"The sleep of reason produces monsters.''
Decay of Logos is an Action RPG game, developed by the Portuguese studio Amplify Creations and published by Rising Star Games. It was released for PS4 on August 27th, 2019, then on PC through Steam and Xbox One on August 30th, 2019, with a Nintendo Switch release on November 28th, 2019.—Capricho 43, Francisco de Goya (Game's opening quote).
In it, you play as an elven girl named Ada, whose village had been razed to the ground in the prologue, but whose escape had been aided by the mysterious white elk showing up and letting her ride it. Now, she is out for revenge; once she finds out the troops of one of the princes were behind the massacre, her quest soon spirals into a full-blown pursuit of regicide.
The general design of the game has been very strongly Inspired by… Dark Souls and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It can also be compared to Outward, another indie title with similar inspirations.
Tropes present in this game:
- Action Girl: The protagonist, Ada, who immediately cuts down one of the Crimson Knights who slaughtered her family, and will continue to cut down various opponents throughout the game.
- All Your Powers Combined: The Final Boss, Master Yaal, can briefly shift into the shadow versions of the preceding bosses, and use their attacks.
- Bloodless Carnage: Enemies get a blood effect when struck, but the actual dead bodies are always pristine, even if they died during cutscenes.
- Breakable Weapons: All of the weapons and armors in the game have a limited durability, which isn't replenished by resting. Once they are outright broken, they completely disappear from the player's inventory, unless they were unique. On the flip side, the enemies' weapons can get broken as well, even in combat, though that also means you wouldn't get to use them.
- Continuing is Painful: Dying "decays" the player's stats, potentially down to 50% of what they were. The decay can be recovered while the player is resting. However, the player can also get ambushed while they are resting.
- Cruel Mercy: At the end of the game, you can either execute Master Yaal, or leave him alive, to reckon with his failure to achieve anything through his revenge.
- Cutscene Incompetence: You can be doing quite well during the battle with King Telos. Then, once his health gets a third of the way down, a cutscene begins where Ada is suddenly knocked to the ground and the King is about to finish her off when the elk suddenly bursts through out of nowhere and gets in front of the sword, sacrificing herself for Ada.
- Doomed Hometown: The elven village where Ada lived gets pillaged and burnt to the ground by the Crimson Knights in the opening. We don't even see how the pillage began; the game begins with Ada pushing open a door and seeing everything else burning and everyone dead. Moreover, the bulk of the force that must have caused this destruction is already nowhere to be seen, with only a lone mook being unfortunate enough to linger on the spot and serve as the combat tutorial.
- Driven to Suicide: King Telos stabs himself at the conclusion of his battle once it is revealed that the elk accompanying you was apparently some reincarnation of his lost daughter, who had just sacrificed herself to save Ada from him.
- Elite Mooks: The basic half-wooden fighters get an elite version once you get to the palace of their creator, Prince Pathos. Weirdly, they are somehow stronger and more durable due to being charred, with orange embers still glowing all over them.
- Evil Sounds Deep: By the end of the game, once King Telos dies, the kid from the beginning of the game shows up again and turns out to be Master Yaal. His voice immediately changes from the ridiculously earnest and enthusiastic one to gravelly deep when he's in his true form.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: Prince Ethos, the Oppressor wields a flamethrower, paired with a tower shield. However, it's quite primitive, as it both has a horrible range, and can only be fired in bursts of less than a second.
- Flunky Boss: Prince Ethos is joined by a few of his Crimson Knights halfway through the fight. However, they will all instantly die once he is killed.
- Giant Mook: There are green ogres with hammers that'll attack by swinging them around.
- The Good King: Played with. King Telos used to be one, but then his wife died in childbirth, and he completely stopped caring about the realm. His sons have usurped power everywhere outside of the capital, and began warring with each other and committing atrocities against the common folk like the people in Ada's village, which is why she ultimately sets out to slay them all throughout the game.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Ada can punch enemies if all her weapons break, as thankfully, the bones in her fists are apparently sturdier than wood and iron.
