Even for a soul-like fanatic like me, Darkest Dungeon II is still one of the most painfully engrossing and addictively tormenting games I have ever encountered. There you have it, the one line that might just trigger some challenge-lovers to immediately hit that purchase button.
The biggest lie that DDII might sell you is it’s theme: tossed within a decaying world overrun with despair and you set on a journey with nothing but your four battle-forged mortal champions, a stagecoach and the unwavering hope that no matter how many times you have lost, the next run might save the world. Crude, typical and idealistic, right? At least not all hope is gone. Well bare with me, albeit Darkest Dungeon II is a ridiculously cruel and dark turn-based roguelite that is insanely enjoyable for a game that focuses so much on making me suffer, it is not simple nor typical, and certainly doesn’t offer hope.
Learn to Enjoy not only Losing, but Suffering
Losing is an essential part of any Roguelite, that is how you tend to learn the battle system and hopefully to do better in the next cycle. But DDII not only make me lose, it made me suffer.
Unlike a normal turn-base, DDII does not have a card-drawing system or mana system that restricted champions from using their skills, as long as they are in the right positions they can do whatever I wanted them to do. But instead, there is a pressure system. Quite self-explanatory, the pressure system indicates each champion’s stress-level. This stress level increases when an enemy lands a critical hit or some heavy damage move, when facing unfortunate obstacles on the road and when seeing their fellow champions die. At the first few play throughs of this game, the pressure system alone has caused me most of my failing, since once the champion’s stree-level is maxed out they are at risk of a meltdown. And yes, just like a meltdown in real life, it is no joke. Not only will this meltdown immediately decrease their HP to a critical level but also negatively affect their relationship with their companions.
Since I mentioned it, there is also the relationship system, which is likewise such a charm. (no it’s not) Each champion will have unique relationships with other champions in the same team, which is essentially how they would feel about each other. If they feel negatively towards each other they may form a negative relationship which will literally tear your team apart from the inside. Although reaching a negative relationship as a result is not as easy as a meltdown, it is still something I had to watch out for. It is much easier to form negative relationship than a positive one through meltdowns, taking decisions at locations which not every member approves and simply just bad conversations along the road: after all, it is simpler to get people to hate you than to like you. Sometimes it is merely inevitable.
And mind I mention the cherry on top of all of that, which is the permanent death system matched with the zero-health-restore after battle and lack of viable HP restore options. There have been times where I finally reach the next inn, which is a checkpoint in the game, but had only one or two champions left and were forced to consider the option of quitting.
I know these systems feel like a lot, and in fact they are quite overwhelming for anyone who hasn’t played DDI (which I haven’t). But undeniably those systems also help, in an incredible way, to make the desperate world so much more realistic and the game so much more immersive. After a few cycles of clueless death I actually started to enjoy the suffering, which I believe is the true magic of DDII. It puts an overwhelming and seemingly impossible task in front of you, but allows you to chip away at it little by little, and through this, hooks you tiger to its grasp. The game only gets more enjoyable as the hour accumulates.
A Grand, Bloody Banquet for your Eyes and Ears
Albeit consist of only suffering and almost no reward, I couldn’t manage to stop playing even within the first few hours. It is true, what better way to get a gamer’s attention than to grab their eyes and ears?
DDII’s grotesque and retro comic-like aesthetics is so intriguing that I couldn’t move my eyes from it at all. Sometimes it is immersive and epic, like when I am about to embark onto a new map it paints the four heroes staring into their fate; sometimes it is disturbingly creative when it painted a knight-like enemy who has stag-horns growing out of their eyes throw the creeks on their helmet which is made out of wook; sometimes it is just straightforward cool as hell, like the killing blow my champions deals are always executed in such a brutal and bloody animation. In general, the iconic art of DDII not only fits the ambiance of the game perfectly, but its unique style makes the game visually so much more expressive, impactful and abhorrent, all of which made it impossible for me to stop exploring further.
Not only visually, the narration of DDII, which has followed me through the whole game no matter what I am doing, is also a major attraction of the game. The narration lines are a mixture of dark humor, extravagant poetry and acute philosophy, generally written in a pretentious and medieval style yet brought to life by that signature, epic voice of Wayne June, who is widely renowned in the industry. This narration creates such an engrossing atmosphere that during my playthrough I had to turn off the volume in the middle for a short while and almost immediately I could feel that emptiness like something was missing from the game. It is not a far stretch to say other than everything else, what paints the picture of DDII the strongest is the narration, which is saying quite a lot, given how addictive the picture itself is.
Don’t Tell a Story, Show One
The story of DDII is intriguing, this is not to say that the plot itself is truly mind-blowingly revolutionary: it is good, but rather how the story is told. Fragmented and served, DDII didn’t really tell me much about what happened about the world but let my imagination did most of the work itself. This is a very effective but difficult way of storytelling, too much or too little information then the audience might lose all interest at once. But the one thing I liked about DDII is that it starts unveiling the background slowly, in pieces, at the start of every expedition, which only makes me want to find out more.
What is really impressive about the storytelling must be the independent background story every champion has unique to themselves. Other than the conventional flashbacks, DDII tells you those stories through battles. For example, in the second chapter of Audrey, the grave robber’s story there was not a single passage to read, but rather just a battle between her, her ex-husband and a food trolly. The dialogues screamed by her husband, his actions and actions allowed for Audrey which changed from placation to back-off and hiding in the shadow to poison his drinks did all the work. It is the ultimate way of “showing not telling” in storytelling 101.
Conclusion
Darkest Dungeon II is a great game that is not for everyone. I know usually that is how the game works, some audience will like it more than others, but DDII has almost strictly separated those demographics through play-times. For gamers that likes a great challenge and don’t mind taking constant humiliation and failure along the way, DDII is a great game for them; on the other hand, for gamers that likes a smooth difficulty arc, accumulating through constant progress and enjoy beautiful fantasy with the feeling of accomplishment along the way, DDII is probably not your game. But whichever population you belong to, devote a few hours in it and I gurantee you DDII might just be your next addiction.
