SUMMER NEXT FEST 2025 - Don't Miss Even More Cool Games!

This time, by sheer accident, I swear, the DEMO DIVE is a bit more thematic! That is, it's Roguelike's time. It is, after all, one of the most popular genres to cook indie games with (or so it seems), and once again, we are getting a bunch of new ones to look into. So let us not dilly-dally and jump straight into it.

MORSELS

I am beyond dejected by how this one turned out. See, I was very hyped for this title. The very worldbuilding, the visuals, they promise so much! A crazy world of gnarly grossness, beautifully crafted in CRT-filtered pixels. Who doesn't want to give a hug to a pile of smiling feces that emits a fatty cloud in the shape of a heart? Or play a game in the mouth of a crocodile? Or have that well-earned cheese stolen by a prick of a crane? There is a lot to love here from the framing alone, and I really wanted to be on board with it.

But I couldn't. I am not going to pretend that I am some sort of god gamer, but heck, I ain't fresh meat to the combat roguelikes. I 100% HADES. I blasted through ENTER THE GUNGEON. I finished CHILDREN OF MORTA. In short, I know my way around the frenetic, demanding combat scenarios that require fast thinking and faster reactions. And yet, MORSELS just fail to click. Despite everything, I fully recognize it can be a skill issue on my part, but I die too often, to absolute nonsense, and all that thanks to... Well... visual clutter. The game is gorgeous. TOO gorgeous! It feels almost overdesigned as there are so many things on the screen in so many colors that I fail to track them all. And since the game is a bit ruthless with traps, modifiers, and a crazy variety of dangers

That alone wouldn't be a big deal, but the game in its excellent worldbuilding also tries its best to be as obtuse as it can get away with. Or at least it feels like. There are so many items and objects you can lift up, and they tell you nothing about their purpose. Sure, I managed to connect in my gamer-addled brain that the Big Ticket probably goes to the gnarly bus asking for a ticket, but everything else remained an enigma. What's with the pink monkey? The plushie? Why did I spawn a can of beans that exploded and instantly killed me in a barrage of flaming beans? I can appreciate organic learning of what's what, but not when the things I try kill me and end the run, forcing me to try and try again just by experimenting. Ouch. This only made me wary of such items, and if something I picked didn't immediately do something, I preferred to leave it alone.

I will be giving this one another chance, because - and I cannot overstate it - the game is an audiovisual feast. One of the prettiest games and worlds I've ever witnessed. But the punishing combat, strange directional aiming with peculiar reload issues, and obfuscating information deflated my desire to keep trying...

INKSHADE

Good enough, welcome back INSCRYPTION 2. I know it is a cardinal sin of any reviewer to just blatantly compare any piece of media to pre-existing ones. And often it is not only seen as lazy, but disrespectful! I get it. I draw and paint for a living, give or take, and whenever someone looks at my monsters and says 'oh this reminds me of...' I feel a little gnawing pain in my chest. But heck, sometimes it is unavoidable. Not only because it is a good shorthand, a quick label that frames the game in the mind of a reader... But also because it is a perfectly fitting descriptor.

INKSHADE doesn't try to hide its influences. A dark, looming figure of some eldritch horror, basking in shadows with bright eyes, traps us in a sort of cluttered - yet opulent! - escape room situation, while they force them to play a roguelike game with them? Gosh, where did I hear that before! Of course, like any good inspired piece of media, this one doesn't just shamelessly copy the source, but iterate on it. Adds its spices, its flavour. Here, we have it coming from two sources. First, the combat is starkly different - it is not a card game, but a hexagonal tactics game, where we will use our collection of pawns to win over a narrative-driven set of scenarios our twisted game master put before us. Lovely! As a fan of tactics games, that was a quick way to earn my fondness for the game. The second bit is the visuals - the game is simply gorgeous. There is this decadent richness to everything, yet it is ominous and corrupted in some way by our dark figure of unknown motives and origins.

The demo did a great job of making my hunger for the full game grow. It has everything I enjoy. A sense of growing narrative from our mysterious kidnapper - he does love to yap and sass! Superb sense of progression as between rounds of brutal games, we wander around his domain, uncovering new bits and bobs to help our struggle. And gorgeous visuals to keep everything on that heightened sense of immersion. Of really playing an intricately designed game from a gigantic and powerful nerd. It's a great time.

FLICK SHOT ROGUES

I cannot describe in simple terms how happy this game made me. It is a stellar achievement in design, a brilliant idea executed so well that I am ready to give a standing ovation. I'm not sure if something like this existed before, but in my experience, I've never seen a concept like this in any game. Ever heard of Carrom? It's an old table game about flicking discs of wood to pocket them using a heavier striker disk. This... is not the same, but the spirit of things remains; Your crew are pawns on discs you are going to flick at enemies... which are also discs. Different crew members have varied mechanics. Some deal damage on contact, others in an area of effect near your landing place, and there are a plethora of features and mechanics that deepen the interactions. Vines that keep the enemy taking damage on each impact. Fire damage over time to whittle down lesser pawns without having to bang yourself against them.

Damn, it is good. The combat is so... precise, fun, and kinetic. Bouncing each piece on the varied geometry of a level, avoiding enemy pre-ordained charges, attacks, and shots. Bumping them into spikes on the walls, or better yet, into the line of fire of their friendly pieces, because oh boy - Friendly Fire is very much on. And then, because it is a proper roguelike, you have your upgrades, items, curses, the whole shebang that allows you to make a proper build. A dedicated tactic against a rich variety of enemies. I blazed through the demo with delight, but with a tiny, most minuscule twang of a thought that, perhaps, it is a bit too easy?

Of course, it is hard to judge a demo run, without being able to reach the proper end of a full run, or romping around in the basic difficulty, but other than the final boss, I never even lost any HP... Both the predictable nature of enemy attacks and the extreme precision of our flicking gauge, giving us all the info of angles, force, and landing spot, meant that there was never a scenario where I felt threatened. Maybe a little turn limit would help? Otherwise, I could always just bounce to a safe spot in an enemy-dense environment to wait out their barrage.

Nonetheless, the game is gorgeous, superbly crafted with love and care, and everything I did in it felt so fresh and innovative that I cannot fault it for being a little less challenging than I hoped for. Especially since increased difficulties exist, and I am sure they will be able to kick my butt.