KickStarter Darkest Dungeon AKA the Celerity Attention Whore Thread

[Celerity]

"Steam Workshop Update
We are making progress on Steam Workshop integration and will begin testing it very soon. (If you are a dedicated modder and want to take part in the closed test, please contact us.) Some of you will be excited to know that, as part of the modding support, we are exposing additional variables and settings that have been previously inaccessible. For example, torch settings!"

If only they hadn't been complete shitlords when dealing with the only dedicated modder with any amount of actual talent! If only!

 

[pippin]

Why do you want to fix the game when you can make the Hellion look like Red Sonja?

 

[Jason Liang]

AVClub lists Derpest Dungeon as one of the best games of 2016:

http://www.avclub.com/article/our-favorite-games-2016-part-2-247170

I liked Darkest Dungeon because it made me doubt my Dungeons & Dragons characters’ sanity. I’ve played a lot of role-playing games where my characters have been faced with tough choices, terrible odds, and horrific monsters. I try to play out some of that stress through role-playing and the occasional game-master-imposed penalty to show that things were really bad, but I never considered the level of trauma that could be inflicted on a character just by walking around a dark catacomb or triggering a spike trap.

The opening cinematic of Darkest Dungeon lays out the game’s fundamental message: “There can be no bravery without madness.” Your characters are constantly straddling the line between heroes and nervous wrecks, especially since the same stressors can either push them to new heights of power that make them a huge asset to your four-person party or cause them to break down, begging to return to town so they can get a brief respite through gambling or self-flagellation.

Here, sanity is as much a resource as your characters’ hit points, and neglecting it will give your party a spectacularly diverse range of derangements. In Darkest Dungeon, you either die a hero or live to become a kleptomaniac who’s obsessed with corpses. That’s not the sort of character development that makes for a particularly stable role-playing game, but since there are always new heroes looking to prove their mettle, watching your party members’ rapid degeneration provides a fascinating look into the psyche of those who would take up the call.

Other listed games of codex interest are Dark Souls 3, XCom: Enemy Within, The Witcher 3, I am Setsuna and both Pokemon games. Snubbed (imo) are Invisible Inc. and AoD.

 

[MrMarbles]

I put about 20 hours into this and can't remember having fun at any point along the way. Too grindy.

 

[Celerity]

The shills are really fast about downvoting my review. Must be on their secret mailing/discord list.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.pcgamer.com/best-rpg-2016-darkest-dungeon/

Best RPG 2016: Darkest Dungeon
Deep dungeons, eldritch horrors, and shaky heroes make Darkest Dungeon special.

Darkest Dungeon is our RPG of the year. GOTY gongs are chosen by PC Gamer staff through voting and debate. We'll be posting an award a day leading to Christmas, along with personal picks from the PCG team. Keep up with all the awards so far here.

Evan Lahti: Total artistic and creative cohesion. Darkest Dungeon brings the best parts of Lovecraft into a roguelike RPG, but does so without getting bogged down in cliche. Its eldritch enemies are so wonderfully hateable, and all of them can cause trouble. Even an unlucky lump of 20 stress from a lowly cultist frustrates you, gets under your skin. Darkest Dungeon is committed to its difficulty: there's a single, intended difficulty setting, and I've heard tales of people dying in the tutorial. Along with XCOM, it's one of the few games where you can be 40 hours in and then lose a huge chunk of progress if you botch a dungeon run.

But unlike XCOM, Darkest Dungeon pushes you to treat your party members not as handmade, precious heroes that you nurse from recruits to legends, but as disposable napkins that you use to sop up the unearthly horror left behind by your ancestor. Every character is a tool that will break (usually mentally), become diseased, or gain some costly predilection. Get too attached to a Highwayman or a Hellion, and you'll waste loads of gold curing them of every malady. Getting over that emotional hump, that instinct to love and develop your soldiers, the most interesting aspect of the game.

Chris Thursten: Darkest Dungeon excels in every area. The artwork, music, and writing are all phenomenal—and as Evan notes, they're all cohesive parts of an intricate, punishing whole. Driving parties of doomed mercenaries deeper and deeper into your horror-haunted family manor, you're tasked with managing their sanity along with their safety. Through a complex interweaving of RPG systems, random dungeon generation and ambient detail, stories emerge. There was the stalwart knight with a kleptomaniac streak, whose reliability as a front-line combatant meant I overlooked the fact that he'd steal a few thousand gold worth of artifacts on every run. Or the fraught scouting expedition where each of my warrior-priestesses went mad, in turn, until they started to refuse healing with increasing frequency and had to be pulled screaming through each encounter by a paranoid jester. It's not the year's flashiest RPG, but the memories Darkest Dungeon have created have stuck with me.

