When comparing Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara vs TowerFall Ascension, the Slant community recommends TowerFall Ascension for most people. In the question“What are the best local co-op PC games?” TowerFall Ascension is ranked 1st while Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara is ranked 16th. The most important reason people chose TowerFall Ascension is:
You run, jump, and shoot arrows, which anyone can learn in a matter of minutes. To become a great player, however, there is a lot of technique and strategy to learn. This includes aiming, using cover, reading your opponent, and many other things. As a result TowerFall Ascension is accessible to casual players while also being able to keep the hardcore players interested.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Not just a normal beat 'em up
Branching paths, item shops with usable inventory, and special player abilities make this game more like an action RPG than a side-scrolling beat 'em up.
Pro Allows for 4-player co-op, just like in the arcades
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara supports 4-player local and online co-op play, which reflects the old arcade setups that allowed four players to play together.
Pro Widescreen support
Original arcade games of this era were 4:3; it’s nice that the developers included a widescreen mode for modern monitor support.
Pro Challenges and trophies
Challenges and trophies are new additions to the game that extend gameplay by introducing more objectives. They are also a source of pride – and bragging rights – for players who have managed to complete them.
Pro Easy to learn but hard to master
You run, jump, and shoot arrows, which anyone can learn in a matter of minutes. To become a great player, however, there is a lot of technique and strategy to learn. This includes aiming, using cover, reading your opponent, and many other things. As a result TowerFall Ascension is accessible to casual players while also being able to keep the hardcore players interested.
Pro Feels fair at any skill level
Each player only has three arrows at the beginning of a match. Once they are fired, the arrows can be picked up by anyone. This way no player can build momentum that feels oppressive, allowing even new players to control the pace of a match since they can just hog all the arrows.
Pro Single-screen levels add depth to strategy
In the style of old school games like Asteroids, everything that moves outside the edge of the screen appears on the opposite side of it. Because of this you always need to remain aware of your surroundings and other player locations, so you don't get hit by an arrow coming from an unexpected direction. This adds a level complexity not found in many modern games, which is quite refreshing.
Pro Co-op mode that improves communication
TowerFall Ascension has a 2-player co-op mode where you and your friend fight against hordes of bad guys. It has friendly fire, so you need to communicate to avoid hurting each other. This creates a mode that motivates you to communicate with your friend more, leading to a lot of back and forth banter.
Cons
Con Short gameplay
The games last about two hours – quite short by modern standards. However, this is to be expected because they are ports of classic arcade games that were intended to be beaten in a single sitting.
Con Co-op is spotty and limited
There is no way to mix local and online players, so it has to be one or the other. On top of that, the netcode seems poor and disconnects can happen.
Con Really short co-op campaign
The co-op quest mode takes around seven hours to complete. So if you're not interested in the competitive multiplayer aspect of TowerFall Ascension, you'll run out of things to do really fast.
Con Limited to just local multiplayer
As it is now, you're limited to just playing with or against your friends or not playing at all. If you could play matches against other players online, the game would've been a lot more accessible.