izigame.me

I would like to start this review by stating that I have 400 hours in DD1. I played an 80 hour Bloodmoon campaign directly before playing DD2 (for over 50 hours at time of review). I have beaten all 5 Act bosses, with multiple different teams, multiple different times, while having less than 50% of the unlocks when I did so.
I thoroughly enjoy both games for entirely different reasons, and I would not say one is better than the other. These are two different games. They have similar combat and share the same aesthetics, but the core gameplay loop is very different. If you enjoyed Darkest Dungeon, then you will probably find something about this game you like as well. It is 100% worth a try.
This review is for people who have read some of the negative reviews and are still on the fence.
TLDR; Game is very hard. Game is also very good. Me like game very much.
==== The Good ====
Visuals:
I was on the fence about the 3D models when I first played the early access version, they've since grown on me. Dripping in style and atmosphere. Love the aesthetics. Enemy designs are ridiculously cool. All the characters are oozing with personality. Animations feel weighty and impactful. No notes.
Sound:
Good ol' Wayne June can't go wrong. Not as iconic as the lines from DD1, but give it time. Soundtrack is phenomenal. In game sound effects are great as well. No notes.
Gameplay:
Difficult, stressful, but oddly satisfying. Different game play loop than DD1. I was hopping back and forth between both games over the last week and it felt like I was playing a different game each time. Scratches the same itch but with different time investments and expectations in each.
Combat is similar enough in both, but DD2 expands upon those ideas with the token system. I happen to like the token system very much, I don't know if I'd call it 'better' but I do think that it's more in-depth and interesting to engage with. More information is available to a player at a glance. However it is a lot to be presented with at once, which makes learning it more intimidating than DD1. Your mileage may vary.
==== The "Its Aight" ====
The Relationship system has gone through several iterations. I currently enjoy it where it's at now. You can get certain bonuses to various skills, buffs during combat, and even tag team attacks or defenses with positive relationships. The opposite for negative relationships. You can influence it in various ways, such as attacking the same enemy back to back, healing party members off deaths door, etc. It can be frustrating at times, but it's overall pretty easy to manage and even trivialize to a certain extent by using Inn Items to push relationships into the positive. If your party hates each other by the mountain, you're essentially going into the Darkest Dungeon with a fully afflicted party. It's going to be a bad time.
==== The Meh ====
Cant skip dialogue and cut-scenes you've already seen. Mildly annoying.
==== The Bad ====
For me the only real negative is the time it takes to unlock everything. Cut that time in half and I feel like it would be paced out much better. But I also was getting back to back successful runs very early on, which already makes things easier because I had more tools to play with. I don't dislike the unlock system, I just wish it didn't take nearly as long. Also would be nice if you could access The Alter at any time outside of a run.
==== Addressing Negative Reviews ====
I have read through a lot of the negative reviews of DD2, and I just wholeheartedly disagree with most of the complaints. I would like to break down some of those complaints and offer my own counterpoints to them.
I'm going to say the obvious here, but many of the complaints can be boiled down to "Skill Issue" and I don't mean that in the "Git Gud" kind of way. I genuinely mean that there seems to be a fundamental lack of understanding the game's mechanics / party composition.
- Too RNG heavy
The game is no more RNG heavy/reliant than DD1 was. Full stop. In fact in a lot of ways it's less RNG heavy, because you can factor in tokens when making decisions rather than numbers. You know if an enemy has a crit token, you know if the enemy has a dodge token, these things don't happen randomly. Any attack you make will connect with the enemy barring any blind/dodge tokens. You have knowledge of turn order at the start of the turn. You can see most of what is ahead of you if you scout.
Good and Bad RNG happens in both games and in my experience the RNG in DD1 is far more punishing, because you have much less information to work off of.
While you can certainly make an argument that random Trinkets / Stage Coach items can influence your run, I've never had a run where I didn't find any useful trinkets. I'm not saying it can't happen, but I've yet to find it an issue in 50 hours of playtime. I have completed runs with bad trinkets. Its possible to complete a run with no trinkets at all.
In DD1, once you have all the best trinkets, there is very little reason to use anything else. DD2 forces you to make the best of what you find, which fits it's game play loop better. Whether you enjoy that or not is totally an individual preference.
- Planning runs isn't possible / required
Planning runs in DD2 is just as involved in DD1. You want to build a strong composition covering all your bases (tanking, healing, stress recovery, damage and dots). You want to know what bosses your build will be better against. For instance a combo team built around a Leper is going to have a much harder time with The Librarian or Sleeping General than they will the Leviathan.
I have beaten every DD2 end boss blind going in with strong all around team. I purposely switch out party members so I don't become reliant on any one character. Every character has their strengths and weaknesses.
- Stress doesn't matter / the affliction system was removed
First off, the affliction system is still present it's just different. Meltdowns replaced Afflictions and Resolute replaced Virtuous.
Stress matters a lot in DD2, I would go so far as to say that it matters even more than it did in DD1. The relationship system-- love it or hate it-- is an extension of the stress mechanic, It is *THE* most impactful system to having successful runs. If you let meltdowns happen and you start to have negative relationships, your run *will suffer* You not only get part of your kit disabled if it locks in a skill you did not want to use, it's even worse if a skill that you *DO* use starts handing out non-stop debuffs. Fortunately, the relationship system can be trivialized pretty easily by hard focusing it and always buying every single relationship boosting item. Good or bad, up to you to decide, personally I like the current iteration of relationships. But to say that stress is not important is just factually incorrect.
- Unlocks don't matter
Unlocks are all incredibly influential and go a long ways towards making runs easier overall. There's not much to be said here. Stronger characters, better path choices, better items. They also add variety. You don't need them to be successful, but they help and they are very impactful.
==== Conclusions ====
Ultimately if you don't like the game, then you don't like the game and that's fine. Some people will love it, some will prefer DD1 or DD2, and others will hate both games with a passion. If you enjoyed DD1, I think there's a lot of fun to be had with DD2. It offers a similar experience in a different package. I'd say give it a try, and if you really don't like it then you can always refund it.
The masochist in me absolutely adores both games for different reasons. I'm looking forward to the Kingdoms update, as I think that will add a ton to the DD2 experience and help bridge the gap between both games.
Game is very hard. Game is also very good. Me like game very much.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk