In the overworld, the player collects apples to heal spends currency at shops swaps out “equipment,” or abilities, at trading posts and upgrades current equipment at anvils. Gameplay in Dicey Dungeons is divided into two segments: moving around an overworld and fighting enemies. While it isn’t an integral part of the experience, and as such there isn’t much focus on it, it’s still a wonderful side addition that kept me entertained from start to finish. Look at this rhyming pirate! The campy humor this game offers is adorable.ĭicey Dungeons ’ story rolls a 5 out of 6 for me. All fun bits of character building that don’t really factor into the game, but it’s nice to have dialogue that shows the designer’s love for each element of design. There are even unlockable bits of lore about individual enemies, in the form of a survey about where the enemy came from, why they came into the dungeon, and even what they like. Getting even a little bit more insight into this odd fantasy dungeon is intriguing, since Cavanagh generally keeps the origins of the dungeons and characters out of the player’s reach. It’s an interesting, random reward for continuously clearing fights, and one that I find myself constantly excited to see occur. This can also be said for the contestants’ enemies, which are occasionally given lines of dialogue upon being defeated in combat.

Their dialogue evolves based on the completion of their episodes, from pure naivety to slow realization of their eternal damnation, and how each victim reacts to their own fate (whether by optimism, disillusionment, or confusion) is kept on-character and well-written throughout. The Warrior is your typical meathead the Thief thinks he’s going to easily win the whole competition, and refuses to back down the Robot is a smarty-pants who wants to remove the need to sleep from its life etc. The six playable characters, or contestants, each have a distinct personality. She’s a villain, through and through, but she’s a captivating one, and that’s what I love about her. This is primarily played for laughs the dialogue between Lady Luck and her unfortunate contestants is condescending, yet charming. While it is not expressly stated whether Lady Luck is evil or not, she does tend to be rather callous towards her contestants and dungeon-dwelling monsters.

Each of the game’s participants believe they are about to win it big and be set for life however, they keep crit-failing, and the wheel of fortune never seems to grant them their wish… The story is simple: Lady Luck, shown above, has offered a tantalizing prize - whatever the heart desires - to anyone who can beat her game show “Dicey Dungeons.” In search of various spoils, six volunteers are turned into anthropomorphic dice and sent into the dungeon to fight it out with baby squids, awkwardly fit snowmen, and other odd monstrosities. Lady Luck, Your “Benevolent” Host The Story: Roll-Playing So, let’s try and unveil Lady Luck’s scheme by rolling high and jamming out. So, while it’s like a lot of roguelites in that you still have randomized encounters, battles, and maps, you generally know what to expect when you click one of a character’s episodes. While a lot of its themes are similar to games of the genre, Cavanagh rolled the dice a different way: Rather than having a single, randomly generated map that players slowly progress through, Dicey Dungeons produces an episodic format of gameplay, wherein each of the game’s playable characters has six different events to go through. At first glance, Dicey Dungeons seems to be just another RNG-heavy indie to join the mass of roguelites flooding the Steam library. Developed by Terry Cavanagh, the man who designed the cult-classic VVVVVV and entertaining Super Hexagon, Dicey Dungeons rolled a solid 5 out of 6 on Steam ( 83% user approval rating) within its first two weeks, with a good reroll on itch.io ( 4.8/5).Īs a connoisseur of indie roguelites myself, I took to the game with the same fervor that I had when tackling games like Rogue Legacy or Risk of Rain, and found myself… a little surprised. Making its grand debut on Steam and itch.io, Dicey Dungeons opened to a rousing applause from its studio audience. What Happens in the Dungeon, Stays in the Dungeon… Forever.

Dicey dungeons characters