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Saturday, July 19, 2025

deltarune Chapters 3-4, going darker than dark. A very determined review

Back in 2021, I reviewed the first two Chapters of deltarune, an ambitious indie game project created by legendary game developer Toby Fox. That was actually one of my favorite reviews that I ever wrote. And deltarune itself is just a fun game to play and talk about. Fast forward to June 5th, 2025, and we see the official release of deltarune Chapters 3 & 4, which were released simultaneously. So naturally, I want to review the new Chapters, because I have a lot of thoughts on them.

The official logo of deltarune. Image found on Wikipedia.org

I do, unfortunately, have to make an important PSA. Chapter 4 (or at the very least the PS5 version, which I played) contains a glitch that can potentially soft-lock your playthrough, thus forcing you to reload to an earlier save file. Because I only had one active file when the glitch happened, I had to replay ALL of Chapter 4 to get back to where I was. This softlock soured my opinion of Chapter 4, despite enjoying the overall experience. Just to be clear, I don't hate or even dislike Chapter 4, despite getting soft-locked. I still consider the Chapter to be a worthwhile experience. But this was a valuable lesson for me, to always have a backup save file ready to go in case something like this happens again. Also, there's a good chance that this glitch will be fixed in an update, at which point this criticism is rendered null. But now that we got the PSA out of the way, let's get back to the review.

deltarune is a story-focused roleplaying game with an 8-bit art style, famous for its eccentric sense of humor and emphasis on pacifistic gameplay. It takes place in the same setting as Toby Fox's previous game, UNDERTALE. In both games, the world is populated by Humans and Monsters, the former being strong but unskilled with magic, the latter being magically gifted but cursed with fragile bodies. Both games have a Mercy System in which you can use nonlethal abilities called Acts to convince enemies to surrender peacefully. Both games have Bullet Hell sections where the Player has to dodge a barrage of thematically appropriate projectiles by using a cartoon heart to fly around. And both games have branching storylines that change based on how violent or merciful you were, with the good ending being locked behind the path of pacifism. 

However, deltarune is NOT a direct sequel to UNDERTALE. Toby Fox likes to call it a "parallel story." While both games have similar mechanics and themes, deltarune focuses primarily on a brand-new cast of characters, with a handful of fan-favorites returning in supporting roles. There are also new game mechanics, like Tension and magic spells. Tension builds up when you "graze" past an attack (i.e. get as close to the projectiles as you can without taking damage). You need Tension to cast magic spells, which can be used to either deal more damage, heal allies or put wounded/tired enemies to sleep. For lore reasons, only Monsters can use magic.

Speaking of Monsters, let's talk about the three main heroes of this game; Kris the Human, Susie the Monster and Ralsei the Dark Prince. For the sake of both humor and brevity, I will referring to these three heroes as the Fun Gang.

You play as Kris, or rather, the Soul inside of Kris. This is an important distinction, as you are not meant to project yourself onto Kris the same way you would with a conventional self-insert (i.e. your average RPG protagonist). Kris had a life long before the Player showed up, with their own friends, family and hobbies. Kris knows that they are being controlled by someone else, and they are not happy about having to share a body with the Player. They will occasionally rebel against the Player's commands, such as making chosen dialogue choices sound more sarcastic than intended or interpreting commands in ways that are maliciously compliant. Like, if you tell Kris to "turn a doorknob" they will do as instructed, but they will not open the door unless you specifically say the words "push open the door." Whenever Kris does something automatically, without Player input, is when we see a glimpse of their true nature. And that's what makes Kris an interesting character. Name one other video game where A; the protagonist is aware of the Player controlling them, and B; said protagonist is actively trying to sabotage the Player's goals whenever they can.

Susie meanwhile is too wild and independent for anyone to control. A common joke you'll hear among deltarune fans is that Susie is the "real" main character, as her choices are the ones that move the story along the most, or allow it to go in unexpected directions. She also gets the most character development. Without spoiling things too much, Chapter 1 Susie is almost a completely different person from Chapter 4 Susie. Don't get me wrong, she's still as vulgar as a T for Teen rating will allow, but she goes from being a high-school bully to being the coolest best friend Kris, Ralsei and the Player could ask for. Honestly, Susie is my favorite character so far, and the game is all the better for her inclusion.

Ralsei is content to follow Kris and Susie's lead, but that's because he's following a prophecy. Said prophecy is the titular Legend of Deltarune, which warns of the arrival of eldritch beings called Titans, who are destined to destroy the universe. As such, Ralsei is doing his best to "stick to the script" while Kris and Susie do whatever they want. The most interesting thing about Ralsei is that despite his wholesome, boy scout persona, he clearly knows more about the world than he lets on.

Our heroes, Kris (top left), Susie (middle left) and Ralsei (bottom left) can use the Mercy System to defeat enemies peacefully, usually by putting on silly costumes and performing comedic Acts. In the example above, they have to literally shoot the enemies' socks off. Image found on steamdb.com

This game's story is divided across seven Chapters, with each Chapter being effectively a full blown video game in and of itself. While the exact contents of each Chapter vary, they all follow a somewhat similar structure. The Fun Gang goes to/starts in a Dark World, they befriend/defeat all the Darkners (enemies) inside said Dark World, and they seal the Dark Fountain at that Dark World's center. Somewhere along the way they get to visit Castle Town, which is a sort of home base for the Fun Gang. If you show Mercy to enough Darkners of the same type, they will be recruited as townsfolk for Castle Town, which causes things like new shops and minigames to appear.

Hidden in each Chapter are the Super Bosses, optional enemies that are much stronger than their peers. If you can find and defeat each Super Boss (either with violence or with Mercy), you will be rewarded with new weapons and armor, as well as additional lore and story details. All Super Bosses are identified by two characteristics, they all carry an item called a Shadow Crystal and they all have the Freedom motif in their respective theme songs.

All available Chapters are about 10 hours long each, possibly longer depending on how much time you spend on the Super Bosses. However, Chapters 5, 6 and 7 are not available yet, as they are planned to be released as free updates. Buying the game now only gets you Chapters 1-4. I already reviewed the first two Chapters, as they were released for free. This review focuses mostly on what's actually new, as most of my opinions about the first two Chapters remain mostly unchanged. But because of this game's episodic nature and its connection to UNDERTALE, I will have to warn you that this review contains spoilers for both games. It's kind of impossible to discuss the new Chapters without spoiling twists from the previous Chapters, and some story beats only make sense with context provided by UNDERTALE. You have been warned.

Chapter 1 was equal parts tutorial for the game and an introduction to the world of deltarune. To make a long story short, Kris and Susie were regular high schoolers who wandered into the first Dark World by accident. They meet Ralsei, who tells them of the Prophecy and offers to guide them home. Susie learns a valuable life lesson about how violence is not always the answer to your problems, the Fun Gang defeat the evil King of Spades, and the Dark Fountain of this Chapter is successfully sealed.

Chapter 2 was a major expansion to the game's scope, introducing the existence of multiple Dark Worlds and hinting at the game's main overarching villain, the Roaring Knight. We do not know who the Roaring Knight is, only that it is responsible for creating the Dark Fountains (and by proxy, the Dark Worlds). Also, this Chapter focuses heavily on Noelle Holiday, Kris's childhood best friend and Susie's main love interest. While Noelle is not considered a "main" party member (yet), she's important enough to be considered an "honorary" member of the Fun Gang.

Also, Noelle's presence allows for the start of the Weird Route. This is an optional but very dark side story in which the Player forces Kris to psychologically abuse Noelle until she becomes a cold-blooded killer (literally in her case, as Noelle's specialty is ice magic). Completing the Weird Route results in Noelle being forced to murder her classmate, Berdly. This is the most evil thing the Player can do in this game. And make no mistake, we would be the bad guy for pursuing this storyline. Kris doesn't want to hurt Noelle, and they give us, the Player, plenty of chances to abandon the Route and make things right before it's too late.

Regardless of whether or not you did the Weird Route, Chapter 2 ended with the Fun Gang sealing the second Dark Fountain, saving the day and going home. Susie decides to have a sleep over at Kris's House. But while everyone else is asleep, Kris removes their own Soul (thus regaining complete control of their body) and they create a Dark Fountain right in the middle of the living room. This was one heck of a cliffhanger ending. 

There was a four year gap between the second and third/fourth Chapters' release. In that time lots of theories about where the story was headed propped up all over the Internet. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have theories of my own going into the new Chapters. The most popular theory floating around was the idea that Kris was the Roaring Knight all along, because they made a Dark Fountain. Which, to be fair, was a reasonable assumption.  

Another mystery that was left unsolved was whatever happened to December "Dess" Holiday, Noelle's older sister who went missing prior to the start of the game. And then there's the mystery of the Weird Route and why it exists. And of course, there's the mystery of the bunker at the southern edge of town, which seemed to have no clear purpose aside from being vaguely ominous.

Chapter 3 takes place right after Chapter 2's ending. Susie wakes up in the new Dark World along with Kris, who is under the Player's control again. Susie never learns that it was Kris who created this Chapter's Dark World, nor does she care to learn. She's been viewing the Dark World occurrences as nothing more than fun little adventures she can do with her friends.

They meet up with Ralsei, and while Susie invites Ralsei to the Light World for an upcoming festival, Ralsei declines. Not because he doesn't want to go to the festival, but Ralsei literally can't leave the Dark Worlds. Ralsei explains that Dark Fountains turn fantasy into reality by bringing inanimate objects to life. This is how Darkners are created. But once the lights come back on, those objects will revert back to their original form. Ergo, Darkners (like Ralsei) will cease to exist if they ever leave the Dark Worlds.

