Every so often one comes across a game that looks so similar in style to another game, it’s impossible not to compare them. That’s exactly what happened to me with Devious Dungeon; when I first saw it, it looked like a mini version of Rogue Legacy, one of my favorite indie games of all time. It looked so similar that I actually thought it was by the same developers!
The premise is simple – there’s a dragon under the castle and none of the king’s soldiers could put an end to it, so it’s up to you to take it out. The dragon isn’t on the first floor of the dungeons though, that would be way too easy! Instead, you’ll have to battle your way through over 60 levels and 4 other bosses before your final showdown. Along the way you’ll be taking out countless enemies, hopping on platforms, collecting loot and buying equipment to make yourself stronger and tougher. Each floor has a key to find before you can walk through the exit, and every few floors you’ll get the option to buy gear and have a new spot to jump back into the dungeons if you die.
Like Rogue Legacy, you’ll spend lots of time roaming randomly generated rooms, jumping around, dodging projectiles and learning how to deal with all sorts of enemies to take as little damage as possible. Unlike Rogue Legacy, this really isn’t a roguelike at heart; yes, rooms are randomly generated and yes, there’s a bit of a risk/reward system with exploring more than necessary for loot vs retaining as much health as possible, but that’s the extent of it. The game is far easier than most roguelikes until you start running into numerous projectile-firing enemies at once, and even then if you do a grind run or two through lots of the lower levels you’ll be able to massively upgrade yourself and the game will be a cakewalk again. Plus, you don’t lose anything when you die aside from up to a few levels if you didn’t make it to a checkpoint, and you’re even given a bonus amount of coins based on various factors. This bonus can be very substantial if you run lower levels again and don’t die for a long time!
One of the things I really liked was the inclusion of quests. You get three at a time and they’re always things like busting open 5 treasure chests or killing 5 of a particular type of enemy. You’ll get loads of coins for each completed quest, and often you can find yourself completing more than one per life. Sadly, the ones that require killing a particular enemy sometimes require backtracking – I was never given a quest for enemies below my current floor, but some enemies are more rare, and before I knew it 2 of my 3 quests were for enemies I’d only see if I died, went back to easier levels and hunted them down. This could’ve been solved by allowing the harder, upgraded versions of each enemy count toward the specific enemy kills of that type. On the bright side, those trips to lower levels to knock out quests not only get you new quests, you’ll also net a butt load of coins in the process as you fly through easier levels!
The controls and options by comparison are a bit of a shame too. There are no special abilities, no randomly found abilities and no attacks other than your standard swing. As such, the game basically becomes a matter of finding out how an enemy works and doing your best to attack them safely, retreating to attack again if necessary. Bosses are the same – they each have a standard attack pattern and then stop momentarily while you attack them.
Devious Dungeon wasn’t a bad game by any means, but it wasn’t great either. I found myself excited at first, then rather bored, and then about a third of the way in things started getting a bit challenging. At one point I was even having trouble making it more than one checkpoint per life, but then I ran lower levels for old quests and got so many coins from a ridiculously long run without dying that I was overpowered for pretty much the rest of the game. It’s incredibly rare that I ask for a hard mode on a game, but it would’ve gone a long way here. Even a New Game+ would’ve been great; there were lots of pieces of gear I never purchased because I beat the game and had no reason to continue playing it. The background music quickly became repetitive and I found myself muting it rather quickly, and then I did the same with the sound effects. With all of that said, if Devious Dungeon 2 ever released to console (it’s currently on mobile only), I’d probably buy it in a heartbeat. And hey, it’s only $2-$8, which is a solid price for what the game delivers. Oh, and it’s got a platinum trophy Ion PS4) that’s super easy to get!
You can get Devious Dungeon on: PlayStation 4 (reviewed), PlayStation Vita, Switch, iOS (iPhone/iPad), Android
I received a review copy of this game from the developer.