Dicefolk Review

A quirky indie roguelite – there aren’t any of those around, amirite? Well, let me tell you, after far too many hours with Dicefolk, you haven’t played one quite like this. In the best possible ways, of course.

Who are the Dicefolk?

The story of Dicefolk is pretty light, to be honest. Basically, you play as a character called Alea, who can control chimeras. She needs to use them to fight other chimera and beat an evil sorcerer or something. The story is light, and so after a few hours, I kind of forgot the bulk of it. But that’s exactly what I need here, as what this game offers is fun and addictive gameplay.

How does it play?

I mean, I am already talking a big game about the gameplay, so what is so great about it? In short, it’s the dice. Maybe I should elaborate…

Battles set you up with your chimera on one side and the bad chimera on the other side. Each turn has some dice rolls for both sides, and then you choose what happens and when. Maybe you have a chimera with a shield up in the front position, so you will use your opponent’s attack first before you rotate and swing with your strongest chimera. Maybe your chimera has a strong attack but is low on health, so you swing your attack, use your rotate option, and then have your opponent swing back. You can’t roll the dice until you have used your opponent’s attacks, so one way or another, they are doing something. It’s up to you to choose when.

This system is absolutely fantastic. It adds so much fun strategy, so even if you get a crappy roll, you may still make it through, depending on how you play it.

What about the roguelite?

This one is pretty straightforward. You basically get thrown onto a small map with paths. You can choose the order in which to go around the map, eventually culminating in a boss fight. Your chimera doesn’t heal unless you find items to heal them, so risking another battle before healing up can be risky but worthwhile if you get something cool to equip.

Every time you start a game, you have three super basic chimera, but you unlock more the more you play. These more awesome chimera may have bigger stats or even a badass skill. One of them can do an attack every time your opponents rotate; that was incredibly handy, and I kept that chimera for my longest run.

You also unlock new dice faces to swap out to lay your dice up. The longer you go, the more awesome attacks you will have. Sometimes literally swapping out a random turn for having the choice of direction can make a huge difference further through your run.

So should you play it?

Oh my god, yes! It’s such an absurdly fun game that is super easy to pick up and put down. I’ve had runs that do not get past one stage where I have had as much fun as one that has gone on for ages. It’s pure fun, and with some superb animation, it’s a damn exceptional addition to your Switch!

9 Hell Yeah!

Roll the dice and see if you have a good time, I sure did!