Rave: SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech

     

    Imagine how cool this would be. You start a campaign of Dungeons & Dragons and you are familiar with the setting already. You know what orcs, elves and dragons are and the first game you play it is played to its strengths, roll the die, dungeon master, hero sheets and what not. However when you return the next week to play it again, the dungeon master says this week you are playing the game like a first person shooter instead of a dungeon crawler and asks you to play by completely different rules. Same setting tho, just everything else has changed and the week after that the rules changes again. Well this is what it is like to experience a SteamWorld game.

    Hailing from Sweden, the SteamWorld series of games are created by Image & Form in partnership with Thunderful Group. Each of the SteamWorld games share the same post apocalyptic setting, steam punk aesthetic and an old western look but every game that comes out through SteamWorld (unless you count direct sequels) are different genres every time. For example; SteamWorld Dig is a Metroidvania, SteamWorld Tower Defense is a *gasp* tower defense game, SteamWorld Heist is a tactical shooter and our game in this Rave is an turn based, deck-building Roleplaying Game. So far the SteamWorld games have made a decent impact and they are selling enough of them to warrant direct sequels to Dig and Heist and the games themselves have dedicated fanbases. I, personally stumbled into the SteamWorld ecosystem via SteamWorld Dig 2 and I enjoyed playing it for awhile and funny enough now I am enjoying Metroidvanias again I think I might even go back to it sooner than later. With SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech through I decided to finally not only play it but to complete it as well and now we are done I must say it was a very fun experience. However I did have some gripes with some of the systems so I can only give it a Rave not a RAVE (which is the highest recommendation I can give). A Rave is still a 'you should play it' recommendation through and I think if you enjoy the RPG genre, this unique take on it will scratch that itch for you.

    First, it must be said that SteamWorld Quest (SWQ) keeps the setting from the other SteamWorld games but frames this one as a fairytale. This means steam punk-esque monsters, knights and more. The Western motif makes way for the typical swords and sorcery and it makes sense for them to do that. However it also changes the formula in some unique ways. The most obvious is that it goes the deckbuilding route and every character has a deck of cards they can pull from that you can change on the fly, upgrade existing cards and unlock stronger ones. More on this later but this difference changes the formula slightly and is one of the reasons I was attracted to this game since I am big fan of deckbuilding games such as Slay the Spire, Inscryption and many others. The second unique change is instead of a top down perspective that most RPG game use to traverse, SWQ decides to go with the side scrolling approach, more akin to beat 'em ups like Streets of Rage, Final Fight and other classics. This unique approach is another reason why it initially caught my eye and made me want to play it. It is funny now in hindsight that these two unique changes might be contributing to why this game only gets a Rave from me.

    Let us start with the elephant/ dragon in the room, the deckbuilding mechanic. So very quickly, you'll have a team of three characters and each of the characters have access to 8 cards they can draw from a collective pool. Some of the cards are free use and does not require the 'cog' mechanic which is what the system requires you to pull off stronger attacks/ cards based on how many cogs you have accumulated (if anything these let you add to your cog meter), most of the cards have a moderate cost of 1 to 2 cogs, that is fine as well. The very powerful cards tho require at least 4 cogs however more on that in a minute. My biggest issue with this mechanic is there were many, many battles where I will be stuck with useless cards that I could not use or because you have to constant attack and use up whatever cogs you built up you rarely get to use the powerful 4 cog attacks. Many times I put a 4 cog card in a deck hoping to use it at least once but by the end of the battle I just remove it because you never get the chance to use them. Sure, some characters can build cogs with certain cards but these require to use a turn just to 'power up'. Over the course of the 20 hrs I played I had many experiences where I was just spamming certain cards and get frustrated when certain cards did not show up even tho I built my deck around it. The game also allows you to 're-shuffle' not useful cards at least twice a turn but normally the RNG would not work in your favor and you'll get two more not useful cards. A lot of the times I would end a turn only playing one actual attack card, one buff card and not being able to use a third one because of all the bad options I was given. In extreme cases I even had whole hands where all I did was do some buffs with barely notice-able effects aka buff evasion and the enemy still hits you 90% of the time and I did no damage to the enemy. The enemy on the other hand always have attack options on deck and never miss their chance to attack you. Their attacks seem to have no cool down requirements and in one egregious example, would spam certain overpowered tactics over and over. The game also liked to encourage certain synergies as well, for example, if you use cards only from one deck/ character, the character will get an extra turn and perform what every skill is attached to the weapon they were wielding. However 90% of these effects are not even that great with an extreme examples being my favorite character Orik having 2 'chain' attacks which felt pointless. As mentioned before, the deckbuilding aspect is why I decided to give this game a try and after playing really good deckbuilders (Slay the Spire) and even competent ones (Tainted Grail: Conquest/ Indies' Lies) I was blown away by how un-finished this system felt. Personally I felt that each character should have a free cost block card to use if you ran out of card options. I built my decks, playing to my squad's strengths but due to the RNG nature, I seldom got the cards I needed, when I needed them and when that happens and you just hit have to move to your next turn after using only one attack card, it never felt good. This system SWQ implemented did not work as intended because this is the first deckbuilder where I constantly felt I had to just take hits from the enemies due to bad deck RNG. I know this is not just me too, I have seen many players complain about the same thing happening to them. I feel with a slight tweak and the addition of 'block' cards for every character (a mechanic used by pretty much every other deckbuilder) this could have been much less frustrating. So with this being the main hook of the game and it doesn't do it great, it is no wonder why I did not love this game as much as I wanted to.

