Plateaus hard before jumping down a canyon into dear-god-let-it-end ville.

The first couple of hours of playing this were euphoric in nature for me. Having my statistical analysis tested strongly in order to figure out each of the dice's main systems in their first episodes was an incredible feeling. A lot of understanding probability and working strategies accordingly in ways that constantly felt interesting and engaging. Witch is the biggest highlight of ridiculous balancing-act, but Thief shenanigans and Inventor cost-analysis is worth mentioning too.

But then after the first couple hours wear off, and then you play the same game again six times over, it falls real flat on its face. It loads a lot of its most interesting parts in the "figuring out" of core systems, because the roguelite itself has very little variety both in enemies and builds past the first go around. Other than maybe Witch, none of these should've gotten more than two episodes tops. Arguably you could see these as "Ascension"-tier playthroughs, but the game is very easy to finish the first episode on your first go. I like it being that forgiving, but it's not super challenging. And when all your additional playthroughs are the same solutions but with a couple more barriers in the way that makes you work around some generally fringe stuff, it loses its luster. Even with its charming presentation and witty humor.

It's a REALLY damn good cake to bite into, just excellent icing and first layer. But after the first couple slices that shit's getting put in the fridge where it never gets touched again until you throw it out.

Thank you raccoons4444 for the recommendation.

Not usually interested in Rouge-like/lites, but this one caught my attention. Dicey Dungeons oozes charm with its absurd setting and characters. I always enjoy it when a game has a crazy premise and just runs with it. Great fun mixing and matching different decks and each playable character feel completely different adding even more depth to the gameplay. Perfect game to play if you have a bit of time to kill. I will definitely be coming back to it every now and then.

Pro:
+ unique dice system with puzzle and strategic elements
+ addictive gameplay loop that is easy to learn but hard to master
+ chance effects are smartly obfuscated
+ every character offers a different playstyle
+ large variety of usable equipment
+ enemies are challenging and use their dice efficiently
+ enemies have elemental weaknesses and strengths
+ dice element effects are surprisingly complex
+ limit breaks offer tactical choices
+ save scamming is possible (and I would encourage it)
+ final episode is a smart and fitting end to the game
+ DLC offers even more playstyles and more complex puzzle episodes

Cons:
- a full run can take over an hour on later episodes
- difficulty is generally brutal and one bad fight can end a run
- some episodes require long-form planning and a lot of luck
- randomness inherent in dice games can become frustrating
- lack of meta-upgrades is a questionable design decision
- UI is confusing and dice tend to cover the play area
- visual style is flatout ugly
- enemy design is terrible and most are carricatures (gay wizard? smartphone witch?)
- sound design is equally awful
- writing is forgettable and dialogue cannot be skipped
- shop item costs are randomized for no reason
- not all relevant information is available during fights: no exp level etc.
- pause button does not actually pause the game
- you never get to win the car!

Playtime: 73 hours with all episodes, all hardmode levels plus all DLC episodes finished and 90 percent of achievements acquired.

Magic Moment: Showing the game to my partner for the first time and them falling in love with it much more than I did. My partner did not even want me to uninstall it after we finished it.

Favourite character: The thief. Feels very different to play and stealing items is fun.
Worst episode: Episode four of the inventor. Finishing it is an excercise in futility.

Verdict:
I am fully aware that one's taste for the aesthetics of a game are highly personal, but I have to come right out and say it: Dicey Dungeons is an ugly game with an ugly presentation that is best played with the sound of and a trigger finger on the button whenever characters start talking. With that in mind, the underlying combat mechanics are extremely strong, the different characters feel very differently from each other, and the real sense of progress from one episode to another quickly leads to the infamous loop of "one more run" that will cost you more than just a few hours of sleep.

Play it if like dice games and crave a challenge. Playing through all the episodes and additional DLC challenges is not necessary to enjoy this game and doing so will lead to a lot of frustration, which is mitigated by save scamming and restarting boss fights, which I would highly encourage.

A simple and fun deckbuilding rougelite where a collection of die with unique dice-altering abilities are tempted by Lady Luck to challenge a dungeon full of memorable enemies in order to escape the world's most evil game show. The clean presentation and phenomenal soundtrack make each ~30 minute run go by in a flash (especially on Switch), and the novel (sometimes extremely difficult) stipulations added as you complete more episodes force you to switch strategies and find creative item synergies.

