A very charming, easy-to-pick-up but hard-to-master kind of game. The gameplay is about getting as far as you can by mixing “turn-based” and “racing” elements. Allow me to explain further into this
You move one square at a time. Each time you move, small enemies move accordingly. If you stop, they stop.
The exception to this rule is “The Dungeon Muncher.” This ♥♥♥♥♥♥ moves at its own pace regardless of whether you stand still or not—so keep an eye on this little ♥♥♥♥ as you proceed.
Your goal is to descend downward, avoiding obstacles such as enemies, walls, trees, vases, and more.
Along the way, you collect coins. These coins can be used to buy items from a vendor (who, eventually, will also fall victim to The Dungeon Muncher). So atleast grabbing these coins prove a sense of incentive of risk and reward.
There’s also equipment. So far, I’ve found:
* Sword – Destroys enemies, doors, and vases in 1 hit.
* Hammer – Breaks walls in 2–3 hits.
* Axe – Chops trees in 2–3 hits.
* Shield – Protects you once.
* Heart – Refills your health.
*** Sword, Hammer and Axe on the pickup give you 10 Charges
In short, you’re basically racing downward to get away from The Dungeon Muncher while managing obstacles. Sounds simple and fun, right? Well, there are number of problems you need to taking in an account for.
You won’t—and I mean won’t—have much fun until you destroy 100 doors. Yes, 100. Once you do, you unlock a character who starts with an items, which then helps you meet other conditions to unlock more characters with unique attributes—making each run more manageable.
But I doubt many people will sit through that long grind. (Currently only 39.6% of players, myself included, have managed to get the “Punk” achievement. That statistic should give you an idea of how bothersome this game can be.) Especially most player will be quite infuriate with what the dev plan to throwing at them.
So what’s wrong with that then? Well, Quite alot of things really.
- The game is so unforgiving that one wrong move can kill you instantly, crushing your motivation. Even with sword, Fighting an enemies guaranteed you to lose at least a heart. And you have so much only 3 of that.
- Even if you make it far, many obstacles are placed so specifically that you must have certain items or unlock certain characters or equipment you have at a moment. Its next to almost impossible to navigate these obstacle with out a certain items at all.
Judging by player comments, “un-fairness” is a common complaint. Some suggest the dev should give players random starting equipment each run. While that might help, it would also make unlocking characters far less rewarding— I mean, why grinding to unlocking the characters if you could starting out with those to begin with?
The only way you might enjoy this game is by enduring countless unfair deaths until you unlock more characters—which still doesn’t make it easy. Which I find to be quite to be a shame, because there are so few games these days with this kind of potential and visual charm that could have been a perfect little time-killer. Also I swear the dev really got interesting idea going on too.
I do recommend this game—BUT ONLY if you’re ready to embrace defeat over and over until you unlock your first new character. From that point on, it does get better. I promise. This is one of those game where you getting in not expect anything until you finally lucky enough or unlocking new characters to progress further than previous run.
