Deep Rune

Actually poggers, wtf. Basically you get 10 lives to theory-craft yourself through the dungeon with some class you pick at the start and you can save anywhere at any time and when loading the save game you will be put exactly where you left off. On death you can choose to reset to when you entered the current room (even the previous room if you fell into the room from above), effectively keeping the live, or regain all health but be teleported back to the first room; you cannot mess anything up by accident. There's just enough to work with to make it interesting without making it overwhelming, e.g. make guesses when best to take HP refill from level up, when to use ranged attacks to avoid damage, do the math on when you get the finishing strike (which won't give the monster a chance to strike back), when to trade consumables for a backstab (crit) opportunity, etc. The only criticism I can muster is that since enemies do not respawn when "accepting death" this makes the game feel a bit empty while you find your way back into the gameplay loop. I understand this is necessary to allow one to recover from a poor use of the first couple lives; maybe this could have been designed differently. However thank god it's not another ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rogue-like so you can actually put the map knowledge gained to use in subsequent runs. Also YOU CAN PLAY THE GAME USING ONLY THE MOUSE IT'S SO RELAXING OMFG.

Really nails great exploration and thoughtful rpg decision making with a fun mechanics! The level design is memorable and you have to choose your battles. Every path is an obstacle to overcome and a sacrifice to be made with the equipment your character has so far. If you can't figure out how to do a certain path there might be another secret lying in wait for you in another direction!!! Definitely recommend and look forward to finishing this myself as well.

I've played this turn based metroidvania puzzle game far more than I really should have, but I come back to it from time to time as I have such fond memories. Has about 2 playthroughs worth of content before it starts getting a bit repetitive (once as you understand the game, a second to try and get a decent score). Similar to magic tower games. I wouldn't pay more than $5 for this game, but good thing it's free. Pros: * Zero randomness while still having stats that persist through out the game. * Good sound track. * Rewards good stragety while still being accessible to those new to this style of game Cons: * No undo feature, limited save files, loading midroom doesn't work quite right. * The one random feature of the game happens with the default character and you don't know what it is until a good way through a playthrough. * Text can be hard to read.