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Same agony, but quicker!


The <span class="bold">Dungeon is Dark</span> and full of terrors. Hideous, toothy, maddeningly resilient terrors. But a slim ray of light appeared today: the Radiant Update! It includes a Mode that cuts down on the more time-consuming aspects of the gameplay, introduces some neat stuff, and is totally free!

The biggest addition is the Radiant Mode, which drastically reduces the time you'll have to spend in the company of these monstrosities before you can reach the end of this nightmare. Thanks to the accelerated XP progression, the reduced cost and increased frequency of Upgraded Recruits plus several other tweaks, activating this Mode should make your run through Darkest Dungeon decidedly quicker, albeit not necessarily less challenging.

But the Radiant Update also brings a ton of fixes, several gameplay changes, and neat additions for all Modes. Most notably:
- Adds 4 new gnarly monsters
- A new trinket discovery quest
- Two new Town Events
- The NG+ mode is now named Stygian and selecting it doesn't require prior completion of the game


So gather your horribly traumatized band of adventurers and return to the <span class="bold">Darkest Dungeon</span> for another doomed attempt, to check all the awesome additions and changes introduced in the massive Radiant Update!
I feel like this is a game I'd like to watch a YouTube let's play through to the end because I just don't have the time in my life to grind through it to the end. I own it and do like it but I can't bring myself to grind it to the end
Looking forward to anything from red hook studios! i took a break from darkest dungeon, but i absolutely love it! it was one of my favorite games of the year. brutal, unrelenting, and amazing.

“Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn." ;)
When "killing the game to break the auto save function, thereby allowing you to reset a losing battle" is a mandatory tactic for players to get anywhere in the game: your game is broken.
DD is now 50% off as part of the weekly sale. Props to Red Hook for discounting it here to match the Steam weekend sale they recently completed.
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clenfle: I find it surprising that so many people disliked the pacing of the game. What's the rush to finish the game so fast?
The opposite of a rush is the problem.

No one wants to "rush through the game so fast."

People merely DONT want to grind for an eternity, wasting their life through endless boredom, just to progress through the story.

Some are fine with grind, but most are not. And the grind is REALLY strong, so those who dislike it are destroyed by it.

it is a problem not of rush, but of grind. The game isnt designed to be a long game, but they made it one. The game isnt even really designed to be a medium game...it is designed for quick stories because each piece takes a lot of effort and time.

They would have been far better off making this a 20h game and using the next few years to add completely new content rather than endlessly trying to fix their broken design. This radiant update sounds like what they needed from the start, but ultimately may just be a bandaid in a greater design flaw.

This game is great, but they approached it the wrong way when it comes to content / progression.
Post edited February 16, 2017 by RonnyRulz
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Sogi-Ya: When "killing the game to break the auto save function, thereby allowing you to reset a losing battle" is a mandatory tactic for players to get anywhere in the game: your game is broken.
Simply not true. Losing battles is part of the game.
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Sogi-Ya: When "killing the game to break the auto save function, thereby allowing you to reset a losing battle" is a mandatory tactic for players to get anywhere in the game: your game is broken.
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toxicTom: Simply not true. Losing battles is part of the game.
Eh...kindof?

Losing is actually not really part of most games. It's the end of most games. In other words: Losing isn't a part of gameplay. It is when gameplay stops. It can't be a part of gameplay if it only exists when gameplay has already ended.

However in Darkest Dungeon, you are right. There is only character death, not permadeath, so it is indeed a part of the game.

However the characters are so replaceable... you're not really losing characters as much as simply losing some gold & slight progress. There's nothing about the characters that you actually lose that isn't so easily replaced...

In this context of game design you have this dilemma...

1) Loss is not a part of the game, it is the end of the game. (Fun is Relative to Replayability)
2) Loss IS a part of the game, and it has little to no value in the game. (Simply not fun)
3) Loss IS a part of the game, and it has value in the game. (Enhances the game or is a fun feature)

I'd personally categorize Darkest Dungeon as #2. That isn't good, because that means the feature has little to no value. You want all features to have SOME kind of value. And of course while opinions will vary, I strongly argue that the majority of users will see character death as #2 for Darkest Dungeon.

Which IMO, Darkest Dungeon does better than most games. Most permadeath games are #1. Permadeath could be removed entirely and, despite what the developers think, the game is literally identical in every way. In fact this can be proven as deleting a save has absolutely no impact on the binary of the application. It is literally no difference. (You'd have to argue difference in human psychology / perception.)

