It’s kind of amazing how just a few years ago, there was a distinct lack of anyPokémon-inspired games. Even in the indie game scene, which tends to thrive on tributes to classic games, people seemingly wouldn’t dare even make something that even suggested that they would be trying to dethrone the king. But now we have the likes ofCassette Beasts, Moonstone Island, Temtemand more available for alternatives to Nintendo’s creature-collecting games, with more on the way. Leap Games Studios and Tiny Ghoul’s new gameDicefolkis yet another contender in the genre, this time blending creature collecting with roguelikes and dice-based combat. Does it end being a worthy successor or is it an also-ran?
Dicefolkputs players in the shoes of Alea, one of the world’s titular nomads. Dicefolk are capable of wielding magical dice that can alter the will of living things, and Alea has recently realized that she can use her dice to tame the Chimeras, the magical creatures roaming the lands that were bewitched by the evil Salem ages ago. How only one person in a tribe of people weilding such powers has onlynowjust realized that is a slight headscartcher, but regardless, Alea finally decides to use their skill to head out, tame some of the Chimeras they find along the way, and use them to finally put and end to Salem, discovering the truth behind the Chimeras in the process…
Spin Me Round, Like a Record
Gameplay inDicefolksees you starting out with a few generic Chimeras, traversing your way around the randomly-generated map to uncover more beasties to join your ranks, as well as the boss battle that advances things to the next area. Of course, you don’t get anywhere without battling other Chimeras along the way, typically resulting in a three-on-three battle. Should all of your Chimeras get knocked out, it’s game over. The battles consist of turn-based combat where you rotate your team in order to determine the current leader who attacks, which on a surface level, resembles the rotation battles from Generation V and VI of thePokémongames. However, it quickly becomes clear that things are a lot deeper than they appear.
InDicefolk,rotation isn’t just a means of who’s attacking and who’s in charge, as even the mere act of rotation and switching leads has effects on the battle. Certain Chimeras, which when switched into the lead position, can immediately attack all opposing enemies. When others are rotated, they can have a chance to inflict status ailments on random enemies. Equipment can be discovered along the way, and can provide effects like allowing equipped Chimeras to deal three hits of damage when swapped out of the lead. It’s a terrific idea that nicely puts a fresh twist on the formula, and really encourages players to come up with certain strategies to benefit them in all of their clashes.
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Cassette Beasts is one of the best and most entertaining monster-collecting games outside of Pokémon.
Playing Both Sides
The other notable twist when it comes to combat arrives in the form of the game’s signature dice. Starting out with three dice, each focusing on various attacks, movements, and types of defense, each turn sees you rolling the dice in order to determine what moves you can make. You can make as many available moves as you want before ending your turn, but the bigger twist is that you don’t just control your team’s dice, but the enemy team’s dice as well, and unlike with Alea’s dice, youhave to use all of them up (unless any idle faces appear in them) before you can end a turn. This nicely adds to the challenge even further, as now you have to figure out what order of moves between both teams will work best, especially as enemy Chimeras have access to the same skills as your team. SoDicefolkdoes have turn-based combat, but uniquely leaves it up to you and your will-controlling dice to determine who gets what turns when.
The rest ofDicefolktends to fall into familiar roguelike territory, as you uncover more of the map, find more equipment that provides various skills and passive effects and that can allow for deadly synergy, come across the equipment with various drawbacks that provides a bigger payoff, make use of the various status effects that Chimeras can deal out, heal at the one-use campfire, et cetera. It’s not exactly groundbreaking stuff in between battles, but it gets the job done. But you’ll want to keep going back to battles just to check out the Chimeras alone, all of which are very well-designed with a charming style, and definitely have some particularly inspired critters, such as those with odes to various cryptids and mythologies. The game even has “Iridescent” Chimeras with different colors and stronger versions of their regular skills, in a nice nod to its inspiration.
Story Comes Up Snake Eyes
SoDicefolkhas a particularly captivating combat system and a lot of fun Chimeras to work with, and there’s certainly a lot of enjoyment in cultivating battle strategies. And yet, once I finally completed a run and placed one of the four clans' talismans in the door needed to unlock Salem’s area, something happened. The game just showed the talisman being placed, then immediately cut to a Results screen, and…well, my interest level suddenly dived quite a bit, at least for the moment. Why? Well, I had realized that outside of the introduction,Dicefolkis shockingly lacking when it comes to story and world-building.
Now obviously, not every game in the roguelike genre needs some epic tale to keep you coming back for several runs, but I couldn’t help but feel likeDicefolkwas severely lacking compared to its peers. There’s no hub world in between runs where you can chat with people and check your upgrades, all the areas you visit basically just offer up equipment with no real visuals or description of what Alea is heading into, any NPCs you encounter just say the barest minimum with no real insight into the world, and while the Chimeras are well-designed, even the biomes you venture into lack the same creativity when it comes to visuals, so there’s no organic storytelling there. And the story bits youdoget are drip-fed to you, with various texts given to you that only consist of about a paragraph or two, unlocked at a rate of one per run, which you can only access from the main menu.
The point is that even with new Chimeras, locations, and equipment being unlocked as you progress with each run, it can be hard to get invested in Alea’s adventure due to the lack of any real details concerning said adventure. And in addition to being stingy with any lore,Dicefolkalso has stinginess issues in other areas as well. Unless you happen to get your hands on certain equipment, the gold you get from battle - even the Elite ones - feels like a pittance, and barely covers more than one shop item. Related to that, the number of opportunities to actually purchase or earn new dies or faces to customize them are pretty low as well, kind of feels like it undermines one of the game’s key components. The combat alone may certainly be enough to keep you coming back toDicefolk,especially if it means getting that satisfying high off successfully making all the moves needed for a high-damage attack, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a bit of an uphill struggle.
Closing Comments:
Dicefolkhas truly amazing combat that makes great use of its rotation and dice mechanics, and it’s bolstered by a ton of impressive designs in the Chimeras, each packing their own skills that are fun to experiment with as you craft your dream team and playstyle. Unfortunately, the lack of any interesting story hinders the experience and can easily leave you wanting more. Still, as long as you desire a unique spin on the traditional creature-collecting formula and the battles associated with it,Dicefolkcan still be worth checking out, even if the odds of you enjoying the game for longer periods may boil down to a dice roll.
Version Reviewed: PC