What makes this worse is that Ralsei's inability to exist in the Light World is clearly affecting his mental health negatively. He straight up says that none of the Darkners are truly real, including himself, and claims that the Darkners only exist to serve the Light World. Susie, naturally, tells him not to think of himself so lowly because as far as she's concerned, all her friends are equally real.

The main antagonist of Chapter 3, Mr. Tenna (right), is a crazy game show host who forces our heroes to partake in his show. Image found on rpgfan.com

This heart-to-heart is interrupted by the main antagonist of this Chapter, Mr. Tenna. Mr. Tenna is a TV-themed Darkner who forces the Fun Gang to take part in his game show. Most of the Chapter is spent playing minigames with Mr. Tenna, with the minigames being themed around old NES-style video games and various TV Channels. Just to give a few examples, there's a cooking minigame where Kris has to toss piles of food to passing customers, a music minigame where the Fun Gang act out a rock concert and a Legend of Zelda style adventure minigame where you explore an expansive map and solve simple puzzles.

The whole time these minigames are going on, Mr. Tenna is trying to pander to Kris's nostalgia by reminding them how much fun they had watching TV with their family. Almost as if he's afraid that Kris will discard him if he's not "entertaining" enough. And that's really Tenna's whole deal. He's an antagonist, sure, but I hesitate to call him evil. He's just a lonely guy who buries his insecurities underneath a larger than life persona.

While the Fun Gang do find Mr. Tenna's antics amusing at first, they insist on leaving Tenna's show to seal the Dark Fountain. Things take a turn for the worse when the Fun Gang discover that the "grand prize" of Tenna's show is a toy ball containing Toriel, Kris's (adoptive) mother who has slept through the entire Chapter. The only thing I can truly complain about Chapter 3 is that Toriel doesn't get to actually do much in this Chapter. I understand why, as she is a returning character from UNDERTALE and returning characters are basically fanservice for Toby Fox's older fans. Still, it is a shame we never see her reaction to the Dark World or get any interaction between her and Ralsei, given that have similar designs and similar abilities (magical healing, cooking, et cetera).

Unfortunately for everyone, Mr. Tenna has a psychotic breakdown, which culminates in a battle in which all abilities besides Acts are disabled. The Fun Gang manage to escape by exploiting certain limitations with the Acts, which is a really clever way to solve that problem. The rest of Chapter 3 is spent escaping from Mr. Tenna's TV Dark World and recruiting all of the new enemies. Despite being just as long as the other Chapters, Chapter 3 feels oddly short in comparison, partly because most of this Chapter's runtime is spent on the minigames. But to be fair, this is mostly a lighthearted romp with an emphasis on the comedy side of the game.

Things only really get serious after the heroes confront Mr. Tenna for the final showdown. Speaking of which, I really like Mr. Tenna's boss battle. He has the ability to force the heroes to play a random minigame and how well you perform in the minigame affects how much damage the Fun Gang takes. In other words, all the minigames you have been playing with Mr. Tenna was actually training for his boss battle. And I think that's cool. Assuming you showed Mercy to him, Susie gives Mr. Tenna a pep talk, telling him to not worry about being thrown away or replaced. She also says that if Kris's family doesn't want him anymore, then the Fun Gang can just find Tenna a new home. Moved by Susie's words, Mr. Tenna has a change of heart and agrees to give back Toriel.

But oh boy, here comes the mother of all spoilers. I really don't want to spoil this Chapter's final battle, because the ending of Chapter 3 is a major highlight of the entire game and irreversibly changes the tone of the story to something comparatively more serious. But I cannot continue the review without mentioning it. Just know that I give deltarune Chapter 3 five stars out of five, and I give deltarune Chapter 4 four stars out of five, at least until that glitch I mentioned gets fixed. Go play this game if you can afford it. It's only 25 US dollars, at the time of writing. If you want to know my more detailed thoughts on this game, come back after you finished Chapter 4.  Understood? Good!

So you remember the Roaring Knight I mentioned, and how there was a lot of speculation as to who the Roaring Knight was? Well, the good news is that we get official confirmation that Kris is NOT the Roaring Knight! …Because the actual Roaring Knight appears seemingly out of nowhere and KOs Tenna with a single blow. The Knight also tries to kidnap Toriel for unclear but obviously malevolent reasons, thus starting a battle between the Fun Gang and the Knight.

You know, it's funny. After 4 years of nonstop speculation and theorizing, no one predicted that the Fun Gang would simply get ambushed by the Roaring Knight in part three of a seven part story. I distinctly remember my first reaction to the Roaring Knight's debut being "WHAT DO YOU MEAN we have to fight the Knight now!?" And I'd bet that most other deltarune fans had a similar reaction.

The Roaring Knight is also this Chapter's Super Boss, and perhaps fittingly, it is the most difficult opponent the Fun Gang will ever fight. Not only does the Knight have complex Bullet Hell attacks that leave no room for error, it also cannot be shown Mercy at all. Just this once, our normally pacifistic heroes are allowed to use violence to defend themselves. You can make this fight easier by equipping a special armor called the Shadow Mantle, but this armor can only be acquired by completing an easily missed secret minigame. Said minigame also provides instructions for doing the Weird Route, in case you didn't know how to do so already. I'm totally sure there's no distressing narrative implications about this. 

Should you manage to lower its health down 75%, Susie can break off a piece of the Knight's sword, which becomes this Chapter's Shadow Crystal. Kris will also be rewarded with a unique weapon called the Black Shard, which is the most powerful weapon in the game (so far). But no matter how well you do against the Knight, it will always end the battle with an unavoidable, one-hit KO attack that leaves the Fun Gang kneeling.

Before the Roaring Knight can finish off the Fun Gang or capture Toriel, it is attacked from behind by Officer Undyne, another returning character from UNDERTALE. Why was Undyne in the Dark World, you ask? She entered the Dark World while investigating some property damage Kris caused back in Chapter 2. Anyway, the Knight grabs Undyne and drags her kicking and screaming all the way to the bunker in the Light World, the one at the southern edge of town. 

Kris and Susie give chase, but by the time they catch up, the bunker has been completely locked down. Not even Susie, the strongest of the three heroes, can break through its doors. The only way in is with a passcode, but none of our heroes know the code. The Chapter ends here, with Undyne trapped inside the bunker and Kris and Susie forced to go home, as there is literally nothing else for them do. And let me just say, boy, am I glad that Chapters 3 and 4 released simultaneously. If Chapter 3 released by itself, this fandom would not survive a cliffhanger like that. We barely survived Kris opening a Dark Fountain. Also, getting to see the Roaring Knight this early into the project is crazy to me. I always figured that the Knight would show up in Chapter 5 at the earliest, but what do I know?

Ralsei explains the Legend of Deltarune, a prophecy dictating the events of the entire game. Image found on rpgfan.com

Chapter 4 is still only 10 or so hours long, but so much plot and character development happens in this Chapter that it feels a lot longer to play through it. This is both a good thing, since it provides a plentiful experience on a first playthrough. But it's also a bad thing, because it can feel repetitive going through the longest Chapter again on a second playthrough. And because of that softlock and my careless save file usage, I had to play through this entire Chapter twice. I'm still a little salty about that, but I will try not to let that cloud my judgement.

Chapter 4 starts the day after Undyne's kidnapping, with Kris having sealed the Chapter 3 Dark Fountain offscreen. Toriel invites Susie over for church service, to which she agrees. Not because Susie is religious, but so she can hang out with Kris and look for clues for the bunker code. I really like the church service scene, it's a heartwarming bonding moment with Susie that really cements the idea that Kris and Susie are best friends by now. Especially since we don't control Kris while they're goofing around with Susie, so we know for a fact that those shenanigans were 100% voluntary on Kris's part.

After the service, Kris/the Player has to ask around the church for clues, in which they learn only two people have ever opened up the bunker in the town's history; The Chief of Police and the Mayor. Unfortunately, the current Chief of Police is Undyne, who is in no position to share the code for obvious reasons. Which means that the Fun Gang's only option is to visit the Mayor, Carol Holiday. Who coincidentally happens to be Noelle's mom.

Before we go to the Holiday Household, we get a free roam section where Kris and Susie are free to explore the town and talk to literally everyone, including Berdly (if he's still alive), Toriel and Kris's many neighbors. You can even pop into Castle Town to hang out with Ralsei for a bit (and catch him up to speed on everything going on the Light World). Most of these conversations are lighthearted and humorous in nature. In case you're wondering whatever happened to Mr. Tenna, he's fine. Well, sort of. If you recruited all Darkners back in Chapter 3, Tenna will survive the Knight's ambush. If you don't, he's straight up dead for the rest of the game. If he's still alive, you can keep Susie's promise to find him a new home by either taking him to Castle Town or giving his Light World form (a TV set) to one of Kris's neighbors. Either way, Tenna gets what he always wanted; a new audience to entertain. This is the last we'll see of Tenna for now.

Our heroes (left) get attacked by enemies (right). In order to dodge attacks, you need to control a red cartoon heart and move it away from hazards. Image found on SteamDB.com

After exploring everything in town, Kris and Susie go visit the Holiday Household, ostensibly to work on a school project with Noelle. This was just an excuse to go snooping around the Household without drawing too much attention to themselves. And the Holiday Household might be my favorite location in the Chapter. It is a beautifully designed Christmas mansion that is filled to the brim with secrets, lore and a whole lot of Christmas puns.