- Ground Pound: Ada is able to do this as her jumping attack.
- Healing Potion: They are called "Hearty Brews" here, but are still portrayed as typical bright red glass bottles. In a nice touch, you actually see the potions that are currently in the player's inventory hanging off Ada's belt.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Ada begins the game fighting with a sword, having pulled it out of a nearby corpse to take down the first antagonist.
- Heroic Mime: Ada doesn't speak once throughout the entire game.
- Horny Vikings: The Crimson Knight fighters who wear helmets all have horns on them.
- Inexplicable Treasure Chests: These are regularly present in the various ruins and the like.
- Informed Equipment: Averted; not only will the armor and weapons be clearly seen on Ada, but the other items like potions will be seen on her belt as well.
- Jet Pack: Prince Ethos, the Oppressor uses one, along with a flamethrower and a tower shield. Weirdly, its backblast is absolutely harmless, and neither causes damage nor staggers, like one would expect it to.
- Just as Planned: Near the end of the game, Master Yaal, who pretended to be a boy throughout the game expresses surprise that his plan had apparently gone along so perfectly, and better than he himself had expected.
- Mad Scientist: Prince Pathos, The Alchemist, who turns out to have been behind turning people into the plant monsters you have fought in the initial stages of the game.
- Multiple Endings: In the end, Ada can either execute Master Yaal as he himself has requested, or walk away and leave him wounded and dejected, as he now has nothing to live for after Ada carried out his revenge on the royal bloodline.
- Notice This: Items you can pick up off the ground glow blue or purple.
- "Not So Different" Remark:
- Inverted by the true Big Bad, Master Yaal, who tells Ada that "though we might both be lowborn Plebs, we couldn't be more different", because he thinks she is a pawn and a slave to fate, and he is the very designer of fate. Of course, he then proceeds to attack her and get beaten to the brink of death, proving the extent of his delusion.
- After his defeat, however, this is played straight, as he notes that both of them were driven by revenge against the royal family, and now that they are all dead, there was nothing left for him and Ada but to fight each other. Afterwards, she can execute him, or walk away, leaving him wounded, hollow and dejected.
- People Puppets: Prince Ethos, the Vain is literally being held on magical puppet strings by Mother Reba, who controls him while sitting at the tall arch where Ada can't get her. Thus, he glides in mid-air while swinging his sword. Though, he can easily get his face to clip through the wall and get more-or-less stuck gliding around the edge while unable to strike you.
- Of course, once the prince dies, Mother Reba can think of nothing better but to jump down and fight as well.
- Plant Mooks: The earliest monsters you'll face outside of the opening are knee-high carnivorous onions and much more dangerous tree-like humanoids that are taller than humans and wield either normal swords or sharp branches and wooden shields.
- Power Floats: Master Yaal easily floats above the ground in his true form.
- Respawning Enemies: All of the enemies in the area will respawn when you rest at a statue in order to recover Ada's health.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Pretty much every one of the major humanoid enemy types has a version with a shield. Notably, these shields can be broken if they receive enough damage.
- Shockwave Stomp: The first boss, Prince Pathos the Alchemist, can stomp his foot and cause a long line of spiky tree roots to pop out of the ground.
- Sprint Meter: Since it is inspired by Dark Souls, the combat here is stamina-based as well.
- Story Breadcrumbs: Pretty much all the story is gleaned through either the scattered conversations from the few surviving people, or by reading the short "echoes" inscribed into rock sculptures.
- Tagalong Kid: A child who is first encountered by Ada in a cage in one of the earliest areas keeps showing up at key events afterwards. Once King Telos dies, a crow seen in the game's opening flies into the royal hall and turns into the child, who turns out to have been Master Yaal, the King's Evil Vizier, all along.
- Together in Death: Ada's parents died right next to each other.
- Wolverine Claws: The so-called Barur Claws are an early weapon of this type.
- Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Every single character speaks exclusively with "art" and "thou" and all the rest.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Spoken word-for-word by Master Yaal in his Evil Gloating speech once he finally reveals himself.
