
You'll be fighting with selecting characters just as much as the monsters themselves because unless you have tiny hands it brushes up against the sensors. Couple that with the confounding decision to utilize the Vita's rear touch panel for controls. I understand the game is supposed to be masochistic but after that it ceased to be fun. Or you can fight him, get wiped, and he'll just respawn again. If you evacuate the mission he kills one character (and all deaths are perma). If you avoid it, he destroys two town upgrades (which require even more grinding to repair). This wouldn't be that terrible if the developers hadn't thrown in a game-breaking town event where you're practically forced to combat a sub-boss who's tougher than the end game one. So you'll constantly have to create new parties just to get more gold to maintain that elite group (or two) you've created to combat the higher end dungeons. So does recovery after the dungeon since characters develop quirks and become useless or even die if their stress level reaches a critical point. Leveling is easy upgrading skills, weapons, and armor requires a constant source of gold. Once you get past the (admittedly excellent) facade, Darkest Dungeon is a grind fest. Which is where the cracks start to show in the design. You'll level your party just to throw them into the meat grinder, blast their stress, and eek out a few more resources to build up your hamlet. It's a dungeon simulator where character life is cheap.

It's got the music, narrative, and art style nailed down. It's a dungeon simulator For the first several hours Darkest Dungeon sucks you in.


For the first several hours Darkest Dungeon sucks you in.
