izigame.me

Turn-based games without much in the way of movement systems are one of the hardest genres to pull off in my opinion. For a slow-paced genre that relies on strategy to be fun, it can be hard to avoid situations where it's best to just use whatever move has the biggest numbers over and over. I feel this issue is best highlighted in pokemon, where casual players can get by pretty easily just by using a big move repeatedly and one-shotting everything. Darkest Dungeon completely circumvents all of the genre's usual flaws and forces you to think. It took me like 4 party-wipes to grasp that this game was something special, something that required a deep understanding of different synergies, combos, and mechanics, but once I started to put the pieces together, it became a blast. As of the writing of this review, my learning curve is only beginning to tread upward, but I can already say that DD has one of the best, if not the single best, turn-based RPG combat systems that I've ever seen. It doesn't need a grid map like fire emblem to introduce positioning elements. Even with its deceptively simple positioning system and the way it follows pokemon's formula of only allowing each character to know four moves at any given time, the synergies between different characters and the way their abilities compliment each other is truly a sight to behold. If you enjoy turn-based strategy, this game is a necessity. Plus, it's got workshop support, and it's one of those games with really cool devs who look at the awesome in-depth mods made by their community and make them into official content, or even publish them on the steam store as entirely new games in their own right like they did with Black Reliquary. As far as DLC goes, crimson court is basically more of the Darkest Dungeon you know and love. It has new mechanics, enemies, and some really cool bosses (I've only fought the crocodile so far, but the battle was very difficult in a very fun way, and beating it felt extremely rewarding), but it doesn't reinvent the wheel. The best part, however, is probably the Flagellant, a new class that damages and applies bleed to itself in exchange for healing other party members, doing big attacks, and otherwise helping the rest of the team. The Flagellant also has a few big moves that he can perform only at low HP, synergizing with his self-damage mechanic and making the class feel way more involved. The mission structure is much the same as ever. Color of madness and butcher's circus are a bit further removed from the base game, offering new game modes. Color of madness adds a new area, the farmstead, that acts like a sort of gauntlet mode. There's no torch, no food or camping, no corridors to traverse or objects to interact with. It's just back-to-back battles. Personally, I really enjoy the mode. It gives you constant action and simplifies the game a bit, tearing away some of the fluff and extra mechanics to give way to the game's phenomenal combat system. It also rewards you with unique trinkets to bring into normal missions, tying it nicely back into the main game's progression. Butcher's Circus, unlike the previous two DLCs, doesn't really contribute to the main game. It's a mode that's mostly independent of your estate's progression (you only need to unlock everything in this mode once, even if you complete your estate save file) which lets you partake in multiplayer battles. It doesn't really add to the base game in any way, but I don't care, because this mode fucking slaps. I absolutely love butcher's circus. It's a bit sandboxy, since you can customize your trinkets and heroes in any way you choose without risking the loss of those trinkets or heroes, which makes it a great proving ground to test a cool build. It's also just a ton of fun to put your strategies head to head against real people. The final paid DLC, the shieldbreaker class, doesn't add as much as the other two, but in my experience the shieldbreaker is busted as hell so I'd say it's worth it anyway. She's a dancer who plays a bit like the jester and has some nice hard-hitting attacks plus a little bit of bleed and blight. The other DLC hero, musketeer, is kinda mid, but she's also free so it doesn't matter.