Runestone Keeper

A somewhat basic roguelike that doens't really offer a lot, but is easily replayable, and offers a quick gaming fix for those of us who can't always sit down to be engrossed for hours at a time. I also recommend it for novices to the rogue-like dungeon crawlers. Good randomness, good variablity. decent long term incentives to keep playing until you max out everything, which can take a while. Plus multiple difficulties. Overall a nice little package.

"A state doesn't go down because it isn't big: It goes down because it neither understands how to be big, nor how to be small." Sunzi's 'The Art of War', from memory If You are looking for an ingenious game to pour Your heart into this is not it. If however You are looking for a game that doesn't ask for much and can be played "on the side" this one might just be what You are looking for. I for one did look for the latter, playing half attentive while waiting for some lengthy vid conversion to finish. At times I gave it some serious thought, then I just merrily clicked along mindlessly. It's played with just the mouse (aside from a few optional shortcuts) and You'll die anyway - no big deal. Perfect! There are combos and clever moves, various characters to unlock, items and spells to find, diverse opponents with powerful special abilities to mind. It makes a difference what You do in which order, so You can actually think a lot about a single click if You so wish. But then the game requires You to unlock a lot of stuff, so You are not expected to just play through from the getgo - it's okay to die and take one's time to learn about all the intricacies of play. Then again the whole 'playing to unlock' dynamic is a bit weird, because many of the mechanics are "on hold" for a start: Better don't buy a nice item, but rather save the gold to unlock stuff that outlasts the single session... That part isn't really elegant, but I for one don't mind too much. There's three difficulties and "runewords" which add more specific challenges to a session later down the road; also it's really a lot to unlock, so I guess it lasts quite a while before You've done it all. That said I merely played a couple of hours, so I'm not sure whether even the hardest setups remain challenging enough to hold half my attention once everything's unlocked. You clearly ramp up in terms of power. Anyway: Runestone Keeper fulfilled my expectations easily and makes for a nice little game. Cheers!

Pros: -Great turn-based combat mechanics. -Equipment choices can vary gameplay style dramatically. -The usable/soul/exploration mechanic is innovative. -Deaths feel fair, and do not seem to be random. Cons: -This is a phone-to-PC port. GoG means it works, but there are few settings and zero keyboard controls. -The UI is poor and obfuscates information. Information is gleaned through trial-and-error rather than being conveyed to the player. -There is only a basic tutorial at the beginning and all advanced 'tips' are given randomly throughout dungeon delves, with no way to recall them in-game. FOR A PHONE GAME and FOR THE PRICE it's a wonderful game for people who enjoy rogue-lites and I would definitely recommend it. I, however, enjoy rogue-lites as a secondary to other genres. I don't hate this game, but I don't feel like playing any more of it.

I bought the game based upon other reviews, and I'm pleasantly surprised. It only takes a minute to start picking up how the game works. However, while the learning curve is nice, the lack of a help file or thorough wiki might discourage some. The graphics are colourful and cute, and almost all items are easy to understand from the pictures. The flavour/story text has a few grammatical errors, but are only mildly distracting. You essentially explore a dungeon by clicking squares on a grid, which contain either empty space, monsters, traps, or other places like shops or shrines. Standard RPG stats are used, like attack (ATK) and dexterity (DEX), with levelling up and items granting bonuses or debuffs. It's nicely challenging, and somewhat addictive, so you can easily sit down for a quick game and end up sinking a couple of hours before you realise it. More complexity is added because you die, over and over again, and restart the dungeon without losing your gold. Each time you restart, you can choose to spend money in order to unlock runeword bonuses, add experience and health bonuses, or buy new items to aid you right from the beginning. Furthermore, you can unlock new character types, who have completely different styles of play. One star was deducted for the cumulative lack of in-game info or help file. I feel that understanding how things are supposed to work can help you strategise better. Overall, a nice little surprise.

there are very few redeeming qualities here for PC gamers. this is something you'd want to play on a phone or tablet while in a waiting room. you don't even have a character on screen that moves around, you just click empty spaces. it's really dull. i don't mind games where you have to manage rng, but this isn't designed well enough that management is a real possibility.