Bonzaço, mesmo que seja irritante pra crlh. Todo o lore dos dados e da Sorte serve pra dar respaldo a um dos jogos mais injustos que eu já joguei. Até certo ponto é possível aprender e melhorar, etc., mas quando você pensa que está com tudo sob controle, Lady Luck põe uma rodada perfeita à disposição da máquina e o aprendizado não serve pra nada -- a parte legal é que isso faz todo sentido com a proposta e tal, e cada partida tem estofo suficiente pra manter teu interesse; a parte chata é que essa dinâmica te impede de controlar teu ritmo no jogo, ou seja: se a tua ideia for jogar pra zerar rapidamente, fazer 100% e essas coisas, é melhor pegar outro game.

Played a ton of this over the last couple weeks, completing all the Inventor, Robot and Jester levels, and a few other levels here and there, before burning out hard and putting down the game.

Dicey Dungeons is one of the better roguelikes I've played. This is partially because runs are very snappy and short; they never lasted longer than 30-40 minutes even for me as a very slow player, and almost all my runs that failed would do so within the first 10 minutes. It's also partially because of the variety of play experiences available between the six different characters; it's wild how far the designers manage to stretch such a seemingly restrictive game concept, and I was genuinely excited every single time I got to start my first run with a new character to see what weird way they warp everything you know about the game.

That said, despite my momentary addiction, the first several hours of the game were by far the high-point of it. Trying out new characters and getting that first win with them is a lot of fun, but repeated playthroughs with the same character do start to get repetitive and turn into a bit of a grind despite the game's attempts to mix up things between episodes (the one exception here is the Jester whose runs remained a lot of fun throughout). This repetitively problem isn't helped by an issue I keep having with roguelike deckbuilders where many of my runs were honestly pretty easy. With the exception of the Robot, who loses a lot of runs on the first couple floors due to bad rng, I think I only ever failed runs on character's third episodes which tend to contort the rules in some actively unpleasant way. Getting a bit repetitive could be fine if I felt like I was actually being tested in some way, but I mostly found myself going through the motions.

Still, was generally pretty happy with my experience and I'm likely to slowly finish off content over the next year or so on public transport.

A creative and colorful roguelike dice-building game with six different characters, each with their unique playstyle. Although luck is thematically placed front and center in this game, most matches don't feel cheaped out by RNG, as tactics such as risk management and number manipulation help alleviate a lot of would-be luck-related grievances.

Not only that, but the design of both the enemies and the cards allow for really inventive play with the dice received each round, estimulating a "work-with-what-you've-been-dealt" mentality that takes a lot of frustration out of the game and makes each round more or less independent from the rest, increasing the information fog and reducing analysis paralysis, which is something I really appreciate.

Dicey Dungeons é gostoso demais. É um jogo cheio de carisma, com um gameplay viciante. O fato de cada Dado ter um tipo de jogabilidade diferente deixa o jogo muito interessante e dinâmico e difícil de enjoar. Achei o RNG bastante justo e não me incomodou o aspecto rogue like dele. Não ficava frustrada de começar do zero, pois sempre sentia que estava aprendendo algo e a parte divertida é justamente montar o seu "deck" e estratégias com o que o jogo te apresenta aleatoriamente. Ah, a trilha sonora também é uma delicinha.

Joguei muito no decorrer desse ano, seja em sessões longas porque não conseguia largar ele, seja jogando uma run rapidinha aqui e ali.
Porém, acho que agora é a hora de admitir que eu cheguei na barreira de dificuldade que não vai me deixar avançar e que tornou o jogo mais frustrante do que divertido (talvez porque eu seja ruim). Não que isso seja um problema, porque a natureza do jogo de ir desbloqueando novos desafios e dificuldades pras runs subsequentes deixa com que isso não se torne algo ruim, já que da pra ficar satisfeita com ter chegado o mais longe que eu consegui, mesmo não terminando tudo.

São 6 personagens, com 6 fases/níveis de dificuldade cada (que nem um dado, hã hã). Alcancei no nível 5 de alguns, o nível 4 de outros. Ta bom, passei da metade.

Ainda devo abrir de vez em quando e tentar de novo, mas considero que o tempo que eu passei com ele já valeu.

