Dark Deity is an interesting game. Playing it I often thought about Sea of Stars. It's obviously a passion project by developers who love Fire Emblem as much as you, like Sea of Stars is to Chrono Trigger. Is it Fire Emblem quality? No, but what an insane standard to hold it to. To be fair, it's not Sea of Stars quality either, but I can't help but be impressed by what a small team and a kickstarter campaign has done here.
What I like about Dark Deity I like a lot. The class-promotion system is super cool, allowing players to freely hybridize between 4 level 10 and 4 level 30 classes. This creates a depth of customization that bolsters replay value significantly. Replaying on Hard with knowledge about this system I was rewarded greatly compared to my first playthrough on Normal where I was figuring it out as I went. Each class stage offers not only different skills but also stat growth patterns, which lends different approaches to different characters who all have unique skills and stat distributions of their own. There aren't really any "bad" units, and weaker units can be supplemented with adequate game knowledge turning them into destroyers. My off-meta units on my second playthrough were stronger than my meta units on my first.
On the topic of units, at first glance I thought the social "Bond" system in this game was going to be tedious. Between levels it might offer up to 10 unique dialogues between 30 units all with unique stories. At first I found these dialogues a bit cliche, but as they advance from stage 1/3 to 3/3 they become more interesting, specific, and nuanced as the characters develop relationships with each-other. By the end of the game I found myself cherishing my bond dialogues and lamenting levels where I had maxed them all out between my team of 14. This drove me to choose a completely different team on my second play-through to learn about the characters I had benched on my first, another testament to the game's replayability. I love games with hefty character rosters, and Dark Deity features a colourful cast some of whom I know I will think about in the future. The story writing mirrors the writing of the bond system; at first, it seems pedestrian, but it grows from typical beginnings to an interesting conclusion that I didn't predict with some really cool boss designs along the way.
The most common gripe I've seen with this game is the gameplay. I will make no illusions about the negative elements: It's kind of buggy and the game lacks polish in general. I'd personally have changed some of the UI controls like target selection and input confirmation (special commands take the place of the attack button leading to some extremely frustrating misclicks). If this is a dealbreaker for you then I understand, but I believe in giving grace to indie developers—Dark Deity is still more polished than some AAA games and I know that here it's not for lack of care. The learning curve is artificially inflated because the tutorialization is insubstantial. If you play this game you should know that there is a battlesave feature, which itself is buggy but can be used to savescum bugs. The lack of terrain tiles makes gameplay a matter of choke point control and matchup knowledge. This is exacerbated by the matchup chart being very hard to get a handle on, with the game offering differing interactions between 3 types of armour, 4 types of magic damage, 4 styles of weapon or spell, and 5 physical types of physical damage, and on difficulties below hard these differences don't feel significant or worth knowing (damage variance of -10%-40%). I myself choose to view this as a positive—let us not punish indie developers for being overly ambitious in experimenting with a classic formula. In fact, for all its flaws I think that Dark Deity shines in its innovations on the Fire Emblem formula.
The overly ambitious matchup chart may seem daunting, but once one learns how it works it rewards proper team building. I think this is a meaningful departure from the Fire Emblem approach, which is robust in its simplicity. I’ve never been one to condemn games for using similar mechanics and systems to others. This is a meaningful difference between videogames and other media. One would not decry Salem’s Lot as a Dracula clone, for a quick example, and yet a game like Dark Deity is written of as a Fire Emblem clone, life sims like Sun Haven are written off as Stardew Valley clones, platformer metroidvanias are called Hollow Knight clones and is that not itself a Castlevania clone? All of these games including Dark Deity are engaging with the form of games they’re in the tradition of, and I for one hold that it’s more interesting to see how they expand on and experiment with that established form and one’s expectations thereof. The best example from Dark Deity is its boss fights. In Rekka no Ken the most mechanically advanced boss is one who you can only counterattack safely. Dark Deity offers raid style bosses that use AoE attacks, apply effects outside of regular combat, require specific engagement with units other than themselves, and generally require a different style of play from ordinary levels;I found this experimentation on the Fire Emblem form extremely impressive and engaging. Beyond this are smaller QoL changes that I appreciate: tradable items that customize unit stats and effects when equipped, no weapon degradation, and perhaps controversially no permadeath. I’m a player who resets Fire Emblem levels when a unit dies—I want to bring everyone with me! Dark Deity’s injury system lets players weigh a permanent stat loss against the time they’ve spent in the level. This choice is not insignificant, and while I have eaten a late stat loss I found myself resetting more often than not. You might hate this system, but I love it!
Dark Deity can be a Fire Emblem clone if that’s all one chooses to see in it, but I think it’s much more. It’s fun, the world is beautiful, the characters are memorable both in their visual design and writing, the story is good and is affected by every one of its 30 unique characters, and it expands meaningfully upon the Fire Emblem formula. I’m not going to sugar coat the bugs; they can be extremely frustrating. After one Windows related crash upon stage clear I switched to playing exclusively on Steam Deck and had a great experience for the rest of my time with the game. I quite enjoyed and recommend Dark Deity to fans of Fire Emblem. That said, if your interest is piqued but the flaws seem too insurmountable, know that Dark Deity 2 is set to release in 2024 and the devs have engaged with player feedback and seem to have created a game that expands even more radically on its original formula; beyond QoL improvements they claim to have added terrain tiles, players will have access to more radical tools that affect the battle outside of traditional combat, and the costume design for female characters seems a bit more realistic too. One can never truly recommend a game before it releases, but my time with Dark Deity has guaranteed that I will purchase Dark Deity 2, and I think that’s as strong a recommendation as I can give for both.
