Dark Scrolls

Looks good, and could have been more fun than it is, but it is weirdly unpolished compared to their previous games. Ideas could have been taken a little farther, and there's quite a few bugs and perplexing design choices. Since it's been almost 3 weeks since the game came out (after a month delay), and there hasn't been a patch even as small as fixing the eardrum stabbing noise that occurs whenever an NPC finishes a sentence, I'm not really convinced they even give a ♥♥♥♥.

It's games like these that make me wish there were a mixed option for reviews. I'm so torn. I do enjoy this game, but I completely understand why people are frustrated by stuff regarding this game. Here's the TL;DR: Q:Is it fun? A:kinda*** Q:If it is why are you giving a negative review? A:Because I can't leave a mixed review and I skewed more negative. Now here's the long version. I've basically done everything so I thought I'd give my thoughts: [h1]Of course there are positives[/h1] I would not be spending so much time writing this review and playing this game if I thought there were none. The game is quite charming and I do enjoy that there are a lot the game doesn't explain. Organically figuring things out is very satisfying and feels quite retro. Even if you are stumped, I absolutely adore the fact that there is a phone number you can call to figure out how to unlock characters. Seriously, even if you already unlocked everyone, I highly recommend giving it a whirl. it's on the main website for this game. https://www.darkscrolls.com/ Despite how easy most of them are, I do quite like the boss designs. They don't need to be these complex 10-phase nightmares and some of them did things that surprised me[spoiler]the final boss shoving the screen forward was very clever[/spoiler] though I wished more of the bosses did stuff like that. It's also a complete experience. Hate to say it, but that's pretty uncommon nowadays. The whole thing for a modest price. If they do release new content, which I don't think they'll do, I might be a little skeeved depending on what the content is but as it stands it is a full game. Now with that all said, why a negative review? [h1]The game isn't very stable[/h1] I've actually played one of their previous games, Gato Roboto, and had very few complaints about the performance of the game. This one however has some issues. On multiple occasions, the game completely crashed and I lost progress. The game's framerate on my set up (a GPD Win Mini) was better in windowed mode than in full screen. Also, the achievements appear to be bugged. Unless there is some additional unique condition for the characters or they have some other definition of "recruit", I'm pretty sure I got them. [h1]The game lacks features that I'd expect a game like this to have[/h1] There really should be key binding but from what I've seen there isn't. There is a whole controller that I'm not using and for a game like this, I'd like to use other buttons aside from the face buttons. That would also remove conflicts with stuff like using your "ult" and interacting with objects. They are fortunate that Steam Input exists but even as a matter of convenience it should be a feature. [h1]The game's balance/rewards are very strange[/h1] [h2]These characters are not made equal.[/h2] Sure, they do have unique abilities and strengths/weaknesses. However, some completely decimate this game while others don't seem to have the same value. There are characters in this side-scrolling platformer that straight up fly while others get a modest double jump. Some characters have ways of being completely intangible for a LONG time basically guaranteeing victory while some simply don't have those benefits. I'm not saying to remove the strengths of the characters, but just make sure that they feel at least close to each other in power. I liked most of the cast, but those few that I didn't, I saw little to no reason to play them. Give them something to really make them shine like [spoiler] the dwarf's ability to skip the gobbo toll and cheese gobbo[/spoiler] which I really enjoy. I love when a character has the ability to do something crazy and it allows for it. Quick side note, I wish there were more non-human characters to play as. [h2]Another thing are the enemies.[/h2] I actually really enjoy the different enemies and think their abilities are good and add some diverse challenges to face. However, in this side-scrolling schmup, there really should be more enemies. There are many moments where there are just no enemies on screen with nothing for me to do but wait. For the portion before a bossfight, that makes sense(though I'd make the period shorter). Before an enemy wave attack? [h2]This has effects on the economy of the game.[/h2] Of course you need gold to get upgrades but depending on your layout, you might just get nothing. There was a time when I flawlessly beat a level and killed basically everything and opened every chest. I got one upgrade. If that was the intent of the enemy density, add more enemies and make them drop less. That said, I'm not sure that it is. There are some instances where I get flooded in cash and can get two or three upgrades. Due to, again, the enemies, sometimes you just don't get the same rewards even if you played better. [h2]Then there's that damn cannon[/h2] At around the midpoint of every level, there is a small gauntlet where enemies will be spawned in to attack you in waves. If you beat every wave, there is a cannon that is offered to you. When you interact with it, the cannon shoots you forward to the next shop skipping a hefty portion of the level. Now honestly, considering how important money is to collect, [b]why on earth would anyone do this?[/b] Now you're short on cash and you skipped the whole reason why you paid for the game. The cannon is the strangest design decision I've seen in a game in a while offering only one benefit: it saved you time you didn't need to save. [spoiler]That is unless the one non-bugged achievement I haven't gotten, Eggedplant, requires you to do the levels faster[/spoiler] [h1]Finally, the end[/h1] Lots of strengths and lots of negatives. This game's mixed rating is well deserved. It definitely has an audience but it's most certainly not for everyone.

It feels and plays like a student project If I could leave a mixed review, I would. It has a lot of soul and some nice ideas, but it just feels like a slog to get through and gets boring fast. Needs more time in the oven.

[h1]Oh My God Bruh[/h1] [b]I was as excited as anyone for this game seeing the trailers, but I have never been so disappointed by a game. It really needed more time in the oven.[/b] The game art screams with passion and heart-felt love, but the actual gameplay and UI design are genuinely atrocious. There are too many gripes of mine to say in a row, so I will list them along with those of my friends whom I played with. Very sorry to say that this is [i]not[/i] an exhaustive list. I have seen other reviewers make great points that I will not mention. [list] [*]The in-game upgrades just don't seem to make any difference on any given run, and while the price of these upgrades increases exponentially, the amount you earn just doesn't feel like it increases at all. [*]The game does not explain what star-levels are or what difference it makes where you put your upgrades. It does not tell you very many things at all. [*]The cannon is useless?? You skip half the level without getting any of the rewards. With how sparse money gets, you can't make that math work. [*]Only some characters are actually good enough to get past the first two levels. And those who can are exceptionally overpowered and boring to play. [*]The steam page for Dark Scrolls says the game has Playstation controller support, but it really shouldn't. The game does not display symbols. It instead displays hard-to-read out-of-place text spelling out what button to press. Every sentence that any NPC says awkwardly ends with the word 'Cross'. This is also a problem for keyboard players. [*]Most of the time, the boss-dialogue text is covered up by the 'Player #' text that is miraculously overlaid on top. Also... [*]If you skip past the dialogue, all of the Undertale RPG-esque talking noises play simultaneously REALLY LOUD. I feel like that's one of the simplest things to fix about a built-in text engine. I have no idea how that slipped through the cracks. [*]The lack of accessibility settings was bizarre. In the year of our lord, 2026, it should go without saying that the player should be able to change their keybinds. [*]A variety of achievements are bugged and are not unlockable. [/list] [h3] Conclusion [/h3] I've played this game solo and with friends, PC and on Steamdeck, and both experiences were... sad. The inconsistencies, bugs, and imbalances this game has are a little baffling. The gameplay is messy, the UI is [i] awful, [/i] and the only reason I won't refund this is because it comes with two free games and because I have hope for the future of this game.

