Pharaonic

Pharaonic
N/A
Metacritic
79
Steam
66.032
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$2.99
Release date
28 April 2016
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
79 (217 votes)

Embark on a journey of exploration and violence in the Two Lands of Egypt with Pharaonic! This unforgiving Combat RPG features an streamlined and challenging combat system that will keep you on your toes while fighting for your life!

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Pharaonic system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows XP SP3
  • Processor: Dual Core processor
  • Memory: 2 GB RAM
  • Graphics: DirectX 10 capable hardware
  • Storage: 1 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: 64bit OS recommended but not required
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XSandroXTV
XSandroXTV

Superb!

Gameplay is fantastic and performance is much better that Ziggurath's one in my laptop!

I've only tried it for a few minutes, but it's a 100% recommended game for sure!

Megazord552
Megazord552

My first impression of the game is positive,. Love the art style and gameplay. Need to play more so say more.
Some general comments. Combat is great, but needs a better tutorials. Some icons (status effects) didnt have immediate meaning. Also some practice on timing the parry wouldnt go amiss.
Is it just me or is the frame rate a little weird. A lot of people are saying it ran fast, but i ran into sub 20 fps. Ill try it again to see if it is consistent.
EDIT: Running on 1080p immediately tanks the frame rate. running on 720p works. None work well on any graphics setting over very low, but i assume that is by design during early access.
Overall, looking forward to the finished product.

ShivaNata
ShivaNata

This game is really well done. The level design could use some tweaking but its also still early access. The combat is tight and responsive once you get used to the timing. Its closer to Dark Souls 2 speed than Dark Souls but is not quite that slow. So far I have been playing light and agile and it works out well. While the story seems a little thin, I also know that this is early and that the story will be more fleshed out at release.

If you enjoy melee combat that is Souls Like, you will not go wrong with this game. Since it is early access, now would be the time to purchase it as the price will likely increase as the content goes up. (I believe it is about 60% complete at the time of this review.)

Dank_Loard_420_Cranberrie
Dank_Loard_420…

If it weren't for the super colourful graphics I'd say I was playing a 2.5D Demon's Souls with the same jumps in difficulty, the gameplay mechanics, the limited healing and what not.

10/10 would smack around humanoïd crocodiles and frogs with a scorpion claw again

AirmanKJE
AirmanKJE

Unforgiving indeed, died many times but didn't mind at all. Has an old school feel with a new school look. Was able to complete the game up to its current state. Worked very well using a PS4 controller. Other than not not being content complete I really didn't run into any issues other than some minor graphic glitches but nothing that impeded gameplay. Very well done.

Suma
Suma

Quick review: Simply beautiful graphics, with super tight controls and solid gameplay mechanics. Even when using keyboard & mouse controls the game is super fun to play! Tough, but very fair! There are checkpoints so you don't have to play the whole level over again when you die. And you will die! A lot! :-) It's all in timing!

Milkstone sure knows how to make great games! If you like action adventure games, then don't miss out on this one! It's already a great game in EA! I can't wait for the finished product! Another awesome game by Milkstone Studios! You people work hard and it sure shows! KUDOS once again Milkstone!!!

The game runs flawlessly on my MacBook Pro!

Model Name: MacBookPro 11,5 (Mid 2015)
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 16 GB Type: DDR3 Speed: 1600 MHz
Video Card: AMD Radeon R9 M370X, VRAM 2048 MB

Operating System: OS X El Capitan version 10.11.3 (64 bit OS)

mizhal
mizhal

Extremely polished and fun game. The combat is fairer than most Souls-like games but also challenging and fulfilling.
Good quality-cost relationship, very replayable. For me, the money best spent this year.

There are many combinations of weapons, armors and magic powers to try and this makes the title very replayable.
You can make your own combat style by changing weapon length, weight or speed or armor lightness and the game seems to allow you to try a lot of builds without blocking your progress.

Graphics and sound quality are professional-level, and art and design is superb, colourful and very appealing. I liked a lot the models of enemies and final bosses (i want a bestiary).

Story is simple but fine, background lore however is more developed and shows an interesting setting to explore and learn about.

World is intrincate despite it's linear appearance in the screenshots, there are alternative paths in each of the regions of the game, and region themselves are interconnected through secret shortcuts often defended by mini-bosses.

And about bosses: Main bosses have personality and you are told about its story and background by NPCs when approaching the combat. That builds an unique feeling of the boss being in the right place, where you are breaking in as a hunter, and makes combat meaningful.

Zoey
Zoey

If you're a big fan of Egyptian lore and gods and style buy this game for the price it quite fun

Pros -
-Fantastic art
-Good combat
-Sidescrolling large areas to explore
-Death isn't a huge penalty
-Interesting bosses
-Plenty of story

Cons -
-Can be quite hard if you are under geared for a area (Just a bit personal con cause items can be hard to come by the good ones)
-Healing can be a bit far making long runs quite a pain
-Some enemies can have some pretty bullshit combos which require dodging to a extreme point (Another personal con i like the style of Shield and parry and making alot of the enemies dodge only is a bit lazy)

Great
Great

Had just finished Dark Souls 3 and was coincidentally looking for an Egyptian themed game, this fit perfectly, you get to customize your character a bit and can choose between male or female, not many options but for a game like this I don't think it'd really be necessary, mobs of enemies can be a bit too challenging at times, managing your stamina is important, but boss fights have been easy to get the hang of so far. If you're having a hard time avoiding a certain trap rest assured that there is a way to avoid the damage, you just have to think a bit.

For its current price I'd reccomend getting it, as long as you don't mind dying about as much as you would in Dark Souls.

Uncle Nanny
Uncle Nanny

Pros

- Beautiful art style
- Tight and responsive controls
- Brutal combat that never feels unfair
- Lots of fun gear that changes the appearance of your character
- Nice change of pace with the Egyptian setting
- Story is fairly minimal but intriguing when you pick up the little bits of lore and unravel details about your past.
- Different weapons behave differently, and there are both light and heavy tiers of weapons and armor to play with.

Cons

- Can get a bit repetitive as you run back and forth because you keep dying or need to refill on health. A few more checkpoints would be nice, but some may prefer it the way it is.

TuffMelon
TuffMelon

Im recommending this because the game itself is enjoyable, visually polished, and solid.

However, as a warning to anyone like me who hates shitty hitboxes. This game has REALLY shitty hitboxes, most noticeably where it matters the most (as in, the enemies that do a ton of damage and youre MEANT to dodge, still hit you even when youre behind them and their swing is In FRONT of them)

Rabid Urko
Rabid Urko

Awesome atmospheric game set in ancient Egypt.
You HAVE to use skill in combat in this game or your dead, no just running in and pressing one key.

Great graphics, audio and general gameplay.

Impressive.

chirulahr
chirulahr

Fun and well made game!
Looks great (so colourful!) and plays great and even runs on my old labtop.
I have not played any of the Dark Souls games, so I cannot compare, but I have to say I thoroughly enjoy this game.
Yes, combat can be quite hard. You will die. A lot. But it never feels unfair and there is always a reason why you die.
And somehow, you just feel the urge to immediately redeem yourself.
I am hooked.
Although they label this game as an ARPG, it is very light on the RPG elements, but delivers on the Action side.
Totally recommend this game if you enjoy challenging fights in a colourful environment.

Oh, and I wanted to add- I am very pleasantly surprised that the first enemy to kill is NOT a zombie. Nice for a change!

ali
ali

2.5 d darksouls .

very fun game highly recommended

curly_nuts
curly_nuts

This is an excellent 2.5D adventure game. Don't let the fact that it came out of nowhere fool you, this is one good game. It plays exactly like a 2D Dark Souls. The combat is phenomenal; deep and complex, no two encounters are the same. There are a variety of moves and combos that you can execute and everything takes timing. This is no button masher.

Of all the things this game has (and it has a lot) what I love the most is the RPG elements. You have a deep equipment setup and you can mix and match from a variety of weapons, armour and gear. Speaking of weapons, you get different types and weights and everything reacts differently. It takes real strategy to set your charcter up. And as to your character, he or she levels up and gains abilities. There are side quests that you can complete along the way. Heck, the story is even good! This game has everything!

I'm so happy I purchased this game. I hope it gets the recognition it deserves because it is a really well made game.

SledgeIsAThicc
SledgeIsAThicc

Great game! Has some cool action elements mainly the combat. With the thrill of the item management and leveling system of a great RPG. Its also a 2.5D side scroller which really aern't perfectible but this game is as close as it gets! And its hard!

HostilePandaTakeover
HostilePandaTakeover

Lovely game from the guys behind Ziggurat that is absolutely worth picking up. As other reviews and the store page have noted it plays like a sidescrolling 2.5D Souls game. Pharaonic also reminds me of Apotheon, a sidescrolling action game with a little Souls influence as well. The Egyptian artstyle is lovely and there are a wide variety of locations to enjoy - it's not all just sand and pyramids here. The combat has weight to it and rewards forethought and knowledge of enemy attack patterns as you block and dodge about, juggling your stamina to attack without overextending yourself.