All you need is Streets of Rage OST in the background

    The second change-up I was interested in was how you traverse in this game. Unlike every traditional RPG known to man, SWQ forgoes the top down perspective and allows you to explore the world in a side-scrolling perspective, much like the beat 'em ups of old. In this perspective, you can see the enemy encounters and you can either avoid them all together or if you are able to attack them before they see you, you can score a 'ambush' and deal some pre-emptive damage before the battle begins. The big problem with this however is there was a clear 'lag' felt when you hit the button in this mode to when it comes out and most of the swings come out way too late and the ambush mechanic just doesn't work as intended. The game also asks you to destroy scenery to earn extra money and open up pathways but even that felt weird and laggy. I would hit the button to swing at the log in front of me and many seconds later my character will do the action. Again, a good idea but it seems it was not implemented well at all. Also do not get me started on trying to avoid enemies, that never felt like that worked as intended either so you will find yourself fighting no matter what you try. Unlike the deckbuilding mechanics, I do not know what could be done to make these scenes less jank but in the end I just dealt with it.

    So with all the negativity so far, why does this game still get a Rave which is the second highest recommendation this blog can give. Well, the plain and simple part of it was I enjoyed myself. Whilst the story was not ground-breaking in any way, it still motivated me to play to the very end and complete it. It tells a simple tale of a rag bunch bunch of misfits finding the true hero inside each one of them and the game even pointedly at the end * spoiler alert * makes you fight your inner demons in one of the biggest example of bad difficulty spikes. The combat system whilst not the greatest as mentioned above is still competent enough that I kept playing and upgrading my deck and building strong strategies. Because this game is paced in terms of acts, I actually play one, sometimes two acts a day and I never got bored and near the end I even did multiple acts together because I knew I was getting closer to the end and wanted to see the credits roll and I am happy I did. I was happy to see the conclusion of the quest and see the outcomes for Orik, Galleo, The twins, Tarah & Thayne and Copernica. Anyone whom has played the game might noticed a notice absence from the roll call I just did and it is time to address my last big gripe about the game, its main character, Armilly.

    I am going to call myself out here, I really do not liked Armilly as the main character. I think it was a combination of most of her dialogue being obliviously day dreaming or generic hype manning (is that even a word lol), she seriously had no depth as a character and to top it off, her skill set was very underwhelming. When I learned early into the game I did not not have to always have her in my main squad I quickly changed her out and I never looked back. Also for the longest time I thought she was a male character because of the way she was designed but it turns out she is a female. I actually have no issue with a strong female lead character and even ones that don't look girl-ish, King from the King of Fighters/ Art of Fighting is one of my forever videogame crushes and I not threatened by Marvel's Captain Marvel in anyway for example but her design was just... weird. I think Armilly might be my least favorite main character of all time and sadly that also brings down my rating of this game. I actually started believing the mentor character (like Auron from Final Fantasy X) Orik was the main character and I stand by it and he had a much more exciting tool kit compared to Armilly's generic sword and fire attacks.

Who is this? The true main character? I believe so.

    SteamWorld Quest is also a pretty good looking game, nothing too fancy but it definitely keeps the SteamWorld steam punk aesthetic but tailors it towards fantasy as previous mentioned. It is cool to see a massive mecha dragon ( at least the first time we fought him... it became old after the third re-skin of them) and other classic fantasy archetypes re-imagined steam punk style and the music was suitably whimsical and suitable with the exception of an ending song during the credits that came out of nowhere that was actually really, really good. The controls were good enough tho as discussed earlier the weird lag during the side scrolling segments was a bit weird. I was however not a fan that the game was not fully optimized for mouse, having to use the keyboard to access a item/ healing menu which was also behind another click was not the business or to reload cards (which you frequently have to do). I feel both should have had an UI option on screen which you could have used the mouse to click on it but that is a minor gripe. A much more major gripe was the lack of tool tips aka what it does which are essential in deckbuilders. I played 20 hrs of the game and I can not tell you confidently what the skill 'Flinch' actually does. This could have been fixed with a simple glossary which I could not find in-game.

    Overall, SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech was a fun experience, it was not too long but also had enough meat on it that it felt worthwhile to play. The story was decent but most of the characters (with the exception of one) had storylines I wanted to see to the end and the gameplay whilst it had many flaws was addictive enough that I kept playing it. If anything, this game has made me want to revisit other SteamWorld games like Dig because what Image & Form does is so unique I want to see what else they have under their sleeves. Not every Quest is an epic one but some are just a good time and enjoyable journey and a good enjoyable time was had by me hence why SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech gets a Rave from me.

AV

    

Rave: The Hex

     The Hex is a unique mind-trip which could have only been conjured up by the twisted mind of Daniel Mullin Games (DMG). The same folks who made the amazing (RAVE) Inscryption which I have recently confessed to my wife maybe in my top 10 favorite games of all time to the good but flawed Pony Island (which I gave an OKAY rating last February, time flies right). I always wanted to finish the Daniel Mullin's trilogy so when 2025 dawned I decided to go ahead and do it. The Hex is a great concept and almost got the highest praise from this blog but I had issues with it that moved it back to just Rave instead of RAVE.  Let me explain why. Preface as well, I will be referencing my previous reviews of DMG games a lot in this Rave so if you have not read them, do check them out as well.

OKAY: Pony Island

RAVE: Inscryption

    Before we dive in, lets chat about spoilers. This review will talk about every aspect of the game and that means I will give away a lot. I highly recommend that if you have a real interest in playing it to play it yourself first, as 'blind' as possible and then come back to this review. Unlike my Inscryption review, which I felt is still a relatively new game, I did not wanted to give away too much of it mystic but The Hex has been out for at least 7 years now so if you are looking for an review of The Hex in the year of our lord 2025, you know what you are getting yourself into.

