This game is super fun, probably second best arpg after poe for me.

I prefer this game over Poe these days. The quality of life shits on Poe especially since Im a dad gamer. Maybe I’m burnt out on Poe after many years.

Second best ARPG after POE at the moment and its not even close !

I was highly suspicious of this game until I tried it. I thought all the positive reviews and comments from anyone are paid by the game dev, given it looks like a typical Chinese gatcha phone game. I assumed it had no chance to have any level of complexity, given it targets casual players, making me doubt the reviews even further. This is until I played it for a day. As weird as it might sound, I felt it the game has so much potential that is constrained by the mobile game element (ex. graphic, cheap looking UI/design). Having played D4, Last Epoch, and POE, Torchlight infinite has the most built out end game mechanics second to POE. If you haven't tried the game and are holding back mainly due to your own assumption, definitely give it a try.

Ive always been confused by how underrated this game is. Its probably the closest arpg to PoE in my opinion, and lots of skills and items have clearly been directly copied from PoE. Obviously there are many ways in which it falls short of poe and is by no means on the same tier, but its surprising how ignored it seems to be by most of the poe community.

game itself is absolutely incredible, it has come a long way since release. im a poe veteran with probably more than 10k hours and honestly - i cba with poe. torchlight has everything that poe struggles to deliver and these days id pick TLI over POE every time. smooth, colorful, fun, not tedious, not annoying, not boring, not bothering with esport lvl balance, game is just perfect. monetization on the other hand is a huge downside if u want to be competetive with top players. if they at least made the gacha system regarding pets more forgiving or replaced it with a standard "buy x to have x" just like they have with most cosmetics then it would be bearable.

I played TLI for the first time at the start of season 4. And it really blew me away. It's exactly what Last Epoch wants to be, that middle ground be diablo and poe. I love it's crafting, I love how ridiculous the skills are, i honestly think it could easily be considered one of the greatest arpg's of all time.

Seeing them take some of the best systems from their competitors is so nice. Like the atlas skill tree from POE or legendary potential from last epoch.

This game suffers from it's monetization similar to Dragon's Dogma 2 - they basically added p2w that makes 15x more drama than the actual power it gives you. They should rework the gatcha pets totally, like: leave the gatcha mechanic, but add the "pulls" as a currency sink - f.e. 10fe for a random pull or something. It would be a great sink in place of the stupid tax vouchers as well, so 2 birdies 1 stone.

The writing is quite bad, but game itself is pretty good.

0:12 definitely looking forward to clockwork ballet. Totally think that the monetization is a bit predatory with the pactspirits, other than that this is my favorite "1-2 week break game" since I can just play it anywhere (aka at work)

@palsteron Is this game easy for build creation as a beginner or too complex for your first go (neither of these are inherently negative) For context: I've never played torchlight but love POE. I'm a bit too smooth brained to make my own builds in POE but follow build guides. If I were to try this game would you recommend following a build guide to be able to enjoy most of the content in the game or just giving it a shot blindly and make what seems fun and cool? Thanks for the review and for the time if you or the community reply to this! love your content

TLI is close to being my favorite ARPG, surpassing POE. Perhaps another few seasons and it will be so. Just like Pal said, the game wants you to have fun. POE sprinkles some QoL here and there like its so great (and yes, some are pretty good), however, many should be expected in a modern 2024 ARPG.

Great review. Definitely agree with how the economy is driven by the players with drop pets and how some farming strategies are simply not viable without them. Even worse is that the pets require multiple dupes to max out their effects. I tried multiple deep space farming strats last league and most of them barely broke even after factoring in the insane costs of tier 5+ maps. My other complaint is that its really hard sometimes to tell which part of a build is the "build enabler". Multiple times in the process of upgrading my character, it would be like 1 or 2 lines on an item that tripled my damage. Wish there was an easier way to tell

First! Game good, Season 5 is gonna be fun! Wish there was a bigger crowd around it, since there isn't much content being made for the game yet. Love the video!

been playing on and off for a few seasons and agree its the most underrated arpg out. i think the main reason is due to their initial marketing towards mobile gamers, which was not a good idea. edit: fwiw, i don't touch this game on mobile. i play on PC and steamdeck and it's only gotten better over time on those platforms.

