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Darkest Dungeon: For those passionate about horror topics, regardless of whether it is from a movie or a story, the name “H.P Lovecraft” must be no longer strange.
Originally a rare author when he was alive, but today, the horror works of HP Lovecraft have become a supernatural phenomenon, loved by many readers, even the background foundation for an entire fantasy universe called “Lovecraftian.”
Horror films adapted or inspired by the works of H.P Lovecraft also have a separate category, called “Cosmic Horror.”
Humans are just weak existences in this world, unable to resist the absolute power of horrible entities with fangs, venom, tentacles coming from other dimensions.
So special, of course, there are many video game products that “follow” this Lovecraftian theme, whether “raw” or borrowed a little context (like the Grim Dawn or Bloodborne RPG series, for example).
Undeniably, with the bizarre setting, the same atmosphere, and the disgusting monster creation, the Lovecraftian-style products are more or less picky about the player – but this adds to the ghostly substance, the mysticism of this unique subject.
Most successful Lovecraftian games, it is impossible not to mention Darkest Dungeon – an extremely quality and equally “evil” game from Red Hook Studios.
Although this is a game that has been released for a long time, it is a good game; there is no reason to distinguish between new and old, especially if it is possible to “popularize” it for many players to know come over?
So, how is Darkest Dungeon a game, how good is it, what’s special?
The plot in Darkest Dungeon revolves around a monstrous rich man, who the game calls “The Ancestor.”
Capital has so much money that he can’t eat and spend his whole life, but this hand still feels empty despite being surrounded by good wine and beautiful girls.
Then (like every character in the Lovecraft universe), he heard strange voices echoing in his head one day, prompting him to find the secret buried right below this mansion.
Having spent their fortune digging through a labyrinth just below the family manor, The Ancestor eventually found a ghostly gate leading into an ancient shrine that had been buried for centuries.
And (like every episode in Lovecraft) a terrifying entity awakens, killing the miners as well as possessing The Ancestor’s corpse.
Aware of his foolish actions, before being completely possessed by the ghostly entity, both mentally and physically, The Ancestor wrote a letter to the only surviving descendant of the family (the Ancestor) player, calling him back to save his clan and stop the evil monster.
The player’s journey home did not go smoothly when bandits ambushed him in the jungle near his home.
While fighting and running, the player finds a poor village on the outskirts. That can also be considered a “base,” a springboard for players to organize themselves as a team before deep into the forbidden areas, which have been transformed since the ancient evil forces were unsealed.
At its core, Darkest Dungeon’s core gameplay is role-playing, roguelike game, where each location in the game will have completely different textures and events each time it’s replayed (procedurally generated levels).
Players in Darkest Dungeon will organize a team of 4 characters of different occupations. Each journey into the tunnels will have independent developments, making players have to calculate if they do not want the whole team to be “destroyed.”
Battles in Darkest Dungeon are turn-based, with players and enemies lined up facing each other.
Each unit in the game will have attacks with unique damage, effects, and range.
For example, there are attacks that only “with” up to the first two cells of the enemy, so of course, it is completely useless if you want to attack the units behind.
Therefore, the positioning of the characters and the enemy’s position is an extremely important factor in Darkest Dungeon.
The difference in the battle mechanism of Darkest Dungeon is also in the “spirit” of the characters.
Some attacks deal negligible physical damage but drastically reduce the character’s mental stats.
The more mentally depressed, the easier it is for the character to miss, hit, or get fatal – and of course, it also comes with unsettled mental expressions; the mouth begins to chatter and makes others crazy!
Although it is a roguelike game with room-by-room exploration, Darkest Dungeon integrates many novel mechanics that make it different from most of the same type.
Typically, the “light” system in the game: by default, the dungeons are murky, dark, the player’s team must carry torches to light the way.
The light will weaken and die out, while the odds of appearing enemies, even “terrible monsters,” will increase sharply if the night is denser.
But, “the dose is more,” and in the dark, the reward obtained from the enemy will be more and “genuine,” so, with Darkest Dungeon, players are always torn between two streams of thought: “play safe” and “Yolo.”
The “psychological trauma” from these “going away” parallels to the dangerous adventures in the dungeon,” whether successful or unsuccessful.
As mentioned above, the “spirit” stat has a huge effect on the team’s combat strength, and unfortunately, there is very little way for it to recover on its own.
Instead, players can bring their characters to participate in “social” activities to “relieve stress and chill.”
However, each character has a different way to relieve stress: from going to a pub to sip to playing cards.
