The “roguelike” has become a term applied to so many different games that it’s functionally lost all meaning. Indies, in particular, have embraced it with the same vigour that big AAA developers have embraced unsustainably expensive open worlds. In that context, it’s actually refreshing to play a traditional, classical roguelike that gets right back to the “genre” roots, and that’s…
There is an inherent contradiction at the heart of Dicefolk. It’s not a bad contradiction by any means, but it is one that, at first, gives the game an odd and offbeat vibe that’s difficult to get along with. As you plug along from there, however, Dicefolk’s charms start to…
They don’t really make that many games like Yuuna and the Haunted…
There have been some really solid card-based video games released in recent…
It’s going to take some work to top Steelrising, which was one of the big surprises of 2022 with the way it handled an alternative universe French Revolution-with-automatons, but Polish developer, Superstatic is going to give it a red-hot go with Liberté, which is leaving Early Access for full release…
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Monster Menu: The Scavenger’s Cookbook could have been something special. The premise is really quite clever, but unfortunately, it ends up relying too heavily on the roguelike foundations for that premise to really take flight. Survival is meant to be the core of the thing, and in theory, it reaches…
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At first glance, I’m drawn to the visual artwork in Tamarak Trail. The developers were inspired by many artists, including the Group of Seven. The Group of Seven are infamous in Canada as the landscape artists of the early to mid 20th century, so that’s a big name to throw…
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Brave’s Rage is fine. It’s a new entry in a very over-saturated genre, and doesn’t do nearly enough to stand out, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with the game itself. It’s just disappointing that there seems to be a shrinking pool of gameplay structures that indies work with, at a…
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If Lone Ruin had been released three years ago, it would have been noteworthy. If it had been released a decade ago, it would have been celebrated. The game itself is an excellent example of taut, intense mechanics, a well-designed (and challenging) difficulty curve, and moody aesthetics. Unfortunately, it’s a…
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Super Bullet Break is a new roguelike that has been published by PQube, and it has so much going for it – great turn-based combat, gorgeous characters, excellent, pristine fan service. Unfortunately it misfired in one critical area, and got the difficulty mixed up a bit. That wasn’t enough to…
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Super Bullet Break is a happy, colourful thing. I know it’s going to rankle some to suggest that as overtly fanservicey as it could be “wholesome” or “innocent,” but that’s what Super Bullet Break is; a happy, high-energy, bubbly and wholesome thing. The game is a combination of two things.…
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It’s not a combination that you would necessarily expect to see, but once you see it in action, it all makes sense. It’s eclectic, but very creative. Fabular: Once Upon A Spacetime combines science fiction spacecraft and battles… with the medieval in terms of the weapons you’re using. It’s the…
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Samurai Bringer is Samurai Warriors: The Roguelike. If that doesn’t have you rushing to the eShop to buy it right now, then you’re probably not a regular reader of DigitallyDownloaded.net. This game is an excellent, clever, interesting and entertaining take on the roguelike, and while I’m getting increasingly burned out…
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Trust Richard Garfield to reinvigorate my interest in deckbuilding roguelikes. I thought I was done with them. 2017’s Slay the Spire is excellent, but didn’t need to spawn an entire genre over the course of just five years, and we’ve already reached the point where the likes of Monster Train,…
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