I really like this game. The campaign got shorter thank god. It was really annoying with 5 chapter (or it could be 4 so I don't remember exactly). The nether realm could be better with a PoE atlas system and PoE could be better with the auction house that torchlight has. The only thing bothering me in Torchlight is the character unlocks and there aren't any good build sites. Maxroll builds are okay but surely not mid endgame level. And you can't use the Hero ranking the same ways as the pro builds thingy, you know to copy talent tree and skills to use

I really really enjoyed the game (tried it twice already) but problem is that I cant find any "beginner" build since there is basically nothin on youtube which handholds you. As Pal said there is lot of mechanics and lot of affixes on gear and its just confusing - I never mafe it past like timemark 4 and I had completely no clue how to progress with character in terms of what to buy etc. Sadly maxroll has only leveling guides :( If anyone can point me to good resource (for example like Zizaran for PoE) I would give TI another spin :)

It's the most fun arpg game that ever existed with actual depth and endgame. Been playing lots of arpg but this one is one of the best if not the best out there if you're looking for fun. Definitely recommended to try it out. And yes the game is kinda p2w, i think the battle pass is a must for every season. Other than that the pet system gives you a decent amount advantage in term of currency but without pets you'll still be fine. Items, build varieties make diablo 4 looks like a joke ( i like d4 dont get me wrong xD). Imo i think this game only a little below POE and far superior than other arpgs.

You missed on AH sell slots. 9 for f2p is not enough. It forces players to play semi ssf unless you buy expands which are expensive and time limited. For me(trade andy) this limitation is worse than pets.

Any plan on releasing a starter build on maxroll ? :P

Too bad there are so many players who find this game too negative. The Pact spirit system is p2w. This is because it benefits players when farming. However, I didn't have any problems completing the build and endgame content of my choice, even when there was no Pact spirit available. There are various events throughout the season in the game, and you can get crystals for free without paying for them. You can collect these crystals and use them to buy Pact Spirit, skins, etc. Of course, I can't say there are many free crystals, but I collected 6-7000 crystals from race events, hardcore events, etc. I was lucky enough to get two Seasonal Content Pact Spirit just the previous season by using the crystals I got while constantly enjoying this game. After that, I farm mainly on content related to the spirit. What I usually buy in this game is Season Pass, and other than that, I spent around 6-70 dollars every 3-4 months of the season. LE is so boring that I'm only playing two games now, POE and TLi, and I would say this game is pretty satisfying and fun. If you're looking for a new game in this genre, I'd recommend forgetting about p2w and giving it a try first.

Is the crafting closer to the beta again now? I absolutely loved the crafting system upon first live release. Though the changes the very next season chased me away. If I wanted complex BS crafting, I have 6k hours in POE. I liked the lock and choose system, its what set the game apart, for me, and made me actually WANT to make alternate characters.

I think the lack of access to new heroes (even older heroes that aren't baseline heroes) hurts the game at least as much as pets. I would be less concerned with it if the heroes didn't cost such a ridiculous amount (a single hero is more than a battlepass), but I don't consider a battlepass as a stand-in for buying a hero. I don't want to rent the hero I want to play for 3 months (which, realistically, means 4 or 5 days - very few people are playing the entire month to get their $15 worth out of the pass). The UI (particularly menus) is also just god damn atrocious, which obviously comes from it being a straight phone game port, but nothing about it is so egregious that it interferes with the fun aspect, which is definitely there. This game fits into a weird space for me; it's clear the developers are trying to make a good game, but it's also clear that the game is a giant cash grab. Usually these two things aren't so heavily overlapping. It rings a lot of Genshin Impact or the likes, where the game is quite good in its own right, but definitely gets brought down by its monetization model. Still, it's worth a play even if the chance of me spending money under the current pricing structure is extremely low - I don't rent games or features, and that's what the battlepass is, which is the only way to realistically have the character I want to play on any given season. Make a game worthy of selling and sell it, or make a game that is free and worthy of support, and I will throw money at you. Don't make a game and give 50% of it away free, then rent out the other 50% on an ongoing basis.

seems like there are more than five people working on torchlight. never seen that in poe.

I liked the game and played some leagues with your ice ring build. Its a lot of fun and stuff but some times the "league mechanic" gets a little complicated(this one?) or clunky (I realy dont know why they made us roll the cube 42123 after every map)

the bloody mary mob from the new league mechanic is making it really hard for me to keep trying to get into the game.

How easy is it to respec in this game and how permanent are the choices you make during the campaign related to character progression? One of the main things that keeps me from trying out new stuff early on each league in PoE is that if you're not already rich, choosing the wrong things on the passive tree basically means you're screwed and are best of starting a new character. Would like to try out the game, but I am unsure if it makes sense to play it blind or whether it's best to follow a build guide right away.

