Tears of Metal Preview: Dynasty Warriors Meets Scottish Roguelike Chaos

Screenshot: Tears of Metal

I spent many hours sitting on the couch playing the Dynasty Warriors series and other Warriors style Koei Tecmo games. Tears of Metal takes that “1 vs 1000” style and adds rogue-like elements and a few other twists to make an addictive action game that isn’t quite like anything I’ve played before. Developed by Bloodroots developer Paper Cult, there is a visual style that is similar between the games. Both are ultra stylized and ultra violent, but Tears of Metal stands out more with its hand drawn ink and marker style that give it an almost graphic novel or animated tv show appearance. 

Tears of Metal is a third person hack and slash style game where you and a group of soldiers take on armies of enemies to protect your island. Meteorites have hit your Scottish isle, and invaders are flocking to take chunks of space rock and conquer what you call home. Each run has its own potential for synergistic builds that allow you and the soldiers under your command. So it leans a little bit towards Mount and Blade meets Dynasty Warriors. But it’s not as simple as that, because each run is both unique in the exact types of enemy encounters, but in the types of abilities you can pick up along the way. 

Each run plays out like you would expect from a roguelike. You choose a character: one of three currently in the game. Choose a path, often a choice between combat or some sort of event or merchant. And each combat gets increasingly more difficult until a boss encounter at the end. There are three playable classes available in Early Access, with two unlockable. 

Screenshot: Tears of Metal

Combat in Tears of Metal is the main event, and it is fun enough on its own. The combat is very loose, which actually tracks with its Dynasty Warrior flavor. Hits do have an impactful feel, but it’s not as precise as a soulslike game would be. You can command your units to help attack enemies, especially captains and bosses. Because the vast majority of soldiers are easily dispatched singlehandedly, wading into a huge fray is actually beneficial, as it helps you fill up your power meter so you can unleash a devastating ultimate attack, or use that energy as currency to command your units. But commanding your units in battle isn’t complicated, as it’s a single button command.

Tears of Metal boasts cooperative multiplayer, too, though I didn’t get a chance to test it. Whereas in a game like Absolum (another genre combining roguelike) it felt like having a partner would be a fun addition, I feel like Tears of Metal would be vastly more fun with a friend, or with three friends as you can play with up to four players. I only know this from my Dynasty Warriors experience. And everything’s more fun with friends, right?

Since Tears of Metal is releasing into Early Access today, that means it has some ways to go before it’s considered a fully finished game. Despite that, it feels like a polished product out of the gate. Rarely while playing did I remember that it was in Early Access, except for the placeholder characters that only have description “available soon.” According to the developers it takes about 10-20 hours to play everything in early access. And developer Paper Cult plans to have a relatively short early access period of 4-12 months which will see the addition of more heroes, balance, and items–among other promised additions. There are also plans to increase the price after release, though no mention of by how much on the Steam store page. And of course Paper Cult promises to listen to the community, etc. But with all of the community involvement before release this promise seems like it will be kept.

I don’t know if Tears of Metal earns its moniker, but it’s definitely a serviceable hack and slash Dynasty Warriors style game. Its addition of roguelike elements doesn’t turn the subgenre on its head like what happened with Dotemu’s Absolum, but it has the potential to. I’ll be keeping an eye on Tears of Metal as it progresses towards 1.0.