Most of the gameplay takes place on the one plane but lately I've had to deal with archers and spells flung at me in other planes; time will tell if the game does anything more with the 2.5D view to elevate it from a style choice. My only real complaint so far is a lack of variety in playstyles like the Souls games and other aRPGs offer - namely no archery, steath/backstabbery and a lackluster magic system that is really just a backup or supporting tool, no way to play as a caster here. Beyond that it is a highly polished gem of a game (haven't encountered a single bug so far) that I keep going back to in favor of the small pile of games in my backlog.

I wholeheartedly recommend picking this title up.

MizManFryinP🍳
MizManFryinP🍳

The game is not bad but it is NOT like dark souls in it's combat system.

I find it wrong to say it is like dark souls when the only comperassion is parry, strong attack and light attack. That's it...

With that being said this game is still good!

Murray
Murray

If Darksouls was a 2.5D game based in Egypt this is it. Chellenging game but never unfairly so. While you'll die a lot at least you'll know it was entirely your fault, whether you miss timed a parry or tried to rush through enemies only to get punished.

Would definitely recommend the game especially with it priced so well.

pösmunk
pösmunk

Ancient egypt fighting game delivers beautiful graphics, nice music and difficult (i.e. fun) gameplay! Also it works very well on linux.

Fuji
Fuji

While I had some fun with this game, I can't recommend it as advertised. The game is pretty, but the core gameplay of combat is festering baby-shit garbage. Engaging in combat is the only thing you can do in this game. Let me be clear, I don't like puzzles or platforming. I bought this game because it seemed right up my alley, but it doesn't deliver. This game failed miserably in trying to draw inspiration from Dark Souls. For a game that is all about combat, it lacks a lot of polish, attention to detail, & suffers from poor design philosophy. I wish I hadn't read all the positive reviews who think this game is anything like Dark Souls, or praised silly shit like "beautiful art" and "tight responsive controls". It's a video game, your inputs ARE SUPPOSED TO BE RESPONSIVE. It is SUPPOSED to look nice, though not absolutely required nor even necessary.

Character limit reached on review, excuse the shorthand:

Combat:

Good:
-Nothing

Neutral:
-It's plentiful

Bad:
-You can't run by/thorugh/around enemies you've killed multiple times.

-Hitboxes. Absolutely atrocious. Attacks that should hit you don't, attacks that shouldn't hit you do. Likewise with your attacks on enemies.

-Why are there so many enemies? Why do I have to redo ambushes? Why do the enemies overlap models (can't see shit captain!).

-Attack patterns. In Dark Souls, big weapon enemies telegraph attacks & they can't swing large ass weapons 100MPH. In this game, enemies randomly flail huge weapons at lightning speed. Some attack patterns include 10' leaps with cross-body backswings that end 270 degrees from main hand side to behind the body, ~ another 5' behind their body. Honestly, the attacks enemies make are just dumb, unrealistic, & unfair. Sometimes the enemy will taunt you for 10s, just spam light attack & kill it.

-"Invulnerability frames". Anyone who's played Dark Souls knows what I'm talking about. There are no invulernability frames, if I had to guess it's merely timing related & the game calculated if a ray from the weapon or projectile passed through you. Sometimes you're in the middle of dodging & you still get hit, sometimes you don't dodge & attack passes right through you. See hitboxes.

-Parrying. This is the worst. Perhaps if parrying was not completely ballsack I would recommend it. First off, there are no half parries. A parry hits or doesn't. Your shield will clearly be going through a weapon swing & you will get hit. Often multiple times from one miss. There's no explanation for how parries work either, except for the information I'm giving you right now. Veterans of Dark Souls like myself (I have an all-dialogue all-solo speedrun on YT) aren't scared of enemies. We are up in their face at all times. Parry doesn't work if you're too close to the enemy. Even if you're not too close, your parry still might not work if the enemy uses an attack that has him step into your hitbox.

-More about parrying. There's no reward for parrying. Parrying takes stamina, & all parries are performed at the same speed regardless of shield, which might be a neutral point for some. You can stun an enemy for two seconds by parrying, but it makes more sense to either block the hit & not risk the garbage parry system not working, or just backpedal constantly as enemies whiff. That's right, the best strategy isn't even to block, or parry. It's to bait an attack, walk backwards a bit, then wail at the enemy with full stamina, rather than wasting stamina & health trying to parry or block. Only a handful of attacks that "can't be dodged", but hitboxes are so garbage you CAN dodge most of the attacks that "glow blue because they can't be dodged". Poor design.

-Weapon dynamics. See items below. What happens when you swing a big ass axe at a lightly armored archer's face? Nothing. You MIGHT do 30-40% of his health with one hit for 50-100% of your stamina. The fact that double hits exists is unacceptable. Let's be real, if you hit something in the face with a weapon so heavy you can barely wield it, should you get stabbed by his dagger after he gets hit? AFTER HE DIES?! You will get hit by attacks from enemies that are already dead. Hit them in the face with a hundred pound axe, they won't get sent flying back, they won’t even flinch FFS. Sometimes attacks pass through models & they won't even take damage! Wow!

-In summation, is this game hard & unforgiving? No. Whether or not you get hit, or hit the enemy is 50% skill & 50% luck. It’s a tedious grind for more health & the next checkpoint. Like I said earlier, most of the time you just have to backpedal & then smack the enemies after they whiff. You can block, but it's a waste of stamina & health & you run the risk of having your block broken by some random ass double hit on a backswing. You can parry if you stay far from the enemy.

Player Character:

Good:
-You can characterize him (or her), a little.

Neutral:
-Classic silent protagonist.

Bad:
-The skills you get are dumb. There are no special attacks, no special bonuses, & no differences between the skills. Each one reduces stamina penalties for cetain types of equipment. In the case of weapons the skills sometimes increase the speed at which they swing by a whopping 10-20%. The skills are basically just grinding rewards. They offer nothing unique.

Items:

Good:
-There's a barely acceptable amount of items.

-Some items have neat flavor text.

Neutral:
-The lore of items is lacking compared to Dark Souls.

-You get a lot of duplicate items. I've gotten 1 "boss weapon" out of 5 bosses.

Bad:
-There's only 3 basic weapons. The differences between weapons are the skin & the damage, all else negligible. There's heavy weapons, spears, swords, & smaller swords.

-The weapons don't have unique movesets that alter your playstyle. None of them have any special effects.

Story:

Good:
-It's semi-original.

Neutral:
-Tidbits of lore from NPCs.

Bad:
-I can't tell you who my character is (except the Grand Vizier to the Red Pharaoh)

-You kill a bunch of stuff because some random lady teleports away from you while you're in prison & collect a bunch of keys because, um, well that's not explained yet. Just because.

-Named characters are bland & have no impact on the game. Neat part where you kill someone's son.

Design:

Good:
-Barely acceptable world size.

Neutral:
-The maps given are accurate, but purposely shitty. Thx for trying to maintain immersion, but can I have a map that doesn't look like dogshit next time? It would be nice if I didn't have to press 8 buttons on my controller to look at the map.

-You'll probably die enough & the levels are very small so the map is obsolete.

Bad:
-The "bonfires" & steles are placed really inconveniently. The game isn't "hard" because of the lack of steles or bonfires - tedious & grindy.

-NPC interaction is beyond dumpster quality. Most of them gesticule wildly, flail, and talk to themselves. When you turn in a quest, they repeat themselves. It's embarassingly hideous & bad.

Magikarp
Magikarp

Great Game. Really enjoyed it, extremely challenging. Prepare to die many many many times.

Jopo
Jopo

Una joyita que no me esperaba. Toma un poco de Karateka y Dark Souls pero le mete temática egipcia. Se enfoca en el combate más que nada y atravesar los mapas laberintosos que el juego presenta. Muy entretenido.

Lex
Lex

Harder and more rewarding than dark souls 3, a little jewel that every dark souls fan should have in his library.
Good luck with this game, made me swearing more than ds, and that's why a love it!

Mercenary
Mercenary

Very good game , interesting , and finally an action game on anciant egypt !

Abyssus_j
Abyssus_j

Polished and fun to play.

Is a 2.5D side scrolling beat-em-up with RPG elements.
If you're looking for a game with an arcade feel, that does a few things and does them well, this is a game for you.

FBTWGaming
FBTWGaming

2d Dark Soul like game set in Egypt with a dash of Greek mythology put in for good measure, sign me up. The game is tough, but for the motivated it gives rewarding gameplay. After finishing the game I hardily recommend it.

NecroVermin
NecroVermin

-Hey you!
-Yeah, you!
-Do you like side-scrollers?
-Do you like souls games and/or the combat of souls games?
-Do you like sand?
-Do you like dumbass death sounds?
-Do you like un-clear stories?
-Do you like Prince Of Persia flashbacks?
-Do you like irritating traps?
-Do you like to get fucked by giant scorpians?
-Do you like sand?
-Are you ready to hang yourself because this review isn't over yet?
-Do you like egyptian as fuck egyptian shit?
-Do you like ripping your dick off in frustration?
-Do you like a wide variety of neat looking weapons and armor?
-Do you like sand?
-Do you like that frustration to be the cause of your own dumb mistakes?
-Do you like bullshit mechanics and strange movesets?
-Do you hate the invasion aspect of the souls games?
-Do you like sand?
-If you answered "nigga, i dunno" to any of these questions, you may qualify to enjoy this game. If y'know..you like sand.
-Sand Souls

karmik
karmik

I completed Pharaonic in 21 hours with a 'light gear + support backpack' build and I have to say that this game is great.

Pros:
- Nice and colorful setting and graphics.
- Plays great with Steam Controller. It is very convenient to use one of the grip buttons to dodge.
- Very challenging but fair combat.
- Lots of different weapons, armors and shields.
- Lots of different enemies.

Cons:
- Every time you die or restart the game ALL enemies are resurrected. It can be annoying to replay same easy battle(1-2 enemies) repeatedly because you've died further in the game.

raixel
raixel

Pharaonic is good. Plain and simple.

What is it? Some people say it reminds them of Dark Souls. I dont know. I haven't played Dark Souls because I heard the PC port was terrible, and I dont do consoles. So I won't be making any Dark Souls comparisons. What it does remind me of is Bushido Blade or the swordfighting of Prince of Persia. A *real* swordfight. 3-4 hits and you're toast. Long story short. Its set in Ancient Egypt, but the story desn't follow history - its its own thing, You pick your char, choosing from skin, head, gender and voice. THANK YOU DEVS for creating as many options for females as males. Nothing gets me more as a chick gamer then when theres half as many portraits/models for chick PCs and they're all running around in chain mail bikinis no one in their right mind would actually wear (seriously? Chain links and pubes? OW). Then you're off.

Its 3d images on a 2d plane, although at certain areas, you can hit up or down to take a path heading in that direction and the camera effect as it swoops around to put you back on the 2d plane is well done. It does slightly suffer from that "accidentally go back and forth between rooms effect" that games like the old Resident Evils did when your perspective suddenly changes, but its really minor and not a big deal, only happened a couple times so far.

Enemies come, and you fight. Theres a hard attack, fast attack, dodge, shield bash, block, and later you get magic.

You fight the bad guys as you do sidequests and go on your main mission to defeat the evil Red Pharaoh, plain and simple. Sometimes they are one at a time, sometimes you got groups.

Everything you do in battle takes stamina, which refills quickly. But run out from attacking or dodging too much, and you stand there like a doof for a second wuntil you can dodge or attack again. Theres plenty of awsome items, both found in chests, looted from enemies, and bought at shops. Lighter stuff is faster and takes less stamina to use, but does less damage or has less defense. Heavy is the opposite.

You have 3 healing potions you can refill at certain areas once per save point, and also save statues which refill everything, health, magic, healing potions. Thing is, when you use one, all enemies respawn too. So its the choice of "do I continue, and maybe die, or go back and heal knowing I have to fight my way back.". Death isnt that big of a deal, you lose some of your XP, which if you make it back to the spot you died you can reclaim, but you get to keep your equipment and you dont lose quest progress.

Its a good thing, because youre going to be dying. A lot. This game is hard, but really fun. When you die, *you* did it. The one complaint i have is that once an attack animation starts for you, theres no way to pull back. You're committed to whatever move you do until the animation has ended. You have one interrupt you can do against an enemy, but it takes a lot of stamina, and it better be timed perfectly or you're going to be nailed. And you cant take many hits, so making mistakes are going to cost you. I like the fact that it makes you think though and is more realistic than 99% of games out there. Really, how many spears through the chest could one person take?

Another thing that I wanted to mention is that the controller is fully mappable. Again, THANK YOU DEVS. Not all of us have 2 fully working hands, and a game like this would be unplayable for me if I had to use the default controls.

The graphics arent great, but they are decent for an indie game. Every type of weapon and armor you equip looks different, and I love games that do that. One funny thing is that the female model's hands are exactly the same size as the male's, although she is overall smaller. It looks ridiculous and I have no idea why its like that. Other than that, the graphics are well done and appropriately ancient Egyptian.

Overall, if you like action RPGs, this is great. Yes, its hard. Yes it can be frustrating at times. BUt its still really really fun.

Pippin Squinch
Pippin Squinch

I wanted to like this game; I really did. It had a lot of promise, but it just felt bad to play, at least for me. It wasn't very fluid and, honestly, thought it felt rather clunky and unresponsive. It's not a bad game, but also not something I would tell other people to buy.

Disgruntled Marmot
Disgruntled Marmot

I'll admit I was in doubt about this game, I picked it up because I LOVED Ziggurat, and from what I could see, the developers genuinely cared about their product.

It took all of about 10 minutes for me to end up addicted to Pharaonic.

On one side, it's a shameless homage to the Dark Souls franchise. I don't mean it's a Souls-like, although it is, but there are *blatant* references. Like every time you use a shrine, the animation looks oddly familiar.

When you beat a certain boss and you're stood on a bridge, you can 'pray'...and you form a Y-shape towards the sun.

Is that a bad thing? No, not really.

Pharaonic brings enough to the table, both known mechanics and unique twists that allow the game to stand apart even while being counted as a Souls-like game.

Weapons are not upgraded (at least not that I've seen), but there are different tiers of weaponry, requiring a level up in a skill to use either light or heavy weapons of a particular tier without penalties. If you invest 2 points in Light Weapons, you can use level 0, 1, and 2 Light Weapons without penalties, and you even get a bonus if you're using level 0 or level 1.

The same applies to armour.

The presence of 3 healing chugs that recharge is quite punishing. There are places to recharge your canteen without respawning enemies, but they're rare enough to not be able to rely on them.

The overall feel of this game is polished and smooth, and definitely an enjoyable purchase for a good price.

5 Bears On Patrol
5 Bears On Patrol

It's an attempt at 2D dark souls, and does it terribly.

As if being a Dark Souls clone excuses you from the worst checkpoint placement. Before Souls games would be laughed at for shit this poor. I don't want to have to traverse the same load of dipshits just for another attempt at a boss. And why the fuck should I?

Hope you like repeating the same sections.

There's often no place to dodge to in the cramped forced combat sections. Controls are pretty poor, the game locks you into combos that you want to cancel out of. Theres not always sufficient telegraphing from the enemies. No indication if they'll attack twice, three times, etc.

That might be fun to someone who doesn't have better games to play. Game Devs need to git gud at game dev.

PureKnix
PureKnix

Mechanics are tight and entertaining. Death is frequent and fair. I felt a great sense of accomplishment once completing certain sections after much trial and learning. The Egyptian setting and graphics are suiting. Easy to jump in to.

No major bads.

joshua.moudy.39
joshua.moudy.39

The game is sort of like Dark Souls 3, but set in Egypt and is a side-scroller. Still fun to play, and worth the $16.00.

Takazatara
Takazatara

The combat in this game is a tedious slog and A LOT of the same enemies over and over where you swing twice and back up to wait for your stamina as well as the respawning enemies of Dark Souls. If you want a proper 2D soulslike do yourself a favor and pick up Salt and Sanctuary, or Hollow Knight instead.

ben2theedge
ben2theedge

It's a surprisingly great Dark Souls-lite game with a really nice art style. In the videos it looks like a simple sidescroller/beat-em-up, but the environments are quite varied with many alternate routes to explore and traps to avoid. For a lower budget game the level of polish is very high with colorful artwork, a lot of content and clean UI. Also the mythic Egyptian setting feels really fresh, allowing for interesting new armor, weapons and character designs besides the standard tired fantasy cliches.

It's strange to see such a tight polished game pop up with very little fanfare but I strongly recommend it!

Ellipse
Ellipse

I'm not really one for 2D games or side scrolling games in general but this game is pretty cool; the controls are fairly tight, the combat is slow and requires a bit of planning/adaptability. Each of my deaths has been pretty clearly my bad. >>Some advice here,
those three dodge types you have actually have intended use, play with them and find out. Level design is pretty decent thus far, twisting and interconnected, they really do utilize the 2.5D space well, imo.

Pros:
-level design is pretty decent, you'll get lost if you don't have the map or at least a good sense of direction.
--plenty of shortcuts too, especially to bosses.
-combat is solid, with three dodge types and a variety of weapons and armor it's hard to complain
-Art style, personally, looks pretty nice, and I'm loving the Egyptian setting, so very refreshing to see.
--Badass ladies, you can be one, and you'll fight some, it's great.
-Animations are very smooth along with the framerate (even on older hardware here, 700 series GPU)
-Combat, again, is really slow, but it is built around that, you don't just move slower, everyone does. This allows for a good variety of style in combat, allowing the player to dodge around, block, poke, use magic, etc and feel confident that you can balance the situation. It is fairly easy to get overwhelmed when panicked, and the damage from many enemies is not forgiving, but with movement speed and all the options the player has it is quite fair, imo.

Cons:
-some enemy hitboxes on their weapons seem to start very early in the attack, now that makes sense since an ax is always an ax, but this can make it easy to get caught in multiple strikes when dodging through enemies. Now that isn't terrible, it can be an absolute nightmare in boss fights. Again, this can be countered with spacing and using the other dodge mechs, but never the less it felt important to mention.

-I'll add more when I find them, but so far that's it.

Overall, I'd say it's pretty solid. I'd say it's like a 2D Dark Souls except this actually feels significantly better than the latest titles, for me, so I'll say instead that it is a really solid 2.5D hack and slash, with excellent animation, combat, and beautiful dodge mechs.

If you like 2D give it a shot, if you liked Salt and Sanct this will feel slower, but probably a bit more polished, at least to me. Finally, if you like souls like combat but just aren't feeling the latest titles from FROM this is definitely a good buy.

So far, I highly recommend this game. Of course, check some vids, maybe take advantage of the refund option to give it a shot yourself. It's nice.

