I strive quite a lot of video games for each work and pleasure, and typically one grabs me so instantly and fully that I simply wish to shake it round and shout about it. The Loopy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles is one such launch. Indie developer Repair-a-Bug’s dungeon crawler is without doubt one of the finest RPGs to cross my desk shortly; I used to be completely bought ten minutes in, and one other hour had melted away earlier than I even realized it. Combining D&D-style courses with a novel fight system and an unserious perspective that calls Undertale to thoughts, it is free to strive due to a strong Steam demo, and a cut price worth if you’d like the total factor.
The highest-down perspective of The Loopy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles nearly makes it really feel like a contemporary twist on Rogue, however you’ve extra freeform management as you wander its dungeons. Your aim is to hunt out the fiftieth ground, the place a legendary relic awaits, however alongside the best way you may take care of every little thing from dodging previous traps and struggling with skeletal necromancers, to cooking up a storm to impress a (literal) troll meals critic. There are easy assessments of agility, puzzles to unravel, hidden buttons to seek out, cooking and crafting recipes to be taught, and a complete ton of loot to gear up your character with.
There is a easy pleasure to the exploration, however the fight is much more up my alley. Timing-based actions are all the craze as of late (howdy, Expedition 33), and I like what Repair-a-Bug has constructed right here. Battles pull you to a display screen the place your enemies stand in containers round you, and you have to goal them in real-time to assault or block. Ticking meters preserve observe of who’s subsequent within the flip order, and each blow is traded with a timing minigame that varies in problem primarily based in your opponent. It is not fairly like anything I’ve performed, and it sells the fantasy completely.
The dialogue is essentially lighthearted and, to its credit score, lands way more usually than it misses, even when a number of the jokes had me shaking my head on the truth they’d obtained me to snigger. There’s a variety from puns to extra nuanced thinkers, and even refined jokes that play in your information of every little thing from D&D tropes to basic rock. Thankfully, whereas it is frequent, it hardly ever will get in the best way. Repair-a-Bug is aware of while you simply need data offered clearly and when it could possibly have enjoyable, and manages to maintain the humor feeling flavorful fairly than compelled into each nook.
Probably the greatest features right here is you could tailor your expertise to your tastes. Selecting a personality is a straightforward matter of selecting Hero or Heroine (the opposite turns into a Gary Oak-style rival who seems periodically to taunt you as they try to remain one step forward) and setting your beginning weapon. The spear is ideal when you prefer to be quick, the sword and defend assist you to strike a steadiness between offense and protection, and the mace is ripe for all-out destruction.
After that, nevertheless, you are requested to choose a play type, and that is extra about how the sport presents itself to you. I went with ‘explorer,’ which grants you extra expertise and stock, and ramps up the quantity of puzzles and crafting you may must take care of. Select ‘resolver’ and you will get extra dialogue, simpler battles, and even key encounters you possibly can discuss your approach out of. Go for ‘destroyer’ and you may face extra, harder foes, whereas the sometimes prolonged chit-chat is minimize right down to a naked minimal. It is a intelligent twist on issue that makes me desirous to check out the opposite settings and see how they evaluate to my first playthrough.
The Loopy Hyper-Dungeon Chronicles is out now on Steam, with a ten% launch low cost that means you may pay $11.69 / £9.89 when you purchase it by Thursday October 30. You can too obtain the free demo to strive it out first; simply be warned, you would possibly get sucked in as rapidly as I did.
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