Grandparents Teach, don’t be wrong, and with Darkest Dungeon, after life-changing journeys in dungeons or reckless games, the “afterglow” left behind is ” intrinsic” is extremely badass!
where can you get a Darkest Dungeon online
Darkest Dungeon Japanese Ver.: Buy it now
Darkest Dungeon Collector’s Edition (Nintendo Switch): Buy it now
Darkest Dungeon: Ancestral Edition – PlayStation 4: Buy it now
Every character in Darkest Dungeon has both light and dark sides, or in other words, positive and negative intrinsics.
The negative “badass” passives will sometimes turn your character into a guy who only babbles to humiliate his brothers or is greedy despite the safety of the whole team.
These factors make the variation when building a team in Darkest Dungeon more diverse and unique.
One of the strongest impressions that Darkest Dungeon gives players, at first sight, is the extremely monstrous and dark graphic style!
It can be said that it is somewhere between “beautiful” and “bad,” but it fits the context and gameplay of Darkest Dungeon strangely!
With its peculiar setting, Darkest Dungeon chose a character design style that blends the dark Middle Ages, interwoven with modern details of the 20s and 30s (in the style of The Mummy movies. or Indiana Jones).
That is reflected in the heavy armor costumes of the Crusader warriors, the Occulties’ hijab combo and the full cloak, or the Plague Doctor’s signature “crow beak” mask…
All images in Darkest Dungeon are shown by hand-drawn strokes, combined with very thick and harsh strokes, creating a very strong impression like American-style “dark comics.”
With the main color tone being black, red, mixed with the stained and dirty colors of white and yellow, everything in Darkest Dungeon exudes a spooky, weird look of a chaotic, unstable world, as if always waiting to “bathe” everything in blood…
The types of enemies in Darkest Dungeon are even more bizarrely painted, and all have the characteristics of the environment in which they live.
For example, bandits on the edge of the forest take the form of humans, except for some monstrous “boss” deformed (like in the Berserk manga).
The sea monsters in the coastal temples are boldly shaped like fish and shrimp, with human anatomy, just like the monsters in the movies Dagon or Pirates of Curry (Davy Jones’s crew).…
They all work together perfectly, both in terms of shaping, design, and specific skill sets, highlighting the characteristics of each type.
In terms of animation, with a 2D game, Darkest Dungeon has done too well what it needs to do to convey the feeling of fighting very “force” without being cumbersome and ornate.
All attack scenes in the game are represented by still pictures that are cut apart and “stacked” into many large pieces, accompanied by a method of alignment, reasonable movement to create very powerful blows, gore, and extremely artistic and surreal.
Although it is so good and attractive, in Darkest Dungeon, in addition to the Lovecraft-style “dirty” theme and the dark, horror color, what makes it most players easy to “drift away” From the game is the “terrible difficulty” that the game brings.
From the first minutes, Darkest Dungeon players understood that their journey would never be sweet and fragrant flowers or convincing “repression of the trenches” phase…
Darkest Dungeon has a very “strong” way of adjusting damage, accompanied by the fact that the enemy has a “dynamic” level that self-promotes according to the player; Rarely does the player feel that he can launch attacks with “large” damage.
Every match in Darkest Dungeon always ends with many injuries and “psychological sequelae” in the player’s party, no matter how rationally they build the team or how carefully calculated.
With Darkest Dungeon, battles are always “arena” of bad effects, from poisoning, bleeding, weakening … to stun, madness…
Therefore, the player has to balance the damage to end the match quickly; he must find a way to neutralize these bad states, which is always a headache in the game.
The difficulty is that but the financial balance in Darkest Dungeon is not much “comfortable.”
With a small amount of capital, having to spend on food, lights, and other necessities, it is true that an average trip in the Darkest Dungeon is hardly profitable unless the player recklessly turns off the lights treasure hunt or brings Antiquarian class character.
The dungeons in Darkest Dungeon are divided according to the party’s average level, making players think twice before diving into high-level dungeons.
That makes the player have to “feed” a lot of teams, including different purposes, and give the character a break alternately.
After all, Darkest Dungeon has a very high level of punishment.
When a character runs out of blood, they do not die immediately but fall into the state of Death’s Door.
In addition to reducing many stats, any damage taken has a chance to kill in this state, causing the character to die immediately!
The character in Darkest Dungeon that dies is permadeath, regardless of level, and there is no way to recover it, a unique style of roguelike game!
With the peculiarity of endless dungeons that do not stop, countless unexpected adverse events, many indicators such as health, spirit, light, food must be managed. An Adventure in Darkest Dungeon requires a lot of players, both in terms of caution, alertness, and a relaxed spirit, not too heavy on the loss!