    At its core, The Hex is a murder mystery, a narrative driven experience with fourth wall breaks galore, a trademark of DMG. Like Pony Island before it, The Hex has a very simplistic look and a very simple interface but underneath the surface however lies a lot of depth and a story which once it pulls you in will compel you to keep going to the end like a spell.

    The Hex leverages the fact that you are a gamer, our six main characters are all pulled from some type of genre you have played or have seen before, be it a fighting game, a turned based RPG, First Person Shooter or even an immersive sim. The Hex actually does something I really enjoyed with Inscryption and that is the rug pull, the 'when you are comfortable playing it this way,' we are going to switch it up on you but The Hex even does it better than Inscryption because this rug pull happens a lot and each time is logical why it is done.

    One minute you are fighting a dragon and managing your mana and your squad, using items to boost your stats and the next minute, you have now listening the musings of a man who may have sold his soul so he could get the bag. Overall, the experience is unlike any other and it goes even deeper than that. I mentioned in my previous Pony Island review that even tho I did not really like the gameplay, I still stuck around for the story. The story and stories (emphasis on stories) behind the scenes is part of the appeal of Daniel Mullins Games so by the end we find out who our murderer is but we are allowed to go deeper and that is when things get really crazy and I felt the deeper I got into it, the more I enjoyed it. Unlike Pony Island, which I completed and dived back in for some quick achievements but then promptly moved on from, I am still entranced by The Hex. It has worked its magic on me so I am doing lore dives, I am doing multiple quick runs (again thanks to the wonders of Chapter Select, such a great tool you get once you beat the game) to unlock more achievements and find out more secrets. Like Inscryption, I am invested in this world and it is a trip. Also kudos to DMG for planting seeds in The Hex that would come to fruition in Inscryption and also building on the over-reaching meta story he established in Pony Island (long and short, Satan loves game development, make of that what you will).

    However despite all this praise, I still feel I need to give The Hex the second highest recommendation on this blog which is Rave (not all caps). I enjoyed my time with it no doubt but some of game design could get a bit too obtuse and the puzzle solving aspects to get to the 'game within a game' parts felt a bit drawn out for me. Also, DMG decided to bring back my least favorite element of all his games. The faux-programmer scenes.

    

Hello Darkness my Old Friend.

    

    Again referencing my Pony Island review, the faux-programming scenes are my least favorite aspects of the game and in all honesty, the aspect of having to do them again really puts me off wanting to play it again for the achievements. There is a similar type of puzzles in Inscryption and they are also my least favorite part of that game as well. It is funny that this time time around, DMG actually acknowledged how it is not for everyone and how the main reason why it exists is to give people a preview into what it is like to 'code' for games but sadly the fact that it comes near the tail end of the game when I was really enjoying, as artificial road blocks, it really brought my mood down. Now unlike Pony Island's 'puzzles' The Hex makes them much more manageable and I only really got 'stuck' on one or two of them and was able to solve them without a guide but overall it was no way near as rage educing as Pony Island's ones.

    

    I also thought the soundtrack was only passable especially compared to Inscryption perfect mood music however I will say the OST used during the FPS scenes are bangers and I enjoyed that a lot. Overall, this aspects mentioned in the last couple paragraphs brought The Hex down a couple notches in my book and makes it still a very enjoyable game with a amazing story but honestly like Pony Island, it truly feels like both it and this game were just the stepping stones DMG needed to really cut their teeth on before making a truly amazing experience. It is with this in mind, I feel DMG next big game 'Pony Island 2: Panda Circus' will be even better and take me back to the highs Inscryption did for me.

Game 'Crashes'. Fourth Wall breaks? Yep We are so Back.

    I will not lie. I had no idea until I went back to re-read my Pony Island OKAY review to realize it had been almost a full year since I played it. I bought both Pony Island and The Hex as a double pack after falling completely in love with Inscryption and I was looking forward to playing both of them. However the Pony Island experience was just not for me and it actually made me not look forward to playing The Hex because I thought it would be more of the same. Thankfully, I decided to finally move past it (only took a year lol) and I am happy I did. Whilst it is not as mind altering as Inscryption was it does tell me I do enjoy Daniel Mullins Games and that I enjoy the ideas he brings. Especially with gaming rapidly getting more vapid and artificial. Triple A games are becoming so boring to me and the makers of these game are always looking into whatever ways they can nickel and dime us and turn our hobby/ passion into monetary gains *cough Ubisoft cough* so it makes me happy we have Indie game makers like DMG making games for gamers.

    Performance-wise I played this entirely on my Steam Deck with M&K and I had zero problems setting it up and no crashes (unless I made it crash lol). This is no surprise because it is now 7 yrs old and it is already not a super taxing game graphics wise but still a win is a win. It also is actually very cheap even when it is not on sale and it is constantly on sale too.

    

    The Hex is surprisingly not talked about much outside of the DMG community. A lot of people know about Inscryption now (especially since Playstation has it for free on their PS Plus catalogue, play Inscryption if you have not btw) and it surprisingly getting a lot of attention from the streamer community. Folks know about Pony Island and that it is a mind breaking trip to the point where it is actually getting a sequel but The Hex looks like it is lost in the shuffle and I really feel it deserves more love hence this Rave. This is a type of game that sticks with you, that makes you want to explore every nook and cranny inside and outside of the game to extract as many secrets from it as you can. More than anything, it is a compelling illusion of simple game design hiding complex depth and well deserving of this Rave.