One thing I'd like to add is that this game feels incredibly fair. If the devs for some reason read this one review in particular, you did the difficulty RIGHT in this game. If you make more titles like this, don't get lost in the "hard as hell" mentality, with hpyer aggressive enemies or annoyingly high enemy damage, fair and balanced is on display here and it is so incredibly refreshing to see and feel again.

Draufen
Draufen

Disappointing, despite nice scenery of the ancient Egypt, clumsy combat system + virtually no chances to avoid combat leading to too many deaths is very bad, but! what is even worse? That you spawn at certain locations only and you literally have to hack through the very same enemies repetitevely again! 99% of my playtime was that...sigh:(((

Shnozzberries
Shnozzberries

this game is really god damn hard and unforgiving but also fun and amazingly good.

fjk1138
fjk1138

Good: Nice graphics and sound

Bad: Checkpoints suck. Combat is meh.

Ugly: Not fun. Not fun at all.

Martin1245456
Martin1245456

Good game similar to Dark Souls / Salt and Sanctuary, but focused almost exclusively on the combat mechanics (block, attack, dodging, parrying). I completed those games a few times, but still found this game challenging, and really difficult at times.

As the game prioritises combat, there is less there in terms of story and character progression. You don't have the option to create varied builds, such as pure mage builds, as it's basically a 'sword and shield' type of game. There doesn't feel like much replay value as a result.
You can choose different weapon types and what category you want to upgrade, such as light or heavy weapons or armour, but it doesn't feel very satisfying, and when you level up there's no options to choose stats manually such as vitality or stamina and so on. As there's no deep skill tree it's behind other games in this regard.
You do get stronger weapons and shields as you go along, and pick up 'backpacks' that give you special abilities, which can include mage-like skills, so there is some variety and sense of character progression.

You do get maps in the game but they're a bit cryptic - I would have preferred something more straightforward that exactly matches the layout.

The difficulty can be punishing at times, but most areas are very fun. Some of the locations are visually pleasing, bright and vivid, and this offsets the unpleasantness of dying and having to go through the area again. Only a couple of areas are dark and gloomy, which I found a lot less enjoyable.

The combat itself is really good. Dodging and parrying require precise timing - a combination of reactions as well as prediction from watching enemies' patterns. The game manages to keep things varied and fresh with different enemy types as well as interesting mechanics such as unblockable attacks and undodgeable attacks. There's a mix of ranged and melee enemies, and ones that have both. They can also dodge your attacks and even parry you later on. The game throws these together in a way that can be very challenging.

The main bosses are unique and interesting, and not overly difficult (compared to the main game which is already very hard). There's a save point before each boss which is a very nice feature that's unfortunately missing from some similar games.

Conclusion:
I was looking for a game that focused almost entirely on combat mechanics which would provide a challenge after completing games like dark souls. I found this game to be good as it was exactly what I was looking for, although it can feel too hard at times. If you're looking for an easier game, or one that has the usual additions - such as story cinematics, varied character builds, deep skill trees - then this may not be the game for you.

Marianojoey
Marianojoey

I tried it for a couple of hours. I know the guys at Milkstone Studios like to make their games hard, but this wasn't what I was looking for. As far as I saw (and I only played the whole first level), the game is highly repetitive, and you depend more on a RNG for loot than anything else.

PROS:
+ I liked the way the camera follows you.
+ Difficult.
+ the music.
+ the graphics.

CONS:
- repetitive. All you do is walk forward and kill the enemies with your weapon or a spell, but you only have 2 moves.
- Difficult. (yes, for some it's a con).
- enemies are boring. They are just the same, just with more HP, which is a system to pump difficulty I don't really like that much.

If I had to say something else, it would: I liked Ziggurat a lot more, and I felt I could have more enjoyement with that one, and that's why I decided to ask for a refund. This game is nice, but not for everyone, so if you want to try it, don't be affraid, but for my part, I didn't enjoy it, so I have to go with a "no" (I'd go with a "meh" if the option was available, but...)

Randolph Carter
Randolph Carter

Deeply underrated game that's definitely worth your $16. Story is light but doesn't get in the way and the combat system, the real draw, is very rewarding. Also it looks beautiful and there are real interesting aesthetic choices being made here.

Donia
Donia

Many will probably liken Pharaonic to a "2D Souls-like", due to the many similarities they have in their core gameplay, such as a replenishable healing flask, an ability to dodge / dodgeroll & the possibility to reclaim your lost EXP on death.

Pharaonic is much more focused on combat than exploration however, with many of your encounters being either 1 on 1, or 1 on 2. I feel like the game was properly balanced around these encounters, though there are a few instances of "artificial difficulty", where the game will throw multiple, powerful enemies at you at once. The worst offender is just before the final boss, where you're forced to fight through three groups of four powerful enemies in a single go.
This was pretty irritating and I wish they had rather placed a single, difficult (mini)boss instead.

Although the game is centered around combat rather than exploration, the levels are still designed very nicely, with many levels looping back to their start and offering different kinds of shortcuts to progress quicker.

I got around 14 hours out of this game, for my first playthrough. And although replayability is minimal because, unlike Souls games, you'll probably end up taking the exact same routes, I feel it was still a fair purchase for 15,99 EUR.

G
G

I wanted to enjoy this game so much. but no.

Cons:
1. No sense of progress. Even at end-game you will still be cursing at the screen. When you get a weapon that's twice as good, your new enemies will be four times more powerful. And that's how it goes, for the whole game. Within the many hours I've played, never have I felt like I was thriving, only barely just surviving. You get beat down. Soon I realize it was less stressful IRL than this game lol. I thought people played game for enjoyment or escape. I finally took a breath when I stopped playing.

2. This game puts you in way too much stress to be enjoyable, more or less the same point as above but I will elaborate. I understand this hardcore difficulty trend is inspired by Dark Souls. Nonetheless I imagine DKs has done some incredible things to keep players intrigued amongst the difficulty. I don't think this game does that and simply borrowed the philosophy of making a very difficult game, thinking players will somehow reward themselves for beating a very hard boss on their 52nd try. There is no intrinsic reward in this game besides the hope of eventually reaching a point where you feel like a boss, that you've earned it. After 12 hours I realize this doesn't happen here and gave up on that hope.

Beyond that, don't expect a great story to draw you in, difficult player choices that alter events, or the feeling of character growth. I say feeling because sure there is leveling up and new weapons, but as I said earlier, the scaling between enemies and yourself isn't fair.

On top of that a big part of this game is memorizing boss attack animations, which is tiring and not skill-based, so even if you get that down, how proud can you be of yourself really? When you finally beat a boss, instead of feeling a moment of glory you get to take a breath instead. I don't play games to be this stressed! You aren't paying me to beat the game so what the hell?

3. Because of the above, you never get a sense of flow or mastery. Only endless grind.

Pros:
1. It's pretty
2. Graphic design is wonderful: levels, wearables, weapons.

TLDR; I might finish the game if the difficulty was halved. Balance of punishment and reward is way off. Feels like developer simply liked the idea of creating a very difficult game such as Dark Souls, thinking this single mechanic/philosophy would bring some of the DKs thunder to it. It didn't work. Would you take the deal of eating one spoonful of sugar for every three spoonfuls of poop?
Didn't think so. It took me 12 hours eating crap in this game to realize that. I have to say it was very alluringly beautiful - the graphics and style. It was a trap.

MetalDragon
MetalDragon

it was fine

nothing amazing bit rough around the edges and the golem enemies almost made me quit the game

maybe for 50% or more off it would be worth it

for a 2d souls like game go with salt and sanctuary first then either this or dark maus

em4n3m
em4n3m

In short, Dark Souls in 2D!

The graphics are awesome, the mechanics are quite good (slightly different than DkS though) and the game is a lot less forgiving than DkS/Bloodborne and also Salt'n'Sanctuary.
It's difficult, but in a good way!

Voice over is missing from dialogues, this is the only thing I would have wanted.

A must buy for the fan of the serie!

The Wanderer
The Wanderer

Introduction to Dark Souls universe. 10/10.

Karoz
Karoz

Had a good time with this game. It's a side scroller Dark Souls game with an Egyptian theme.

The main draw is the combat, which is slow but deliberate as you balance your stamina between attacking, dodging, blocking, parrying and recovery. The only tricky part is sometimes getting hit during a dodge due to not quite figuring out the iframes. The game can throw a bunch of enemies at you and have some checkpoints that you must clear all enemies to proceed but the tougher ones are usually optional for gear you won't acquire otherwise. Being 2D, the enemies you have to worry about are naturally the ones right next to you, but some enemies have ranged weapons or spears to keep things interesting and sometimes there is a trap present in the arena. While a number of enemies can be tough there moves are all very readable, including special moves that cannot be dodged (blue trail) or blocked (red trail), so it becomes a game of pattern recognition. Due to lacking a visceral attack I didn't find parrying all that useful as only some enemies would not just bounce off my shield that I would dodge instead.

