I defeated Death with a bible

Possibly one of the best roguelikes I've played. That's next to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane titles like Noita and big titles like Risk of Rain 2. It lacks the secrets and incomprehensibility of the former and definitely isn't 3D nor has the lore and fame of the latter, but it definitely has its niche and place among my favourites that the others just don't fill. Words can do little to express the sheer joy this game has brought me, but I'll give it my best shot so you consider forking over the (honestly shockingly low) cost to try it yourself.

First of all, this game is packed with content. Absurd amounts of items, builds, characters, levels, optional challenges, everything. With even more content after you've gotten the hang of things. Not to mention the many planned content expansions, and even the content in updates not focused on content. The coming 'clean up' update alone grants every single character (did I mention there were a lot?) a unique skill, on top of revising and polishing the existing content. It's one thing to add a lot of stuff, but it's a whole other thing to go back and update the old content despite the sheer volume of it.

What's next.. the progression of it? Gameplay is split into "world tiers" on each save, so the experience grows out alongside an overarching narrative (But this isn't a story game, don't expect to sit through dialogue. Just framing for the setting and endings, and a good guide through the game.) You unlock more content as you play more, more characters, and an optional metaprogression tree (emphasis optional, you can absolutely play without it if you aren't a fan of them.) You can turn on difficulty toggles that actually shake up the gameplay experience instead of just bumping enemy stats for more challenge, letting you keep things interesting long after you've mastered the game.

The graphics are subtle but incredible as well. A consistent and pleasant pixel art aesthetic with a CRT shader that doesn't make me want to gouge my eyes out for once? And you can even change how intense the shader is, reducing it to 0% or doubling its intensity. Things are nicely color coded so you can pick up on things intuitively after some time, green is dex/ranged, red is str/melee, blue is int/magic. dark purple is curse, yellow is loot, you get a sense for things relatively quickly. The visual design is on point with shockingly readable designs despite tiny textures and minimal colors.

And I would be remiss not to mention the game's humor and references. Playing this game I barely went a few minutes without going "Hey, that's just like thing from game!" and chuckling about the silly gags and boss dialogue. DOOM? Final Fantasy? Lord of the rings?? damned D&D??? the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ POTION SELLER MEME??? This game wears it's inspirations and references on its sleeve with pride, and it gives the game a nice light hearted feeling outside the tense boss battles and occasional well deserved steamrolling when you get a good build going.

There's far too much to praise, and very little to criticise. The developer (yes, singular, shockingly) is active among the community and addresses issues with the game, answers questions and shares sneak peeks (check out their twitter!!).

I can easily see this game sticking around among my go-to roguelikes, and I'm hoping you feel the same way after playing it yourself. Treat yourself to a high quality game that doesn't demand your life's savings on install or monthly, doesn't come with a billion microtransactions and mass appeal bloat, and has genuinely solid foundational mechanics and expansive content on top of it. And hey, if you don't end up liking it, get a refund. It doesn't hurt to try!

Good game if you think wizards/knights are cool (me) and are incredibly autistic (also me).