Reforçando: gostoso demais, joguem.

The core combat loop of Dicey Dungeons is pretty simple - at the start of your turn you roll a bunch of dice, activate your equipment/abilities by plugging the dice into them, then pass the turn over to your opponent. Wash, rinse, repeat. There's a huge variety of equipment available, from the bread-and-butter 'Sword' which simply does damage equal to the value of the dice you plugged into it, to healing magic, to equipment with powerful effects that require a specific number to activate, and stuff that helps you manipulate your dice values, essentially using an item slot on a way to mitigate bad rolls in exchange for slightly lowering your combat capability.

I thought I'd kick off my thoughts with a look at a little detail: one of the more common status effects is called 'frozen dice', which for the next turn reduces the afflicted character's highest dice roll to a one, and it stacks. So if I get two dice frozen and roll 6 5 1, that hand becomes three ones, which can be extremely debilitating to some builds. Enter the Yeti, an enemy with a powerful attack that requires two ones to activate. Such a specific requirement means that you won't see that attack often at all... unless you freeze his dice, in which case good luck to you. It's little details like this that I adore - the usage of simple combat mechanics to represent more complex ideas, and in a more creative way than simply "Yeti is immune to ice attacks" is something that Dicey Dungeons excels at.

It's also dangerously addictive, being the latest in an exclusive list of games that have massacred my sleep schedule for week upon week. The vast array of available abilities as well as the many ways to create synergistic builds mean that this dice-rolling game has a deceptive amount of skill and strategy to go with its accessibility and charm. It also has what I consider a virtue among roguelikes - a very short run duration (simple episodes can be completed in under 20 minutes!) which keep play sessions bite-sized and ensure losing runs don't sting too much.

It does have its fair share of frustrations, though the chief one (the extremely luck-based nature of combat) is definitely deliberate; it certainly fits thematically with the premise of hapless player-characters fumbling through a rigged gameshow run by an avatar of Luck. Some other frustrations can be reasonably classified as 'flaws' though. The balance is somewhat wonky, with some enemies being way overpowered and some skills massively out-usefulling others. The game's UI sometimes withholds relevant information - as an example, you get a full heal upon level up so you might want to play more conservatively if you're about to level up to perhaps save your limit break for the next fight... but while your exp bar is shown outside of battle, it isn't shown in-battle so it's easy to forget how far away you are from the next level in the midst of combat. And while this sounds like a minor quibble, the fact is that you need to consistently make good decisions with all the information you have on hand because so much else is out of your hands, and the game really should make all the relevant information readily available!

Also, despite the countless ways the game iterates upon its rulesets to stay fresh - six episodes for six characters for a total of 36 subtly different play experiences! - it did feel like my runs started to blend together after awhile because there wasn't quiiite enough variety in the gameplay loop. As I - compelled by my unhealthy completionist obsession - completed the 36th episode and unlocked a previously-hidden 37th episode, I wondered if the game had showed me everything it had to offer...

...and I was surprised anew with a wholly fresh and new experience. Familiar yet also different from every chapter that came before, it culminated in a boss battle that felt supremely epic, intimidating and unfair, yet in a way that was actually not too difficult. And without spoiling anything, that actually made perfect narrative sense.

As the proverbial and literal curtains fell on my first game experience of the new year, I had to ask the million-dollar question I always ask of addictive games: did I feel like continuing to play even though I had 100%-ed it? The answer... is actually no. I'm a little burnt out on it actually, which is the reason I can't score it higher than a 4/5. But it's a strong enough game experience to be an easy recommend to anyone, and a fine way to kick off 2024. The (free!) DLC is going straight on my backlog.

I thought this was like a run-based game going in and it is but it also isn't? Listen I messed up here I've definitely put this down but it's been a while and I ultimately don't have like much to say. I don't remember anything except that I like the character designs. They don't have a defeat animation which at first I thought was too bad but it does give the whole thing a certain feel, like okay we're done with this match time to move on. That's fun. I like that.

It's a good time-waster that really lives on constantly throwing new gimmicks at you. It's not quite compelling enough that I could see myself trying to like, 'get good' at dicey dungeons you know.

i feel bad for giving this a pretty negative review because in reality, i have fun with dicey dungeons, but i feel like this game is just not made for me, basically buyer beware, DO NOT GET THIS GAME IF YOU HATE RNG, because even though its fun, its colorful, its charming, it is totally luck based and you can get absolutely fucked over sometimes from no fault of your own, because of this a playtrough can either be super fun or the most frustrating thing ever, and for me that dynamic just does not result in fun for me, its made me way too angry and frustrated from no fault of my own for me to wanna keep going, so yeah if you dont mind luck in your games and enjoy roguelikes then dicey dungeons might be a good game for you, but if you despise rng, stay away from this game

also additional note, WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND THOUGHT LOUDBIRD WAS A GOOD ENEMY DESIGN? SERIOUSLY IT ACTUALLY BAFFLES ME HOW SOMEONE COULD MAKE AN ENEMY SO PERFECTLY BROKEN FOR A GAME LIKE THIS, FUCK WHOEVER DESIGNED THAT GUY.

an easier, breezier, chill roguelike "deck"-builder

Dicey Dungeons gets a lot of flak in comparison to Slay the Spire, but the games are trying to do entirely different things. DD is much more of a 20-30 minute game where you want to just knock out a quick run, whereas StS feels a lot more like embarking on a long journey and grinding away at advantages over time. in Dicey Dungeons, you can mess around with weapons, see how they feel, swap them out between fights (unless you're playing as Witch or Jester i guess). there's less of a commitment of adding new items to your pool than there is adding a card to your deck in Slay the Spire.

however, this DOES mean that Dicey Dungeons does end up lacking in the overall depth that a game like StS has. often times on each character, i had found a build that worked very well and i didn't really see much reason to deviate from it other than novelty. a lot of the items want specific other items, so there's not as much weird cross-pollination between strategies or the playstyles between characters.

this is the game's downside to me, but more than likely an advantage to others. it makes it really easy to pick up for the first time, and the actual gameplay leans very much into the "just one more run" aspect that a lot of these games tap into. even when the game was at its most challenging (aka: Levels 4 and 6+ of the Witch, lmao), it felt fun to keep going and trying to succeed.

If you were transformed into a dice and thrown into a dungeon, and had one shot to escape, would you seize it or just let it slip? Personally, I’m sure I would bungle it stupendously just like Mom’s spaghetti. The good news for the clumsy among us, though, is that Dicey Dungeons, being a roguelike game, provides us with as many chances to escape as our hearts desire.

Every escape attempt begins on Floor 1. Your goal is to reach Floor 6 and defeat the dungeon boss. On each floor you’ll encounter enemies, as well as chests, shops, and other points of interest. Each floor’s layout is completely visible as soon as you reach it, which means that delving through these dungeons is more about planning than exploring. You have some control over which order you confront enemies, and often you can even skip past them and head straight down to the next floor. Avoid too many battles, however, and you’ll find yourself ill-equipped and underleveled to survive the later floors.

Combat is carried out in turn-based fashion. Each turn you roll dice and use them to activate your character’s equipment. A basic weapon might let you do 6 damage when you play a 6 on it. Other items do a fixed amount of damage, independent of the die roll, or cause status effects, heal, and provide shielding from damage. Some weapons can only be activated with an even or odd die; others require a die above or below a certain number, and a few even require multiple dice. Before long you’ll also find gear that lets you manipulate the dice themselves, increasing or decreasing their values, for example, or splitting one die into two. But because you only have limited equipment slots, you must consider carefully which items you wish to take into battle. Generally it’s best to carry a mix of offensive attacks and support items that help you make the most of all your dice on every turn.

To beat the game, you must brave the dungeons with all of its characters, of which no two play alike. The first available character is the Warrior, who focuses on raw damage. His special power allows him to re-roll a few dice every turn, effectively shifting RNG in his favor. The second character is the Thief, who specializes in making use of low die rolls and countdown items – gear that usually need to be fed multiple dice, often across multiple turns, before unleashing their effects.

Next is the Robot, who plays blackjack with his dice rolls. You can roll as many as you want, but if you exceed his CPU counter, all your unused dice disappear. Then there is the inventor, who after every battle dismantles a piece of equipment to make a gadget for the next battle. Lastly we have the witch, who instead of gathering equipment maintains a book of six spells, each associated with a side of the die. Preparing and casting spells are separate processes that both require dice, so to make the most of her abilities, you have to carefully choose which of the six slots you want to save them in.