Equipment is divided into heavy and light variants, be the nimble rogue dodging in and landing a few cuts or the mighty warrior brandishing a large mace to crush your enemies or a mix of both. The gear is mostly reflected in defense, weight (a penalty to your maximum stamina), and swiftness, making a light equipment character much more nimble but fragile than a slow warrior. There are also powerful rings you can buy or find but the main draw is the use of your backpack. Backpacks come in offensive and support variants where offensive lets you be sort of a mage while support gives you buffs and tends to be more melee focused. While you can't master everything, I decided to go full heavy armor, heavy weapons, great shields, and support backpacks but had enough points to put into Light Weapons when I wanted to change tactics. There is a nice variety of weapons from daggers and swords to maces and spears and each has their own moveset consisting of light and strong attacks though most combos are no more than 2-4 moves in part due to limited stamina. Gear comes in tiers and even if you don't have the right level you'll be able to equip it, but you will take a penalty to stamina or speed while using it. On the other hand, if you like a lower tier weapon you can keep using it as you'll actually get a stamina bonus but it was usually best to have the latest and greatest.

Overally I think the game came to about 10-12 hours? The game is pretty linear as the one time I did jump ahead in areas, it suddenly became a huge grind due to being underleveled (once you hit the experience threshold you immediately gain max health, stamina, and mana) and my gear was not up to par. The story is pretty straight forward stuff, not horrendous, but nothing to really write home about though there are multiple endings. There is some fun references to other video games as well and it has a nice bit of humor to it which I always enjoy.

Nosferatu
Nosferatu

Pretty fun side-scrolling game. The combat is pretty decent, except for some reason I can't get the "block" to work :/ I don't know if I'm dumb or my game is weird.

Fneg Imn
Fneg Imn

Not a fan of side-scrollers and this one is no different

+ looks okay
+ runs well

- poor control scheme
- combat is 50/50 sometimes you can't block and other times it's too slow to block
- no knockback on enemies when interrupting hits, but they can interrupt you, okay.

Not my cup of tea.

The Dogaboo
The Dogaboo

Imagine a sideways Darksouls, but in the egyptian age. Also you start out as a slave, feel like a slave, become a slave with armor and weaponry, rebel against the poeple that put you into slavery, you then become a slave with magic, fight bosses as a slave, and explore new lands as a slave.

All in all, slave your money to this game. 10/10

slingshot5
slingshot5

Great game, but it still has some issues with the hit registration (HIS FREAKING WEAPON DID NOT EVEN TUCHME AGFHGAFGAHFGWFHAF). Seriously this is a good game and I would recommend it to anyone who likes percision action side-scrollers (to many adj) that require an acute reaction time.

Legendary G000
Legendary G000

So far from what i have played the concept is fun the story is there but a way to cancel attacks, would be extremely helpful, and the game seems to run in slow motion for me all in all however the game runs without lag and is pretty good can't wait for the end product.

Priest in Brothel
Priest in Brothel

I don't care for the blocking system in this game. The moment which you're supposed to hit the deflection button is way off what it should be, in my opinion.

Eslam Green
Eslam Green

Short version: Pharaonic is dark souls but in 2D and set in ancient Egypt.

Long version: Pharaonic is a 2D action adventue darksoulsian game set in ancient Egypt. But because it is in 2D, the game focuses more on the combat mechanic and finding creative ways to make the levels sprawling and fun to explore. and unlike darksouls, the game does not rely on cheap enemy placments to manufacture diffeculty, just a bit of inbalance here and there and the diffeculty is well taken care of... also this game has a story that it tells, and it has a background story that it also tells. (if you haven't noticed yet, I am not a fan of darksoulian games)

pros:
+ Ancient Egypt, best setting for anything ever
+ Art style, cartoonish and beutiful
+ Ancient Egypt, rich lore and history that is being used (loosely)
+ level design, big levels that are designed for exploration
+ Ancient Egypt, colorful and beutiful scenery almost everywhere you go
+ Skill admancment system is seperated from leveling up so as to be lenient on those without the reflexes of a 12 yr old and the patience of a monk
+ Ancient Egypt, setting allows for some interesting design choices
+ Effects on your equipment is significant (i mean that it is not a small increment in stats or something, but a big effect that can change how you approach combat)
+ Ancient Egypt, because it's mother EGYPT ofcourse
+ Production quality, I have seen other 16$ games on steam, this feels like it should cost more
+ Ancient Egypt (you guess why)

cons:
- music, sounds liek generic background desert music but does harm the experience that much
- lack of voice acting
- a bit of inbalance between going heavy (armor, sheilds, weapons) and other styles
- lack of weapon variety
- combat can get repetitive later on in the game
- maps are useless junk that get you confused and lost more often than it helps
- enemy designs are almost all either human or humanoid, and almost all of them fight the same way (swing a big stick at you) even bosses

conclusion:
If you are looking for an indie darksoulsian game that doesnt just not suck, but is legitimetly good, and set in the best setting for any game (Ancient Egypt), and has good quality and gameplay time for its asking price, then this might be the game you are looking for.

DanIsBad
DanIsBad

This game just spoofed up into my inventory lol. but it was a trash game and wasnt for me lmao.

Canine
Canine

Gave the missus sum cheeky finger fun while playing this. Yeah mate 7/10

DruidHerb
DruidHerb

Im fan of dark souls series but difficulty in this game was brought by hordes of enemies and combat was repeatitive.

CarlosJesusAlvarez
CarlosJesusAlvarez

i dont know how i got this game but trying to get it to work looks amazing tho

[LUE] TormakSaber
[LUE] TormakSaber

Pharaonic is a masterpiece in how not to make a Dark Souls game. It manages to make wrong decisions at almost every step of the way while making itself just good enough to have made it worth my time to play for 7 hours and make it to bosses and areas that only 10% of players have the achievement for getting. I have played the game and experienced it, and for the first 2 areas, it was alright. It fell apart very very quickly. I quit after one particular situation that I will elaborate on in detail later, but I feel I experienced quite enough of the game to give it the negative review I am now giving it. The comments will contain more.

Normally I would give a review on every aspect of the game, but I'm going to be brief here, because the list of negatives to discuss in comparison to its obvious inspiration, Dark Souls, are many. The cartoonish art style of the game is not awful - but upper bodies seem just a bit too big and legs and feet seem just a bit too small. There's not a lot of visual variation in the human enemies (though they have their own attack patterns), though the beastly enemies are what you'd except from an Egypt themed games: scorpions, ghouls, and the like, along with Stone Golems. Music was forgettable. I don't recall a single track to be truthful with you.

There's a war going on in the background but it's unimportant. NPCs are unimportant. You even feel unimportant - but there's nothing else to latch onto. In Dark Souls, your individual importance is carefully weighted against the superb environmental storytelling; you may not matter, but the places you traverse once did, and the driving force is that genuine sense of exploration. In this game, you simply go places and you kill bosses because She Said So. The contrast is real, this game implements vagueness and obscurity, but misses the meaning of those things it tries to emulate.

So now let's talk about the downsides (which is a polite way to say "The rest of the game."). This list will largely be spoken about as though you have an understanding of Dark Souls concepts and terms, such as "i-frames", "bonfires", and "poise".

-There are no souls, just a normal TNL XP bar. Levelling increases health, stamina, and magic. That's it. You still lose a huge chunk of XP when you die, so dying really just does mean "more grinding". It sucks in Dark Souls but sucks more here, because...

- There are gated encounters you MUST fight between bonfires at points, which means it's very possible to die at a point and NEED to kill several difficult encounters (due to 2d space, cameras that don't move, and actual spikes that stop movement and can't be broken) to get your XP back.

- There are no stats, no weapon scaling, nothing. Levelling up is done via Skill Gems. 2 problems: Tying your core levelling progression to a collectathon style item is not a good design decision. There are 2 extras, and 8 skills with 5 levels each. The design intention is that you select one of two types for each equipment: light/heavy weapons, light/heavy armor, light/heavy shields, and offense/defense backpacks. Miss more than 2 and you are not maxing out your stats. Several require you to buy them for expensive prices from shops.

-Bringing us to skill choices. Enemies are damage sponges, and aggressive enough to where you'll only really get a max of 3 swings maybe less before needing to dodge. Especially in packs. Because of that, when a dagger will hit the same number of times as a greataxe - why use the dagger? Heavy weapons are the obvious choice. There is no damage scaling of any kind or sort, so just use the highest damage. Due to the damage formula in the game, less armor will actually amplify the damage you take. Not reduce it. Having slightly more stamina does not outweigh (heh) the downsides of having less than 1/2 the armor and taking extra damage when you do get hit. Chip damage is killer, as outlined soon. Shields are subjective... ish - but few shields will block 100% of damage, and those that do often take more stamina to block them, as opposed to DkS: heavy shields parry less effectively and take more stamina to use. I chose heavy shields because an Unblockable attack means Unparryable too, making blocking what you can more effective just made sense. There are no ripostes and no reduction to stamina drain for a successful parry, so blocking then folowing up with 2 attacks is identical to parrying and doing the same. Offense/defense backpack is truly your own choice, but I liked buffs better than attack spells, as enemies are damage sponges so lasting buffs on yourself seemed better. Finally: There are even Dev posts that talk about how sepcific bosses have unpredictable, hard to read animations by design, or are very tanky and hard to harm with light weapons,so he recommends using heavy weapons and shields even if you didn't skill them. In light of this I truly believe there is no point to playing any build that isn't Heavy/Heavy/Heavy/Defense. Anything else is artificial difficulty.

