I haven’t yet decided whether the loot tortoise in roguelike deckbuilder Dice Legends looks satisfied or exhausted. Both make sense to me. “He’s grown used to this, but still isn’t thrilled about it,” offered my sister. I would not be thrilled either. Imagine being aware of Pratchett’s world turtle and knowing you’re a glorified ATM by comparison.
“A roguelike deckbuilder, Nic?”, you exclaim with mock interest. “Well, kick me down a well and break out the Vimto we’ve had mouldering in the cellar since the nineties, the last decade in which anyone consumed or thought about Vimto. Haven’t had one of those since the time I went to collect the post forty five seconds ago. Also, the post was two flyers, each advertising a roguelike deckbuilder”. I will not argue with your sage industry analysis, friend, although this one does have a couple of notables that may make the Steam demo an intriguing prospect.
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It’s got lovely pixel art, for one, although thoughtful art direction isn’t too surprising. Dice Legends is the latest project from CD Project alum Rafał Jaki, co-creator of The Witcher 3’s Gwent minigame and showrunner on Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
It’s also got a tabletop twist on traditional card flinging. Each of the three playable heroes uses a different type of dice (D6, D8, or the haughty D12 – also known in some circles as ‘the shape bastard’), and you’ll use these to roll a dice pool to activate cards. Some cards need a number within a certain range but will still have the same effect. Others scale up with your dice results. Otherwise, it’s Slay The Spire at its very core. Attack, build up shield to defend against telegraphed damage, apply debuffs, and conquer nodes on an overworld map.
Additionally, the soundtrack is pure Bardcore. It is certified jaunty up in here. Is Dice Legends a ‘fifth page on the Nintendo Eshop sale’-ass name for a game? Yes. But I think it’s good time nonetheless. This one’s out in the third quarter of the year, to use the language of my most hated enemies, the year quarterers.