The only room in the Household that is not readily accessible is Dess's old bedroom, but Kris can enter it once Susie starts distracting Noelle. And in Dess's room, we find (among other things) a guitar that has the code to the bunker inside of it. Before the Player can finish reading the code, Kris rips out their Soul again and throws it into a supply closet. Which leads to a stealth section where we must control the bodiless Soul and navigate the air vents, while avoiding the now openly hostile Kris. It's a tense scene that makes you feel vulnerable during a first playthrough, but with the benefit of hindsight, it's basically a Tom & Jerry skit. Just replace Tom with Kris and Jerry with the Soul.

The most important revelation about Kris's character comes from a phone call that the Soul can eavesdrop on. Kris is working for someone, strongly implied to be the Roaring Knight, and is actively trying to keep whatever is inside the bunker a secret from everyone. And honestly speaking, the idea of Kris being a secret double agent working for an unseen villain is actually more interesting narratively than simply having Kris be the Knight directly. But now we have a new mystery to solve; Why is Kris involved in such a sinister scheme? I have a theory, but explaining it would spoil the Chapter's ending. For what it's worth, I don't believe that Kris is willingly evil.

The whole time Kris and the Soul are duking it out, Susie and Noelle bond over a shared love of horror movies and video games. It's another cute and wholesome scene, made comical by the fact that Kris is beating the snot out of their own Soul in the background with a hockey stick. And I got to say, Toby Fox is a master at writing small talk. Like, the way Susie and Noelle bounce from one subject to another before returning to something they talked about earlier is the exact way most friends talk to each other in real life. At least, based on my experience. It is uncannily believable dialogue. This scene definitely highlights how good the dialogue in this game is.

Eventually, Susie grabs the guitar and puts on an improvised performance for Noelle at the latter's request. Which is also cute. All of Susie and Noelle's scenes are cute. They're just cute together, in general. Keep in mind, I am not a romance guy. Not in the slightest. BUT. Susie and Noelle have genuinely good chemistry together and I find myself feeling oddly invested in their relationship.

Unfortunately, Susie never notices the bunker code as she's too busy trying to impress Noelle. While this is happening, Kris calls their mysterious benefactor (who I will call the Voice on the Phone) that Susie has the guitar. Whoever the Voice on the other side of the phone is, they say that they will "be right there."

Not even ten minutes after Kris makes this call, Susie and Noelle's bonding is interrupted by Carol Holiday, who had (allegedly) just got home from work. Carol has maybe five minutes of screen time in this Chapter, but man, she makes those five minutes count. She is immediately introduced as an intimidating, no nonsense woman where the only thing colder than her icy appearance is her stern demeanor. She forcibly takes the guitar away from Susie and forbids her from seeing Noelle ever again. 

Carol's attitude warms up slightly when speaking to Kris, but even when she's trying to be pleasant she gives off a sinister, vaguely threatening vibe. Specifically, she says "As you know, you are welcome here anytime." With the second "you" in that sentence being highlighted in blood red text. And deltarune is a game where text is only colored either as the setup for a joke or because that word is important somehow. I'm not sure about you, but this scene doesn't strike me as humorous, so I have to believe that it's the latter. Especially since the shade of red used is the exact same shade of red that the Player Soul is colored in.

Kris and Susie are forced to leave the Holiday Household (but not before the Soul repossesses Kris). Neither Susie nor the Player got the code, and Kris clearly isn't going to share what they know with anyone. Also, because this scene sees the return of Noelle, we get the long-awaited(?) continuation of the Weird Route. 

If you play Chapter 4 on a save file that has completed the Weird Route, Kris removes their Soul like before, but this time they take Noelle into her bedroom so they can explain the whole situation to her privately. This is ironically the best look at Kris's true nature that we get. The Voice on the Phone doesn't matter in this Route, the only thing Kris cares about is protecting Noelle from the Player. Which is why I don't believe they are evil. At worse, they're a reluctant accomplice for someone else's villainy. Unfortunately, The Player can still possess Kris even while they are consoling Noelle, at which point you can either abandon the Weird Route by saying "It was just a prank" or continue it by saying "Proceed." 

The latter option leads to the Player forcing Noelle to wear the Thorn Ring (a weapon only found when doing the Weird Route). Once the Thorn Ring is back on Noelle's finger, there is no going back as her mind is broken beyond repair. After all, the Thorn Ring's existence is proof that the murders Noelle committed on the Player's behalf actually happened and weren't just a bad dream. And honestly, this whole scene is just... immensely uncomfortable to watch. Like it feels like you're about to witness a crime. So congratulations! We successfully traumatized a cute little anthropomorphic reindeer (again). That's our reward for doing the Weird Route.

Back on the Normal Route, Kris and Susie head home, only to discover that A; it's raining and B; Kris's House is locked. Which means that our dynamic duo needs to find Toriel to unlock the house. Toriel went back to church for choir practice, so Kris and Susie go to church again. But whoops! The Roaring Knight is back, and it has already opened a Dark Fountain in the church. And thus we finally get to the main Dark World of this Chapter, the Dark Sanctuary.

Kris and Susie find the Dark Fountain almost immediately, but are attacked by the Roaring Knight again. Both of them are sent tumbling down to the lower part of the Dark Sanctuary, and spend the rest of the adventure climbing back up. They meet up with Ralsei again, but something seems... off with Ralsei. As if he's worried about something. And Susie starts feeling insecure about her own capabilities once she realizes that Ralsei is a better healer than her.

The Fun Gang finds the Prophecy describing the titular Legend of Deltarune after exploring around. Back in Chapter 1, Ralsei mentioned the Prophecy, but his version was simplified and had key details left out. The Prophecy seen here is the original, full version. But before the Fun Gang can read the final passage, it gets destroyed by a mysterious stranger.

This leads to the introduction to the main "guest" character of Chapter 4, the Old Man. Who is the Old Man? The Fun Gang never learns his name, but anyone who played UNDERTALE will immediately recognize him as Gerson Boom, the old Turtle Monster who runs the shops in that game. And as far back as Chapter 1, you can visit a grave that has Gerson's name on it. When I first saw him, my initial theory was that Gerson never died, he just got trapped in the Dark Worlds and everyone just assumed he was dead because he's been missing for so long. Which is... Not even close to what's really going on with Gerson, but I'm getting ahead of myself. 

The game gets a lot of humor out of Gerson, as he acts like an absent-minded elder but is secretly wiser than his gnarly appearance suggests. Case in point, there's a unique "Old Man" Act that Kris can use as long as Gerson is on the team. The description of said Act only reads, "I'm Old!" And using that Act causes Gerson to interrupt the battle and perform a random, but always positive effect. He might heal the party with candy, deflect enemy bullets with his cane, or even just instantly Recruit enemies.

A boss battle against Jackenstein, a Halloween-themed enemy that has to be fought in the dark. Image found on rpgfan.com

Also, I want to talk about a boss named Jackenstein. Jackenstein is a joke boss that shows up halfway through the Dark Sanctuary and is one of the funniest things Toby Fox has cooked up in a while. Jackenstein's gimmick is that all of his "attacks" are not Bullet Hell patterns, but Pac-Man mazes, complete with collectible pellets. And if you take too long to complete the mazes, Jackenstein summons a pumpkin that speaks with a Text-to-Speech device, and the only thing it says is "YOUR TAKING TOO LONG." And then Jackenstein starts sentence mixing the pumpkin to make it say goofy nonsense like "YOUR LONG" and "YOUR TAKING TOO TOO." Jackenstein also marks the beginning of a HUGE difficulty spike, as Tension buildup is reduced during his battle (thus making it harder to use Susie and Ralsei's magic spells). But other than that, this fight is peak comedy. 10/10, would take too long again.

After the Jackenstein fight, Gerson notices Susie's insecurities and encourages her to start practicing her magic more seriously. Which means that Susie's "Ultimate Heal" spell is now worth using. For context, Ultimate Heal was the worst spell in the game, as it only existed for the sake of a joke. It cost 100% Tension to cast and only restored 1 hit point (out of 200+). But after the pep talk with Gerson, Ultimate Heal has been renamed to "OK Heal" and it will both heal more and cost less Tension with each cast. You can eventually get the cost down to 80% Tension and get it to heal 100+ hit points if you keep letting Susie heal you instead of Ralsei. And that's a cool way to tie game mechanics into character development. Practice makes perfect, after all.

The same time Susie gets an upgrade, Kris gets a upgrade called the Claimb Claws (typo intended). These claws let Kris (and by proxy, the Fun Gang) climb up certain walls. Now, you *can* use Kris's newfound climbing skills to move on to the next area, or you can backtrack to all the places you've already been to. Because the Claimb Claws let you access a bunch of hidden areas. In three of these hidden areas are golden music sheets, and if you play the completed melody on a golden piano, the path to the Chapter 4 Super Boss is revealed. And this one might be my favorite Super Boss yet.

So playing the melody reveals a hidden chamber in Gerson's study. And lying in that chamber is the Justice Axe, which is the strongest weapon Susie can equip. But before she can even grab the Justice Axe, Gerson tells her that she needs to pay for it. The Justice Axe is so expensive that it is impossible to buy it. Like, I don't even think the game will let you carry the amount of money that Gerson is asking for. So instead of paying, Susie makes a deal with Gerson; If she can cut off a hair from Gerson's beard, then he has to give the Justice Axe to her for free. Gerson agrees to the deal, and reveals his true power.

In case you haven't realized it yet, Gerson is the Super Boss of this Chapter. And this fight breaks a lot of rules. Firstly, it's a 1vs1 duel between Susie and Gerson. Kris and Ralsei are not allowed to interfere. Secondly, Susie is forbidden from using consumable items like health potions, as Gerson will steal them if she tries. Thirdly, Gerson can force you into Green Soul Mode, replacing your ability to fly around with a shield that can block directional attacks. And finally, Gerson can just straight up parry Susie's signature spell, Rude Buster, and throw it back at her. The only advantage Susie has is that losing to Gerson doesn't count as a Game Over, as he will end the duel once Susie has been reduced to one hit point, then he will give her a chance to heal up and try again from scratch.

