First Impressions on LOST RELICS, the diablo-style NFT game

The first time I visited the website for Lost Relics, the game wasn't available.

Installer offline for maintenance and updates

Me: But I want to play my NFT games now!! How am I going to get in early and HODL if I can't download the installer. COME ON.

Most people who are willing to try an NFT game have a hard time resisting the mania. We've all been watching a few too many pokemon card openings, ogling holographic charizards and first edition Blue Eyes White Dragons. It's hard not to consider the idea that some dumb cosmetic item from season one of an NFT game could turn into the next big headline, appreciating a billion zillion times in value.

NFT Hype or NFT Anxiety?

In the first hour of playing Lost Relics, a week later with the installer finally available, I was feeling the NFT mania. What if I collect a good item and lose it? What if I can't pick up multiple great items because I haven't used a Power Pendant yet to unlock P2W mode??

MY FAMILY WILL BE POOR FOREVER BECAUSE I COULDN'T EQUIP THE DAMN LEGENDARY SWORD

After that first hour, I realized what was going on. I made a big decision that I plan to follow for all NFT gaming from now on: I will focus on the gameplay while being sure to secure all my NFTs in safe wallets as I play.

In other words -- I will prioritize secure wallets and keeping these potentially valuable items safe. BUT. I won't worry about that shit. I will grind this game, or any game, based on having fun and enjoying the learning process. The goal is always to get 1% better today.

Dungeon Crawling Hype

With this new mindset in place, I set off to truly conquer the first dungeon.

Lost Relics harkens back to Diablo, as well as to contemporary games like Path of Exile. Having not played these games before, I found myself very uncoordinated. Handling my character's movement, camera angles, and selecting weapons for different situations was a lot to handle. I got mind flooded pretty hard at first. Nonetheless my first few dungeon runs took about 25 minutes each, which wasn't too bad.

I even got a golden egg, a rare Easter cosmetic worth over a thousand gold coins. Considering that one run of the easiest dungeon earns about 70 coins, this egg was an exciting get.

Over the next few hours I enjoyed the process of re-running this dungeon, learning how to get better at playing. I went from struggling the basics to almost speedrunning the dungeon, clearing it repeatedly in 12 minutes each.

Each new run allows for new loot. Most of the loot is small, just coins and a few regular easter eggs not worth very much. I did get two more golden eggs on future runs.

Learning Curve and Difficulty

So far the "level 2" dungeon, while accessible, is a bit too difficult for me. I do not have anything except for my basic gear, having lost the only upgraded sword that I found on one of my level 2 attempts. What's cool is I look forward to playing more and trying to beat this next dungeon. I don't need to focus on NFTs or trying to make any money to want to play. My main motivation now is that I feel like I can raise my skill to the point of beating that dungeon, and might get better loot to upgrade my build.

It's a fun gameplay loop with a sense of both skill progress and loot progress.

Reflections on Session #1

Overall I greatly enjoyed my first session of Lost Relics. Though only planning to play for an hour, I ended up putting in over four hours. I kept wanting to try again, to learn more and to apply new skills. This game even makes me want to download an aim trainer just to improve my overall mouse skills. I like it!

I'm hoping to buy a month's worth of "Power Pendant" juice soon so I can get access to the bonus P2W features. I don't mind these features, especially not when a month only costs $25. I mean, it's not nothing, but it seems ok given the cryptocurrency value of items. I don't expect it to be free or even drastically cheap tbh, that's how it goes when there is an opportunity to earn.

$25 is a low price for a chance to tap into abundance, even if there is no guarantee with any one new game.

And besides -- it's a far cry from shit like Axie Infinity, which, imo, is ridiculous in requiring a minimum investment of hundreds of dollars just to try and play. Lost Relics is genuinely free to play and enjoy and I have yet to spend a cent on it, even though I will spend some dollars in the future.

Have you tried Lost Relics yet? What do you think?