Tenia genuina emocion de jugar este juego pero tristemente es casi que completamente deficiente, me parece una genuina vergüenza el estado en el que decidieron lanzar este juego, incluso despues de un retraso de 1 mes, te pone a pensar que decidieron hacer con ese tiempo, el balance entre personajes y items es inexistente, dejandote pasar todo el juego spameando un solo movimiento del barbaro y los demas pjs dejan bastante que desear incluso sin compararse al ya mencionado barbaro. Todo esto solo es mencionando los problemas de diseño con el juego, pero incluso en el aspecto tecnico es denigrante, primero, he tenido 3 crasheos diferentes solo por que el juego intento spawnear un enemigo en la tienda, segundo, en diferentes puntos de juego, ciertos sonidos deciden peakear y romperte los timpanos, y por ultimo (por mi parte por que si no se haria muy larga) no hay configuracion de controles. Honestamente, no recomendaria este juego ni con estos problemas removidos, por que sin ellos, solo seria un juego insipido con lindos graficos. :sadge:

I like this game a whole lot and I am frankly addicted to it. it's playful and irreverent in its presentation, offering a unique twist on classic roguelite upgrade mechanics, plenty of wild and wacky characters to unlock and experiment with, and a gameplay loop that scratches an itch I didn't even know I had. one of my favorite aspects of Dark Scrolls is its art style; each entity is cleverly depicted in their own palette, rather than a single palette being given to the entire screen. the effect of this is each of these elements really standing out from the background, making it easier for the player to identify who's who onscreen and giving the characters a bit of wordless personality. I became infatuated with this game's art the first time I saw a trailer and I got exactly what I was expecting here. while the lack of explanation for pretty much anything might turn away some players, I personally find it extremely endearing and it reminds me of some of my earliest times spent co-op gaming with my brother, questioning everything, trying to figure out a game's secrets, and experiencing the pure joy of the moment when something finally "clicks." reading some of the reviews for this game since it released, this feels like one of those moments where the developer (doinksoft) just made something they [i] wanted [/i] to make, and a lot of people simply did not connect with it for one reason or the other. I am not one of those people. Dark Scrolls cleanly achieves a wonderful balance of jank and polish, pays homage to its predecessors in its own way, and will delight those with tempered expectations. I love romping through this zany little world over and over with my duo. ♥♥♥♥ YOU GOBBIN YOU CHUD

Rough. Using the idea of the ever-dreaded auto-scrolling level for a hectic co-op game sounds admittedly intriguing, but the execution here makes for a rather bog-standard rogue-like. Platforming controls are less than adequate as the characters don’t animate as much as they squish around, which coincidentally makes for squishy game feel. Each run hardly feels different from one another and the “pick from three” component is entirely unremarkable as well as a bare-minimum shot at replayability. The pixel art is goofy but forgettable, the chiptunes are mediocre, and the screenshake is unbearable. Dark Scrolls is a relatively simple game to figure out, but the lack of any quick tutorials does feel like another noteworthy oversight. Playing solo isn't exciting, so you'd think that the online co-op might be the key to adding some much needed energy to the situation. However, playing online has its own long list of unique problems. We’re talking super shoddy netcode with desyncs and glitches aplenty. There’s also bouncy player collision in a small screen space, the fact that you don’t share gold or health pickups, and the more-than-likely reality that you can get stuck as a useless ghost for the entire remainder of a long, scrolling level if you die early. By the end of our brief time with Dark Scrolls, we had both agreed that this felt like more of an alpha for what could be an interesting idea. Maybe if the game played more into the quirks of auto-scrolling levels or presented mechanics that bolstered the co-op experience (as opposed to constantly putting the players in each other's way) this could’ve gone somewhere less bland.