AV

Week 3 of Darkest Dungeon II: Deja Coup

     Welcome to Week 3 of Dungeon Diving; our ongoing exploration of Darkest Dungeon II. This blog is written chronologically and basic summarizes my thoughts and experiences as I play Darkest Dungeon II. Now I know this is going up on Thursday but I have come to realize my Wednesday are actually pretty busy mainly due to Bible Study which I attend every Wednesday. However Bible Study is taking a break as of this Wednesday so I might have more time now however that might be up in the air as well. More about that in the WHAT'S NEW section at the end. On that note, let's Dive.

Wednesday

- Started off a new week with a pretty good runs however they both feel apart near the end against Leviathan and then hitting a Oblivion Ingress into the Collector.

- Collector is such a rough fight without an back-end damage dealers (Future Phil: This will become a re-occurring theme of this week)

- Re-reading my previous blog I realized that I had Occultist as my Number 4 position and that makes so much more sense.

- Daemon Pull is so in-disposable.

- Since the deck is always stacked against you I have taken to quitting and restarting when I use Inn items that are supposed to get rid of quirks and they do not do it. Like 67% and I can't get rid of Anemic. C'mon game.

- At first I was annoyed they re-purposed the Cannon boss from Darkest Dungeon as a random encounter boss. However I realize it thankfully is nowhere near as tough as it was in DD and most of the time you get a cool item when you beat it that strengthens your stage wagon.

- Whilst he is a cool character, Leper really sucks if he gets moved out of position 1 or 2. He already has the built in weakness of being blind 80% of the time and he has no way to big damage to the back-end. If he could at least move forward 2 spaces (something he was able to do in DD) it would be so much better if he is pushed out of position 1 or 2.

Thursday

- I think it might be time to make a change, team Power Creep (the MVP team of my last blog) just is struggling a lot. Either that or I might change the time positions.

- New team has a built in name, Deja Coup (hence the name of this blog). Also it is nice to bring back the ol' Jestal team aka Jester/ Vestal. Deja Coup is made up of Vestal/Jester/Duelist/Man-at-Arms

- This team is built to deal with stress it appears, they did not struggle at all with it and I think it is mainly due to Jester.

- Team was doing good until we made the mistake of taking on the Shambler and MaA died. 3 on 4 for area's final node was too hard. Pretty much made a rule if I lose a character I will just abandon the run.

- Beginning to notice a annoying trend, the final area always have tons of road hazards and most of the time I find myself getting ambushed at the worst time.

- Resentment boss seems much more do-able now. Lost Jester but we able to beat it.

- I must admit when Deja Coup work, they work well. It really is a testament that all characters work so well together, well with the exception of Leper.

- Denial is much more beat-able with any team as long as we stock some debuffing items for the back-end. Also note to stock a lot of holy water to get rid of all the debuffs it puts on me.

- The Profane Scroll wants you to run a front row Vestal... haha... no.

Friday

- Understand speed and being able to move before the enemy is super important especially when it comes to using items.

- Getting ambushed by the Antiquarian and being able to smack her around the globe was a good feeling. Like call an ambulance but not for me!

We used to be friends... a long time ago.

- Realizing Duelist potential is really nice especially her dying so much on me in the early days using her.

- After a nearly flawless run Deja Coup falls apart against Resentment due to... you guess, lack of back-row damage. I must have got lucky in a previous run because it felt inflating it's front 'lung' which was much easier to hit but  this time it was mainly the harder to reach back one.

- Really need to think out my routes better, sure pleasing the squad is good and all but running a Stress Relieving team means I can get rid of small ticks of stress much easier. Saying this because following their 'requests' keeps leading me down hazard roads and Cannon ambushes yay *sarcasm*.

- Starting to notice a weird trend, everything I try a new team they do well for a couple runs but subsequent runs things fall apart a lot faster. Weird that.

- Vestal is a key component of Deja Coup, not only is she the healer of the team she is also our main consistent back-row damage dealer. A lot of folks say she was nerfed and she is no longer brain damage hit heal every turn character now she is much more nuance and about setting up consecrations.

- Going back to a previous post, I am required to kill the boss of this area and characters are telling me to go a separate patch. Trolling I tell you.

- After a good run with so many close calls we lose Duelist simply because we forgot to equip MaA with his 'Bellow' ability to hit the back row of the Sleeping General lair boss. SMH.

- I must say, previous DD was fixated on killing you with Stress and Heart Attacks, DD II is more everyone does a million Damage Over Time (DOT) effects every attack. Going to try running a Resistant (RES) stage wagon build to counter it.

- I feel the run after losing to DOT is a apology run aka a run where the game just throw good items at you. I already have 4 pieces of Road Gear for my anti-DOT station wagon.

- Realizing that Combat Items are basically free attacks and not just healing is changing my game approach a lot.

- Apology run is going well. Time to stock up on my own DOT items for the final boss.

- Wow. Despite having a amazing run up till the boss, we barely win with only MaA surviving. Going to change his name to MVP.

- I did not re-equip Duelist's Coup De Grace for her back-row damage so it was on me.

Saturday

-  Also worthwhile  noting that my anti-DOT team still had good/ great relationships at the end.

- I do enjoy a good Daemon Pull as mentioned above. Clearing bodies whilst getting the enemy in front of the front line damage dealers with Combo status? Chef Kiss.

- After a particularly bad run that ended with a Warlock ambush I think I am done for today. Going to play some anime fighters instead.

Sunday

- I am a private person so I will not go too much into it but today was a really sad day for me. Definitely a break night.

Monday

- The Grand Slam achievement requires you to beat all the confessional bosses without losing anyone. It really is one of the hardest things to pull off for sure.

- Nothing beats turning around tons of negative affinities to positives one.

- Still trying to get the Grand Slam, I have been quitting as soon as I lost a character. I really do not like replacing characters at the Inn because they always come in with no affinities and seem to have bad traits off the bat.

- Was hesitating pulling the trigger on completing the Altar of Hope but now I see you can use excess candles to either try to either pull good items before a run (rarely happens) or re-roll quirks. Pretty good because some quirks are game breaking aka Head Injury (50% chance of being Dazed) or the Yips (15% of being Blinded).

- New squad is 'Pulling Flames' with Occ/Due/Run/Lep with Duelist using the Instructice class. Trying something different with her.

Tuesday

- Had the most insane run, arrived at Act 1 boss and instantly got hammered by DOT and more and everyone was on Death's Door by Round 3. However we also inflicted tons of DOT on the boss and somehow we still won and not just won, everyone survived! A insane moment which I wished I recorded.

- After this epic win, I proceed into the game without equipping my winning team with memories. Realizing I missed up I quit before reaching the Inn and I lost everyone. After this hard earned win I messed up big time. I am such a dummy.

- 'Monarch' class Leper is supposed to do big damage against Cosmic foes and they appear a lot in the game so I thought this was a great idea, however his regular damage blows and he still has all Leper's normal flaws. Unless they buff this class in the next update, I do not think I will ever use it again.

- Pulling Flames is losing points for me. Struggle bus and all the seats are filled. Giving it one more try before moving on.

- Yeah this team lacks a lot. Occultist tries to heal Leper and instead bleeds him and he dies. I need a more consistent healer? Maybe Plague Doctor? Besides I do not need Daemon Pull if Plague Doctor can clear bodies and Runaway can put Combo tokens for Leper.

- Yep. P.D was the missing link. Being able to heal multiple DOTs is invaluable as well.

- Stress seems to be this teams biggest weakness. Anti-stress stage wagon?

- Team was doing great until we reached the boss. DOTs do not harm the back lungs so the Seething Sigh boss just keeps wiping us out. I need to re-think my teams to include someone like Highway Man, Crusader or Grave Robber who can actually hit the back row.

WHAT'S NEXT

    Another week, another blog. However as I mentioned in my Sunday entry, my family has had a pretty bad tragedy and I might be taking some time off from writing this blog. I might come back next week but do not be surprised if we do not have a blog next week because I will be pretty busy with family obligations. 

    I am still playing Darkest Dungeon II tho so I will eventually return to this. Till next time.

AV

Week 2 of Darkest Dungeon II: Power Creep

     Welcome to Week 2 of Darkest Dungeon II or as we are going to call it, 'Dungeon Diving'. This will be an ongoing blog discussing our experience with the game. It is presented chronologically and normally updated every Wednesday. Now I said normally because Wednesday has come and gone and yes, I do know today is Friday lol.

    It was a pretty busy week so I am only now getting around to writing this blog. This will discuss my experience with the game up until the Wednesday. We are now deep in the game so this will be much more extensive than the previous one. With the house keeping out of the way. Let's Dive.

Wednesday

- Was pretty busy today ( which might be a re-occurring theme lol in hindsight) but I was able to squeeze in some late night gaming.

- Decided to try out Duelist, the new character introduced in Darkest Dungeon II specially the DLC update 'The Binding Blade'. She reminds me of Shield Breaker in design with how she moves back and forward.

- I do have slight beef that beating the game with a character allows you to add 'memories' which are persistent character buffs and also the traits the characters picked up in their previous run but you do not keep any of the relics/ items you obtained. I know it is probably balanced so you need to start over but obtaining a really cool item and having to start over again to get it again is a pain.

- Turns out Plague Doctor/ Grave Robber/ Duelist/ Highway Man has some sauce. They steam rolled the Denial boss with no issues, funny enough I was actually going to retire earlier in the same run because they were all not fans of each other and relationships are important in DD II.

- Rage Quitted on the Foetor boss, 'Harvest Child'. I was stuck in a loop where everyone was constant eating and tanking all my character relations.

- Ambushed by the Antiquarian. Funny how they made her into a mini-boss in this one after being the best way to farm for resources in the original. Thankfully she is not that hard and once you kill her bodyguards she became red paste.

Thursday

- Had a pretty awful run where I had to fight the lair boss and I was sent down a path with multiple road hazards. Ended up getting ambushed and than the fire breathing minions keep pelting me and watched as every member succumbed to it.

- Need a break after that B.S

- The B.S ramped up for the subsequent run too specifically on the final node before the Inn. First my Duelist gets one shotted when One Shot Protection aka Death's Door should exist. Then it was just my Man of Arms and he kept missing not only his attack which would have healed him but also would have killed the Cosmic Evangelist. I just wanted to get to the Inn and I would have cashed out but nope.

- This team of Vestal/ Crusader/ Duelist/ Man of Arms is fun but sometimes it is a struggle.

- Duelist being made of paper is the real issue here, even with health buffs and trinkets she gets sneezed on and she is at half health.

Friday

- Team 'Locked On' aka Occultist/ Crusader/ Highway Man/ Man at Arms is cooking now. Defeated the Denial without an issue.

- Break Night. I occasionally like to take a night off from gaming as anyone who followed my 'Learning AF' know. Just rested tonight and did not play much at all.

Saturday

- Saturdays are a mixed bag for me. Either a lot happens or nothing happens at all. This was a nothing happened at all one.

Sunday

- I skipped my normal Sunday afternoon nap to get wrecked by the second confessional boss 'Resentment'. It was a decent run until we lost my Occultist and had to replace him with a 'rookie' Plague Doctor. Occultist really was the engine and without him it was a struggle.

Monday

- Getting frustrated now, started a new run and my first encounter was the now infamous Warlord mini-boss. My team was super weak with no good equipment and we got destroyed.

- I think it is because we are constantly trying to clear the second confessional boss because the game is much harder now. Having a lot more bad runs compared to good ones.

- Thinking part of the frustration is me trying to use Locked On no matter what. Think I might do some experimenting with some other teams/ combos.

- Occultist/ Crusade/ Duelist/ Leaper is not working. Crusader wants to use Holy Lance from rank 3 but when he does that combined with Duelist moving forward as well Leaper ends up in Rank 3 with nothing to do. Wasting a move on just getting into position without buffing or hurting the opposing team is not a good strat.

- Thinking of re-visting this team with Man at Arms instead. MaA can at least get from the back ranks to the front with his Hold the Line skill

- Just realized, have I been calling him Man of Arms/ MoA instead of his proper name which is Man At Arms in previous blogs. My bad. I'll try to use MaA going forward.

- Wiped out in the third act again due to Duelist's health. I am okay with it because this team felt really frustrating to play with.

- Switching to MaA was the best idea, he fits so much better in this team. Occultist/ Leaper is still a great team but they need a stable 2 and 3 position to work and not dancers aka character whom like to move back and forward a lot.

- Prime dancer characters are Jester, Highway Man, Grave Robber and now the Duelist.

- LOL we need to talk about the prizes some of these Lair bosses give out, The Lair boss gave out the book for the Tangle which I was currently already in, why would I need a book for a area I am already in and can not use?

- Also speaking of loot, some of the character specific trinkets draw-backs are so bad I rather use strong no character trinkets instead. The MaA trinket I keep getting asks him to be rank 2 instead of 1 which he never is and if he is at 1 he gets punished for it.

This Trinket is Booty.

- Okay, so it appears you can go back to areas you have already beaten? I guess that was the point of getting a Tangle book within the Tangle.

Tuesday

- Thinking my new team, 'Power Creep' nicknamed after the term people use when new DLC characters replaced previous characters by doing what they do but better might be the one. Occultist/ Crusade/ Duelist/ MaA made short work of the Leviathan lair boss. Most of the times we walk away from boss battles barely alive but this was dominance, pure and simple.

- 'Power Creep' did it. We finally dusted the Obsessions confession boss on our second try. Looked up a strat that told me to stack all the debuffs on MaA to tank it and boss folded. 2 more confessional bosses to go.

- Hah, as our narrator loves to remind us, overconfidence is most insidious killer. We tried to keep going and felt we could take on Chirurgeon mini-boss in a Ambition run and whole team is quickly wiped out cause we were under-levelled. Back to start I guess.

- I do like how certain 'Quirks' make more sense in DD II, DD had some really annoying ones which also made no sense and removed so much player agency.

- DD II has kept Darkest Dungeon tradition of focusing on a poor character when they are already falling apart. Combined that with a no health Duelist and well, game over man, game over.

WHAT'S NEXT

    So again apologies for the lateness of this blog, I will try to keep it most consistent like how I did with my 'Learning AF'. Also I know I keep promising an impressions blog about DD II but I am too busy playing it so its hard to crave out the time I can to write it. At this point we might be just putting it all into Darkest Dungeon II eventual RAVE (which I know I'll give it one).

    Next blog we will explore more specifically with my brand new team which I've really enjoy using and finding the missing piece of the puzzle I needed to use the Duelist the way I want to use her. Spoiler: she is a amped up Crusader spamming Holy Lance lol. Till then.

AV

    

Week 1 of Darkest Dungeon II: Burn Bright

     Welcome to Dungeon Diving! Our ongoing blog about our Darkest Dungeon II. Similar to the style I employed for my Learning Anime Fighters, this will be a chronological 'diary' of my thoughts whilst playing the game. I will have a much longer and detailed impressions videos later this week but right now we will be talking about mostly my gut reactions whilst playing the game. This blog is designed to be ongoing and I will update it every Wednesday.

Wednesday

- I finally got Runaway's first memory unlocked. I have been playing this game for at least 3-4 days now and every time I tried to unlock her memory to get more of her skills and I kept failing. I even had to look up a video online to get an idea on how to beat it, it was that annoying.

- Fortunately Runaway's default skill set is actually pretty good and I got pretty far with just using that. As the brand new character to the Darkest Dungeon franchise I like what she brings to the table.

- I was playing this game originally with a controller which is possible but I have defaulted back to Mouse and Keyboard (M&K). There is just so many menus to navigate and constant need to figure our what moves do what and how this token affects me that doing it with a controller just wasn't doing it for me. I exclusively playing the original DD with M&K as well so that makes sense.

- Damn. I thought had a good team and everyone had good relationships and then I got destroyed by the Denial boss. I really thought I was onto something too.

Thursday

- Okay, I've found a better team lol.

- Got to the second boss, Resentment. I was focusing on it's core but it turns out its 'lungs' should be the focus. Good to know.

- Realizing I do not need to fix my wagon for the final run up to the mountain is saving me time and currency. I can focus on getting a final item instead.

- All the lair bosses aka the big bads of the region have some nasty tricks to ruin your run. I thought the easiest one was the one in the Foetor and even that thing has teeth.