I really hate how the automation stuff is locked behind massive amount of currency and the stats are so rng on them, just took the fun out of it for me, tbh

This is the only arpg im currently playing. Mostly because of the art style, but also it's gameplay, every season the game has gotten better in my opinion.

This is the exact opposite of PoE in that it has devs that really care but are inexperienced and have a ways to go, vs. PoE that has the most experienced devs of any arpg but they couldnt give less of a fuck about the community. We will see which company fixes their flaws first

Completely agree and this kinda throws me away from the game which is a shame because it is great.

Good takes, imo trasnlation is a bigger deal than monetization. let whales whale, but at least make the game text consistent and understandable. it's amazing to see how much this game has grown and I can't wait to see where it goes.

i never played this game , but i have to say i like the pet thing , its something , how to sya that , well you can say its something like loyalty points , the older of a player you are the more advantage you have , also its good for retention , whenre u dnt want to miss on the pets, and also its some form of progression where u feel more powerfull the more you play , add to all that , you can purchase them eventually , so yes , i kinds like it .

He used ''rogue lite'' well :feelsstrongman:

This game is very good, im actually pissed i never seen it before, started 2 leagues ago and i play atleast 3 characters per league until PoE league starts

I really hate the pet system, some pets give you insane dmg or defense vs bosses. It's easy to get currency with or without the seasonal money pet though

Dang it now I have to get back into this game

Yea, man.. The pet system sounds like utter BS. Hope they fix it in future! Maybe then I will decide to play.

Very underrated and appreciated, def deserves to be in the ARPG hall of fame.

This is where I agree to Jonathan and Chris that feeling the immersion is kind of important to me.

thx for the honesty and covering that is p2w. That is what i want to know and will ignore the game for ever.

The pet system keeps me from playing this game again. Not having chalk and league mechanic pets makes me feel inefficient. Your point about it affecting the economy makes it even worse. Theres nothing they can do about it either, because if they nerf the pets people spent money for, there will be riots.

Ngl, I was considering replaying but hearing how they do loot pets has made me give it a big nope!

Game looks better and better with more like PC UI more ppl will want check it i hope in future they make less p2w

All of this could be fixed with a chalk spirit banner copium

got me excited to try a new game and all servers are under maintenance wth hahaha

having to pay for each character really turns me off. i feel like it incentivizes them to continuously power creep the new characters. id rather just pay once up front for the game or have them rely on pactsprit and cosmetics for monetization

I've played it. For me, the UI is something I can't live with. But it seems solid nonetheless. Probably just not for me.

ok pal i will play it o7 chain hook

The only thing I don’t like about this is the pay to play characters. Feels like Raid Shadow Legends in that they keep adding hero’s and I have to keep paying or I miss out.

What really turned me away from this was the ugly UI, feels like 2009 and made by a backend developer with a phd in computer science he obtained in 1985.

dont like the graphic

i'd play it if the ui wasn't atrocious

The monetization systems are gg. Just another mobile game.

graphics just boring you can add all systems in the world and cut p2w but its just another attempt to make fortnite-like looking game to attract kids and money

Pretty sad that the pact system got way worse this league with auto pact switching with golden season pass😢

I felt that the game was to slow to keep me interested to complete the cqmpaign. I want to blast fast in a arpg.

and if you've actually played torchlight 1 (and god help me - 2) you'll puke yourself to death playing infinite it's vile garbage compared to the real torchlight games

Just play on SSF and you dont need pets

Chinese mobile/PC game. It shows. The UI, even the new PC UI sucks. Tons of random clicks trying to 'claim all'. This is completely unwanted or necessary for a PC game. Sure, it's kind of fun but way too much connection to the mobile world for me. And those graphics....so 'happy and light' not to mention just horrible. Yes, decades long ARPG player here.

I want to try this game but gawd the disgusting graphics. I do not think it looks like anime. To me it looks like they want to be league of legends. A total turn off. Like a unicorn shitting all over the screen. Not mass appeal, lol appeal.

I'm not touching the game again until they remove the paid advanced auto loot stuff

TLI had a chance but it's gone now. I'm not a fan of the monetization, especially with all of the paywalled builds/heroes. They should move the oldest hero into F2P over time. The worst is the p2w pet collection system. They doubled down on pet p2w by adding season specific buffs for the new pets. Releasing so close to LE's next league is just dumb. TLI is very far behind POE, D4 and LE in terms of player numbers and needs to be very careful when releasing a new season. I'm most likely done with TL:I.

Having to buy the new character every league is bs for me I don’t care if it’s f2p no game should have p2w mechanics that lock CHARACTERS. Cosmetics is fine, actual game mechanics are not okay behind paywalls