And now, continuing coverage of “every game I’ve ever covered has decided to release a substantial update in the same two-week period.” Children of Morta is an excellent game on pretty much every level, and it was recently updated with a new mode called Family Trials that switches up many of the mechanics to create more of a roguelite experience. Losing everything upon death? Check. Per-run upgrades? That was already half-true of the base game, and it’s an even bigger check now. Much of Children of Morta already leaned into traditional roguelite mechanics, though it broke up the action into smaller chunks so that you were constantly making forward progress. Family Trials mode offers no such handouts, peasant.
Becoming powerful in the base game is a fairly slow process requiring obtaining large sums of gold, so one of the biggest draws in Family Trials mode is that you can become powerful much faster. And since those upgrades last throughout your run instead of resetting every few levels (which I’m pretty sure is how the base game works, but it came out in 2019, which might as well be 200 years in the past at this point), you can slowly build to a play style that can steamroll everything that dares cross your path.
In theory, at least. I only had time for one playthrough, and very little steamrolling occurred as my muscle memory grappled with the realization that it had amnesia. Children of Morta‘s Family Trials mode is an enjoyable ride either way, though. Leveling up earns you an instantly selectable Talent rather than forcing you to unlock nodes on a skill tree, and each level has a main objective required to continue deeper into the run, as well as an optional side objective that can net you some extra loot (but puts you on a timer just often enough to keep you on your toes). All of this can make for some frantic, challenging floors.
Every so often, you’ll come to a safe floor where you can purchase upgrades using the gold and gemshards obtained on previous floors, as well as pay for healing if you need it. You can even spend gemshards gambling for items if you’re feeling lucky. Of course, none of that will help you once you reach the spider boss, which has always been the hardest one in the entire game. That’s still clearly the case, as I went from clearing each floor with maximum health to being wrecked in just under 30 seconds.
From the sound of the update notes, there’s a healthy number of other objective types that I didn’t see in my run, which should keep subsequent attempts nice and fresh. Especially given Children of Morta‘s large number of playable characters, Talents, Divine Graces, and Charms. So yeah. Check it out. It’s good.
Children of Morta‘s new Family Trials mode is an optional roguelite mode, basically first appeared on Killa Penguin
