4/10/2023 0 Comments Swords of ditto![]() These small little irks, frustrating on their own, only pile up the further you progress or perhaps find yourself restarting the loop upon your previous character meeting their untimely demise. Yet for all its procedurally-generated make-up in regards to its dungeons as much its overworld, the game does a fine job at pushing past its roguelike structure to be something more. ![]() In the most baffling, extreme scenarios: two enemies of the exact same type/level - one rewards XP, yet the other one doesn’t for some reason? Then there’s the bizarre justification of what enemies reward you with XP and which ones don’t. Penguins that momentarily pop up about the map that can be used to increase your bomb count, but it never says how you go about actually catching them before they disappear for the time being. Seemingly useless items dropped by enemies actually play a role without any vague suggestion. Time itself is restricted to four in-game days yet never provides any manner of hour-by-hour dial/clock. Players have the ability to rewind time so as to better prepare for the final boss via the use of a particular item…though it’s never stated you actually need a certain number of said item before it’s too late. Or rather, not explain this surprising absence - this deliberate keeping players out of the loop - that feels like The Swords of Ditto’s greatest hindrance. There is a problem, however, when it comes to everything else the game looks to introduce and explain. When instructions are there to be subtly learnt and discovered for themselves, there’s no problem. In regards to solely its RPG aspects - particularly the constant shift from combat to puzzle-solving and back to combat - The Swords of Ditto is a competent enough experience that more than warrants its players approaching things with a bit more of a careful consideration. Enemies that have the potential to gang up on you and inflict serious damage traps that can set off a chain reaction which similarly incur a greater loss to one’s health. ![]() There are moments sprinkled about that feel intentionally set up to trip the player up. Explore the overworld, discover and subsequently beat a dungeon or two, level up along the way. Of course The Swords of Ditto doesn’t shy away from the notion that, more likely than not, you’ll find yourself repeating the same basic gameplay loop. We can of course take note of developer onebitbeyond’s clear hearkening to contemporary cartoon animation or even the generally upbeat nature of its aesthetic - both of which resonate well in a game like The Swords of Ditto - but there will always come a point where the back-end limitations begin to show and the early proceedings reveal themselves as the one-and-only loop underpinning the whole experience. An environment organically crafted with reason will always trump one that’s mathematically construed and left to pure, computational luck. While one’s assumptions about the inclusion of roguelike level-building have been proven wrong by some well-designed games, the ample number of releases that end up degrading their possible longevity usually outweigh those that help expand it.
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