Tyler Wilde: On my first quest I forgot to bring any torches. My party survived, barely, but by the end they were all on the edge of death and had become irrational or masochists. Darkest Dungeon is like playing D&D with a DM who secretly knows you regifted the box of artisanal cheese you gave them last year. You have not been forgiven. Roll a saving throw against a sudden heart attack, you clod.

Evan Lahti: The mileage that Darkest Dungeon gets out of its 2D art and presentation is ridiculous. It's way more than the sum of its parts in this department. The hand-drawn characters—enemies, bosses, and heroes—are grim, grotesque, and colorful, but it's the expressive animation, camera movement, and ominous narration that make it all work, adding physicality and drama to fights. It also helps that your characters don't completely adhere to RPG archetypes: I love bringing a tanky Leper into battle alongside a Houndsman, Occultist, and Jester, who's basically an evil bard.

 

[Celerity]

I'm not sure why you're dancng. They're putting you out of your shilling job. They took yer jerb!

Seriously, could they be more disingeous? Both Derpest and XCOM have generic disposable units, the dfiference is XCOM has actual customization options and might actually kill a non retard.

 

[mutonizer]

Since when Darkest Dungeon is an RPG? or XCOM for that matter?
What the fuck are they talking about? Do words mean anything nowadays or everyone just gave up?

 

[Grampy_Bone]

It really seems like journos jizzing on the game because it's lovecraftian + permadeth + not AAA studio-made. I doubt any of them played it more than 10 hours.

 

[Zombra]

Since when Darkest Dungeon is an RPG? or XCOM for that matter?

I think both qualify. Do you really want to have this conversation?

 

[Jason Liang]

As much as we codexians love to love AoD and love to hate Derpest Dungeon, in truth AoD does many things poorly and Derpest Dungeon does many things well.

If we are honest about ourselves, we love AoD and hate Derpest Dungeon because we are combatfags to some degree or another. We might claim to admire AoD's story and setting, but take away the sweet combat system design and I doubt any of us would find AoD remarkable.

Derpest Dungeon's strength is its malleability. It can be shaped and customized into many forms, depending on the desire of the player. The player can make it easy, or make it a difficult challenge. It can be played as if it were a heroic game, or it can be played as if it were a cynical game. It can be narrative, or it can simply be a gonzo dungeon monty haul. Derpest Dungeon can be sadistic for masochists, or it can be masochistic for sadists.

Nearly all of the systems in Derpest Dungeon embody this philosophy. The light system: you can run safe, with max torches, or you can gamble, thrill and run dark. You can max out supplies, or you can be stingy.

 

[Jaesun]

The Codex hates Darkest Dungeon?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

The Codex hates Darkest Dungeon?

It's a merely okay game, easily exploited gameplay and good presentation, but the lulz is top quality.

 

[Jason Liang]

The Codex hates Darkest Dungeon?

I haven't read any posts here arguing that it's 2016 RPGOTY...

 

[mutonizer]

I think[..]

That's your problem right here. You think you're thinking, but think about it and realize you just were not actually thinking. Common issue really, just try again...

There is nothing whatsoever in Darkest Dungeon that makes it's defining characteristic a RPG in any way shape or form. Having a couple stats and level systems does not a RPG make. Doesn't make it good or bad, it's just an objective fact. Civilization 6 is not an RPG because you can level up a couple units, FTL is not an RPG because you can rename and skill up your dudes, Witcher 3 is not a platformer because you can jump on a rock, D:OS is not an MMO because you can play multiplayer.
Football Manager is however an actual RPG, so is CK2. Not their defining characteristics but the term actually fits, unlike Darkest Dungeon. It's actually pretty good I think, for what it aims to do, but it's just retarded to consider it for a RPG award. There is no "role" being "played" in the "game" whatsoever. Sure there is a story that pretends it's some dude but it's bullshit fluff without any impact on the game whatsoever, just like XCOM for example (the "commander", which means nothing but you as yourself), or a Civ 6 ruler (which also means nothing in the game whatsoever).

That said, it comes from PC gamer apparently, the morons who cannot even comprehend what "literal definition" actually means...

 

[Jason Liang]

Except Derpest Dungeon does give you a role, and you do things outside of the dungeon combat: you hire adventurers, spend loot and develop the village. Since you're playing the Derpest heir.

Traditionally, squad tactical strategy games with a fantasy setting, plot and character advancement have been considered rpgs or at least rpg hybrids- Shining Force or Final Fantasy Tactics, for instance. Even Dungeons and Dragons 4E was more a strategy game than a RPG.

In fact, D&D began as a strategic fantasy war game (TSR). 4E basically returned it to its roots.