-You only get 3 chugs of Estus. If you get more, I did not see it in my 7 hours of play through to the Royal Quarry (the long way, not the King's Valley shortcut) The "Estus Ring" gives you one more chug, but, insultingly reduces the amount of heal per chug. This makes chip damage killer, as distances between "Bonfires" are long and arduous, with forced encounters. See above about damage formulas and heavy armor.

-There are 3 separate dodges, all with separate amounts of i-frames. I do not know how many, just that a standing dodge has the most and a backwards dodge has the least. The Dev says he "does not remember". There is no good reason to make inconsistent i-frames, as this badly messes with player reaction and muscle memory, especially when you can be caught between 2 enemies, and a forward roll facing one way is a backwards roll the other way, with different i-frames. Perversely, unlike DkS, this encourages a somewhat stationary battle style when possible: Spot dodge everything or parry/block everything, then hit back. In practice, due to below, this is not generally doable.

- Enemy hurtboxes are generous and will overlap with their hitboxes. Enemies can 180 mid combo and continue to hit you. It's not uncommon to roll through an enemy's attack only to be hit by the backswing of the sword with crosses over their body and hits you midroll after your i-frames are done but after you dodged the actual attack. Enemy attacks can be Unblockable or Undodgeable, noted by Red and Blue tints, but sometimes these tints don't show up except just before an attack actually hits - meaning you're just forced to memorize the windups anyways, amking the tells useless.

- Enemies will come in mobs, can overlap each other, and can mix up Unblockable and Undodgeable attacks simultaneously, meaning the only way to not take damage is to physically not be in that space - but there is no sprint button, and movement is combat is artificially slowed down from exploration movement, making damage almost inevitable at times, as the enemies are exceedingly good (to its credit) at "phalanxing" big enemies in back that can swing through allies, with little guys with shields in front. A group of scorpions, golems, and shielded spear users did this to me. This is why I quit. It didn't kill me. It was just the last straw. The scorpions lunge forward with an unblockable stab of the tail, run forward with aspinning sweep of the tail that is undodgeable and remains active as long as the tail is spinning (including behind it and in the body), a 1-2 combo attack, the golems have an unblockable one-two combo that they can rotate in the middle of (like all combos), and the spear users have a long range Undodgeable spear sweep, and can block and parry. I was done at that point. The best heavy weapon I found, the Hittite Sword, took 8-10 hits to kill one. There would regularly be 3-5 monsters per encounter. I was done.

Julymorning
Julymorning

this game makes me feels sad coz it is very similar to dark souls which is a great game that ive truly enjoyed but Pharaonic doesn't worth the time i have invested, i did complete it in 30 hours playing casually (i don't like to write a negative review for a game that i didn't complete) but seems like the game didn't get much attention during early access and still have a lot of problems.

Pros:
-looks beautiful
-solid combat system (parry, dodge iframes, dodging towards different directions, blocking, unblockable attacks, taking advantage of ur weapons speed or reach, stamina management, p much like dark souls)
-enjoyable boss fights
-lots of equipment

Cons:
-artificial difficulty
-no sense of progress other than leveling for basic stats, there are only two builds (light and heavy) which are p much the same
-maps lead u nowhere, for the lack of a better word areas are like labyrinths and feels like homework

only actual problem of this game is its artificial difficulty. it is kind of like playing an MMO game by yourself alone coz fights are designated for more than 1 player. waves and waves of very powerful enemies without giving u any chance to avoid incoming damage and overlapping attacks simply made me hate it. it feels like a roguelike game in which ur trying ur best and hoping u wont get hit by 5 attacks with different timings to dodge or block.

combat system is pretty good and enjoyable when u fight a challenging enemy or a boss but it is not designed for waves of mob fights. there are things that u can do, like i dunno, grabbing a spear and rolling backwards and attacking while keeping ur distance but eventually u will get hit buy unavoidable attacks. u will have to spend some 'estus' but there are only 3 sips and usually not enough.

boss fights are fantastic and look very cool, i truly wish could have written a positive review for Pharaonic coz i like many soulslike games but for this one it seems that devs decided to make it diffcult simply by throwing ur way tons and tons of stupid mobs at the same time.

play Salt and Sanctuary if u haven't yet instead of Pharaonic. it is the best soulslike out there despite being an indie game

ShinyUmbreon
ShinyUmbreon

One of the least enjoyable games I have ever played.

Aureate Eternal
Aureate Eternal

I was blown away when I played this for the first time and realized it's an egyptian side-scrolling Dark Souls. I'm loving this game so far.

CelestialAfroJungle
CelestialAfroJungle

So far it's a good game, good music, gameplay is good, it's not so difficult but it can be challenging, it's just a question of patience.
Music is good, graphics and textures are good too, it has some RPG mechanics.
There are so few games about Egypt so this is a plus to me.

Game overall is good so far but it has its flaws/bugs, for example, when you roll to dodge, i roll and i'm behind the enemy yet, i still get hit and die, a bug that should have been taken care of long ago but anyway, good game nonetheless.

Don't listen to the negative reviews which says that it sucks because you have to restart from a checkpoint if you die, they're just casual people who haven't played real games in their life, there are games harder than this out there, and i'm not talking about Dark Souls since Dark Souls is actually easy compared to most of the challenging games out there.
People who complains about difficulty should just stop play video games or should just play casual games, that's it that's all.

8.5/10 - Cool game but with its bugs and flaws of course, and the difficulty isn't a flaw by the way, just saying.

WombRaider
WombRaider

awsome! game! its kind of old and simple but i had fun playing through this adventure. Combat is basically all timing based and very enjoyable.

GeoLuz
GeoLuz

Pharaonic is a game that has drawn many comparisons to the Dark Souls series with its action RPG features and the hacking and slashing. Honestly, I have not played one game of the Dark Souls series. I wanted to give Pharaonic, an indie game, a try because I was captivated by the art direction, the stunning environmental design, and the stunning background design. It is a side scrolling game with a steep learning curve, tough enemies, and a fantastic setting in Ancient Egypt.

The story of Pharaonic is set in Ancient Egypt and you play Dagi, a prisoner who tries to escape from prison to find out what happened to The Red Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt in the year 440. You get to escape with the assistance of a mysterious woman. This is where your journey truly begins, as you are almost fully naked and armed with a basic sword. The plot is not very deep, but the focus of the game is on combat. There are many enemies and the battles are very difficult. I died many times but was rarely frustrated. I quickly realized that getting killed was mainly my fault and it was a matter of understanding my strengths and weaknesses as well as understanding the strengths and weaknesses of my enemies. Your defense, like dodge roll, block, and parry, is just as important as your offense because taking a few too many hits will result in certain death.

While the plot is not very detailed the game’s art direction is excellent and the character details look great. After many battles in one locale you will find a praying shrine where you can fully heal from your wounds. Praying shrines are also checkpoints. They can be so spread out that it can lead to little bit of frustration at times. If you die you will resume your journey at the last shrine and the enemies will respawn. I took my deaths as learning experiences so that I can fight better each time and my combat gradually improved. Dagi levels up after farming many kills, although there is no points system allocated to any weapons or armor. Leveling up leads to increased health which will be needed to fight increasingly more challenging enemies as you progress through the game. The controls are the basic WASD keyboard and mouse scheme. The mouse allows you to attack with one button and use the shield with another button. The middle mouse wheel can be used for heavy attacks at the cost of more stamina. The controls are quick and responsive.

You acquire weapons and armor from enemy loot, merchants, and treasure chests scattered around each locale or map. Equipment tends to be divided into two categories: light and heavy. Light equipment makes you move faster but is less protective whereas heavy equipment gives you more protection at the cost of speed. I preferred light weapons and heavy armor because light weapons used less stamina and heavy armor provided me with more protection. The left side of the screen shows health in red, stamina in green, and magic in blue. Some players may prefer heavy weapons, but I didn’t find them so useful because the stamina would go down to zero so quickly, leaving Dagi very vulnerable to deadly attacks. However, it is a matter of a player’s preference for what type of weapon they feel most comfortable with during combat. Equipment lower than your skill level gives you an extra weight reduction; equipment higher than your skill level adds more weight in the form of a weight penalty. Health is replenished by drinking from a canteen, which is limited in drinking capacity. One notable challenge with the canteen is that enemies can also drink from their canteens to heal themselves in combat.

Even without a points system for your equipment you can increase the level of your equipment by finding Shabti gems in treasure chests, buying from merchants, or by completing side quests. Trainers scattered around each map will offer to increase your equipment skills in exchange for a Shabti gem. This upgrade system can encourage you to complete side quests for NPCs you interact with on your journey. The NPCs have no voiceovers, so you will have to read what they tell you. I found the side quests fun and rewarding because they require a little backtracking to find items that the NPCs are looking for with minimal effort. Side quests are also good for specific achievements if you are looking to earn as many achievements as possible.

There are a wide variety of weapons such as short swords, spears, and maces. Short swords are great for quick and consecutive attacks, spears are great for long range attacks, and maces are very quick and powerful. You may consider different weapons against different types of enemies. Each locale has a boss who is a much larger version of the enemies you have already battled. Magic is used by the various backpacks you find throughout the game. Some backpacks fire magical arrows and other backpacks specialize in healing.

