First, Ghostlight did a bangup job porting this, as usual. Windowed, Borderless, Full Screen, good resolution options, runs pretty dang well.

Drawing on my experience with the original game... this is a weird one. It's a Japanese style roguelike, largely patterned after the Mystery Dungeon games (You don't see many of those in the west, even fewer on PC. At least until someone ports Shiren 5.) So it's a classic grid based dungeon crawler but with most of the usual fiddly nonsense shaved off while keeping the difficulty... well not here, this game is quite easy and almost comically easy to break.

Another important part of this game's pedigree is that it is made by Compile Heart. The Puyo Puyo series is originally a spinoff of Compile (sans the Heart)'s old roguelike series called... well, in English it translates to Sorcery Saga... For most westerners, Puyo Puyo Tetris is their first exposure to those characters, and Sorcery Saga (This one, I mean) is essentially made by the devs of that original format, but they lost the rights, so this game is just filled with expies of the characters they originally created.

I break off into that because it is actually important to this game. The roguelike stuff is pretty trivial, and if you want an entry level Japanese roguelike, this will not do you wrong. You can stockpile a lot of gear and avoid losing some stuff on dying if you are careful, and build up an ultimate +99 weapon to wreck the game if that is your bag. But the real reason you're probably gonna play is for the comedy. This is the most recent iteration of a largely Japanese only comedy game going back decades, and they're pretty good at it. You are playing this, more likely than not, because of this nonsense story, of Pupuru trying to save a local curry shop from a villainous conglomerate curry empire by doing roguelike stuff while dealing with the pack of morons who seem to keep showing up everywhere she goes. It's funny, charming stuff. It won't make you crack up often, but it will charm you.

Like I said, you're playing for the story. One of the principle permanent unlockables is extra little skit routines between the various characters.

Even with the little twists Sorcery Saga adds to the roguelike genre, like your hunger meter being offloaded to feeding your often helpful sometimes irritating pet Kuu and managing all the traits he can get depending on what you feed him, I can't call this a great game. But I enjoyed it. I can't call the writing great, but I found it so charming it was hard to resist.

P.S. Be careful, the post-game, with a final story bit unfortunately, is a 256 floor (!!! HOLY MACKEREL) mega dungeon that is even more tedious than it sounds.

P.P.S Kuu is a horrible little creature who does almost nothing nice for anyone except when adventuring with you and I can't understand why Pupuru takes such a liking to him.

P.P.P.S Just to reiterate, if you played Puyo Puyo Tetris and thought "Man, Arle, Dark Lord, that magic guy everyone thought was perverted when he was really a goof, and that girl obsessed with the dark lord dude were all funny," they're all here. They're the exact same characters, just with different names, and the comedy is more or less the same as PPT's story segments.

Remember PlayStation Vita? No? Well... you're not alone. Many people don't. And that's the problem. Even though SONY reclaimed their fans with PlayStation 4, which is pretty much the only console on the modern market with both decent hardware and strong video games library, Vita ended up being forgotten and obsolete. Let's not go too deep into the commercial stuff, though. Even though it's completely beyond me how Nintendo can sell so many Switch units while it has even less games than Vita. Anyway, the important thing is – there were some publishers, who did their very best to support Vita. And since Vita failed... it felt like all those nice titles were supposed to sink with it. Thankfully, IF-chan (Idea Factory) decided to do their very best again. This time by porting all those Vita titles to personal computers. For everybody to enjoy. Naturally, here comes another one.


So... Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God. What is it? First of all, it isn't another Neptunia. Even though after Ghostlight's Omega Quinter you may expect exactly that. Surprisingly, Sorcery Saga is a pretty common roguelike game. Not the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Japanese publisher, huh? And still, this game is a very traditional roguelike. With all that “turn-based that feels real-time” thing intact. You'll explore some dungeons (both handmade and randomly generated), you'll fight some enemies, collect some loot, etc. You know, roguelike stuff. It's not that simple, though.


First of all, Sorcery Saga is an item-oriented game. Every time you finish the dungeon, you lose all the experience you've learned there. In other words, you start every run with the level one character. Sounds annoying and... well... it is. In a way. Honestly, you'll either love the idea, or hate it. I think I hated it. I like me some grindfests from time to time, but when it's about grinding items with a chance to lose them (you can't save in the dungeons)... not really my thing. But I can see why some people may find it an interesting idea. Everybody loves Monster Hunter, right? So, it's up to you to decide whether you want this in your life, or not.