In fact, the avclub article suggests that Derpest Dungeon is closer to an RPG than a strategy game.

 

[mutonizer]

Except Derpest Dungeon does give you a role, and you do things outside of the dungeon combat: you hire adventurers, spend loot and develop the village. Since you're playing the Derpest heir.

No you're not. You're just you. The "heir" is like the Commander in XCOM, they are just fluff that do not exist in any way. Hence why FM is actually an RPG now (the manager you play does exists and have tons of important mechanics in the game, including relationships, stats, and whatnot) and this isn't. Again, not a good or bad thing, just simple words being used for their actual meaning.

Shining Force or Final Fantasy Tactics, for instance.

The fuck are you talking about? You play the role of the main character in Shining Force and you play fucking Ramza, the main character, in FF:T.

Even Dungeons and Dragons 4E was more a strategy game than a RPG.

You mean tactic...
...or strategy too if you consider managing your "per rest" shit and whatnot a "strategic" layer.
Anyway, a sub genre doesn't prevent anything from being a RPG. Heck, FIFA with it's player career mode fits the RPG definition perfectly as well and it's a sports game first and foremost. The manager career mode however I'm not sure but I don't think it has actual mechanics in place for it, meaning you play as you, therefore it wouldn't. Could be wrong though. CK2 is a grand strategy game and yet is one of the best RPG out there.

 

[Zombra]

There is no "role" being "played" in the "game" whatsoever.

Oh, because there's no Chosen One, you mean? Yeah, that is confusing to some people. It's OK, you'll grow out of it one day when you realize RPGs are broader than that.

 

[Celerity]

I love that people are now calling it Derpest Dungeon, as it should be. Anyways, PCGamer is GJP so it's no surprise they're bought out by indie clique baiters. Same with all the other fake awards on their page.

This review puts it almost as well as mine:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/thicklogoffeces/recommended/262060/

Jason Liang You could argue that people like AoD mostly because they're combat fags. I wouldn't argue with that because I bought it and haven't tried it yet. But arguing that those same combat fags would like Derpest with this autistic combat fag telling you it's just Hellion and damage spam? By that logic Derpest has even less going for it as the only demographic that likes it is retarded hipster posers. Which granted, are easily scammed (see also: Anita Sarcassian) so if you just want easy marks for money that is one thing Derpest Dungeon did do right.

Of course not many people appreciate knowing that it is they, and not their generic interchangable units that are the ones being used and discarded.

 

[Jason Liang]

Celerity, I understand your argument that Derpest Dungeon's combat is derp. For combatfags, combat quality is just as if not more important than combat quantity. We want our games to be JA2/ X-Com/ Dungeon Rats level tactics. So us codexian combatfags agree with you that we easily get bored with Derpest Dungeon for its derp combat. But combatfags devalue the other aspects of a game that appeal to noncombatfags, and that's where i think you are missing the mass appeal of Derpest Dungeon. None of these reviews praise Derpest Dungeon for having a well-designed and balanced combat systems But Derpest Dungeon does "other" gaming things well, it just isn't the right game for combatfags.

 

[undecaf]

There is no "role" being "played" in the "game" whatsoever.

Oh, because there's no Chosen One, you mean? Yeah, that is confusing to some people. It's OK, you'll grow out of it one day when you realize RPGs are broader than that.

Not having played Darkest Dungeon I don't really have anything to say about it specifically, but RPG's definitely do not need a "chosen one" nor a specific power-story.

 

[Celerity]

Jason Liang You have a point there, but in all seriousness there is literally nothing else there but the narrator and he starts becoming copy pasted right around the time the enemies do - 2 hours max.

The music is very basic with about 10 tracks in total, the story is practically not existent, the art loses its novelty real fast when you realize drawing eyes correctly is the mark of a talented artist and guess what part is conspicuously missing from almost every character?

Most of the reviews pretend it's some really hardcore well balanced Roguelike, which is obviously a sign of:

1: Zero experience. I've seen "release" announcements that use pre alpha video footage so clearly they never played the fucking thing recently at all.
2: Minimal experience + paid review. Most repeat the same shillish talking points with the same writing style. If you know what Game Journo Pros is you understand why already.
3: Completely retarded nu maales judging games despite having no clue what a game even is (except even Cucktaku called it Cookie Clicker, LMFAO)

If you discount the 3k paid reviews for #ShillsGiving the rating drops every day and unless the shills get butthurt and throw 50 downvotes on every negative review like they're doing now those are what will dominate.

 

[Reinhardt]

 

[Matalarata]

"He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it."

 

[imweasel]

Finally got around to playing this for a few hours.

It isn't a prestigious CRPG or dungeon crawler but a grinding simulator with very extensive level scaling and repetitive combat.

--> uninstall.exe