Renowed Explorers International Society

Renowned Explorers: International Society is a rogue-lite from the makers of Reus. Choose a team of 3 among 20 characters and go on randomized maps to tackle skill challenges and combat.

Fights do not only need to be resolved by beating up opponents, they can also be won with politeness judo and/or taunting them until they lose their will to fight.

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The logical next game for me after playing Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon: another randomized game starring a group of explorers!

I played it nonstop over the Christmas break and finally landed only 4380 points led by Charles in Discovery Mode with Classic Difficulty.

edited 27th Dec '15 5:29:20 PM by Malco

Ooooooh, I did like Reus a lot.

I'll probably try this soon enough.

EDIT: Bloody hell, I just got the joke in the title. Yeah, these guys got the Dutchman pride, all right.

edited 27th Dec '15 11:52:43 AM by Kayeka

As a person who lives far away from the Netherlands, I don't get the joke, though? Care to explain for my enrichment? <3

EDIT: Hahaha I found it, thanks TB.

So that's why the title sounds so unwieldy and wordy.

I'm glad I didn't wait for too much of a sale. It was worth at 40% running to about $6 in local currency.

It's still on sale though, if anyone wants to get it.

My favorite character in design is Hatice; Charles in gameplay.

I found that just like Civ, focusing on one type of token/resource at the expense of others seems to be the way to go, though the other resources are gotten incidentally if focusing on tokens.

And for the final mission, I am still not sure which is better: converting all resources to renown (60% to all), or focusing on one of the resources (100% to one, 25% to the rest).

edited 27th Dec '15 7:53:51 PM by Malco

I got this game on release, and to be honest, it's probably one of my favorite games of this year.

For me, favorite explorer gameplay wise is Phillipe, concept/design wise is Dolores.

I've been playing this pretty much for an entire week now, and I say that it's pretty darn good. It's a well-designed game with expressive art and fun themes.

You'd think that this would've made more waves than it did when it first launched.

Managed to score 4411 with a team of Emilia (captain), Pedrinho and Kawa. I did not expect that one to go so well once I realised just how much I've screwed myself by having so few options available. It was either Cheer or Die.

Leaked a lot of resolve in the early expeditions, but managed to hold on just long enough to finish thanks to some fortunate strokes of luck. Didn't go to Shangri-La, however, since pushing my luck that far didn't seem like much of a plan.

Favourite character would be either Hildegaard or Jan-Piet. Both pretty strong captains with some fun gimmicks. Honourable mention goes to Hattice for being a real badass.

Nice! Glad to see this getting more recognition recently.

I think I will need a high-scoring strategy for doing Classic Adventure Mode without Shangri-La. I'm not yet keen on restarting just because I risked it all for the final level.

Generally I run Deviousness with one of the other remaining strategies as backup, but the one-trick team seems to be the way to go, noting that Aggressive-focused teams will have to go Shangrila for any semblance of a high score because Captain Roche is invincible to attacks.

Speaking of strategy, does anyone regularly buy any Offensive items (the special multicolor books and gloves) in New Orleans or Sydney? Anyone recommend it over the more generic books and gloves in the starting shop?

edited 4th Jan '16 7:33:32 PM by Malco

Well, if you got someone like Pedrinho with his Party Nuke, then you might in fact want to consider slapping an Excite Book on him.

Or you could make Yvonne's or Maria's powerful Sadden ability even more dangerous. Or have Charles' group Insult become a great AOE nuke.

While it is true that the raw numbers on the normal gear is better, if one of your characters finds themselves using the same emotion over and over again, it's practically a 25% boost in damage output without any drawbacks, in addition to the still-perfectly-decent-numbers.

However, unlocking and upgrading the shop will require a serious investment, so you need to make sure that whatever it is you plan on doing, it's going to be worth it. For example, you could go with a hyper-specialised team like Emilia/Pedrinho/Kwama, load them up on Excite books and unlock the Psychology-Emotional Studies research paper. Ass-kicking will ensue (provided you stay away from enemies that are immune to Excite).

