Dicefolk

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When I first saw the trailer for this game, I waited in anticipation to get the opportunity to get this game. As a huge fan of creature collecting games, I often think about how in games like these, the creatures are characterized, what traits are being highlighted about them and/or grants the creatures their unique charm. In "Dicefolk", most of the cartoony, rougelite gameplay is rolling dice to whittle down your opponents. The dice themselves can be taken advantage of by any "Chimera" in your party. The dice have a set of actions that can be comprised of different types of attacks, shielding, rotations that effect leading and non-leading "Chimeras", healing, taunting, mirroring the opponent dice, and etc. As you proceed in a run, there is always an opportunity to win a battle or go to the "Dicesmith" to add different actions to existing dice or getting more sets of dice later from the "Dicesmith" as you proceed to the next area. This leads into a factor of the game I think is one of the best parts of "Dicefolk": everything in this game is telegraphed and when you make a mistake, it feels like you are punching your own face. You are granted a limited party of three "Chimeras" and you can always obtain more "Chimeras" but the party size always remains the same. These "Chimeras" have stats and "Effects". These effects grant many "Chimeras" their abilities and unique charm. Your "Chimeras" and the antagonistic "Chimeras" you are going up against have every single stat laid out for you to see and read. After the dice are rolled, you take your turn at the same time as your opponents, and can be very deliberate about who can take what action during that turn. While luck is a huge factor in terms of what rolls, items, and "Chimeras" you get during each run, there are a number of ways to rein in that probability to turn things more in your favor. In other creature collecting games that involve combat, the key factors in those might be strength and accuracy. A creature in some other game would get moderately stronger attacks with high accuracy, or a powerful attack with decreased accuracy. In those types of games balance like that is perfectly understandable for those games. In "Dicefolk" no singular attack is unique to any "Chimera" so what makes them standout is their "Effects", these passives can immensely turn the tide of combat and end many battles quickly when paired up with different types of items and "Chimeras". Some "Chimeras" grant status conditions, others can influence the start or end of a turn, and other "Chimeras" have modifiable "Effects" and you can increase the stat associated to the effect with one-off stat boosting items and ones that grant stat boosts when held onto which can turn some mild ability "Chimera" into a powerhouse. Some items that don't grant a stat themselves but are better suited with certain "Chimeras" can improve an already existing "Effect", like if a "Chimera's" passive rotated enemy "Chimeras" when attacking, and you put an item that does damage onto enemies based on enemy rotations it improves that "Chimera" significantly. Another aspect of this game I enjoy are "Iridescent Chimeras", in appearance they are effectively what "Shiny Pokemon" are: a rare form of a creature with altered colorations with gleaming and shimmering effects. However, that is where the similarities differ, the distinction in gameplay here is that "Iridescent Chimeras" have an improved version of their "Effects" which renders them more valuable to be sought out. For every expectation I had for this game, it bested it and I have thoroughly enjoyed this and will continue to enjoy this game even after getting all the achievements and doing all the special modes, as I get immense joy out of playing this game. For those who are considering purchasing this game I want to preface that "Dicefolk" is mostly gameplay, the intro and ending sequence and your character's animations are beautifully animated, the music is synergistic to the pace of the scenic areas of the game, seeing the animations and hearing the cries of the "Chimeras" is pretty cool but it is mostly traversing a map that unravels an event as you move across it and thusly leading to eventual combats against "Chimeras". It's an excellent game and I hope to see more out of these game developers and/or this concept.

還不錯玩的小品遊戲，了解遊戲核心玩法後，整體難度不高。 有不同開場徽章及奇美拉配置、特殊模式跟試練模式，全部組合玩完一輪也夠殺時間了。 雖然骰子看似隨機，但多數入場就固定，因此如果不小心按錯，可以退出再進入，當場戰鬥可以重來 最重要的除了攻擊數值外，補血及防禦手段最為重要，是通關的關鍵 至於復活、自傷、打隊友等流派看似可以組合出有趣的combo，也因為奇美拉池、道具池太大，難以組合起來，可惜了原始的設計。拳拳到肉及扎實的回補手段仍是通關的主要手段，小品的roguelike遊戲通病－看似多元，實則難以實現。 但整體來說，算是滿完整的遊戲體驗，適合時間零碎，時常會AFK的玩家，買來殺時間~

It's perfectly OK. PROS: Good art, interface, smooth animations, good controller & steam deck support CONS: - Fights are too long. After you buy ONE Guard dice upgrade, 50% of the time you get a Guard, which completely nullifies an enemy attack. Some turns the enemy doesn't even attack (and Guards stay between rounds!). This makes you don't take damage ~80% of the turns. Even when enemies do attack, Reckless Attacks have your monster counterattack, so if there's a guard they deal 0 damage AND get whacked back. This makes every fighting beyond the first few a slow grind of attrition. - There's too much healing. I swear 25% of the artifacts have healing, and it's all over the place how it's triggered. - The monster designs are... OK. It's obvious these aren't nearly as good as Pokemon (but that's a tall order). - I beat the game on my first try. You'd think I'd be happy about that, but I'm actually disappointed - it means I've already figured the majority of the game out. I DON'T want to win a roguelike on my first try. Good production value doesn't save mediocre gameplay. With so many better roguelikes out there, I just can't recommend it.

It's charming and will probably give a few hours of fun. It'd be nice if there was an option to speed up game animations/turn time. Feels like for a 1 hour run you'd save at least 5-7 minutes.

Bonne petite surprise. Je ne me serais pas lancé sur ce jeu s'il n'était pas compris dans un bundle. Les combats sont simples et permettent des parties courtes. Des succès vont d'ailleurs dans ce sens. Graphiquement, c'est un style qui est en adéquation avec le jeu et l'idée de recruter des chimères en leur attribuant des capacités fonctionnent bien.