. We finish off with an overall determination on whether the subject is actually worth it. With that said, let’s look at whether Steamworld Quest was worth it.

Disclaimer: Aggregator Reviews is open to sponsorships and strives for transparency, and our policy is full disclosure when we receive a product at a discount. We bought the game on sale for 14.99, but it normally goes for 24.99.

Gearing Up

Steamworld Quest is a turn-based RPG based in a fantasy steampunk setting. You use a team of three robots to tackle the big bad. The whimsical nature of the setting doesn’t do anything to distract from the fact that the plot is absolutely run-of-the-mill. Hell, at one point, the main characters’ village even got torched!

The characters are pretty flat and I wasn’t attached to any of them. It was hard to see my party as anything more than a series of HP bars, which was disappointing. This really rankled later into the game, when I was trying to blitz through the last few chapters.

The game also reduces experience once you level past a certain point in an area. This was annoying when I was backtracking to find items. Frustratingly, some enemies position to where you can’t avoid them when you enter a zone.

Pick a Card

The battle system is pretty simple:

You use bread and butter moves to generate gears, which you then use to fuel your more powerful moves. Certain moves don’t have a cost, and simply generate gears. You can play three cards a turn (with a few exceptions). There are stronger moves that cost multiple gears. If you string together 3 cards from a single character, you can use a combo. These have different effects depending on your weapon, such as aoe damage, status effects, buffs, heals, etc.

The issue is that once you find your groove, it gets repetitive. Many of the cards (attacks) aren’t strict upgrades, but are more like sidegrades, and the setup required to make them viable isn’t worth it. A good example is with the twins, who have a lot of high cost skills that require a turn or two to prepare. Copernica, the mage character, was fragile and didn’t have the big DPS turns that I was able to pull off with Orik, so she got shelved.

I used Armilly, Galleo, and Orik exclusively. I spent most of my turns whaling away with Armilly’s Hot Lick and other Fire or Physical skills. Galleo was useful for healing, generating gears, and lowering storm resistance for a big Cyclone Slash on the next turn.

The boss fights, especially towards the end, were less than stellar. Like I said earlier, it gets repetitive. High HP totals make boss fights drawn out, which means that you’re in a constant loop of generating gears, healing if necessary, Cyclone Slash, rinse, repeat. Occasionally enemies will throw status effects at you, but it’s easy enough to mitigate those effects with healing or with protective gear.

Speaking of gear, the item system falls prey to the same criticism I leveled at the cards. I used some of the same items for the entirety of the game, because stat boosts were more useful than special effects.

Stacking the Deck

Here are the builds I used. I finished the game with my main characters at level 44. I upgraded all the cards to their max rank, if possible.

Armilly – Serrated Claymore, Journeyman Badge, Power Servo

• Bravado
• Heroic Strike
• Hot Lick x 4
• Fiery Bash
• True Heroes

Galleo – Hydro Fists, Champion Badge, Power Booster

• Fixer
• Steam Punch x 3
• Quick Fix
• Regeneration
• Super Soaker x 2

Orik – Storming Kusanagi, Journeyman Badge, Pandora’s Box

• Iai Cut x 4
• Cyclone Slash
• Find Your Center
• Fortune’s Favor
• Stormbringer

Nuts and Bolts

After beating the story, you have two options: grind to max level to beat the colosseum, or play New Game+. I was glad to be finished with the game when the credits rolled. I clocked in nearly twenty hours and was thoroughly done.

Pros

• Battle system is creative, even if it isn’t perfect
• Visually pretty

Cons

• Game runs out of steam (pun intended) towards the end
• No incentive to keep playing

Was Steamworld Quest Worth It?

As far as indie games go, this title wasn’t terrible. It’s a new direction for the developer, and I think with some polish a sequel could really shine. The battle system definitely needs a sanity check so that the myriad options are actually useful.

Content-wise, HowLongToBeat pegs the main story at about 14 hours, which means that my run was rather leisurely. Since I got the game on sale, I can’t be too upset. However, I do not think that the game is worth the full price of 24.99. Buy it for a discount, but know that there isn’t much else to the game besides the campaign. Heck, it doesn’t even have side quests.

Agree? Disagree? We’d love to see your thoughts in the comments below, or feel free to join us on the official Aggregator Reviews Discord!

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