I initially picked this one up during the summer sales after I saw it in a recommendation, and promptly bought it for the Switch as well, where most of my time is spent playing. Yōdanji is a bite sized roguelike dungeon crawler that has you navigating your Youkai through randomly generated dungeons, all while fighting other Youkai and attempting to stave off hunger. The game offers 3 modes of play, a mode where you collect 3 scrolls to unlock other Youkai, an easy mode, and an endless challenge, which puts your strategy to the test. While each run is short and easy to fit into 30 minutes or so, the runs are brutal, and at times incredibly unforgiving.
Each Youkai has it's own playstyle, such as the Chouchin Obake (paper lantern) who depends heavily on their firespitting ability, stealth and evasion for survival. In comparison, the Kamaitachi (weasel with blades for paws) Is a much more well rounded melee focused character. In addition to playstyles, each Youkai has different inherent stats. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to show this, so trial and error seems to be the way to go. You'll start with 3 Youkai, Kamaitachi, and two others (Yuki Onna, that cat thing, Chouchin Obake and Karakasa)
The main encouragement for exploration, besides the need to find food and the staircases to the next level is to find Hidotama, the wayward human spirits on each floor. Seeking out Hidotama and absorbing them is the way that you progress your level and acquire new abilities for your selected Youkai. The enemies you encounter can do the same, and it makes for a life or death scenario battling a monster who's a level higher than you. Another reason to explore is to find Omamori, charms that can give your Youkai a much needed stat buff based on the kind it provides. The wood Omamori halves your hunger rate per turn, which gives you a lot more breathing room to explore the maps. In most runs I've done, I usually find around 2-3, the most common being ATK up or DEF up as well as the aforementioned wood Omamori. These charms can really make or break a run, so trying to find them while managing your hunger is highly recommended.
Because of the hunger mechanic, being economical in your moves is important, and with each floor food becomes more and more scarce. Using abilities further increases your hunger, so opting to just use basic attacks can be the more pragmatic option at times. There's not much you can use for gauging the mechanics outside of the "stuffed, peckish, famished and starving" statuses underneath the health bar, so sometimes it's just better to eat anything you find immediately, including corpses of defeated Youkai and bones. They don't really do much but anything helps to stave off your hunger, especially as you reach the bottom floors. When you reach the famished status, it seems like you no longer can heal by resting on your turn. Upon reaching starving, unless you have a large health pool or are nearby a source of food, you're essentially dead. each turn will take chunks out of your health, and will kill you quickly, ending what could have been a promising run.
If you've been careful about managing your hunger, strategic in your fights, and diligent in collecting the scrolls and omamori, you'll reach the tenth floor. The bottom floor contains a room with slots for the scrolls, which upon placing the three in the slots, summons the King of Hell, Enma Daiou, an incredibly powerful but slow boss who can summon 2 Oni, making the fight difficult. If you can defeat him (the oni are not necessary to kill), the run ends and you unlock a randomly selected Youkai for your next dungeon runs. Any Youkai you encounter in the game are playable, including Enma Daiou (who almost trivializes runs) and the Hidotama.
As for some of the problems with this game, the music in this game is, well, interesting for the first few times you play, but seeing as there's really only one theme for the first 9 floors and one for the tenth floor, you'll get tired of it quickly and want to turn it off. Ranged attacks have some really bizarre mechanics (some attacks can curve around corners??), and basic combat is relatively boring. The item inventory is fine, but it can be fiddly at times when there's multiple items in the same place. Because of the rapid pacing of the hunger mechanic, some of the buffs from food items, such as tofu get pushed to the wayside in order to just stave off hunger, meaning most of the buffs never come into play outside of situational strategic usages. Enemies tend to be able to see you beyond your own vision range, which can lead to you getting shot at/debuffed by something you don't even see. it's a rougelike, so the random nature means you can die within the first few moves, and for some that can be offputting, especially if you get surrounded.
Yōdanji's biggest draw really comes down to how easy it is to pick up and play. It's a tough little distraction that has charming character designs and a decent learning curve. While I wish it had more transparency in some of it's mechanics, the short nature of the game means even the most frustrating defeat isn't too much to be upset about. Finally unlocking that Youkai you hate to fight against gives you some interesting insights about how to deal with them when you encounter them again. All in all, it's 5 bucks and it's got enough charm to give it a try.
Some tips for new players:
-Kamaitachi is well rounded, with a 1d4 base attack, healing ability and multiple offensive options, as well as a AOE attack and speed boost which can double your turns against enemies. Kamaitachi is good for learning the ropes, but they're not particularly good against ranged characters.
-Don't underestimate the value of having at least one Sake on you, it can really help turn the tide of a battle if you get surrounded, or you encounter an already powerful Youkai who has also absorbed the Hidotama for that level
-Fight smart! If you see a lot of enemies, and they see you, try to funnel them into a small room to fight them one on one.
-Running away is always a good option for survival. Just be aware that some enemies such as Karakasa operate well when there's a few spaces between you and them. Run upstairs if you're really under threat, enemies stay on their floor.
-Ranged enemies almost always blow through their SP trying to kill you from afar. If you can withstand it, once they're out they will move towards you, giving you the option to retaliate.
-certain rooms will almost always contain Omamori, such as the lantern room or the forest room, as well as the rooms filled with cobwebs. Be cautious that it will almost always be a big fight situation with multiple Youkai, so make sure you're prepared
-this is a tooltip in game as well, but if you see a staircase, scout it out, sometimes the Hidotama will be nearby, which means you can return to the current level you're on with a stronger Youkai
-Sometimes it's a good idea to drop items. Nothing disappears if you leave it there, so sometimes you can drop the scrolls in a place you'll remember and use that inventory space to carry something more useful like an Omamori until you can put that down.
-Finally, Enma Daiou has a base speed of 90, meaning you may be able to get in two moves. Be careful, as Enma Daiou can cause a bleed proc on you as part of his abilities, and bleed does more damage if you are moving as opposed to sitting still. Only Enma Daiou must be defeated to complete the run.
