Darkest Dungeon Ancestral Edition- Nintendo Switch

I admire the commitment to fatalism, but the crippling nature can get frustrating when the random-number generator goes against you a lot at once. The pain of a beloved character getting a negative affliction is harsh, though, because it can render that character almost ineffective.

It’s a novel element that works so well with the Lovecraft style. In between quests, characters can rest and lessen their stress by doing things like praying and going to a brothel. From a gameplay perspective, this more or less forces you to use more than one heroic quartet, as well as make you adventure smarter, not harder. Each character gains or loses stress as they wade through the dungeons, leading them to act erratically or gain a positive or negative affliction. Stress is one of the core parts of the exploration and fighting that makes Darkest Dungeon stand out. Different pairings can work well together in sometimes unexpected ways. The battle system has a lot of depth thanks to its variety of classes and combinations. The specifics of the effects can be overwhelming, but an ever-present help menu and a variety of tooltips make it easier to digest. Each character has four abilities that have different effects and values, ranging from more straightforward attacks to complicated status-affecting moves. The turn-based system is relatively straightforward with a focus on buffs and debuffs. Running into enemies engages a battle in the same perspective. Rooms are connected by halls, both holding obstacles, items, and enemies. Moving through these procedurally generated areas happens with your party of four slowly walking from a side-scrolling view. That leads to the recruitment of various randomly generated characters from a variety of different classes that you can take into different parts of the estate to explore while fending off Lovecraftian fiends. The setup of this gothic-inflicted roguelike is that you inherited a haunted estate from an ancestor.

Somehow that feeling of challenge and often oppressing difficulty leads to a magnificent overall experience that, outside of some bouts of convolution and frustration, is memorable and engrossing. Everything from the dour aesthetic to the gloomy soundtrack reinforces the notion that your town of disposable heroes is doomed to fail more often than not. Even when you defeat bosses, clear quests, and delve deeper into the darkest of dungeons, heavy losses will assuredly engulf you. This is a game that makes you work hard for success, much like its other roguelike brethren.

Patience and planning is a virtue in Darkest Dungeon.

Darkest Dungeon Ancestral Edition- Nintendo Switch