Boss battles are quite challenging, as you will die many times until you can hone your strengths and learn the weaknesses of each boss to the fullest. When you die you will be forced back to your latest shrine and you will have to face a long line of enemies before you face the boss again. I learned not to be frustrated by this common scenario since I learned to be patient in learning combat. Without enough patience I probably would have abandoned this game after a few hours of playtime. However, I feel that it would have been better to have the checkpoints closer to each other to reward the player better for their supreme victories over their tough bosses.

Each locale in Ancient Egypt has a map that you can buy from merchants or find them in treasure chests. I found the maps to be a problem because of the lack of certain details. There is no way to see where you are on the map, so it is possible to get lost in a locale without the map providing much help. The maps contain legends such as shrines, merchants, and teleport stones. However, these legends do not help much if you cannot see exactly where you are on a map. These maps are not worth the purchase price.

I enjoyed playing Pharaonic despite its drawbacks. I enjoyed playing in a gorgeous world and I appreciated the challenging combat. The combat taught me a lot of patience and I felt like the combat was usually fair. I understand the potential for frustration when fighting a long line of diverse enemies with diverse attacks when moving from left to right or right to left with limited room, but I know that these battles are not impossible. I spent 47 hours learning my strengths and weakness and learned to exploit the weaknesses of each enemy while experiencing all three endings. The victories over regular enemies and bosses felt rewarding enough since my character continued to increase his skill level until the end. I would recommend Pharaonic only to those who are willing to learn to deal with constant death by learning the skills necessary to be a prolific fighter with hack and slash weapons. If you feel that constant failures will eventually help you succeed in combat you should buy this game at less than $20. If you find backtracking tedious and you are easily frustrated by failing a lot in combat, this is probably not the right game for you.

My Score: 7/10

ShinraV
ShinraV

Very cool 2d souls-like in an egyptian setting. Story is forgettable, but the combat is fantastic which makes it. Good 10-15 hour game.

BlackjackGT
BlackjackGT

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1591157850
Punishing, gorgeous, spectacularly-animated, side-scrolling sword-and-sandals slasher/brawler that imho was hindered by a couple key things -- too few and too widely spaced checkpoint save "fountains," and an enemy respawning feature that punished players for backtracking and forced players to keep repeating the same fighting encounters over and over again ad nauseam to progress.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1592334232
If you can handle that level of frustration and repetition, and the idea of something like an ancient Egypt scenario crossed with the movie Gladiator and maybe a pinch of Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia sword fighting games and at times maybe even Titan Quest, then Pharaonic may tickle your fancy.

If you're easily frustrated, or the idea of widely spaced checkpoint saving and enemy respawning in areas you'd succesfully completed earlier ticks you off, then I'd give the game a pass.

For the record, I was so terrible at this game in 2016, I couldn't even get out of the opening dungeon areas at all. I revisited recently using a controller instead of kb/mouse, and I have progressed further and had more fun with it. Including defeating the Warden boss after about 20 tries. :D Although the aforementioned issues about checkpoint saves and enemy respawning still bother me.

I think with just a few more checkpoint save fountains scattered through the game and less reliance on enemy respawning (or even just those features being in a more Casual difficulty mode option), this could've been a classic that appealed to more than just the Dark Souls masochistic difficulty crowd.

I'll still give Pharaonic a thumbs up, if only because at its best, it's a quite thrilling sword and sandals slashing/fighting game, that looks terrific in action. I just think the game could've been more fun and less frustrating -- with broader appeal -- with a couple adjustments/tweaks.

The developers appear to have disappeared. I guess one could argue they made a game with no compromises.

hollafu
hollafu

All movement, especially combat feels like syrup. It's hard, but not in the right way. The game definitely has potential, but it's simply not fun to play

Damn
Damn

It's a really good and fun game, but I just got no patient for it.... Still really great

madwasp777
madwasp777

All time the best game. Nice graphic nice action, unique aegyptian action rpg. Everithing is SUPER 100%. I whish there would be a sequel pharaonic 2 with greater scope more weapon/item diversity. (fire/poison damage, etc) With greater content. Anyway game is NOT short (15-20 hours) to unlock all content. THIS IS "THE GAME of GAMES"....P.s: PLEASA Sequel!!!!

Kdosda Hegen
Kdosda Hegen

Awesome, difficult 2.5d sidescroller.

+ The whole 2.5d concept is very nice.
+ Great combat.
+ Great variety in level design.
+ Map system.
+ Fantastic boss battles.
+ Rewarding side areas. Ussually they have a very hard combat section and a chest with great treasure.

- Some maps don't have every area painted on them.
- There's a glitch which makes backpacks look like being in use all the time, but in fact their actual use is still same, so because of glitch I can't know when the backpack powerup stops.
- Some checkpoints are in quite annoying places.

8/10

Aleph
Aleph

Really great indie game. Recommended for Dark Souls players or gamers that like a challenge, but want something simpler and smaller.

Pros:
-Dark Souls-like mechanics
-Egyptian theme
-Challenging but mostly fair
-Cool achievements
-Interesting seeing how the story unfolds from start to finish

Cons:
-Traps are overpowered and impossible to dodge unless you have perfect timing
-This is a side scroller, which is cool, but it discourages skipping enemies even if you've cleared the area already. When you enter combat you enter a combat stance and move slower and the camera adjusts to close enemies instead of where you're walking. Trying to move past already killed enemies and dying on a trap you can't see coming is the worst way to die
-A particular boss that introduces new mechanics midway through the game, with some literally undodgeable attacks
-Maps are either really confusing or just wrong. They don't differentiate lower paths from paths at higher elevations, and some things aren't shown on the map at all so you get confused where you are
-Dialogue can be confusing or just boring

Bürger
Bürger

Pros / What's good?
----------------------------------------
The Egyptian theme is an eye-pleasing hook, and consistent throughout most of the game. The Serket armor set looks like something from monster hunter and the Ishtar set has this silly blue-pink paint job going on.

Combat is challenging, tactical almost. To Some attacks cannot be blocked, only dodged. Some cannot be dodged, only blocked. These attacks have 'colored trails' on them: red is unblockable, blue is undodgeable. Parrying - I found it new that you could parry enemies blocking with their shield in order to get them to drop their guard.

You compliment your weapons with tablets, which go into the 'backpack' slot. Two varieties: Support and Offense. Support gives a temporary buff, Offense delivers a magical attack.

People are quick to make this game out to be "Egyptian Dark Souls". I think the only real soulslike thing about it is that when you die, you leave behind an orb (you only lose xp on death). Collecting the orb gives you your xp back. There are 3 stats- health, stamina, and ka (ie mana). Leveling up increases these stats by a certain amount.

Cons/ What could be better?
------------------------------------------------------------
Item Descriptions. Quite a few are vague/ misleading. For example:
1. Tablet of Blessings: "You can already feel your stamina increasing!" Does not increase stamina. It rapidly regenerates stamina while active.
2. Ring of Tjuiay: Mentions a smuggler that survived many deadly attacks, thanks to this ring. Does not give you a 'saving grace' of leaving you with a sliver of hp when hit with a lethal attack. Gives you 10 points of defense.
3. Ring of Tawosre: You can pick this ring up about halfway through the game. I beat the game without finding out what it does. The description talks of a general who was deadly with a sword, occaissonally killing with a single blow. But this game doesn't have ripostes /crits /attack weak spot for massive damage. According to a forum post from a dev, it just increases damage.
4. Pyramidskin: The lvl 4 support tablet's description gives the impression that it gives you temporary invincibility. I found out the hard way it does not.
Shields have a stat called 'swiftness'. What does this measure? Movement speed? Nope. The time it takes to bring the shield up? Nope. Parrying speed? Nope. It measures how much stamina is lost/ kept when you successfully block. The higher it is, the better.

The way defense stat works in this game is weird. It's not a direct damage threshold or percentage. It's....'proportional'? According to a dev: (assuming enemy deals 100 damage)
"Against an armor of 100 (Level 1 Light Armor), actual damage is 100.
Against an armor of 120 (Level 0 Heavy Armor), actual damage is ~95.
Against an armor of 55 (Level 0 Light Armor), actual damage is 125."

In combat you cannot manually make your guy face a certain direction. You'll automatically face the closest enemy. you may be able to dodge attacks from behind, but you can't block them. This is annoying when you have annoying archers on both sides.

The merchants/ gold. The prob wasn't price; there's plenty of gold to be had. The problem is that there really isn't much to buy. It is pointless to buy armor/weapons, because they can all be found in chests/ dropped from enemies. Sometimes there'll be a tablet or ring available at that particular merchant (i.e. sunpearl scarab talisman). But mostly, merchants will be used to clean up your inventory/ buy the shabti gems & maps they sometimes have. There's no upgrading you gear or stats, or buying consumables, so you'll finish the game with tens of thousands of Ancient Egyptian dollarydoos. I finished with 74,315.

Overall/tips from a guy who beat the game
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall, Pharaonic is a nice little game. However, I would not describe this as a game worth playing through more than once unless you're an achievement hunter/ completionist sort.