There are very, very few games which have designers competent enough to pull off #3. That is difficult to do. In the context of permadeath or character death, it is even MORE difficult than normal. I certainly believe it is possible though! I'd love to see it more, but because of the difficulty we mostly get #1 and a few #2's. The former can work well if the game is very replayable or you simply resume your last save & get to try again. It can also destroy a game (indie games not designed around permadeath, but force it on their users anyway- resulting in mostly negative experiences - a negative value).

These problems are also not really that big of a deal even when they have negative value or no value. #1 is solved via scum-saving. #2 is solved via "Who cares? It doesn't matter either way." or scum saving (as the quoted user suggests).
Post edited February 19, 2017 by RonnyRulz
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Sogi-Ya: When "killing the game to break the auto save function, thereby allowing you to reset a losing battle" is a mandatory tactic for players to get anywhere in the game: your game is broken.
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toxicTom: Simply not true. Losing battles is part of the game.
losing a battle because the enemies have overpowered me is fine ... but that is not the case when I can kill the game, reload back into the same exact fight, and then win without a single death simply because the RNG dick in this game didn't slap me as hard the second time around ... there is no balance in this game, there is no control in the combat, and there is no rational relationship between the effort you put in and the reward you get.

This game is like the developers got drunk one night and said "lets just make the RNG as absolute shit as possible" and then sat around giggling all night as the game spewed out nothing but dogshit RNG results .... and then they forgot to change the settings back to normal before hitting the "ship" button.

I want to like the game, I really do, and I do like hard games that challenge you, but this game is neither: games like Dark Souls kick you in the nuts, but are ultimately "fair" because you control all of your actions & with enough effort you can overcome whatever challenge the game throws at you ... but with this, there is none of that ... it is all just bullshit random numbers being fed into a results box that is 4/5ths shitty results.
Post edited February 21, 2017 by Sogi-Ya
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RonnyRulz: There are very, very few games which have designers competent enough to pull off #3. That is difficult to do. In the context of permadeath or character death, it is even MORE difficult than normal. I certainly believe it is possible though! I'd love to see it more, but because of the difficulty we mostly get #1 and a few #2's. The former can work well if the game is very replayable or you simply resume your last save & get to try again. It can also destroy a game (indie games not designed around permadeath, but force it on their users anyway- resulting in mostly negative experiences - a negative value).
Corpse runs are what make #3 possible: yes you lose, but with a bit of effort you can work your way back to where you got killed and recover most of what you lost ... plus what ever new new supplies you gained along the way.

The biggest problem with this game is that you have zero control over what happens & more often that not, you end up with a party wipe simply because of a bad RNG roll instead of poor party formation or making a bad call ... it isn't game play; it is gambling ... I haven't actually tried this new patch, but I imagine that it has made the game a lot more endurable since the purchase & upkeep costs on your adventurers was anything but "disposable," and then with no way to recover any part of your losses (I.E. being able to send another party into the same dungeon to recover supplies from the first) it was nothing but shitty punishment on every level.

the issue isn't that the game needs to be "easier" ... it is that the game needs to be reworked so that it is just "rational."
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Sogi-Ya: ...
The's quite a bit of luck involved in this game, that's right. Some boss battles may end in a party wipe if the dice fall badly.
Still, it is part of the game. I guess a lot of people like this "gambling appeal" or the game wouldn't be the success it is.

What I don't get is why so many people can't just say "I don't like games like this" instead of "The game is wrong!!".
I can easily admit that Darkest Dungeon is not for me, although I liked watching a friend play it who loves the game very much - it was fun and thrilling, but like I said, I didn't feel any need to play the game myself. But also I don't feel that the game should be changed in any way just to cater to my tastes more if there are enough people out there who like it the way it is.
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Sogi-Ya: ...
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toxicTom: The's quite a bit of luck involved in this game, that's right. Some boss battles may end in a party wipe if the dice fall badly.
Still, it is part of the game. I guess a lot of people like this "gambling appeal" or the game wouldn't be the success it is.

What I don't get is why so many people can't just say "I don't like games like this" instead of "The game is wrong!!".
I can easily admit that Darkest Dungeon is not for me, although I liked watching a friend play it who loves the game very much - it was fun and thrilling, but like I said, I didn't feel any need to play the game myself. But also I don't feel that the game should be changed in any way just to cater to my tastes more if there are enough people out there who like it the way it is.
as I said: I can handle hard and unforgiving ... I wnet into this game looking for hard and unforgiving ... but this is neither; it is just shitty, unbalanced game design.

the over all concept and art is awesome, but the application of it just kills it.