Darkest Dungeon

 Switch
User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 191 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 148 out of 191
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 191
  3. Negative: 22 out of 191
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  1. Enkindled
    Jul 18, 2020
    4
    Oh boy, I have a lot to say. Darkest Dungeon is a 2D turn-based RPG set in a Lovecraft background story. Be ready, because I dumped a lot of hours before writing this. In short, this is not a bad game but has some critical problems that can completely ruin the experience for you.

    The good: - Nice cell-shading art. There is not much variety but it is well done. Far from a marvelous work    Oh boy, I have a lot to say. Darkest Dungeon is a 2D turn-based RPG set in a Lovecraft background story. Be ready, because I dumped a lot of hours before writing this. In short, this is not a bad game but has some critical problems that can completely ruin the experience for you.

    The good:
    - Nice cell-shading art. There is not much variety but it is well done. Far from a marvelous work of art but has its charms.
    - Multiple classes to choose for your quests and each one of them provides a completely different type of combat. There is so much you can do with the distinct party choices that if you love customization and battle exploitation, you will love this. This is the meat of the game, the combat.
    - Stress System. it is pretty well done because indeed you are fighting stress more than damage. I liked this system as an extra layer of complexity in the game.

    The Cons:
    - Like 2-3 soundtracks. Same battle music forever. Same town music. Same boss music. Gets boring.
    - Have you ever read Lovecraft? Ok, now you know Darkest Dungeon story. There are plot stories that are just copy-pasted of Lovecraft stories. For me, Darkest Dungeon has no story. Why was it relevant for me to bring this out? Well, because this game wants to have a story, it plays on enigmatic and mysterious pieces you gather around but the story is probably similar to hundreds of thousands of amateur Dungeons and Dragons stories around. Tries to be cool, but fails.
    - You start a new game and is bombarded with so much information and variables that you will die if you do not pay A LOT of attention. It is too much in the first 1 min of gaming. This is just bad design.
    - The core idea: Let me say that I love difficult/challenging games and Darkest Dungeons aims to be a difficult game. However, they do this in an unpolished way. They straight mention in the firsts screens that this game is made to kill you. Yes. That`s right if you are thinking this is a game that you will get so good you will become the master of this world, you will be disappointed. No, I am no n00b. I have 100% completion on most of the hardest game out there in all difficulties, you name it, action games, RPGs, souls games, shooters. Difficulty does not scare me whatsoever and I yet to find a difficulty spike that I could not overcome with a little practice. Let me give you an idea of what I did and why Darkest Dungeon difficulty IS NOT WELL MADE. I lost my first character after 35h of the game (something the game was thinking I couldn't do). Thus, I got pretty good at it. Until the game started to trow me in UNSKIPPABLE QUESTS that were ABSURDLY hard. The idea of Darkest Dungeon is that you can choose multiple types of quests, and you choose which party to send, and when do you want to face them. However, after a while, I was obligated to send a party to fight in some side quest. Fine, I sent my best team. All fully leveled up, all best weapons fully enhanced (maximum), with all skills fully leveled up in damage, full armors (maximum defense). Well... the creature whipped half my party in 2 hits. My most aggressive, powerful character caused ridiculous damage to it. And according to the game, this wasn't even the hardest level quest. I was OBLIGATED to take this quest. It was made to just kill my units because of what? Because that's how they pictured "difficult game". This is just a bad decision, that's not how you deal with challenging the player. Want to make hard-to-kill enemies? Fine. Want to make strong hard annoying Bosses? Fine. Want to trow the player in an obligatory side quest just to wipe out the most powerful characters they could possibly achieve? Man, that's something everyone likes, right? Other reviews here state the same. It is downright idiotic of an idea.
    - This is implicit in the previous topic but this game is 99% based on RNG. You have almost zero control over whatever you want to do in this game. Everything has a percentage, a probability, or a random distribution of chance of something happening. You Hawkeye-Legolas archer can miss 5 arrows in a row, you most powerful, aggressive, barbarian, titanic character can deliver a 2 hit, and so on.

    After 50h of gaming, I gave up because it was just not worth it. I can fit in one hand the number of games I stopped playing because I was so disappointed with how it was playing. Unfortunately, Darkest Dungeon is one of them. Do you know how it felt in the end? Like this game was developed by an amateur Dungeon Master. Do you like Dungeons and Dragons? You know that young, unexperienced Dungeon Master that has the ultimate objective not to deliver a full experience but just wants to kill the players, leading to an unpleasant experience - not because it is bad or difficult but because it becomes not worth it to see where everything is going? Thats Darkest Dungeon.    … Expand
  2. Kaijyuu
    Aug 7, 2020
    0
    Most random game I've seen so far. Only worth in discount. Not at full price. Bosses atack twice in in the same round, they do twice a full lvl 6 (too level) characters health as damage.
  3. Gamecriticpro
    Jan 21, 2018
    3
    Hilariously convoluted controls, pure RNG based difficulty that will result in often random, unfair party wipes, repetitive gameplay, an absolute mess of a progression system, a class system so unbalanced, some are all but useless, one of the worst UI I've ever seen in my life (which directly ties in with the god awful control scheme), etc etc. I could probably write an essay out the flawsHilariously convoluted controls, pure RNG based difficulty that will result in often random, unfair party wipes, repetitive gameplay, an absolute mess of a progression system, a class system so unbalanced, some are all but useless, one of the worst UI I've ever seen in my life (which directly ties in with the god awful control scheme), etc etc. I could probably write an essay out the flaws this game is plagued by. It's ONLY redeeming factor in my opinion, is the art style. Even if you can tolerate the lopsided balancing and grindy gameplay, good luck tolerating the smart phone oriented controls, and the trash fire UI.… Expand
  4. Hannibal1
    Dec 16, 2020
    0
    Good idea, gamplay suck for me, i dont find it entertaining...This game should be called "stress simulator", the biggest threat in this game is stress for your characters...The reason why I gave 0 is because of one of the worst experiences I ever had in gaming in terms of enjoyment, in manny situations gameplay in this game is torture because of so bad battle design and ideas behind it...
  5. MrTusks
    Sep 28, 2018
    4
    Darkest Dungeon doesn't respect your time. The game is a gauntlet of unfair odds designed to test your sanity, just like the titular dungeon is for your characters, and it will seem fun and challenging until this realization dawns on you. The game tricks you into thinking you can prepare an adequate party, but you can't--it will "randomly" devastate your party just when you have the mostDarkest Dungeon doesn't respect your time. The game is a gauntlet of unfair odds designed to test your sanity, just like the titular dungeon is for your characters, and it will seem fun and challenging until this realization dawns on you. The game tricks you into thinking you can prepare an adequate party, but you can't--it will "randomly" devastate your party just when you have the most to lose. Stats mean nothing: an 80% hit rate on an ability may as well be 10% during regular battles and 0% when you're on death's door.