What I like about Dark Deity I like a lot. The class-promotion system is super cool, allowing players to freely hybridize between 4 level 10 and 4 level 30 classes. This creates a depth of customization that bolsters replay value significantly. Replaying on Hard with knowledge about this system I was rewarded greatly compared to my first playthrough on Normal where I was figuring it out as I went. Each class stage offers not only different skills but also stat growth patterns, which lends different approaches to different characters who all have unique skills and stat distributions of their own. There aren't really any "bad" units, and weaker units can be supplemented with adequate game knowledge turning them into destroyers. My off-meta units on my second playthrough were stronger than my meta units on my first.
On the topic of units, at first glance I thought the social "Bond" system in this game was going to be tedious. Between levels it might offer up to 10 unique dialogues between 30 units all with unique stories. At first I found these dialogues a bit cliche, but as they advance from stage 1/3 to 3/3 they become more interesting, specific, and nuanced as the characters develop relationships with each-other. By the end of the game I found myself cherishing my bond dialogues and lamenting levels where I had maxed them all out between my team of 14. This drove me to choose a completely different team on my second play-through to learn about the characters I had benched on my first, another testament to the game's replayability. I love games with hefty character rosters, and Dark Deity features a colourful cast some of whom I know I will think about in the future. The story writing mirrors the writing of the bond system; at first, it seems pedestrian, but it grows from typical beginnings to an interesting conclusion that I didn't predict with some really cool boss designs along the way.
The most common gripe I've seen with this game is the gameplay. I will make no illusions about the negative elements: It's kind of buggy and the game lacks polish in general. I'd personally have changed some of the UI controls like target selection and input confirmation (special commands take the place of the attack button leading to some extremely frustrating misclicks). If this is a dealbreaker for you then I understand, but I believe in giving grace to indie developers—Dark Deity is still more polished than some AAA games and I know that here it's not for lack of care. The learning curve is artificially inflated because the tutorialization is insubstantial. If you play this game you should know that there is a battlesave feature, which itself is buggy but can be used to savescum bugs. The lack of terrain tiles makes gameplay a matter of choke point control and matchup knowledge. This is exacerbated by the matchup chart being very hard to get a handle on, with the game offering differing interactions between 3 types of armour, 4 types of magic damage, 4 styles of weapon or spell, and 5 physical types of physical damage, and on difficulties below hard these differences don't feel significant or worth knowing (damage variance of -10%-40%). I myself choose to view this as a positive—let us not punish indie developers for being overly ambitious in experimenting with a classic formula. In fact, for all its flaws I think that Dark Deity shines in its innovations on the Fire Emblem formula.
The overly ambitious matchup chart may seem daunting, but once one learns how it works it rewards proper team building. I think this is a meaningful departure from the Fire Emblem approach, which is robust in its simplicity. I’ve never been one to condemn games for using similar mechanics and systems to others. This is a meaningful difference between videogames and other media. One would not decry Salem’s Lot as a Dracula clone, for a quick example, and yet a game like Dark Deity is written of as a Fire Emblem clone, life sims like Sun Haven are written off as Stardew Valley clones, platformer metroidvanias are called Hollow Knight clones and is that not itself a Castlevania clone? All of these games including Dark Deity are engaging with the form of games they’re in the tradition of, and I for one hold that it’s more interesting to see how they expand on and experiment with that established form and one’s expectations thereof. The best example from Dark Deity is its boss fights. In Rekka no Ken the most mechanically advanced boss is one who you can only counterattack safely. Dark Deity offers raid style bosses that use AoE attacks, apply effects outside of regular combat, require specific engagement with units other than themselves, and generally require a different style of play from ordinary levels;I found this experimentation on the Fire Emblem form extremely impressive and engaging. Beyond this are smaller QoL changes that I appreciate: tradable items that customize unit stats and effects when equipped, no weapon degradation, and perhaps controversially no permadeath. I’m a player who resets Fire Emblem levels when a unit dies—I want to bring everyone with me! Dark Deity’s injury system lets players weigh a permanent stat loss against the time they’ve spent in the level. This choice is not insignificant, and while I have eaten a late stat loss I found myself resetting more often than not. You might hate this system, but I love it!
Dark Deity can be a Fire Emblem clone if that’s all one chooses to see in it, but I think it’s much more. It’s fun, the world is beautiful, the characters are memorable both in their visual design and writing, the story is good and is affected by every one of its 30 unique characters, and it expands meaningfully upon the Fire Emblem formula. I’m not going to sugar coat the bugs; they can be extremely frustrating. After one Windows related crash upon stage clear I switched to playing exclusively on Steam Deck and had a great experience for the rest of my time with the game. I quite enjoyed and recommend Dark Deity to fans of Fire Emblem. That said, if your interest is piqued but the flaws seem too insurmountable, know that Dark Deity 2 is set to release in 2024 and the devs have engaged with player feedback and seem to have created a game that expands even more radically on its original formula; beyond QoL improvements they claim to have added terrain tiles, players will have access to more radical tools that affect the battle outside of traditional combat, and the costume design for female characters seems a bit more realistic too. One can never truly recommend a game before it releases, but my time with Dark Deity has guaranteed that I will purchase Dark Deity 2, and I think that’s as strong a recommendation as I can give for both.