So how are you supposed to beat Gerson? With magic of course. The whole point of Susie's character arc in this Chapter is learning to get better at magic, and this fight is meant to train her magic up. Any time you cast a spell, whether it be Rude Buster or OK Heal, Susie's magic will get stronger and Gerson will be impressed. Impress him enough times and Susie will figure out how to distract Gerson long enough to chop off his beard. 

Gerson admits defeat after losing his beard, and he will give Susie both the Justice Axe and this Chapter's Shadow Crystal. He'll also share some wisdom about how our destiny is not set in stone, no matter what the Prophecy says, and that stories can be changed as they pass through the generations. When Gerson was in his prime, he wrote an in-universe fantasy novel series called "Lord of the Hammer" which was based on the Prophecy, but changed some core details around. And when that series got popular, it was made into an in-universe video game franchise called "Dragon Blazers," which made even more changes to the story. Gerson says that both his own work and the video games it inspired are equally valid, as like he said, stories change as they pass through the generations. And that's a really cool take on the idea of adapting preexisting stories.

Like I said, Gerson is my favorite Super Boss, both because of the story surrounding him and because it's just a fun fight in general. Also, Susie's healing magic is upgraded once again after Gerson is defeated, being renamed to "Better Heal" and only costing 75% Tension to cast. It also FULLY restores all HP as long as the target has not been KO'd yet. So now Susie has a genuinely strong, if somewhat expensive, spell to cast.

Okay, back to the main story. The Fun Gang climb up a series of pillars and find a giant piano. In order to solve the next puzzle and reach the Dark Fountain, you need to play a melody on this piano. But there's just one problem. The nearby music sheet that Susie and Gerson discover is too long for most Players to memorize. To solve this puzzle, the Player has to willingly lose control of Kris, and let them play the song instead. It's a cool moment that's made better because the whole game has been foreshadowing it. Kris loves playing the piano, but cannot play it while the Soul is possessing them, because the Soul can only interact with musical instruments during minigames. So by loosening their grip on Kris, the Player is giving Kris a taste of freedom, while placing all their trust in Kris to solve this puzzle voluntarily. The piano puzzle gives way to the Dark Fountain, and the Fun Gang seal it with no issue.

But as Kris and Susie return to the Light World, they find a conundrum. The Roaring Knight made two Dark Worlds in the church, one in the lobby and another in the actual congregation. The door to the rest of the church is locked with another code. So now Kris and Susie have to look around the lobby for clues. Which leads to Susie snooping around in the pastor's office, and finding a glass case... Containing a dusty hammer and a photograph of Gerson. Remember what I said about Monsters having fragile bodies? As explained back in UNDERTALE, when Monsters die, their body crumbles to dust. As such, Monsters don't bury their deceased as there is nothing for them to bury. But they do cover the dust in an item that is heavily associated with that Monster, and bury the item instead. There's also a book you can read earlier in this very Chapter that explains how Monsters perform funerals.

Susie puts two and two together and realizes what exactly happened with Gerson. Like Ralsei said, Dark Fountains turn fantasy into reality by bringing inanimate objects to life. And the dust left behind by a dead Monster counts as an "inanimate object." Which means that Gerson really was dead, and that the Gerson we got was just a Darkner version of him. This is both infinitely more creative than what I thought of and infinitely more disturbing. Imagine dying and coming back to life as an idealized version of yourself because someone brought your cremated remains to a fantasy world. That's the human equivalent of what happened with Gerson.

No matter where you look in the lobby, Neither Kris nor Susie can find the code, so Susie comes up with a plan; create a Dark Fountain of her own and ask a newly revived Gerson for the code. When he was alive, Gerson's family visited this church frequently and his son, Alvin, became the current pastor. Susie also wants to try bringing Gerson back to Castle Town, despite that raising all sorts of ethical questions.

Kris and Susie climb a wall while avoiding fireballs made of dark magic.

The Dark World that Susie creates, the Second Sanctuary, is messier and more chaotic than the first. It even warps the colors of the Fun Gang, changing Susie from purple to orange, Kris from blue to pink, and Ralsei from green to blue. Despite the warped nature of this Dark World, the Prophecy is still intact. Which means we can read it in greater detail without interruption. Notably, it says that three heroes are required to stop the Roaring Knight; A Lonely Prince from the Dark (referring to Ralsei), a Cage with Human Soul and Parts (referring to Kris and the Player), and a Monster Girl, with Hope crossed on her Heart. 

There are some additional details in the Prophecy (some of which are obviously joke predictions), but the most important detail is this part; "LOVE will find its way to the Girl." Susie assumes this means she will fall in love one day, but because this game is set in the same universe as UNDERTALE, this has me wondering. Because in that game, LOVE is an acronym, standing for Level of Violence. Basically, it's a number on a person's Soul that measures how much death that person has caused, and their capacity to kill others in the future. The higher the number, the more powerful (and the more violent) a person becomes. Remember, UNDERTALE was a critique on the glorification of violence in video games, and it forced the Player to ask if it's even worth getting stronger if the only way to do so was by committing an act of unjustifiable murder.

Now, we can't get Susie to kill anyone, she's too independent to be manipulated. Even if we order her to attack Darkners during battle, they will always run away before suffering lethal damage. But you know who can be manipulated? Noelle. And you know can kill enemies permanently? Noelle. And you know who is also a Monster Girl, who also has Hope crossed on her Heart? Noelle. So there's a good chance that Noelle was meant to be one of the three heroes instead of Susie. Ergo, the Weird Route is what the Prophecy intended to happen, if this theory is true. Even if it's not true, the Weird Route still ties into the central theme of deltarune, which is the pursuit of freedom. If the Weird Route is not what the Prophecy intended, then the Player can only have real "freedom" by tormenting Noelle and ruining Kris's life, forcing us to ask "is freedom worth it if this what we have to do to get it?" If the Weird Route is what's prophesized to happen, then not only is the Player forcing Kris to torment Noelle (stripping both characters of their agency), the Player is taking away any chance for a "free" future from these two by forcing them along a predetermined path. Either way, the Weird Route is unambiguously evil, and it cannot be justified.

While in the Second Sanctuary, Kris and Susie get trapped in a dark room, and are forced to fight what they think is Gerson. This boss is basically a "Simon Says" minigame where you have to block directional attacks in the correct order. Susie tries to reason with "Gerson" and comes to regret making the new Dark World. Ralsei arrives just in time to save the day, and he just straight up kills this boss, which is revealed to be nothing more than a statue mimicking Gerson's appearance.

Ralsei explains that Gerson is not in this Dark World, and even if he was, the Fun Gang cannot take him back to Castle Town. Darkners modeled after the deceased can only exist in "specific" Dark Worlds, and thus are incompatible with Castle Town. Which leads to Susie snapping at Ralsei for not saying that sooner. And also for not telling anyone about the Roaring Knight, or how the Dark Fountains work, or the many other details that Ralsei neglected to mention. 

But Ralsei isn't withholding this information because he's evil. Far from it. Ralsei was cursed with the knowledge of how EVERYTHING in the world of deltarune works. He knows about the Prophecy, he knows about the game mechanics, he knows about the Save Files. Heck, he probably knows about the Player. But his own knowledge scares him, and he never knows when to say something when it's relevant. And he is terrified of the Prophecy's ending. The reason he's been acting weird in this Chapter is because he's been doing his best to cover up the ending. But the fact that he is going to such lengths to hide it already speaks volumes about how unpleasant it must be.

The Fun Gang get to the code to the lock, seal up the Second Sanctuary and head inside the third and final Dark World of this Chapter, the Third Sanctuary. Now I'm going to put another spoiler warning here, because now it's time for the final boss of this Chapter. And it is pure insanity. Like, I'm shocked that Toby Fox would use this kind of boss for Chapter 4, because any sane developer would've waited until Chapter 6 or 7. But now I'm left wondering who the final bosses of Chapters 5, 6 and 7 are going to be, because I cannot think of any way to top this boss.

So the Fun Gang catch up to the Roaring Knight, and it looks like the boss is just going to be a standard rematch. But then the Knight opens a Dark Fountain while still inside the Dark World, which summons a Titan. Yeah, those eldritch beings I mentioned that are prophesized to destroy the universe? The Knight just casually summons one. As you do. And that's the final boss of this Chapter. Much like with the Knight, my first reaction to this boss was "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE HAVE TO FIGHT A TITAN NOW!?" And again, most other fans had a similar reaction.

The first phase of the battle is a climbing sequence where Kris has to climb up the Titan's body, Shadow of the Colossus style, and the second phase is a more straightforward battle against just the Titan's head. And again, this is one of the few times where the Fun Gang is allowed to use violence to defend themselves. Because at this point, they aren't fighting wacky supervillains anymore. They're fighting Lovecraftian Gods. Not only does the Titan have a shield that Kris needs to break through with the "Unleash" Act, but once its health drops low enough, the Titan will start regenerating. And the speed at which it heals is faster than the speed at which the Fun Gang can damage it. All hope seems lost at this point... Until Gerson arrives and joins the party. Gerson may be a Turtle Monster, but today, he is the GOAT (greatest of all time).

With Gerson's help, the Fun Gang manages to defeat the Titan in the most hype boss fight in the entire game. While Gerson is my favorite Super Boss, the Titan is now my favorite Final Boss. At least, it's tied with Queen from Chapter 2. This fight is perfect. It has gorgeous pixel art animation, it has a banger theme song (both before and after Gerson arrives), it even brings back the gimmicks from Jackenstein's battle. This fight is peak cinema. 10/10, would climb up a Titan again.

But the Fun Gang's victory is short lived, as the Roaring Knight got away, Gerson is nowhere to be seen, and Toriel is still missing in action. Honestly I kind of forgot that the entire reason we came to the church was to get Toriel, because of... well, everything else. Anyway, Susie runs ahead of the group and gets to see the ending of the Prophecy. We don't get to see it ourselves, because by the time we catch up with her, Susie has already destroyed the mural depicting the Prophecy's ending. 

The Prophecy predictions range from serious to silly. This is one of the sillier predictions. Image found on steam.steampowered.com

Ralsei frantically apologizes for letting Susie see the ending, but she just ignores his worries. Susie boasts that she "wouldn't let that happen." She also assures Ralsei that Kris "wouldn't let that happen," and of course, Ralsei himself "wouldn't let that happen." She never says what "that" is exactly, but if I had to guess, one of the three heroes is prophesized to die. Presumably in a violent fashion. It's the only thing I can think of that would justify this kind of reaction.

We also get one of my favorite interactions between Kris and Ralsei in this scene. Ralsei starts crying, because it's getting harder to put up his wholesome, boy scout persona. He knows too much for his own good, and the stress of all that knowledge is getting to him. But despite that, he still forces himself to smile. The Player can choose to make Kris say "It's okay not to smile." Doing so leads to Kris kneeling down and hugging Ralsei. Willingly. Without Player input. Ralsei is taken aback by this kindness, but getting hugged does help him feel better. Most importantly, Ralsei says that he wants to believe that their future is not set in stone, and that there can be more than just one ending for this story. Which is a bold claim, as Toby Fox himself has gone on record saying that he has "only" one ending planned for deltarune

The Fun Gang seal the Third Sanctuary and prepare to head home. But the atmosphere is a lot more gloomy. It's the middle of the night by now, and the rain from earlier has stopped. The song that plays when Kris and Susie walk home is a special one. It's a remix of a song from UNDERTALE, called It's Raining Somewhere Else. It was one of the most somber songs in that game's OST, being the one time where Sans the Skeleton (UNDERTALE's mascot) finally stopped joking around and had a serious conversation with Frisk, the protagonist of that game. In deltarune, the song is called The Place Where It Rained, and it somehow sounds even more melancholy than it did originally. Yet, there's something nostalgic about hearing The Place Where It Rained. Hearing it felt like I was like being transported back to 2015 when I played UNDERTALE for the first time.

And speaking of Sans the Skeleton... Kris and Susie finally find Toriel, and learn that she was never in the Dark Worlds in the first place. On the way to choir practice, Toriel got caught in the rain, and ducked inside Sans' grocery store for shelter. Evidently she liked Sans enough to bring him home and start partying. Which means that the Fun Gang's adventure to the Dark Sanctuary was technically all for nothing. 

By the time Kris and Susie make it back to Kris's House, Toriel is outrageously drunk and all semblance of her saintly mother persona is gone. She's cursing, making bad puns, flirting with Sans, and just being an overall mess. Susie immediately bails and leaves Kris alone with their drunken mother and a man who is for all intents and purposes, a homewrecker. Any chance of Toriel getting back with Asgore (Kris's dad and Toriel's ex-husband) died in this scene. Without context, this scene is hilarious, but with context, you kind of just feel second-hand embarrassment for Kris. The most accidentally funny thing about this scene is, THIS was where I got softlocked. Yeah, the scene where Kris comes home to find their mom black-out drunk with a sassy skeleton was where the glitch that ruined my first playthrough happened.

Anyway, the Chapter ends with Kris trying and failing to sleep through Toriel and Sans's drunken banter. They receive a call, but what it says changes depending on whether or not you completed the Weird Route. If you didn't do the Weird Route like a good boy/gal, the Voice on the Phone tells Kris "Don't Forget... You promised." We don't know what Kris promised to do, but that line combined with how Kris behaves in the Weird Route has led me to believe that Kris is being coerced and is not cooperating with the villain(s) willingly.

Speaking of the Weird Route, the Weird Route version of this ending has Kris receive a call from Carol (we know it's Carol and not the Voice on the Phone, because the Voice uses a different font and sound effect when speaking), who thanks Kris for "agreeing" to take Noelle on a date to the Festival that Susie mentioned earlier. Which considering that the Weird Route is "reindeer abuse simulator" is very much not a good thing.

The last thing we see before the Chapter ends is Susie walking away from Kris's House, promising to "not let that happen." Her attitude is a lot more somber than when she first saw the Prophecy's ending, so whatever it was clearly affected her more than she would care to admit. It's a bittersweet ending, but it's nowhere near as much a cliffhanger as previous endings. And honestly? Given how intense this Chapter got, having a calmer ending was perhaps for the best.

And that's Chapter 4. We're done. We're at the halfway mark, now. This review was surprisingly difficult to write, mostly because so much *stuff* happens in Chapter 4 that it's difficult to summarize it in a way that feels coherent. Heck, even this summary is omitting things like Lancer's antics, the rematch against Rouxls Kaard, and the Asgore subplot.

Aside from getting softlocked, this Chapter was fantastic. If I were to rank the Chapters now, I would say that Chapters 2 and 4 are tied for my favorite, and the only reason they tie is because of the softlock. If Chapter 4 didn't have a glitch that can softlock your progress, it would just be my favorite Chapter, no contest. But below 2 and 4 I would put 3, and below 3 I would put 1. Chapter 1 wasn't bad, mind you, it's just outclassed by the other three Chapters.

As for presentation, deltarune has a simple, yet charming pixel art style. Everyone in the game is animated in 8-bit sprites, with the sole exception of Mr. Tenna, who instead has a 3D model that was run through some kind of pixilation filter. The result is that he looks like a Donkey Kong Country character standing next to a bunch of Donkey Kong Classic characters. He sticks out like a sore thumb, but in a way that feels deliberate and oddly charming. But the most impressive thing is the animation on the Titan. The animation on the Titan's hand is the smoothest and cleanest pixel art in any Toby Fox game. 

Ignoring characters for a bit, the background art is gorgeous. In fact, Chapters 3 & 4 have by far the prettiest backgrounds. Like the Holiday Household is so detailed that it looks almost like it came out of a different game. Which in a weird way, tracks. Toby did hire some guest artists for the new Chapters, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Holiday Household was handled by the guest artists.

Kris (middle), Susie (left) and Ralsei (Ralsei) play a rock concert minigame. Image found on steam.steampowered.com

As for sound, it's a Toby Fox project. You know the music is going to be spectacular. Most of the songs are relatively simple melodies, but they sound crisp and clear. In typical Toby Fox fashion, characters that are somehow related to each other, either narratively or literally, share similar motifs during their respective theme songs. This is part of the reason the Freedom motif is so important. And also the Don't Forget motif exists. Don't Forget is the main theme song of the entire game, and as such, the Don't Forget motif appears just as often as the Freedom motif.

As for the standout songs, Gerson's theme, Hammer of Justice is a fast-paced banjo medley of a whole bunch of songs from UNDERTALE, mostly Spear of Justice and Battle Against a True Hero. And it adds a banjo version of the Freedom motif in on top of that. It sounds exciting and nostalgic, but for reasons that are more lighthearted than The Place Where It Rained. Hammer of Justice might just dethrone The World Revolving for my favorite boss theme.

All of the piano-centric tunes are a joy to listen to as well. As they should, as the piano is Kris's instrument of choice, to the point where there are multiple puzzles that can only be solved by playing piano music. One detail I like about Kris's piano playing is that while they are obviously good, they are not a perfect prodigy. If you listen closely, you can hear Kris make minor mistakes while playing certain songs. And that makes sense, as Kris is still a teen and they haven't had time to practice, because of the whole "sharing a body with the Player" thing. It's a fun bit of characterization.

The sound effects are a little bit funny. While most of the sound effects are unique, there are also a handful of public domain sound effects. All of the public domain sound effects are used exclusively for comedy and are never used when the story gets serious. The most obvious being the explosion sound. Unrelated tangent here, but one day I decided to watch The Cuphead Show and that cartoon uses the exact same explosion sound effect that deltarune uses. This is not a bad thing as that specific sound effect is public domain, therefore, anyone can use it. But it was a funny coincidence that two indie projects in completely different mediums used the exact same explosion sound effect.

Overall, I'd say that deltarune Chapters 3 & 4 were worth the wait. I wish I didn't have to harp on Chapter 4 so much, but I can't in good faith give it a 5 star rating as long as that glitch exists. But despite that technical hiccup, I still enjoyed my time with the new Chapters. The jokes were hilarious, the characters continue to be charming, the Weird Route is still horrifying. And it gave some of the best boss fights in the game. Like I said earlier, Chapter 3 gets 5 stars out of five, Chapter 4 gets four stars out of five. And now all we have to do is wait for Toby Fox to release the other Chapters. However long that takes.

deltarune is the property of Toby Fox. None of the images used in this review were created by me. Please support the original creators.

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Darkest Dungeon, a harrowing challenge that will leave you humbled. A very stressful review

I am no stranger to challenging games with moody, gothic atmospheres. From Dark Souls to Elden Ring, I've played my fair share of "spooky hard games." But there's one game that has completely captivated me. Red Hook's Darkest Dungeon, a cult classic strategy game with a reputation for being fiendishly difficult, and also for being heavily inspired by the writings of the classical horror author H.P. Lovecraft. While it is NOT a Souls Like, this is still a Gothic Horror game about medieval fantasy adventurers fighting nightmarish monstrosities. So it's something that's still within my wheelhouse, as I am the Guy Who Likes Spooky Hard Games. Before we continue, here's a quick content warning. Darkest Dungeon is rated T for Teen by the ESRB and is (at least ostensibly) meant for ages 13 years and older. Despite this, I still feel the need to put a content warning because this game can be... a lot. Expect to see violence, body horror, psychological horror, offscreen self-harm, offscreen debauchery and mild profanity.