    You can't get good at this game, you can only keep playing until it lets you win. Does that sound fun to you?    … Expand
  6. Dash3717
    Jun 25, 2018
    4
    Great game in so many ways, but a few key flaws (ui, insane reliance on rng, absurdly obtuse communication, heavy punishment for not understanding said obtuse communication in the exact way the developers intended) make Darkest Dungeon a mediocre game overall, only worthwhile for people who prefer frustration to anything else.
  7. KnightForlorn
    Oct 24, 2018
    3
    Darkest Dungeon has been on my steam wishlist for a long time and it felt like the right time when it hit the Switch. But the UI ruined much of my enjoyment all on it's own. An unintuitive hybrid of the two joysticks, shoulder buttons, and touch controls makes any delve a tedious slog. Skip this port; buy it for PC.
  8. jbmtkevu
    Jan 21, 2022
    0
    amazing art style satisfying gameplay you need to use your brain a little and god tier voice acting
  9. Art_Kampfmann
    Jan 30, 2022
    0
    Este juego es difícil no porque apele a buenas mecánicas que sí requieran habilitad o que te exija pensar muy bien tus jugadas como en una partida de ajedrez, NO! es difícil porque es exageradamente injusto!. Hubo una ocasión en que, teniendo yo 89% de probabilidad de conectar un golpe, fallé 6 perras veces seguidas! sí, no es algo imposible pero sí tremendamente improbable, pensé que eraEste juego es difícil no porque apele a buenas mecánicas que sí requieran habilitad o que te exija pensar muy bien tus jugadas como en una partida de ajedrez, NO! es difícil porque es exageradamente injusto!. Hubo una ocasión en que, teniendo yo 89% de probabilidad de conectar un golpe, fallé 6 perras veces seguidas! sí, no es algo imposible pero sí tremendamente improbable, pensé que era de verdad muuuy mala suerte de mi parte pero después descubrí que los porcentajes que te muestra el juego son una gran mentira, el maldito juego ya decidió todo lo que va a pasar hagas lo que hagas, no existe una "probabilidad" de que pase realmente algo aleatorio basados en el porcentaje (salvo cuando llegan a 100 de estrés los personajes si se vuelven virtuosos o enloquecen, es en lo único que sí descubrí que es aleatorio). Cuando se inicia un combate en el juego, antes de terminarlo reinicia ese mismo combate, si tomas las mismas decisiones que en la primer pelea notarás que TODO, ABSOLUTAMENTE TODO VA A PASAR IGUAL. Inicié unas 7 veces este juego, en cada una de ellas aprendiendo de mis errores para que mi siguiente partida fuera mejor, pero ese no es el problema, a este juego no le importa que aprendas de tus errores o que seas bueno jugando, te va a matar personajes ¿por qué? porque a los estúpidos programadores se les ocurrió que eso era buena idea, ES SUMAMENTE INJUSTO y hagas lo que hagas te van a matar. Juro que este es el primer videojuego que dejo a medias y de verdad le iba a sacar el platino en ps4, que por cierto, varios de sus trofeos son tremendamente estúpidos, varios de ellos los sacas haciendo cosas que se supone NO DEBERÍAS HACER, como matar a tus personajes con trampas o matándolos de hambre, literalmente te dan trofeos por jugar mal. En simples palabras, este juego es un tremendo bodrio.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

36
#36 Best Switch Game of 2018
43
#43 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2018
62
#62 Most Shared Switch Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Nintendo Insider
    May 14, 2018
    90
    Once you learn what you need to, it’s easily one of the best indie titles to grace the Switch and it is one that will keep you hooked for many weeks and months ahead.
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  2. Cubed3
    Apr 12, 2018
    80
    Despite gameplay better suited for a mouse and keyboard, Darkest Dungeon transitions rather well from PC to Switch. The controls were always going to be convoluted when adapted to a controller, but it doesn't take too long to adjust, and the core gameplay loop is strong enough where overlooking that initial awkwardness is more than doable. Darkest Dungeon is by no means for everyone, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth the stress.
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  3. FNintendo
    Mar 15, 2018
    80
    Darkest Dungeon is an ambitious game that features impressive details, a very complete and thorough atmosphere and a complex gameplay. Its experience ends up getting harmed by the arbitrary factors that come into play on certain moments and the overall difficulty level can be quite hard in the beginning of the game but there is no mistake in regarding Darkest Dungeon as major title within the indie scene.
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