Another thing about this game is that it's way too basic. If you've played games like Tales of Maj'Eyal, or Dungeons of Dredmor, you'll be instantly confused of how basic this game is. There's literally nothing in here. No classes, no complicated mechanics, nothing. Just you, some small dungeons and a lot of grinding. Well, there are some interesting ideas here, like you can make some curry to get buffs, but that's pretty much it. If you're here for some proper roguelike experience... it'll be like playing something from HexWar Games instead of Panzer Corps. It's a very, very basic and repetitive experience. So, what's the fun?


The fun is - Sorcery Saga is also a Complete Heart title. Which means... yeah, you've guessed it. Nep-Nep stuff. Like all those Neptunia-like titles, this one comes with a lot of talks. I would like to say “visual novel-like talks”, but I can't, since there's literally no choice. It's just that – here and there you'll experience some long, but fun and fully voiced dialogues. Again, it's up to you to decide whether it's good, or bad thing. Some people love those. Some people find them way too boring. You just sit there, doing nothing, after all. And still, that's how this game works. You either busy grinding for better weapon, or watching some funny “cutscenes”. That's pretty much it about this game.


So, what's in conclusion? Do I recommend this game? Well... probably. But only for Complete Heart fans. If you want to buy this game for roguelike stuff... don't. Because it's way too basic and... well... dull to be a good roguelike. If you want roguelike, just get yourself Tales of Maj'Eyal, or return to the older stuff. If you want this game for visual novel part... don't buy it either. Because it isn't really visual novel. Yes, it may look like it, but it sure isn't. You'll listen a lot of stuff, but you won't control anything. But if you've enjoyed Neptunia titles, Fairy Fencer F, Omega Quinter and other stuff like that... I'd say go for it. It's fun, soundtrack is very cute (loved Watanabe Kazuhiro's song) and you can't help, but love the characters. As long as you don't mind much more basic and grind-oriented gameplay than the one you've seen in Neptunia, you'll like it. Sorcery Saga is a cute little game, but it sure isn't for everybody. It's a Complete Heart title. And that's pretty much it.

Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God is a cutesy roguelike dungeon crawler, in which you play as Pupuru, a magic academy student, who wishes to help save her favourite curry restaurant.

This game has a pretty silly storyline, which is very lighthearted, and is filled to the brim with humour and cute characters. The story is short; at the time of writing this review I've completed the main story (excluding the extra chapter dungeon) with trial and error, and plenty of death. Gameplay wise it's really fun, but it's quite RNG heavy and you might end up dying to all kinds of random things or very silly mistakes. You lose all of your items on death, the same applies to when you give up on a dungeon. You can prevent losing important items if you're lucky to come across a few of the ID scrolls.

Summary:

- A very silly story that will end up making you chuckle.
- Adorable artwork.
- Music can get annoying at times, as example during monster house spawns.
- Very cute, but can be infuriating at times.
- It's difficult, you will die and lose all of your loot a lot.
- You will have a cute companion named Kuu.
- Kuu might eat your stuff, if you drop it an inconvenient time.
- A lot of curry.
- Multiple different dungeons to clear.
- Unlockable outfits.
- There's a lot of cute weapons to find. Also, a lot of different items.
- Enemies are so adorable, I feel bad for having to beat them up.

Overall, I think this game is really fun and I really enjoyed it, despite not being good at it. If you're looking for a cute dungeon crawler/roguelike, then you might want to give this one a try.

A worthy entry in the long-lasting Madou Monogatari / Sorcery Saga series. It's a shame that Compile Heart couldn't use the pre-existing characters (Arle, Carbuncle, etc.), because SEGA owns them now as part of the Puyo Puyo series. This, however, didn't stop me from enjoying this game.

It's pretty easy by roguelike standards, but there is a post-game dungeon at the end that is pretty challenging.

Cute and short dungeon crawler game ^^ (can be long if player wants to collect everything XD)
Item bag feels small because there's many item lying around in dungeon.

Warning: to overpower the enemy, player needs to enhance the equipment, and if player dies, player can lost the enhanced equipment because there's auto-save feature @_@ Quit the game before!

I only recommend the game because its not bad and it gets cheap discounts but:

If you thought a dungeon crawling game with a cooking theme would have interesting mechanics like preparing unique, specific dishes for each of the many creatures that you come across while venturing, so you could trade it for favour, acquire a ally, a item, unlock dialogue, plot stuff. or just as a form of bribery so you dont get killed by them... well, then you might be a good game developer one day. Cooking in this game is all flavour and no substance.

I think this and many other japanese games that follow the same formula are pretty much made to squeeze in as much voice lines as possible from the hired actors. The fluff of the dialogue is so unbearable its hard to follow whats happening with the plot because you are so inclined to skip it. Characters have to constantly talk about the obvious and their feelings on the matter, describe everything at all times. On top of that. this game has a whole theatre mode where voice actors will roleplay about random things unrelated to anything. With how much japanese visual novels lack any grasp of the idea of "show, dont tell" they shouldnt be allowed to use the word "visual" anymore. Also, sometimes its better to not show nor tell anything. Its nice to be able to ponder over a character's motives, reasonings and feelings, you dont have to spoil everything because, as it often turns out, they end up not having much to show for anyways.

A solid game, an excellent port and it's being sold at an incredible price. Keep up the good work Ghostlight!

Did you get to the 256th floor?
Yes
What did it cost?
Everything...

Bored of the usual Adventure?
Wanna try something new? perhaps even "delicious"?
Well then, come and enjoy the World of Sorcery Saga ..
This cute Dungeon Crawler world will remind you of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon,
The vast amount of possibilities awaits you!
Struggle, Try again, Grow and Understand better ..
Enhance your gear, Wear your Cute Costume, Learn more Curry Recipes, Eat and Pummel through Dungeons!
There's lots to learn and discover~!!

(note that my play hours shown are not accurate; I played a lot of this game offline which didn't count my time played)

Surprisingly cute is the best way I can describe Sorcery Saga.

Sorcery Saga is an RPG where you play a young girl named Pupuru who decides to help the owner of her favorite curry shop get ingredients to make a legendary curry in order to attract customers after an evil curry chain restaraunt enters town. To aquire these ingredients, you must travel to mystery dungeons and dungeon crawl your way through turn-based roguelike combat and exploration, going floor after floor to make it to the end of a dungeon, defeat a boss, aquire a new ingredient, and move the story forward. Alongside Pupuru you get the help of a hungry adorable little monster named Kuu who will fight alongside you, but in exchange must be fed items you find as you explore. There's also Puni, who's an adorable if very indecisive loli who has the power to detect people's curry "auras".

If you've ever played a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game (or Shiren, or any other Mystery Dungeon game), this game is a lot like that, albeit a bit less...refined. Gameplay involves moving through mazelike randomized dungeons with lots of monsters and items thrown about as you traverse it. You, alongside Kuu, must traverse these mystery dungeons where every turn you do something or move, an enemy moves. In a way its sort of like a top down Etrian Odyssey where every enemy is an FOE and combat takes place on the map rather than in its own random encounters. That said, the strictness of taking a turn for EVERYTHING can be a tad annoying at times, as this means if you equip or unequip a weapon or item you find as you explore, the menu closes, a turn passes, and you must reopen the menu if you want to equip or use anything else. It makes things a tad tedious if you're the type to want to manage your inventory a lot and make sure you've optimized your equipment well. That's about the only complaint I have however. The game isn't exactly as complex as, say, a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game, but there's still a good bit of emphasis on making use of the things you find while exploring. Even moreso here since after you leave a dungeon, you drop back down to level 1. There's no grinding easy dungeons in order to beat the stronger ones here!

Still, despite the lack of refinement mentioned, the game makes up for this lack of refinement in cuteness. Between Kuu and Puni, the extremely fun and upbeat dialogue and soundtrack, the game is hard to hate. Its hard not to play this without smiling due to how happy it is, and I'd argue that this cuteness and mystery dungeon gameplay gives the game a strength that most other Compile Heart games don't have. Its not their best game ever, but its one of the better ones, and I'd certainly recommend this over, say, Neptunia.