Darkest Dungeon 2

[Night Owl]

I've never gotten anywhere far in DD myself because I suck hard at RNG, but they made such an interesting game.

 

[Haramburger]

Well, the devs published some details. So, it seems the combat mechanic will be the same but will be tweaked, they also wanna add a crafting mechanic (I guess making trinkets or combining trinkets into a better one), also you won't be just clearing out stuff like in the 1st game but instead it'll be full on adventuring, so guess this will try and be more D&D esque or something.

I can appreciate the "Mountains of Madness" vibe of the teaser, but that story works because an unprepared duo go in looking for something other than what they find. 4 gritty murderhobos going in to slaughter Cthulu's neighbors isn't ideal, but I'm willing to watch some dev diaries when they're ready.

Play Cultist Simulator in the meantime.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

Too soon.

 

[Stasi]

Ah sweet, hope this turns out well and hopefully they tone down the grind and RNG. I had a lot of fun with the first game but it got to be a real slog during the endgame to the point that it killed my desire to go back to the game after getting through the last dungeon.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

There's already an accelerated game mode that tones down the grind in the default game. The RNG is kind of a vital part of the roguelike experience. Not that the game couldn't use some balance work.

 

[Haramburger]

Ah sweet, hope this turns out well and hopefully they tone down the grind and RNG. I had a lot of fun with the first game but it got to be a real slog during the endgame to the point that it killed my desire to go back to the game after getting through the last dungeon.

That's a tricky design point, because how much grinding does it take to make the RNG and risk your party undertakes as meaningful and tense? You need to invest a certain portion of yourself into the characters before you feel the thrill of barely surviving or the crushing disappointment of a death you could not prevent.

 

[Stasi]

That's a tricky design point, because how much grinding does it take to make the RNG and risk your party undertakes as meaningful and tense? You need to invest a certain portion of yourself into the characters before you feel the thrill of barely surviving or the crushing disappointment of a death you could not prevent.

That's a good point. Probably a difficult balancing act getting the difficulty and grind right so that the game feels meaningful. Depends on the player too. When I played it it I felt like the endgame hit me like a brick wall but maybe I'm just a tard who took forever to figure out optimal strategies for the high level dungeons.

 

[AnOminous]

That's a good point. Probably a difficult balancing act getting the difficulty and grind right so that the game feels meaningful. Depends on the player too. When I played it it I felt like the endgame hit me like a brick wall but maybe I'm just a tard who took forever to figure out optimal strategies for the high level dungeons.

Going through the very last dungeons for a second time on Stygian was a breeze. They were completely predictable because they're exactly the same thing so you can cheese them exactly the same way and plan for each encounter in advance. Despite developer attempts to nerf dominant stall/stun strategies, they're still exploitable and the choice not to do it excessively is up to the player.

Some encounters (Fanatic/Shambler/Countess) are difficult to RNG-proof completely. For the Fanatic, he's just very difficult, with no obvious weakness, and has an attack (burning you at the stake) that leaves someone at Death's Door some time in the fight, and has three attacks so seemingly invariably always hits exactly that guy the moment he falls off before anyone else can do anything. Shambler is somewhat similar but easier, but shuffles the party. And Countess similarly has a shuffle that takes place on the character's turn so you can't preempt it easily.

The first two are completely optional, though. You never actually have to fight the Shambler or Fanatic, and can easily avoid the Countess until after winning the main game.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

I need to actually beat this. I only ever fought the Baron or the Viscount or whatever in Crimson Court, never got further than the big

Spoiler

bandit attack

in the main game, and never bought Colour of Madness. Problem is my autism demands whenever I play after a hiatus I start over instead of pick up an old game so the cycle just starts over.

 

[RJ MacReady]

I never have and never will play Darkest Dungeon but I'll use this chance to be the first to reserve a spot in @Jaimas' inevitable LP of this game.

 

[Candidae]

That's a tricky design point, because how much grinding does it take to make the RNG and risk your party undertakes as meaningful and tense? You need to invest a certain portion of yourself into the characters before you feel the thrill of barely surviving or the crushing disappointment of a death you could not prevent.

I agree, I wouldn't want to lose the feeling of being underpowered and scared at times. It helped the victory feel so much more rewarding and deserved. Hell, if I backed out of a dungeon and got a ton of items with all my people alive it still felt like a happy relief. It's certainly not for everyone, but I think more games need to be like that. Not for the entire gaming population but unafraid to be what it wants to be for a more specific audience (within reason of course)

 

[Jaimas]

I've mentioned it previously, but one thing I hope they address is the ending. I've discussed it, at length, at times, in the past, but it bears repeating: Dankmeme Dungeon 1's ending is bad. It's not the tone or content, either, it's the fact that it's basically zero effort. Compare the ending of DD1 to any game with Lovecraftian tones and DD1 looks like absolute shit and only the Narrator's voice spares it. Compare Eternal Darkness' epilogue to DD1's and it's hilarious just how weak DD1's is. I honestly feel like DD1's ending is a placeholder that was just never fixed because nobody gave a shit about it because the ending is the least important part of DD1's experience and it comes after its fucking abortion of a last boss fight.