Friday

- I wish there was a way to sell unwanted items, so many times I'll be a couple currency short at the Hoarder/ Hospital but I have tons of items I would love to get rid of. Just throwing stuff away is so wasteful. Sure this is a hold-over from DD but man I wished they consider changing it.

- I have beaten the first boss Denial so many times now, the second boss, Resentment however? Not so much. It feels doable tho.

Saturday

- I think I've found my go to team. It is Occultist/ Highway Man (HWM)/ Grave Robber/ Man of Arms (MoA). I have taken to calling them 'Target Locked'

Sunday

- Looking at my Darkest Dungeon wallpaper for the original game and I realize I do miss some of the original classes. Surprisingly the character I miss the most is the Arbalest/ Musketeer. DD 2 has so many annoying backline enemies which are hard to reach with most of the cast.

- Thank goodness Occultist has his 'Daemon Pull' skill which brings them close to the front ranks. When I have teams with out him I actually miss that ability so much.

- I finally beat Resentment with team 'Target Locked' I was right, focus on the lungs, interchanging with attacks on its core. Did not even lose a squad member.

- Having the same team get wiped out on the first boss in a Obsession run is very humbling tho lol.

Monday

- Tried to take down the Shambler mini-boss with Target Locked and lost the whole team except Man of Arms. Tried to complete the objectives to at least get some extra candles and the next area is another alter to Shambler and this time I can't reject fighting it. WTF man.

- This game is so addictive. I constantly tell myself I am going to play something else but I keep coming back.

- Yoooo you can get rid of positive traits at the hospital too? LOL I forgot that was a thing.

Tuesday

- Getting jumped by the Collector mini-boss after a long lair boss fight is dirty pool Red Hook. I need you guys to know that.

- Okay, did I accidentally turn on hard mode? New run, first boss is the Warlord mini-boss and my time is not strong enough for that. This is some b-s.

- Occultist 'Anamnesis' skill might not be worth it. You need two 'Unchecked Power' tokens and be in position 1 or 2. This might work for front row Occultist but who runs that combo?

- 'Obsession' is tough as well and it has 2 stages. I was having a great run and even took down Fanatics' pretty easily. Also it appears on later runs you have to fight more back to back battles to get to the boss.

WHAT'S NEXT

    So on that note, we are done with our first Darkest Dungeon II ongoing blog. I think we will be here for awhile because right now we are loving DD II. I have other team combos to try, other characters to learn and at least 3 more major bosses to conquer.

    Also we still have the upcoming Kingdom update still coming soon as well. Check back in next Wednesday for another installment of 'Dungeon Diving'.

    AV

RAVE: Darkest Dungeon

 Normally, I try to get blogs out at least once a week. However this one has been delayed mainly because I can't stop playing it enough to actual write a blog about it. It is time tho; here is my RAVE for

As always, we will begin with a brief history and what made me pick up this game. As I've explored the Roguelike genre, I heard many good things about a indie game called 'Darkest Dungeon'. I heard it was brutal, challenging and very, very unforgiving. I actual brought this game for Steam back in November 2022 and I got it for a steal of only $3.80 which now I look back on it, is amazing because of the now 180+ hours of entertainment I've got from it.

However due to the nature of how the game is best played with Mouse and Keyboard (M&K), I did not immediately sprung to playing it. For awhile I made an excuse it was because I did not want to play a M&K game and I had other games to play instead. However I eventually did learn to use M&K and ironically, one of the first games I learned it was with 'Iratus: Lord of the Dead', a game I've mentioned before on this blog and one of my favorite Roguelikes. 'Iratus' is heavily inspired by 'Darkest Dungeon' and now I've played both I can clearly see how much it influenced it. However I played the 'inspired by' before I actually played what inspired it. Sure, I brought 'Iratus' before 'Darkest Dungeon' and I really, really enjoyed 'Iratus'. I put in a lot of hours and beat the game twice, on the easiest and standard difficulties. I did many runs and bought all the DLC and even some of skin packs. 'Iratus' deserves its own RAVE and perhaps I'll replay it in the future and write one then but this is a 'Darkest Dungeon' blog.

So after playing the Hell out of 'Iratus' I played other games and I think my 'Risk of Rain 2' obsession kicked in not soon after and we all know how long that went for. I, however had 'Darkest Dungeon' in the back of my head. I wanted to play it and I had a couple of false starts before we finally started in earnest, about a month ago and boy oh boy, we have not looked back.

Another big deciding factor of giving 'Darkest Dungeon' a real go was me finding out it was 'old' enough to played on my desktop computer and I, no longer had to set up my Steam Deck to play it. The easier access of 'DD' on my desktop meant I could play it anytime I was on my desktop and spoiler; I am on my desktop a lot. Being able to play a M&K game on a desktop makes things so much easier and it is also why previous RAVES 'Indies' Lies'  and 'Deadbolt' also got played a lot. Surprisingly, I recently tried to play it on my Steam Deck and even through it works, the M&K made a massive difference in how much I enjoyed it. The controller options just felt limiting and I've become more a M&K person lately, strange because most of my gaming career I've always had a controller or a arcade stick in my hands. Okay, enough of the how we got here because we are here now and we are more and likely will not be going anywhere soon. I, honestly see 'Darkest Dungeon' becoming an ongoing feature on my blogs much like how 'Risk of Rain 2' was. You see, it is that addictive to me.