Accompanying you on all of your dicey escapades are an enormously catchy soundtrack and visuals that are as adorable as they are cohesive. The cute monster designs will have you wishing you could capture the little buggers and raise them like Pokémon. Who could resist including baby squid in their roster of pocket monsters? Maybe one day …

If I have a qualm with Dicey Dungeons, it’s that reaching the final battle against Lady Luck is a bit of a grind. Each character has 6 episodes to play through. While each episode does introduce fun new rules, after completing all the Episode 4 elimination rounds, which are generally considered the most difficult of the bunch, I felt like I was just going through the motions to wrap up Episodes 5 and 6. Fortunately, the final dungeon, which introduces a clever mechanic that I won’t spoil here, makes the grind all worth it, and Lady Luck herself pulls all the stops. The encounter with her feels just as epic as the final battles in the best JRPGs.

Frankly, I’m surprised that Dicey Dungeons was released on PCs and consoles before mobile, because the design is perfect for touchscreens. Dragging dice onto equipment feels smooth and natural, and, at 20 minutes or less, each trip through the dungeon is the perfect length for a commute. The game also saves after every battle, so you can set it down and pick up where you left off anytime. Dicey Dungeons puts up a stiff challenge while still feeling cozy – so cozy that it won’t be long before I undoubtedly dive into the bonus episodes.

Dice meets roguelikes.

I generally don't enjoy roguelikes due to the harsh difficulty, however thanks to the incredible setting options, Dicey Dungeons can be tailored to your desire whether that's masochism hell or a breezy light time. It's fun, short roguelike game with a degree of originality to its core gameplay loop that'll last you a couple of hours. It's definitely doesn't have the depth as other similar styled roguelikes but there is good amount of fun and variety to the various classes within the game.

In terms of graphics and art direction, it's very charming and polished. The animations are minimalistic and nice, plus I've experienced zero bugs or issues. Also, I like how pro-consumer it is with unlocking progress without a microtransaction and including expansions at no additional expense. The only slight issue I have is that I feel like this game would really benefit from a community mod system similar to the Plague Inc which has mods even for the iOS version.

All in all, if you want a roguelike to spend 15-30 minutes when you're on your phone without internet then it's a decent purchase especially at its low price point.

Está preparado jogar dados com a sorte? Ainda mais se vc for os dados e a sorte for a apresentadora de um programa que você nunca vence?

Comprei em uma promoção e me surpreendi como o jogo é divertido, o gameplay é baseado em jogar dados para utilizar suas skill a brincadeira de ''vc nunca vence'' está na roleta de prêmios quando finalizamos um estágio, pois o fato de estarmos jogando literalmente contra a sorte faz com que não seja possível ganhar o sonhado premio pelo qual o personagem entrou no jogo buscando. O jogo tem personagens o suficiente para um gameplay variada, e cada um deles tem acesso a 6 fases que mudam o jogo de alguma forma, em geral é difícil. O estilo cartunesco também funciona super bem com a ideia. O jogo é bem legal, super recomendo.

Had this at a 3.5 at first, but after playing some of the later chapters for each character I had to lower this to a 3 star.

Runs become unbelievably RNG-heavy to the point where some runs die in the first 2 levels because of quality difference in die rolls, and later floors often turn into a rage-inducing slog as you watch the enemy roll multiples freezes, blinds, shocks, poison, curses and what not multiple times in a row with one fight with bad RNG potentially, if not probably, dooming the entire run.

The game wants you to build for every encounter but then almost never actually gives you the tools to do so. There are some good idea's here and there is fun to be had in the earlier levels, but a game in which you lose an entire run because of 1 fight with bad RNG just kills my drive to play it after a while.

Terry Cavanagh does it again.

On the vein of VVVVVV and Super Hexagon; this game is brilliant on almost every aspect while being charming, a warmth you don't find often and he captures here just like in VVVVVV.

The progression, better than most Roguelikes, manages to not frustrate by sepparating what other designers would make a single tiring run for each character a series of rather small segments you can practice or even skip if you only aim to complete the main story, it never tries to pressure you, what a game by turns does best.

And the combat, what a genius and effective system, so many variations with just the right amount of depth, if you thought card games already did it all and you haven't tried Dicey Dungeons, you'll be shocked.