-Combat is about stamina management and patience, not going berzerkity. You go berzikity, you'll have no stamina. No stamina means you can't dodge/ block. No dodge/block means you get whalloped.
-If you're having trouble with stamina management, use the Tablet of blessings. It remains useful throughout the whole game, and has a low ka cost.
-Don't get greedy with hits. Get greedy, and you'll get punished.
-Always leave yourself enough stamina to block/ dodge.
-Generally, it is most stamina efficient to dodge in place instead of forward roll/ back step/ block.
-Generally the great shields that block 90-something % of damage are better than the ones that block 100%. This is because they have higher swiftness.
-It is a good idea to have your weapon/armor be the opposite weight class. This is beacuse of how stamina works. Stamina pool = (Base Stamina - Total Armor Weight). Heavy weapons are stamina costly, even with investment into the skill. Doesn't go well with heavy armor.
-Invest your shabti gems wisely; there is a limited amount and there is no respec.
-There's a guide detailing where to find shabti gems and fixed treasure locations. Use it to avoid wasting money at merchants.
-There's no lvl 5 gear. Lvl 5 skills exist to get the bonuses for lvl 4 gear.
-If there are traps in the 'arenas', use them to your advantage.
- Don't let yourself get surrounded. You get enemies on both sides, get outta there.

Random Asshole
Random Asshole

At first the game was fun, but the boredom started early on.
It,s extremely repetetive gameplay could not make me play it for more than a day.
if you don,t like backtracking, you best get packing.
Although the boss fights where fun, iv,e seen better ones.
The loot was good,but i would not call this game a hoot.
All in all , `tis not for all.
Quite repetetive and boring, you might end up with a headache the next morning.

Natty
Natty

great game for a time sync enjoy the combat if a bit sluggish

KemetWarlord17
KemetWarlord17

A game actually showing Kemetics in their native land

BrooklynV
BrooklynV

It's just a pretty time killer. Combat feels impactful and responsive. World looks good. Pretty artsyle. Hmmm, what else?
Hmm. There are a few bonfires that really tested my patience but I was already in the endgame so I endured them.
Hmm... Bosses are not super creative or hard which is really weird for a Souls like. That's it really. Doesn't have many features. Isn't long. It's fairly linear so the difficulty is tailored by the devs. Overall I had a good experience and you might too but if you choose to give it a pass I can't say you're missing out on much either. There are better games out there that's for sure but it ain't bad.

JayTris
JayTris

I buy it cuz it has a discount

Cool slash here dodge there kinda confused I'll lose track we're I was going.

-Control simple and easy
-Mark(7/10)
-Graphics fine
-story a little bit confused

Czaele
Czaele

I'm.... on the fence about this one, honestly, but I'll just barely give it a thumbs up, mostly because I don't want Steam's recommendation AI to think I don't like games like these.

I've got a lot of little complaints about the game, but I'll boil everything down to a couple pros and cons.

Biggest pros:
1. It's an *Egyptian* Soulslike game. Very rare and neat.
2. The combat is player skill-focused and feels pretty fair.
3. The gameplay feels nice when in 1v1.
4. The "estus flask" mechanic allows you to use less than a full heal.
5. Optional paths with optional rewards

Biggest cons:
1. I didn't feel like my levels or skills really did much at all.
2. The "dodge red attacks, block blue attacks" system is more annoying than fun, and forces you to be a sword and shield user.
3. Being a sidescroller doesn't really add anything to the game and makes fights against more than one enemy annoying.
4. Ambush fights are irritating, since all the back guys basically just stand there in a line and not really do anything.
5. Stamina runs out way too quick, even with the stamina ring. Good luck wearing heavy armor!
6. HP-sponge enemies, yuck. Most enemies take quite a few stamina bars worth of attacks to kill.

Thuzar
Thuzar

Pharaonic was a game that piqued my interest back in its Early Access days, but I never committed to buying it since the feedback pointed to it being clunky and with not much gameplay. While the gameplay remained a bit clunky (when there are multiple damage-sponge enemies in a row, ready to slash/crush you to oblivion), the length of the game is perfect! Since this is a Souls-like (and games of this genre tend to be a bit too frustrating), it does not overstay its welcome and flows smoothly (linearly) in terms of progression. The aesthetics are very nicely done, yet mediocre sounds and lack of voice overs mar the experience a bit.

Overall, an enjoyable (if a tad frustrating) experience, and one I hope Milkstone Studios improves upon should they ever consider releasing Pharaonic II (and they really should - there is potential for excellence in this formula, while action-oriented games set in Ancient Egypt are rare as a Sphinx!)

Br0or
Br0or

I can't recommend this game:
This game has some potential, but sadly even if the graphic is pleasing for the eye and music is good the main mechanic is not good enough. Fighting feels like you are going trough mud. There are basic mechanic like parry and block dodge, heavy and fast attack, but when you fight you dont feel the diffrent between heavy and fast attacks. Fighting gets repetetive very quickly. Last thing is stuttering when you equip a item, kill somebody you get kill or sometimes randomly when playing it kills the already slow fight style of this game.

WarriorTomb
WarriorTomb

Don't lets outstanding graphic fool you, this isn't great game.
Game try to fuse metroidvanie with "geting beaten up" without strong part of any.
Metroidvania part is in skeletoral form, without jumping, new skills there in't much to discover.
Combat is inspired by Souls but lack a soul. Only two weapon types, that arent different from one another, parry don't do much, progres is linear and constantly blocked.
If you wants to play "geting beaten up" try Salt&Sanctury.

Ell92Razer
Ell92Razer

This is a great game, you should all play it!

Lucid
Lucid

could be improved in many parts but still very enjoyable

CarSwell666
CarSwell666

A solid side scrolling action RPG with souls-like elements. The combat is fair but challenging. Took me around 11 hours to complete my first play through. It is a fun experience that doesn't overstay it's welcome. If you are looking for something to scratch that souls itch, this could be it.

Fyrlakith
Fyrlakith

Having noted how seemingly little popularity this game has gained since its release, I didn't expect of it too much before I started playing, but it actually turned out to be really good. In short, it's a Egyptian themed "souls-like" game (i.e. a game heavily inspired by Dark Souls, a 2011 action RPG by FromSoftware), with the main difference from Dark Souls being that it's a 2.5D side-scrolling game, meaning that it features 3D engine and environments but 2D gameplay.

In my opinion, Pharaonic's biggest strengths are its level design, overall gameplay, and graphics. Even though it's a 2D game, it includes paths perpendicular to each other; if you take such path, the camera will just turn 90 degrees and you will be able to move along that path. This allowed the developers to make interesting non-linear areas which are really fun to explore. Like in Dark Souls, each area includes a lot of interconnected paths, shortcuts, and side-paths with treasures. However, the progression between the levels is rather linear - you pretty much clear each area in a set order and never return to it again, unless you think you missed some treasure or want to visit a merchant or a skill teacher. There are actually shortcuts between the areas, but it doesn't really make sense to use them because each area includes a teleporter anyway, even if you want to return to an earlier area.

Each area has a map, but first you will need to find it or buy it from a merchant. What I liked about the maps is that they don't show your current position, and don't have any interactivity. So in order to understand the map, you will first need to figure out where you are by looking at the map and comparing it to the actual environment. It's pretty easy since the maps show almost all points of interest but it's still a fun detail. I wish all games had their maps this way.

The combat is fun and reasonably challenging. The difficulty mostly comes from having to fight multiple enemies at once, but when you learn to reposition yourself according to the situation, it becomes quite manageable.

Visually the game is beautiful. Environments are nice and clean, each different from the other, although they could use a little more detail to make them even better, I think.

The story is pretty decent. There's a lot of jokes and humorous remarks in item descriptions and dialogues, but the main story undertone is grim and ominous, which I like. English translation is not perfect and there are grammatical mistakes, but it's not too bad.

Sound design is a bit of a weak point here. There's no voice acting, only text (except for screams and grunts during combat). Music is rather dull. It's not that the sound and music are bad, it's just that they don't stand out much.

It was only during end credits that I learned that the soundtrack for Pharaonic was written by Carlos Viola, the same composer who would later write soundtrack for Blasphemous (2019). I can only say he improved a lot, between Pharaonic (2016) and Blasphemous (2019).

So yeah, Pharaonic was a pleasant surprise for me, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes good level design and fun skill-based combat.

Blue
Blue

Wow what a surprise!
I try to find every ancient Egypt themed game I can and wow.
This one is like a hidden gem in a Pyramid, a keeper!
10/10

4cqker
4cqker

I actually had a bunch of fun with this game. It can be a bit finicky sometimes, and it can be frustrating too - but there's so much to enjoy and appreciate, with the art style, combat, and game systems. There's not much to say about Pharaonic other than the fact that nothing in it offended me, nothing was incredibly difficult to the point of rage-quit, every challenge felt like something I knew I'd beat one day. When I finally finished the game, I uninstalled it, nodded, and went about my day - but here I am, back on the store page months later to praise the fact that it left a good taste in my mouth. I hope one day that something like Pharaonic comes out again and there's more of this in the world.

Nubi K.
Nubi K.

Very, very nice. First thing that stands out is the accurate (ancient Northern African) character depictions. This is more appropriate than the inaccurate, post-colonial "ancient Egyptian" representations that have been shoved down our throats for too long. In regards to gameplay, it's all very different. The setup and combat seemed very repetitive. However, mastering the timing aspect and the presence of frequent path options provided a unique experience. I really found the character, armor and weapon customization very charming. Overall, this game proves that simple can be just as fun sometimes. Wasn't expecting my surface pro 7 to struggle with this. The cartoony designs had me fooled. It wasn't until I turned the graphics to medium and lowered the resolution that I realized this game is very detailed and gorgeous. Congrats to the developers!!!