To quote it's Steam page, 'Darkest Dungeon' is a challenging gothic roguelike turn based RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring. Can you keep your heroes together when all hope is lost? They are not lying to you either when they call it 'challenging'. My first couple of days with this game really took me for a ride and I deleted so many campaigns when things got too tough and I'll ran out of money and recruits to keep playing it. When I was new to the 'Stress' system, I would let highly stressed adventurers go into back to back missions and watch them fall apart and turn on their allies and sometimes, even worst, ruin a mission. I would dread the minute a 'Affliction' popped up on the screen and one of character's lost their marbles and became 'Sadistic' or 'Machoistic' or even worst 'Hopeless' and refuse to help the squad, or hurt themselves and sometimes even refused to be healed when they were about to die. Everything I heard about the game was true. This game was unforgiving and it really pushed me to the limit many times. Also just like any good Roguelikes, the deaths are final and anytime you lost an adventurer, you'll have to start from scratch with a new one. Sometimes they did not even have to die but you had to cut them loose because they came back so broken, it would not make sense to keep them cause it would take more money to heal them, money you did not have.

The rarest of the rare, an Inspired Hero!!

However, sometimes the RNG (random number generator) is on your side and instead of rolling an 'Affliction' you adventurer gets 'Inspired' and well that is one of the best feelings and every-time it actual happened I got super hyped (except the one time when one adventurer got Inspired and die on the next turn. As I said, unforgiving). Moments like that are few and far between and 90% of times it is opposite and I slowly learned that I should not let my adventurers reach their breaking points and actually invested in a bigger roster so the stressed individuals can rest whilst the younger, fresher recruits go and do the job instead.

Speaking of adventurers, it time to talk about the very colorful cast of characters you can use. Each one brings its own playstyle and nuances to the field. Be it, the Vestal whom can heal your whole team and swing a mean mace when she needs too. Or would you prefer to use the tank Man at Arms who specializes in taking hits, screaming folks into submission and setting up comeback ripostes or go completely off the rails and use the Jester whom is great for relieving stress but when the time comes, swings with the best of them. The games base roster of 15 (16 if you count the palate swap Musketeer whom shares all the skills with the Arbalest with her own twist) and each character comes with their own quirks and character lines. The Bounty Hunter is grim and focused on collecting his booty whilst the Highway Man is super cocky when things go his way. Each member has really endeared themselves to me and I can honestly say I do not have a 'favorite' character yet. At first I really did not like the Antiquarian because she had nothing but support skills and a very weak attack but I realize the purpose of a Antiquarian is helping you get more loot and I can honestly say I am only doing better now money-wise because I learned how to use her. Also early in my time with the game, I did not understand how strong the Occultist was because he kept healing adventurers for 1-2 hit points and bleeding them and how his playstyle seem too much of a mixed bag. Now the Occultist can slot into any team because of his amazing bag of tricks. Having a healer on the front lines and still able to hit with the best of them is just chef kiss. Each character has a diverse skill set too and you can mix and match them according to your team's composition. Some really work but everyone does have their preferred spot and you'll figure it out as you keep playing the game. Honestly, that and being able to personalize each adventurer and even naming them and choosing a specific color for them has made losses all the more sad when they succumb to the evils of this world.

If you get this reference, we can be best of friends.

The game even warns you, not every hero will survive and you are bound to fail some missions and abandon others. This is the nature of 'Darkest Dungeon'. This game is so unforgiving that you can successful complete a mission, with full health and low or zero stress and the game still decides to give your adventurer the 'Black Plague' disease (which screws with your stats and make you even more susceptible to more diseases... yay) with no warning. On top of that, it might give you a real life quirk like Kleptomania and cause you adventurer to random steal loot for themselves and not share with the squad. Such is the perils of dungeon diving in this world. Then you find something sending them to treatment centers to get rid of said disease or negative quirks but you can also lock in positive ones you have picked up as well. Never have I've played a game which almost gleefully likes to set you up for fail but for some strange reason because I am who I am, the guy who likes to die (in video games) and loves a challenge I keep playing it and even funnier, enjoying it.

However enjoying it I am. I just hit a 170 hrs and beaten the final boss and I haven't even started on the DLCs (which I still need to purchase). I am enjoying the base game (mind you with some very needed Quality of Life mods like Faster Walking and Expanded Inventory) and then there is so much more I can explore. The afore-mentioned DLCs including one that is heavily inspired by H.P Lovecraft's 'The Color From Space' and the big one, 'The Crimson Court' which adds a lot more bosses, a new class and VAMPIRES!!

Maybe its the RPG elements without all the extra fluff that comes with RPGs (walking to and from places, having to find McGuffins to open locked doors, the hunt for stronger, better weapons). Maybe its the addictive hook of leveling up a squad of killers and finding new synergies with them and finding innovative set-ups like twin Crusaders who constantly swap position with each other so they can both access their very OP Holy Lance move. Maybe its the cool narrator who always has something to say or maybe its beating the odds even tho it is stacked heavily against you. I also love the setting being a fan of Lovecraftian themes and gothic fantasy in general. Hell, maybe its the town management of keeping a home base (in this case your Hamlet/ Estate) up and running and your army in top shape which I never realized I can do. Traditionally I've ignore a lot of base building games but in Darkest Dungeon, all this micro-managing is part and parcel of the experience and I've grown to enjoy that too.

Every thing in this game, hits all the right spots for me and I feel its honestly why I need to do this long RAVE about it. Despite it beating me down so many times, I still get back up and hit 'Embark' and prepare a new squad. As promised, this is the beginning, we will probably be back with our 2 cents on the DLC's adventurers, the Flagellant and the Shield Breaker and of course review the DLCs. If you enjoy a challenging turn based game that asks you a lot but rewards you as well, you will not regret diving into this 'Darkest Dungeon'.

AV