The irony is that this is such a stupid easy fix, you don't even need to change the audio of the scene. Here, I can make the ending better with a single visual swap:

Have a scene of the Heart of Darkness dying, then cutting back to town, where some of the heroes are celebrating at the tavern, and as the camera pans, show some of the others looking absolutely broken, shattered by what they saw. Have the scene scroll through town towards the mansion, showing the other locations, with some of the heroes trying to deal with what they experienced while those who hadn't seen it still arrive in search of fortune at the stagecoach. Finally have the scene close on the mansion, where the descendant is looking over ancient tomes, indicating that there was far more than one single abomination that could spell the doom of this world, and that in taking it out, the others are now starting to stir, cutting to a weird vine or tentacle growing out of the ground only to sprout an eyeball, with the implication being that the group cut out one canker, only to invite a dozen more.

That right there isn't just better, it completely bypasses the lore issue of the Sleeper entirely.

 

[1Tonka_Truck]

I've never gotten anywhere far in DD myself because I suck hard at RNG, but they made such an interesting game.

This is going to be an asshole thing to say, but if you ever rely on RNGesus in DD you have already lost. If something has to proc for you to pull out a win, chances are you are already 2-3 mistakes deep. Things don't always to go well, but if you get whittled down to a single point of failure the game will find it.

 

[Dreamer]

They implemented 3D, i don't know how to feel about this.
Models look alright when they are about the same size as the sprites in the first one, not so much on closeups.

Also its early access implying they changed a lot of things.
They're probably going for something like Hades, release it on EGS early, take Tim's free money and update it in segments before doing a 1.0 on every platform.

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

Models don’t look bad but IMO it’s a waste of effort. DD1 looked great already.

DD relies so heavily on thick linework that unless you went the full Guilty Gear route and wrote a crazy custom shader for the rendering the end result is gonna look weird and off. Can’t really pass judgment yet since we don’t have shots of them in context.

 

[The tired cat]

Hm, them having 3D models makes me wonder if they are planning to do like different levels when it comes to combat, like a character being on a floor above an thus getting a bonus to strike a enemy in the back of the line

 

[Orange Rhymer]

They implemented 3D, i don't know how to feel about this.
Models look alright when they are about the same size as the sprites in the first one, not so much on closeups.

Also its early access implying they changed a lot of things.
They're probably going for something like Hades, release it on EGS early, take Tim's free money and update it in segments before doing a 1.0 on every platform.

Love the 3d models, but that wasn't the problem.
The grind is shit. Building multiple parties, so you aren't wiped out is even more shit.
The voice acting, atmosphere, graphics, and story is all great.
But games are mostly about GAMEplay (for me, at least). The gameplay is a shitty, boring, grind.

BTW: The opening line is perfect for 2020-The Darkest Decade.
(god I hope not)

 

[Dreamer]

Love the 3d models, but that wasn't the problem.
The grind is shit. Building multiple parties, so you aren't wiped out is even more shit.
The voice acting, atmosphere, graphics, and story is all great.
But games are mostly about GAMEplay (for me, at least). The gameplay is a shitty, boring, grind.

BTW: The opening line is perfect for 2020-The Darkest Decade.
(god I hope not)

DD had a special mode that made the game way less grindy and overall easier if you're interested. (they added it post release)

That said the game itself wasn't a grindfest if you knew what you're doing, for experienced players it had the opposite problem actually; on my 2nd campaign i was struggling to keep my heroes on low levels so they could fight lv3 bosses and ultimately i finished the game without clearing half of them because i had a full roster of lv6 heroes already. 50-60 quests and the game is done.

That said i agree that probably the biggest area DD2 could improve would be the structure of the campaign, if they invent something that has actual pacing or a storybound progression.
And maybe allow players to set the difficulty" of the stagecoach, something that could mitigate the loss of a lvl5-6 hero because that's the biggest setback/timewaster currently in the game.

 

[AbyssStarer]

Epic Games Store tho

 

[Reverend]

Epic Games Store tho

My enthusiasm for the game dried up quicker than a Joe Biden rally.


Also the best part of the game doesn't appear to be attached: