Recent reviews by VPeach

Traps are gay but, fortunately, dads are not

Darkest Dungeon is a fantastic game, however I cannot recommend it to everybody. To truly play Darkest Dungeon you must be prepared to be flogged, punished and beaten to a pulp by the game and it's harsh rules. I cannot recommend Darkest Dungeon to everybody, because not everybody is a flagellant who revels in abuse and hardship, who can withstand the stress and push on with their resolve tested and steadfast but be wary, as your great ancestor says triumphant pride precipitates a dizzying fall.

A big part of Darkest Dungeon, and another reason why I cannot recommend it to everybody, is that you must learn harshly from your mistakes and correct them in future endeavors. Not everybody has the stubbornness, not everybody can get over a setback, because after all failure tests the mettle of heart, brain and body but heart most of all. I consider myself masochistic enough to enjoy this game but even I have had moments of quiet contemplation wondering whether it really was worth it to continue.

There is another component of Darkest Dungeon which will shy a lot of weaker-willed people away. Luck. I don't consider myself a gambler, and I don't get thrills from playing the numbers, so personally, I'm not a huge fan of the way that luck is used in Darkest Dungeon. If you are not prepared to take risks, to compromise for chance and to expect the worst Darkest Dungeon is going to walk all over you. Almost literally every factor in the entire game is dictated by a roll of the dice and dice being the fickle ivory cuboids that they are, have no allegiance. One dungeon you might roll full sixes with a great layout and constant critical hits but in another, snake eyes.

Now that I have outlined what makes this game challenging I would like to address the other reviews for Darkest Dungeon. You may be confused when you see the amount of negative reviews in the helpful section. I don't want to say that they're salty and that the people who vote them as helpful are salty, but what I will say is that many of them call for a rebalance patch, quite often on the grounds that the game used to be easier, now it's harder or it's just difficult or unreasonable or a grindfest and therefore not fun. Personally I don't believe that darkest dungeon is meant to be fun, at least not to everybody. Darkest Dungeon is meant to be a challenge, an obstacle to overcome something to work at. The game is far from impossible and if you lack the mettle, courage and perserverance to withstand the effort to triumph, you need to try harder and learn from your mistakes before slapping a "boo-hoo I failed and had to restart but I refuse to learn from my mistakes and improve" negative review on it
TLDR: The game isn't meant to be fun for everybody get over yourself and realize not every game is tailor made to your preferred difficulty cap before you post a heavily opinionated review that doesn't help anybody understand jack.

Darkest Dungeon is a fantastic, hellish experience which will push you to your limits and beyond, but be warned that it is not for everybody, as the Old Road will take you to Hell, but in that gaping abyss, you will find your redemption. So, steel yourself, and remember, there can be no bravery without madness, because truly, this is the Darkest Dungeon

Pros
- Fantastic Soundtrack
- Extremely well styled art.
- Narrator Wayne June
- Rewarding strategy gameplay
- Psychological Warfare
- Gambling
- Lovecraftian storytelling, themes and monster design
- Heart Pounding suspense
- Just the right amount of unpredictability to be remedied by experience and compromise

Cons
- Insane difficulty spikes
- Sometimes Victory can feel hollow, trifling even when stacked to the hardships to come
- Extremely stressful

EDIT 01: Just Read the 6th of February patch notes Heroes with the Never Again trait (prevents hero from re-entering final stage) now gives other party members a 30% XP buff when running dungeons as well as reduced the amount of XP required to reach resolve 6. Never again and being forced to level new heroes to 6 for the final stage was one of those things people used as an excuse to call Darkest Dungeon a "grindfest" and I understand why they would think that. I'm glad they patched those and gave whiners one less thing to complain about.