Dicey Dungeons

[Maryokutai]

 

Probably anther topic doomed to die in solitude, but this is such a unique concept that I wanted to put it out there. I also didn't see much of it in the media space, except for a preview in some magazine a while ago. 

 

I usually preface an explanation by saying "this game is a bit like X and has elements of Y" but I really can't do that here because I have never played something similar. It's kind of a dungeon crawler with the setup that people get sucked in some game world where they transform into dice. After that you have to go through multiple floors per level with your character, fight baddies, get to the exist and hopefully collect all the loot in between. 90% of it is combat and here's how I'm going to fail at painting a clear picture of how it plays.

 

Your character has a bunch of actions and a number of dice per turn he/she can use. The dice are rolled and therefore random by nature and actions usually either require or are influenced by the number of the dice. For a strong attack you might need to stack multiple values until you reach the total it needs or if you have an attack that does [ ] damage, the value corresponds to the dice you use to activate it. But that's really just the snowflake on the tip of the iceberg. Some actions require even or odd numbers, or have a minimum or maximum you need to use. Then there are the player characters: the first one is super basic and easy to understand but it can get really complex later on. The robot for example doesn't draw dice, but calculates them on a 11-digit scale. For every time you create one, you're getting closer to the limit and if you exceed it, your turn is basically wasted, so that's a nice risk-reward feature. The witch needs certain values to brew attacks in her cauldron while the tinkerer has a special skill he can freely use, but has to switch it out for a new one after every battle, meaning you can't rely on those powerful moves forever. As borderline impossible it is to explain with words, it actually does an excellent job of teaching you when you play it so there's that at least.

 

 

So far I quite like it. I don't love it, but it's a unique concept and it's the perfect handheld game, something the Switch unfortunately doesn't offer too often anymore. One run through a dungeon is a 10-15 minute affair, there's barely any loading times, battery usage is minimal due to every just being 2D pictures etc. It's currently on sale and I got it for free through star points but I wouldn't have regretted paying for it.

 

 

[shinymcshine]

I think my love of boardgames might tempt me to pick this up (one day) probably if it pops up in a sale somewhere. There's a few boardgames that use similar, dice allocation mechanics 

 

So it'll be great to hear your views.

 

Seeing as it's now down to £6.74 on UK Nintendo eshop I think I'll be buying pretty soon !

[Maryokutai]

For the current price I'd say give it a shot. I've only played the five tutorial stages for the first five character so far but even if I stopped playing now I feel like I'd have gotten my money's worth, it's just a very clever concept.

 

Can't say much more about it at the moment but I don't get why people consider it a roguelike. If you die during a level you have to start from scratch but you don't keep anything from that stage. That's not a roguelike, that's just a classic videogame like Ghost & Goblins, Castlevania or Tetris.

[radiofloyd]

I bought this and loved the small part of it that I played. It’s made by Terry Cavanagh, the genius (and Irishman) behind Super Hexagon.

[shinymcshine]

Downloaded it this morning, and it's great fun - completed a run (to defeat the first boss) with the Warrior, unlocked the Thief and Robot too.

 

Would have probably missed this game if @Maryokutai hadn't started this thread, so many thanks to you !!

[merman1974]

I played this on PC when it was in beta, had a lot of fun.

Interviewed Terry for Wireframe mag too.

 

I love the presentation (Marlowe Dobbes art) and the music (Chipzel).

My own bugbear is the balancing. Sometimes you can be having a great run and the randomised enemies throw up EXACTLY the worst one for you to tackle. But it does get quite addictive.

[Maryokutai]

42 minutes ago, merman1974 said:

My own bugbear is the balancing. Sometimes you can be having a great run and the randomised enemies throw up EXACTLY the worst one for you to tackle. But it does get quite addictive.

 

From my limited time with it so far I think that's only an issue with the simpler characters (warrior, thief) as they don't have a very flexible moveset. If you're playing one of the others it can be rather interesting to make the most out of the tools at your disposal and that specific style of adaptation/improvisation wouldn't work if there wasn't some RNG involved.

[shinymcshine]

Well, the Witch is an interesting twist in the line up - took a couple of turns to even understand the dynamic, but a very clever use of the dice through the spellbook.

[merman1974]

On 27/07/2021 at 12:12, Maryokutai said:

 

From my limited time with it so far I think that's only an issue with the simpler characters (warrior, thief) as they don't have a very flexible moveset. If you're playing one of the others it can be rather interesting to make the most out of the tools at your disposal and that specific style of adaptation/improvisation wouldn't work if there wasn't some RNG involved.

 

This is true. The Warrior in particular can be tricky to get past level 3/4 bad guys without a “lucky” selection of extra move/weapon.

[shinymcshine]

It feels sometimes that the enemy's RNG is more algorithm based, skewed to dice benefitting their move set, than it is random D6s - esp. when they 'roll' the right number to trigger a bonus effect, or consistent high numbers when needing to hit a high score 'cooldown'.

 

Still it's a fun quick game but lacks the tactical depth, and character progression (deck building) of Slay the Spire.

[Maryokutai]

Gotta say the last couple of runs I tried I found rather frustrating. I've now done between 1 and 2 for most characters (except the inventor, really don't get that one to work), but the amount of debuffs you have to deal with with some of these just aren't that fun to work around IMO. I'm generally more a fan of making enemies stronger than making player characters weaker, because limiting tools never feels good but overcoming challenges by using all your tools to their full potential does.

[shinymcshine]

I had a weird run, which ultimately involved my starting character being transformed into something else - not just for that turn/fight, but for the entire rest of the run.

 

I'll put it here to avoid potential spoiler:

Spoiler

I was fighting the Alchemist (on either Floor 2/3) and was turned into a Bear - which actually was pretty decent, and I had no real problem completing the rest of the run since it's attacks were a bit OP

 

[shinymcshine]

Dicey Dungeon got another free Bonus Episode recently, with Reunion adding 6 more stages (to go with last year's free Halloween themed Bonus).

 

Still fun / infuriating.

 

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/dicey-dungeons-rolls-out-its-free-reunion-update-in-july