Official box art of Darkest Dungeon. Image found on Wikipedia.org

So what exactly is Darkest Dungeon? It's a side-scrolling strategy roleplaying game developed and published by Red Hook Studios, released on January 16, 2016. It gained a following online due to its striking art style, impressive voice acting and fiendish difficulty. It would later get three DLC packs titled Crimson Court, Color of Madness and The Butcher's Circus. The former two being major expansions that add in new areas, classes and bosses while the latter is a Player Vs Player minigame. Not only that, but Red Hook also made a full blown sequel to this game, simply titled Darkest Dungeon II. Taking place in a Victorian Gothic setting, Darkest Dungeon tells you everything you need to know about the story with what is perhaps the most captivating intro to any video game ever. The art and voice acting in the intro is so good that I almost never skip it, and it sets the bleak, oppressive vibe that the game goes for perfectly. To put it simply, this intro makes one heck of a first impression.

In Darkest Dungeon, you play as an unnamed, 19th century noble who had received a letter from a mysterious relative only known as the Ancestor. This unnamed noble is meant to be a self-insert for the player, and as such this character remains unseen for most of the game. I am going to refer to this unseen character as the Heir for the sake of consistency. The Ancestor is already dead by the time the letter reaches the Heir, as he discovered *something* so horrible and terrifying that he took his own life in an attempt to escape whatever it was that he found. The letter he sent gave the Heir legal ownership over the Ancestor's estate, which includes a mansion, a nearby hamlet and the titular Darkest Dungeon. Unfortunately, most of the estate is overrun with monsters, cultists, bandits and many more threats to the Heir's safety. Because the Heir is a member of the aristocracy, their life is too important to set foot on the estate in its current condition. So the Heir hires adventurous mercenaries called the Heroes to clear out the estate in their stead. That's the basic premise, and the story doesn't really get more complicated than that. Most of the lore you learn outside of this intro is about the Ancestor's life before he died. Also, the Ancestor's ghost narrates over the entire game, describing both the story and the in-game battles with flowery prose befitting a Lovecraft protagonist.

The Ancestor, who narrates over the entire game, writes a letter to his family begging them to come home and retake the titular Darkest Dungeon. Image found on MobyGames.com

Darkest Dungeon officially starts with a brief tutorial in which you are ambushed by bandits. Fear not, for the Heir always starts with two Heroes on their payroll already; A Crusader named Reynauld and a Highwayman named Dismas (these Heroes are the only ones with canon names, the other Heroes are given randomized names upon recruitment). These two are your starter Heroes, and they exist mostly to teach you the basics of battle. Combat is turn-based with the turn order being decided by a number called the Speed stat, in which the character with the highest number goes first. Each Hero on your team has four different abilities they can choose to use on their turn. What these abilities are depends on the Hero's class, of which there are 18 (15 in the base game and 3 more in DLC expansions). Some Heroes focus on supporting allies with healing and buffs, others focus on killing enemies quickly with big burst attacks, and others still focus on tanking and defenses. You can have up to four Heroes in the same team, with any class combination you want (including multiple Heroes with the same class). 

Additionally, the Heroes follow a strict marching order, and their place within the marching order changes their abilities. These positions are your backline (far left), your frontline (far right) and two middle positions. Some Heroes want to be certain places more than others. For example, the Arbalest and the Plague Doctor both want to be in the backline, as they are long range fighters who use projectiles and support abilities to keep their teammates alive. The Leper and the Hellion meanwhile want to be in the frontline as they are both melee powerhouses who focus on tearing through enemies with close range attacks. Some classes, like the Grave Robber and the Jester, can even change their position mid battle when using certain abilities. And other classes like the Occultist and the Man-at-Arms don't really care where in the marching order they are, as they have abilities that can be used in any position. 

The last main combat mechanic is Torchlight, which is meant to be a high risk, high reward system. Basically, the lighting during an expedition will gradually get darker as you progress, but you can use torches to restore it. Monsters grow more powerful in darkness, but the odds of finding more valuable items and treasure are increased when the Torch Light gets low enough. If you're feeling very brave (or you're desperate for more money) it could be worth letting Torchlight run out on purpose for the extra rewards. But keeping Torchlight high is safer for your Heroes.

Speaking of safety, I should warn you now that Darkest Dungeon is deliberately designed to be a challenging experience, to the point where it provides a warning saying as much every time you boot it up. Why is this game so difficult, you ask? Because of four main mechanics. First and most obvious is permadeath. When a Hero dies for any reason, that specific Hero is dead for the rest of the game, and anything they were carrying at the time of death is lost forever as well. Secondly, Heroes have two health bars, one for their physical wellbeing and one for their mental health. If their physical health reaches zero, that Hero is put on Death's Door. Despite the name, this event doesn't kill the Hero, but if they get hit while on Death's Door there is a 1-in-3 chance that they will die for real. However, literally any healing spell will remove the "Death's Door" condition. As long as your Heroes are NOT on Death's Door, they will never die from physical injuries.

The Plague Doctor, one of the game's many playable Heroes, suffers a mental breakdown and becomes Fearful. Image found on TrueAchievements.com

But this leads to the third major mechanic of the game, Stress. Stress represents your Heroes' declining mental health, and it will rise the longer a battle progresses. If the Stress meter fills all the way up, the Hero will reach their breaking point and they will gain a random, but usually negative, ailment called an Affliction. These can take the form of extreme fearfulness, paranoia and hopelessness, among others. While Afflicted, the Hero in question will occasionally do things that are detrimental to the team, such as skipping turns or even attacking teammates. If the Stress meter fills all the way up a second time, the Afflicted Hero will have a heart attack that puts them on Death's Door immediately. If they were already on Death's Door at the time this happens, then the heart attack straight up kills the Hero. There is a small chance that a Hero will gain a positive status effect called a Virtue, which instantly heals Stress and provides a power boost for the whole team, but Virtues are rare and should not be relied on. If they happen, great! But don't count on them for victory. Also, Stress is persistent across multiple expeditions and can only be treated by giving that Hero a break. These three mechanics work together in tandem to ensure that battles against even basic enemies can quickly devolve into a life or death struggle if you aren't careful. 

So how do you deal with the horrors of the estate? The answer is by upgrading the hamlet. The hamlet is your base of operations, and from here you can replace casualties recruit new Heroes and outfit them with new armor and weapons. You can also give a Hero the week off and let them visit either the Tavern or the Church. Both of these facilities will heal Stress, but most Heroes will develop a preference for one or the other. You can also send the Heroes to the Sanitorium to cure them of any diseases they may have contracted (diseases, while nonlethal, will still weaken a Hero in addition to other status conditions). You can use a collectible currency called Heirlooms to upgrade the hamlet (thus making each facility more effective), and you can get more Heirlooms by exploring the estate. Upgrading the Heroes themselves does not cost Heirlooms, but instead costs Gold, which is also found within the estate. Keep in mind that a Hero will be unavailable for deployment until the next expedition is complete if they are spending the week at the Sanitorium, Tavern or Church, as these facilities' effects are not instant. In fact, my biggest criticism of Darkest Dungeon is that your Heroes are often forced into long periods of downtime even when they are successful. Like, let's say that a Hero becomes Afflicted and gets infected with a disease. You can only heal one ailment at a time, meaning that if you want that Hero to be back at full strength, you need to wait at least 2 in-game weeks for that to happen. The wait gets even longer if the Hero contracts multiple diseases at once.

An overview of the hamlet, which serves as your base of operations. Image found on MobyGames.com

And speaking of taking the week off, the game measures time in weeks, with one expedition to the estate taking up one in-game week. This translates to about 30 minutes to an hour of real life playtime. On the game's hardest difficulty setting, officially called Stygian mode, you will have a time limit forcing you beat the entire game within 86 weeks or sooner.  Stygian mode also puts a 30% multiplier on the health and damage output of all enemies. So maybe don't try this mode if it's your first time playing, as it is especially sadistic. The last major mechanic concerning the hamlet is that there are random events that can occur. These events are always positive, and include things like discounts at the various facilities, all Heroes belonging to a specific class getting a free level up, or even bringing one dead Hero back to life. This random event is the ONLY way to revive dead Heroes, by the way.

The estate is divided into five main areas, each themed around a different archetypal monster; the Ruins (undead), the Warrens (beast men), the Weald (witches/fungi), the Cove (sea monsters) and finally, the Darkest Dungeon (Lovecraftian horrors). The Crimson Court and Color of Madness expansions add two new areas, also themed around archetypal monsters. The former adds the Courtyard (vampires) and the latter adds the Farmstead (aliens/crystals). All areas have human enemies, which take the form of either bandits or cultists. Once you pick an area to explore, the layout in those areas are randomized. The layout might be a linear hallway during one trip, or a sprawling maze during the next trip. Additionally, each expedition has a quest objective. These quests can range from defeating all enemies, to collecting three specific items, to killing a boss. Normally, your Heroes cannot leave until their current quest is complete. However, you can choose to abandon the quest, which will allow all currently living Heroes to return safely, but you will get reduced rewards for doing so. Keep in mind that if all four Heroes sent on an expedition are killed, you lose access to EVERYTHING that they found. As cowardly as it sounds, it is always better to abandon a quest before you lose too many Heroes, as it is better to come back with some rewards than it is come back with nothing at all.

