Mechanics are all super cool. They’ve done a great job giving you a lot of fun toys to play with as your build evolves. There’s so much going on and it’s an absolute blast to play.
However, my biggest concern going in was that it’s going to be a grinding game, and I’m a grumpy old man who hates grinding games. Of course it would be, a proper Roguelike would not be accessible to Nintendo’s target audience.
There are a lot of permanent upgrades to unlock, and they have a pretty big impact. Big enough that the game is clearly designed around them. Surely I cannot just skip them… but I’m so stubborn that I tried to anyway.
I spent about four hours trying to see if I could clear it without buying any permanent upgrades. I managed to get to floor 21 once, but it was an incredibly painful struggle and I couldn’t get that far again.
Not having enough DPS can cause enemy spawns to snowball out of control and feel like there’s just no hope of recovery, I don’t know what to do if I literally can’t kill them faster than they keep coming. Lack of defensive upgrades also makes it way too easy to die in situations that felt out of my control. There’s one particular enemy that will put you in Danger in one hit, and the movement penalty while in Danger makes it virtually impossible to avoid getting hit again and die. Most of my runs ended to that guy in particular.
Still, it feels like it’s gotta be possible for a much more skilled player than me, or at least a lucky one. I got close once! But I could see it’s not how Nintendo wants me to play the game, so eventually I swallowed my pride and bought a few upgrades. I was a little relieved to find out that upgrades can actually be toggled back off at will, so Nintendo did leave the door open for this playstyle…
And from there I got a win in just two more attempts. Spoilers in the next reply!
