Dicey Dungeons Review (Yung Peejles)
Short summary: It's actually a Min-Max Puzzle game, not a traditional RPG. If you don't sweat out every single move you'll end up frustrated. If you do Min-Max it can be rewarding and thrilling.
Longer review:
The game presents itself as a Rougelike RPG with an emphasis on RNG. But coming at the game with this mindset will result in frustration. It's ultimately a Min-Max Puzzle RPG, challenging the player to choose the perfectly optimal move every single round with every single enemy. Even on "Relaxed Mode" players need to be as sweaty as possible with every single enemy, as a Floor 1 Level 1 enemy can bring you down to 5% health after a few unlucky dice rolls. The same applies to all choices about equipment, shops, and healing items. All must be chosen in the perfectly optimal way to prevent an abrupt gameover if an unassuming enemy catches you offsides.
Inherently there will be some frustration over a lucky run suddenly dying to a pair of bad dice rolls. If that type of hardcore RNG difficulty makes you rage this might be a bad match for you. But if you embrace the fact that you're on a knife's edge every single move you can start thinking seriously about Min-Max strategy. Then your wins over even basic enemies feel more rewarding as they're so hard fought.
The music is great, as are the visuals and sound effects. The cartoony aesthetic lulled me into a false sense of security that this game could be casual or simple. In fact it's deeply challenging, and can't even be called "challenging but fair" since the randomness of the dice adds inherent chaos. But when you do win the victory is all the sweeter.
I think this style of gameplay might be niche to those with the min-max mindset. But it's absolutely worth picking up during a sale for anyone to give a try.