While exploring any given area, your team may stumble across objects called Curios. These can range from treasure chests, to bookshelves, to confession booths, among many others. Interacting with Curios will produce a random effect, which can be either positive or negative in nature. However, you can use certain supply items on specific kinds of Curios to force a positive effect to occur. For example, you can use a skeleton key on treasure chests to get even more treasure from them than normal. You can use holy water on confession booths to heal Stress. You can clear out a blocked passage using shovels. And there are many more possibilities. The only restriction you have to worry about is limited inventory space. Your Heroes can only carry an absolute maximum of 16 different items, with items of the same type sharing an inventory slot. For example, a single slot can hold either 12 rations, 6 bandages or 4 shovels, but not all of those at once. All supply items are one time use, and if you have any unused supplies once the expedition is complete you will get a refund for your troubles. To quote the Ancestor regarding treasure and supplies; "The cost of preparedness, measured now in gold, but later in blood."

On the subject of Heroes, let's talk about them in more detail. As previously mentioned, the Heroes are divided into classes, with each class having a unique role on any given team. While you can make most team compositions work, some classes work better with others. For example, The Highwayman and Grave Robber are mid-range damage-dealers whose weapons can deal extra damage against enemies with the Marked condition. Neither the Highwayman nor the Grave Robber have any way of Marking a target by themselves. So if you want to get the most out of these classes, pair them up with Heroes who can Mark targets like the Hound Master, the Bounty Hunter or the Occultist. In fact, you can build an entire team of Heroes around Marking enemies so that their teammates can obliterate them. The same practice can be applied with other status conditions, like Bleeding and Blight. Or you can forsake all these fancy status conditions altogether and run a party of three melee powerhouses who overwhelm their foes with sheer strength, and give them a single healer to keep them alive. And if you are in desperate need of Gold, the otherwise unimpressive Antiquarian can multiply the amount of treasure found on an expedition, as long as the other three Heroes do everything they can to protect her. The possibilities are endless. 

You can also customize your Heroes with collectible items called Trinkets that provide a passive boost to certain abilities. Like a scroll that increases the amount of health healing spells restore by 30%, or a bandana that raises the damage of all long-range attacks by 25%. All bosses (excluding the final boss) drop extra strong Trinkets with powerful effects, and most bosses are worth killing just for their Trinkets. The last thing about Heroes you need to worry about is camping. On longer expeditions, the party will be given a log of firewood. Use this item in an empty room and your Heroes will camp for the night. Outside of certain Curio events, camping is the only reliable way of healing Stress mid-expedition. All classes also have special camp abilities, which allows them to either heal Stress even further or give the party some kind of buff. But of course, this game won't let you camp without danger, as every time you set up camp there is a 1-in-3 chance that you'll get ambushed. And said ambushes always start in complete darkness, meaning the enemies will always be at max strength should this happen. Some Heroes, such as the Crusader, Occultist and Vestal, have camping abilities that outright prevent ambushes from occurring. For the sake of your own sanity, make sure at least one of your Heroes has an anti-ambush camping ability. 

A promotional comic depicting the Leper leaving his kingdom for the greater good. Image found on darkestdungeon.fandom.com and darkestdungeon.com

One fun bit of trivia I want to mention about the Heroes is their backstory comics. These comics are not accessible within the game itself, but were made as promotional material. These comics show more of the Heroes' lives prior to the start of the game, and all of them are meant to paint the Heroes in a tragic, or at least sympathetic light. Just to give a few examples, the Crusader was once a farmer with a wife and son who was drafted into a holy war, but he's been fighting for so long he gave up hope on returning home. The Arbalest was forced to run away from home as a child due to an angry mob burning her village down, with the only relic of her childhood being her father's crossbow. The Hound Master was once a police officer with a strong sense of justice, who left the police force in disgust when he found out his commanding officers were part of a cult. My favorite comic goes to the Leper, who was once a fair and just king that was beloved by his subjects. But one day, the Leper contracted leprosy (obviously), and he left his kingdom willingly to spare his people from a potential plague. And keep in mind, the comics manage to communicate these ideas and themes without a single word of dialogue, instead choosing to let the art tell the story by itself. Even if you have no desire to play Darkest Dungeon yourself, I can highly recommend looking at the comics. They are only one page long each and have some hauntingly beautiful artwork.

One last thing about the Heroes before we continue. Each Hero is given a random set of minor strengths and weaknesses called traits. Traits provide either an improvement or a penalty, like 10% extra damage against undead but having -1 Speed. Some traits make it so a Hero can only heal Stress with specific methods, like the Tippler trait, which makes the Hero become an alcoholic who can only heal Stress by drinking at the Tavern. A Hero can have a maximum of five "positive" traits and five "negative" traits, and once that limit is reached, the old traits will swap out for new traits at random intervals. If there's a positive trait you really like and want it to stay on a Hero, you can send them to the Sanitarium to lock that trait in, making it permanent. Likewise, if there's a negative trait that you feel is more trouble than it's worth, you can use the Sanitarium to instantly remove it. While most of the traits are minor enough to not make that big a difference, there is one negative trait that's hugely detrimental and should be removed immediately; Kleptomania. It's exactly what it sounds like, a random chance for that Hero to steal treasure and supplies from the rest of the team. The problem is that there is (to my knowledge) no way to get those items back, as they are pretty much gone forever. For obvious reasons, you don't want a Hero who will steal from their own comrades. Funnily enough, Reynauld, the Crusader given to you during the tutorial, always starts with Kleptomania as his first negative trait. Every playthrough of Darkest Dungeon will involve you sending Reynauld straight to the Sanitorium to cure his Kleptomania as soon as you are able to. This is not negotiable. It's a canon event.

A group of Heroes start a battle against the Swine King, one of the game's bosses. Image found on MobyGames.com

But now it's time to talk about the bosses, which are a major highlight for me. Not only because their designs are creatively monstrous, but they have some neat mechanics that make them more interesting that the regular enemies. Each of the four main parts of the estate have two bosses that need to be defeated three times each (with each rematch being more difficult than the previous battle).The Ruins get the Necromancer and the Prophet, the Warrens get the Swine King and the Formless Flesh, the Weald gets the Hag and the Brigand Pounder, and the Cove gets the Siren and Drowned Crewmen. There are other bosses in the game, but these are the main ones you need to worry about. Anyway, every time you start an expedition to fight a boss, you will get a confession from the Ancestor's ghost where he explains his relationship with the boss in question. Fight these bosses enough times and the Ancestor will reveal more information, both about the boss and about himself. And the more you learn about the Ancestor, the more you learn that he was kind of an awful person in life. Every boss encountered is either one of his failed experiments, a co-conspirator he betrayed or an unfortunate victim who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

I have more to say about the Ancestor himself, but let's get back to the bosses. All of them have a gimmick that allows the boss to mess with the Heroes' positioning or even the turn order itself. Just to list a few examples of my favorite bosses, the Prophet can "predict" an attack that will hit a random Hero three turns in advance, and if that Hero doesn't switch to a safer spot in the marching order they'll get crushed by a boulder. The Formless Flesh is actually four different creatures fused together, and thus it gets four separate turns for each of its parts. But because these parts share a health bar, damage over time effects like Bleeding and Blight are four times as effective, as these effects activate once per each part's turn (thus dealing damage four times total). The Hag can grab a random Hero and put them in her stew, preventing them from doing anything until the other three Heroes free them by smashing the Hag's cooking pot. My favorite boss is the Brigand Pounder, as it's literally just a really big cannon being escorted by regular human bandits. The cannon can't do anything by itself, but if a Brigand Matchstick Man gets a chance to light the cannon's fuse, all four Heroes get hit with enough damage to instantly put the ENTIRE TEAM on Death's Door. The idea being that you have to kill the Matchstick Man before that can happen, and once he is dead you can focus on whittling down the cannon itself. 

Now let's talk about the Ancestor himself, because he is part of the reason I like this game as much as I do. I know I just called the Ancestor an awful person. But make no mistake, the Ancestor is my favorite character in this whole game, besides the Heroes themselves. Having such a villainous character narrate both the story and the gameplay is such an interesting artistic decision to me. His ghost speaks with a mixture of flowery prose and thinly veiled bitterness. He can go from mourning the decline of the estate and regretting how he handled his original expedition, to proudly boasting about the many ways in which he ruined the lives of the bosses, and somehow both of these views feel in character for him. You could make the argument that he is trying to atone for his sins by helping the Heir retake the estate. But honestly? I don't get the vibe that he even wants redemption. He sounds more annoyed that he died before his plans came to fruition than anything else.

And of course, I have to mention the incredible voice acting of the late Wayne June, who voiced the Ancestor. June brought his absolute A-Game when it came to delivering such verbose narration, and the game is all the better for it. And the Ancestor's callouts during the expeditions are iconic, with memorable lines like "These nightmarish creatures can be felled, they can be beaten!" and "A moment of clarity in the eye of the storm!" My favorite line the Ancestor says is "Monstrous size has no intrinsic merit, lest inordinate exsanguination be considered a virtue!" Because that is the fanciest and most pretentious way of saying "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." And how could I forget THE most famous quote from this game? "Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer." This quote is is unironically the best piece of advice anyone could give while playing this game. Never assume your Heroes are invincible, as all it takes for an expedition to fail is for you to push your luck too far. Always be prepared for any scenario, including the possibility of your favorite Heroes dying. Heck, you could make the argument that the Ancestor was guilty of overconfidence himself, as the entire reason he did everything he did was because he believed he was above facing consequences for his actions.