Pros - Fun, bouncy, poppy. Running around and fighting enemies has so many beeps and pops that it feels like a constant flow of dopamine. - Mechanics are solid. Everything feels chaotic and hard to manage, but the fun is managing all that chaos. Cons - Can't save in the middle of a run, so if gets long or you need a break, too bad, start from scratch - Very loud beeps during dialog, scrape my ears

The idea of an oldschool autoscroller platformer shmup with a ton of characters that play different is [i]awesome[/i]. It's a shame about the execution. [h2]Best Bits[/h2] [list] [*]Fun core mechanics. I actually disagree with other reviews that say the controls are iffy. Characters' double jumps are fun and responsive-yet-weighty, and I like the way you keep facing a direction but move slower as you attack, it all makes sense. (I think the problems are more related to how things on the screen interact with one another.) [*]I've only had a solid, stable, frictionless online experience with my friend. [*]Great sprite work with plenty o' character and charm. [/list] [h2]Worst Bits[/h2] [list] [*]Players get in each others' way in the worst way possible. Here's an example: [list] [*]The dog has a double-jump that's clearly inspired by Tails' from old sonic games. [*]The dog is basically invulnerable while it's in this "ball form" of its jump. It can ping-pong around bouncing off the same or different enemies. It's fun! [*]The dog becomes vulnerable if it jumps again, or touches the ground. Sensible! [*]The dog becomes vulnerable [b]if it touches the other player[/b]. This means that as you're bouncing around having a grand ol' time in a 2p game, the other player feels like your biggest threat. Why the heck wouldn't this game be designed so 2p lift each other up instead of harshing their buzz? [*]This is just one example, the whole game seems to be designed around the concept of 2p intentionally being annoyingly harder than 1p. [/list] [*]The main currency competes for too much attention. [i]Maybe[/i] the equipment you get from the shops feel fun once you get enough but I'll never know because too many other things are asking for it. Should I try to be more capable, or throw my money away into a pit in hopes that I might unlock something eventually? Or give it to NPCs to allow access to certain areas? It's not an interesting decision. [*]So many bugs and a general lack of polish, cheap shots, etc. Enemies will spawn at your location and damage you instantly. A lot of things like your characters weirdly overlapping and turning into the barbarian for a moment as the area loads. The first time we got to a mid-stage shop we thought the game was completely busted because you both need to go to the right to progress the screen, but an enemy was right off the edge of the screen. We kept taking damage and getting knocked back making us thing you were penalized for leaving the screen in general. We found more terrible preventable bugs each time we played. [*]Content. We only have 4 characters and we ended up playing enough to try every character combo between us, we beat a run and played a few times after that. With a game that promotes so many fun different characters the cadence of unlocking them is awful. [/list] The biggest issues don't seem unsolvable, they just needed more thought put into them. I'm a bit shocked that devolver would allow something with their name attached to release in this state.

In the beginning I felt like this was a good idea. I like the idea of an auto-scrolling fantasy platform adventure with a roguelite/roguelike element to it. However, in practice, "Dark Scrolls" isn't as enjoyable as I thought it would be - at least, in its current form. WHAT I LIKE: > Aesthetics-wise, it looks alright. It's like someone took "Super Mario Maker" and overlayed a fantasy theme. > I like the Gym where you can beat the hell out of the punching bag and make it swing wildly. > Attacking is simple, and you can hold down the button for rapid-fire. > The magic user's Attack is pretty fun because his shots can bounce around all over the place. WHAT I DON'T LIKE: > Coins and Points are exactly the same thing - you either use your coins in level stores for power-ups, or you save them and die whereupon they're converted to Progress to obtain crystals. Having them separate would be more preferable to deciding whether to buy or die. > Jumping is annoying - you always fall short on the first jump, on the 2nd jump you automatically perform an ability, and between the two it feels kinda floaty and you end up launched when you just wanna jump a short distance. > There are no tutorials, ability explainers, or button prompts other than "press TOP action button". No controller-specific symbols, either. While the game says it has full controller support, you could play this with a generic controller and it wouldn't matter. > During levels you assign bought abilities to Star Levels, and as you reach them by defeating enemies you gain them. But ONLY for a limited time which is annoying, as you have to cycle to that level again to get the temporary ability once more. And you ONLY get abilities in the 0-star slot after using your Ultimate. You might see this game as a challenge, or something to fill your time and get stuck into. If that is you, you might like or at least get used to this game. For me, however, this game feels like it needs more polish.