Now, little aside: you mentioned Roche being invulnerable to attack. Normally this is true, but this one time, I was completely surprised by the fact that, this one time, he wasn't. I could wail on him with relative ease and claim his Anchor.

I'm not sure what did it, but I suspect that it had something to do with me breaking the Spirit Crystal earlier in the expedition. You know the Spirit Crystal? Can only be found by combining the three strange rocks? When you collect it, you get the option of either destroying it or taking it. This one time I got it, I decided on destroying it for the sake of seeing what happened. It was unfortunately a "vague stuff coming in the future" kinda deal, so that didn't do much good in the moment. But then when I ran into Roche, he was completely vulnerable. Well, still had decent defences and all, but Jan-Piet could still oar the crap out of him.

If anyone could confirm this, that would be dandy.

Nice observation! Should I have the time later (and I probably do,) I'd better try it sometime on Discovery Mode (so I can reload to the start of the map in case I don't find the blasted things).

This game looked way too interesting on the discovery queuefor me to let go so I snagge it during Steams last sale.

I cant wait to try it.

Yay, another convert!

I bought it not long after it was out (before TB posted his video)...like it a lot. Have to play it again...

Also, Shangri-La is HARD.

I just got home. Looks like my current play through (Agatha/Pedro/Maria, Science-based, Friendly) is stuck with 1 expedition complete haha. A bit late, but I guess I'll find out if the anti-ghost trick against Roche works by tomorrow if no one has done it yet.

EDIT: I lied, I speedran. :) Made it to Roche and after breaking the crystal he's vulnerable to getting punched.

edited 5th Jan '16 9:27:25 AM by Malco

Okay. Been playing for a bit, got my first win under my belt, and have a question.

How in the meep does one beat Shangri-La?

edited 5th Jan '16 2:18:44 PM by Ramidel

Question's kinda generic. What are you having difficulty with, specifically?

Ideally, you have to collect all 3 keys since they give you stat buffs against the final boss. Optionally do the special quest and you climb up Mount Kailash.

And next, if you don't actually have enough resources, you may actually need to restart from the first stage since this game has a lot of snowballing involved.

edited 5th Jan '16 3:47:33 PM by Malco

Essentially, I either rush the temple with one or zero keys, or I run out of supplies midway through the area. Also, Rivaleux and team are haaaaard.

Well, I recommend having all keys plus having enough Supply to get all the keys. <3

Rivaleux and company are hard regardless, but the keys make it easier. Before, I used to try to run away and choke point the enemies to defeat them one by one before finally beating on Rivaleux, but now that I tend to have better equipment and characters overall due to a better understanding of the game, I just bum rush Rivaleux and attack him to death/tears/friendship. Hey, this is why I stockpiled all this Resolve for, to tank the final battle.

It's also a good idea to make sure that one of your characters has the skills required to make it through the tests for the various keys.

From the top of my head, those skills are Diplomat+Beguiler or Quick Thinker for Heart, Athlete+Survivalist or Rogue+Survivalist for Strength, Archaeologist+Naturalist+Archaeologist for Mind.

For Rivaleux, keep in mind that he'll switch moods every two turns unless he already has the mood advantage. If you can anticipate the change as opposed to simply responding to it, you can use this to your advantage.

And yes, you need more supplies. All research trees have one paper that involves supplies. Having two of these (or just one really good one) should give you the supplies you need for the trip.

edited 6th Jan '16 1:32:10 PM by Kayeka

So does anyone get feeling that tool tips give kinda bad advice about recommended parties/attitudes for expeditions?

I mean, like, it kinda feels like attitude recommendations are for the final encounter only, rest of encounters might be really hard even with recommended one. And with recommended party compositions, it kinda feels like they are inefficient compared to lot of other combos .-. I do give them that they are balanced and such so no case of "Shit, these three have no synergy with between each other at all" that I've noticed with some combinations I've tried out