The Bounty Hunter smashes his axe into an enemy, destroying it. Image found on TrueAchievements.com

Okay, now that we have discussed most of the game, let's talk about the Darkest Dungeon itself, as it is the location that the game is named after and works under some different rules from other areas. Firstly, it is the only location with non-randomized layouts. This means you could look up a map online and use that information to beeline for the quest objective. Secondly, there are no Curios whatsoever in the Darkest Dungeon. It's meant to be a marathon of extra tough battles with few chances to rest. Thirdly, any Hero who goes to the Darkest Dungeon and survives will never return for a second trip, with the idea being that the Darkest Dungeon was so horrific and traumatizing that it gave that specific Hero permanent PTSD. The only exception to this rule is if you are playing on Radiant mode, the game's version of easy mode. Radiant mode removes this PTSD restriction, though "traumatized" Heroes will start the expedition with the Stress meter at 80% full the moment they return, so you're still discouraged from using the same Heroes again. These traumatized Heroes can still go on expeditions to everywhere else in the estate, and they even give weaker Heroes an experience boost, causing them to level up faster. So they can still contribute to the campaign, even if they won't get a chance to fight the final boss. I would say that the final boss being in the Darkest Dungeon is a spoiler, but come on. Where else would the final boss of a game called Darkest Dungeon be if not in the place literally called the Darkest Dungeon?

Speaking of the final boss, the final battle is really cool narratively, even if it is not as difficult as the other bosses. Full spoiler warning ahead. The final boss is none other than the ghost of the Ancestor himself. Here at the final floor of the Darkest Dungeon, the Ancestor reveals what exactly was the great and terrible *thing* he found that drove him to take his own life; The Heart of Darkness. This ancient being possesses all knowledge of the cosmos, including truths that mankind was never meant to learn. It also feeds on human suffering, and if it eats enough suffering, it can grow strong enough to cause the end of the world. So the Ancestor made a deal with it. The deal was that the Ancestor would be revived as an immortal spirit with access to as much knowledge as he wants, and in exchange, the Ancestor would cause human suffering on an unprecedented scale, thus speeding up the Heart's gestation. The Ancestor knew his relatives would spare no expense in reclaiming the estate. He also knew that plenty of Heroes would "suffer" in the process. But the Heroes were never meant to push as far into the Darkest Dungeon as they did, and as such, the Heart of Darkness is forced to wake up early, which is why the Ancestor is fighting you now. 

The battle against the Ancestor/Heart of Darkness is not a hard fight, but it is a long one. It has four phases and plenty of attacks that can inflict all the major status conditions, but it doesn't have anything you haven't seen before by this point. That is, until you reach the final phase. Once the Heart is down to its fourth and final health bar, it can use its signature move: Come Unto Thy Maker. This "fun" little ability is a guaranteed one-hit kill move. This attack ignores Death's Door and is always 100% accurate. Nothing will save you from Come Unto Thy Maker. The good news is that the Heart can only use this technique twice per battle. The bad news is that the Heart forces the player to choose who gets hit with it. This attack is devastating for obvious reasons, and for a long time everyone (including Red Hook themselves) believed it was impossible to defeat the final boss without suffering casualties. The fact that the game forces you, the player, to choose the target of this attack is adding insult to injury. Yet it works from a narrative standpoint. When you start out, you feel compelled to be a good boss to your Heroes, paying for their healthcare and outfitting them with the finest equipment available. But as they start dying and you get used to replacing the deceased, you start to see less value in your Heroes' lives. Soon enough you realize that unless the Hero in question is fully upgraded (or close to it), it's often cheaper to just fire a half-dead, traumatized Hero and hire a replacement than it is to heal them properly. This battle is basically calling you out for (potentially) becoming just as ruthless as the Ancestor was. After all, at this point you are not only desensitized to the death of the Heroes, you are sacrificing them yourself just for a chance to finish the final battle.

But what if I told you it doesn't have to end that way? As it turns out, some people on the Internet figured out not one, but two different ways to circumvent Come Unto Thy Maker, completely skipping over the sacrifice and outsmarting the developers themselves. The first method is the simplest, but arguably the most dangerous. All you have to do is bring ONLY two Heroes to the final boss fight. You see, the Heart of Darkness can only use Come Unto Thy Maker if at least three out of four Heroes survived long enough to reach the final phase. If there's less than three Heroes on the team by the time you reach this phase, the Heart has no reason to use its signature move. The second method is more complicated, but more satisfying; Figure out a way to kill the Heart in a single turn. The Heart can't use Come Unto Thy Maker if it's dead. I don't know the exact details, nor do I have the time to explain, but there are plenty of YouTube videos out there showing that it can be done.

Regardless of how you choose to defeat the Heart of Darkness, its gestation is halted and forced back into dormancy. But as is tradition with Lovecraftian storytelling, the Ancestor claims that the Heart cannot be permanently destroyed by mortal hands, and that the Heart will return one day to destroy the world. The game ends with the Heir writing a letter to their next of kin, just as the Ancestor did. And the Heir takes their own life to escape the Darkest Dungeon, just as the Ancestor did. And the letter calls in another relative who leads another doomed crusade to retake the estate, just as the Heir did. And then when they defeat the Heart again, that relative will write a letter to their next of kin. And that relative will come to reclaim the estate, defeat the Heart, and write a letter to THEIR next of kin. And so on and so forth. This familial bloodline is now locked in a never ending loop of wasting money and lives on trying to retake this cursed estate, while inadvertently saving the world repeatedly. It's a bittersweet ending, one that's more bitter than sweet. It does create the somewhat humorous mental image that the only thing stopping the end of the world from occurring is a single, stupidly stubborn family of aristocrats with more money than sense who refuse to let this estate go.

A group of Heroes make camp for the night. Image found on SteamDB.com

In terms of presentation, Darkest Dungeon is stylishly macabre, with a comic book inspired art style with heavy shading and sharp angles on literally everything. The game is so over-the-top in its Gothic Horror aesthetic that it borders on absurdity. I mean, what other video game has a literal leper as a playable character? One detail I love is how all of the Heroes cover their eyes, either with masks, helmets or shadows. Despite having wildly different outfits from a wide range of cultures and time periods, the eye covering is something that is consistent across everyone. The only creatures with visible eyes are the monsters you battle against. I'm sure there's some symbolism there, if you want to read into it. I also like how the vampire enemies added in the Crimson Court are based off of mosquitos instead of bats, thus giving them a more insectoid appearance. It's a rather clever spin on a tried and true monster concept.

The actual animations are a little limited, unfortunately, but there's a certain charm to the Heroes various poses. You see, the only part of the game that is fully animated is walking from room to room. When in battle, the Heroes simply *snap* from an idle pose to a handful of contextual poses based on what is happening at the moment, with no smear frames to make the transition between poses smoother. You'd think this would weaken the visual experience, but in practice it makes the game look and feel even more like a comic book, and I mean this as a compliment. Basically, there is no other video game that looks quite like Darkest Dungeon. The only negative thing I can say about the visuals is that I noticed some mild typos in the captions. Nothing serious, but things like not capitalizing the letter "I" when using it as a first person pronoun, or accidentally putting the plural version of the word when the Ancestor is clearly referring to something singular. It's not a deal breaker by any means, but once you notice the typos, it becomes hard to ignore them.

I've already mentioned the incredible voice talents of Wayne June as the Ancestor, and thus I will not repeat myself. Keep in mind that the Ancestor is the only character in the game who is fully voiced. Everyone else gets comic book speech bubbles containing written dialogue. Anyway, the sound effects are crisp and instantly recognizable. I like how every attack (for both Heroes and monsters) has two different sound effects depending on whether or not the attacker actually hits their target. Like you can hear the weapon whizzing past the target and hitting only empty air, but the if attack strikes true, you can hear the weapon crush through bone and slice through flesh. It's brutal sound design, but it fits the gruesomeness of the game's aesthetics. 

The music meanwhile could best be described as stressful (pun intended again). The battle music (composed by Stuart Chatwood) sounds less like a heroic conflict between good and evil and more like a siren warning of impending doom. The music makes it clear that the Heroes are not welcome in the estate, and its monstrous denizens will show no mercy. And as the Torchlight lowers, the music gets louder, with more instruments and even demonic cackles and growls joining the beat. The only "calm" songs in the soundtrack are the hamlet's theme, simply titled The Hamlet, and the camping music, titled A Brief Respite. Both of these songs are meant to be relaxing and comforting, in their own way. But The Hamlet has a distinctly mournful vibe to it, sounding like something you would hear at a funeral. I don't know what instruments were used to make the soundtrack, as music is something that is not my expertise, but I do know that I would call the soundtrack "good" for what it's trying to do. Would I willingly listen to the combat music while doing chores or something? Not really. But this soundtrack does a good job keeping you immersed in this setting.

Overall, Darkest Dungeon is a brutal game that is most definitely not for everyone. Not to sound like a stereotypical game journalist, but I can see the difficulty being a major turn off for some people. This is not the kind of game you play casually to blow off steam. At the same time, so much care and passion was put into it that I can say with confidence that I greatly enjoyed the 90+ hours I spent with the game. No other game looks, sounds or plays quite like it, and I can respect the artistic vision. The game isn't difficult for the sake of it, there's a point to it. Have you ever heard the phrase, "suffering builds character?" That is the core thesis of Darkest Dungeon, both on a narrative and mechanical level. So I will give Darkest Dungeon 4 stars out of 5. It is really good for what it's trying to do. You just need to be onboard for that kind of experience.

Darkest Dungeon is the property of Red Hook Studios. None of the images used in this review were created by me. Please support the original creators.