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[Jopax]

So, no thread for this, but it's pretty good so here's a thread.

What is Punch Club?

Well it's a retro styled pixel art fighting managment game. Now that might sound weird and it is, but it kinda works.

You're following a random dude with a classic 80's hero backstory which is kinda quickly thrown in your face with the first cutscene and then as it develops(in a rather neat quest tree kind of way that makes everything easy to track) it grabs every trope from that period, as many references as it can take and runs into crazy land. Which is pretty awesome if you appreciate these kinds of movies, I kinda like them so it's pretty good in that department.
Now, the gameplay itself is divided into two main areas, the training and the fighting. Training comes down to buffing up three of your main stats, working, sleeping and running errands so you can feed yourself and train some more before your next fight comes up. Fighting is hands off for the most part, you pick your moves (which there's a ton of) and then watch the show, it's fought in rounds so you can adjust your strategy after every round. It's decently deep as far as the interactions go, your three main stats affect the damage, accuracy and costs of moves, you have stamina which is used for all moves, if you run out you're in a bad place. Each of the main stats also has a corresponding school of combat which you need to specialise for and it's generally more adviseable than trying to be good at everything. It goes from classic strenght based boxing, agility based karate and ninja stuff and stamina based, wrestling I guess, haven't looked into that too much, but basically you turn into a tank which hits rarely, but hits hard.

In any case, some gameplay if you're into lets plays and that sort of thing.

[ZebioLizard2]

It was advertised really well, they had a whole Twitch plays sort of thing to show it off and release it early if they could beat it.

[nenjin]

Picked this up the other day. Pretty addicting if you like fighter builders. It's a little grindy due to earning skills points and the fact your core attributes go down every day. So a large part of the game is just figuring out a routine that lets you earn money, train and sleep in a good rotation. The story is the classic 80s fighter story, with a lot of references thrown in. The expansion is also free, which seems to be some slightly cheesy superhero side story.

Fights seem kind of unwinnable due to the enemies having higher stats and way more advanced abilities than you. Except when you suddenly beat their ass. Conversely, guys with competitive stats to you and no abilities can still give you a run for your money. The game favors fight RNG a little too heavily IMO but it makes for some interesting upsets and come backs. I've played a few boxing/fighter training games in my day and I'd say this is one of the better ones.

All in all this was worth every penny of $7.

[lordcooper]

They nailed the aesthetic and tone.  The jokes were dumb but still kinda funny.  The grind killed it for me.

[nenjin]

Yeah, definitely could do with a little less grind. The grind isn't super bad in the beginning when story events are constantly firing off, it helps obscure it. But mid-game when no new story events are happening, and all you're doing is working --> buying groceries --> working out --> sleeping, punctuated by a match, it does get a little dreary.

[Gabeux]

I'm interested in this but I just can't bring myself to play games that are too reliant on RNG. I'll probably watch a few videos and ask around first.

[nenjin]

To be fair, I tend to get frustrated by the RNG in games like Darkest Dungeon. The totally automated fights in Punch Club doesn't really bug me for some reason though. It's OK to lose most fights, you get almost the same rewards, so getting a match-up where by the numbers you're pretty much fucked doesn't sting so bad. Yeah, if you pay attention to the moment to moment combat you'll be like "how the fuck can you dodge 10 attacks in a row" but I think it all balances out in the end. The fights are really the only RNG of note that I've seen.

Put it another way, I put it at the same level of fairness as Monster Rancher, Dragon Rancher/Farmer, etc...

[EuchreJack]

In any case, some gameplay if you're into lets plays and that sort of thing.

It was a good video until the commentators/players started talking about world events.  Screwdrivers? Gas Launchers?  Obviously they weren't into the grind either.

[miljan]

WTF Is... - Punch Club ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlJUFCM78zw

[EuchreJack]

Honestly, if they wanted the vibe of retro late 80s/early 90s games, unfair RNG madness and epic grind is mandatory.

I think it was not until mid '00s that gaming introduced "no-grind" games, where the player would actually stat up more-or-less correctly to the story. 

Prior to that?  yeah, you're going to have to put in at least a few hours of pixel-on-pixel action if you want your happy ending.

[Neonivek]

I think it was not until mid '00s that gaming introduced "no-grind" games, where the player would actually stat up more-or-less correctly to the story. 

Nope, they invented it long before that.

[EuchreJack]

I think it was not until mid '00s that gaming introduced "no-grind" games, where the player would actually stat up more-or-less correctly to the story. 

Nope, they invented it long before that.

True, Chrono Trigger was mostly grindless.

[JimboM12]

I might buy this when its on sale. I think the grind is fine, as down the skill tree you can prevent stat decay of a certain stat, or you can invest and prevent all of them from decaying. So I think the point isn't to stat grind as much as possible (it is at first, tho) but to grind to a certain point and invest your skill points in minimizing the loss and getting skills that capitalize on your stat(s).

All in all, it's not really a game you play so much as it's something you play while you're chilling and doing something else, like downloading or something.

[Yoink]

This game is way too real.
My character's mood was getting terribly low from trying to juggle his job and training with people and things constantly distracting him and never having enough time to really get anywhere, then I sat him down at the TV to cheer him up and the lazy bastard sits there for pretty much an entire day as the idiot box drains his hunger and energy as absolutely no training gets done.

Oh yeah, and necro, obviously.
Bought the game today since it was 75% off. I'm also pretty keen for an upcoming game from the same publisher.
I'm having fun so far, I guess... it is kind of depressing for the above reasons, though, haha.

[Sappho]

I have this on my tablet. It was really fun and addictive for a while, but now I'm at the end-game and it is GRIND HELL. Train>eat>train>eat>sleep>lose all progress>train>fight>gain stars>train>eat>train>sleep>lose all progress>train... All my skills are more or less capped out - I can't get them any higher without losing all my progress every time the day rolls over, and I literally do nothing but train. Yet I STILL CAN'T WIN THE LAST FEW FIGHTS. I kept at it for a while before finally just giving up. It's not fun past a certain point. It just feels like a job I don't get paid for. I'm pretty pissed I spent all those hours playing, though, and don't get to see the end of the game.