Darkest Dungeon II is a turn-based roguelike RPG from Red Hook Studios with an emphasis on difficulty. Now, the game is available on all consoles, as more players can embark on the dark journey, trying again and again to succeed. Unsurprisingly, Darkest Dungeon II is a game you will replay a lot. It’s a roguelike experience many can enjoy, with difficulty that will challenge all. Players who can embrace the challenge will have a tough but rewarding experience that looks and sounds amazing. So get your party together, pack the stagecoach, and hope this run goes your way.
Light the Way
In Darkest Dungeon II, you play as the Protégé, who is tasked with gathering a party of four that must save the world. You start the game with four heroes and as you play, you’ll unlock more. These heroes must make their way through a dying world while carrying the last flame of hope. To do this, you enter a stagecoach and make your way through various regions that always change. No two journeys will be the same, but it will always end at The Mountain, a place of pure madness destroying the world. Along the way, you will encounter various challenges from battles of all skill levels, road hazards, or moral choices that will affect your party. There is a lot to manage here as a test of your resolve. The weight of the world may be on your back and you must carry it, but at least you’re not alone.
During all these runs, combat continues to be an evolving aspect of the game. Hero and enemy placement need to be taken into account, as everything plays off each other. You have four placements on each side of the battle, and certain moves will only affect certain areas and placements. Your tank will not do much in the back two slots, while your support will have better options in the back. Party and move composition is key, but you are encouraged to experiment with different play styles. You will more than likely be forced to change your play style, since the world is changing alongside encounters. One thing that will change battles is how your party is getting along, which introduces another component you have to manage.
As you continue your journey, your party will interact and grow closer. The game has a relationship system that you must pay attention to, as it can help or ruin your runs. As you traverse locations, characters can profoundly affect their relationships with one another. You can also buy items to use at inns to better these relationships as well. The relationship system can make or break a run. For example, a relationship that’s too negative will also negatively affect the party members and battles as well. It can cause two party members to distrust each other and add debuffs to certain moves. Now the inverse is true as well, a good relationship will have benefits.
Good relationships will grant different buffs and greatly increase your chances of survival. On top of paying attention to their relationships, you have to keep their stress levels in check. Each party member has a stress level that goes from 0 to 10, with many factors that influence these levels. Stress can go up or down while traveling and deciding where to go or what to do at the next destination. Stress can also go up or down during battle. You can lower stress at inns with the help of items, but these items are very limited. If a party member’s stress hits 10, their resolve will be tested and result in a meltdown or “resolute.” A meltdown will reduce your health and negatively affect all your relationships. Resolute will heal you a good amount, give you a buff, and also positively affect all your relationships.
Ride or Die
Darkest Dungeon II is all about traveling on a road that constantly shifts. You travel by stagecoach, which is serves as your base on wheels. You can adjust your party layout, skill list, and equipment in the stagecoach. You can also check the map to see your route possibilities. The stagecoach can take damage and if it breaks down, you must do emergency repairs, which will cause you to get ambushed. This means that you will have one less party member in the battle, as one of them fixes the stagecoach. In this case, an already difficult battle becomes a great challenge.
Earlier in the review, I mentioned the last flame of hope this world has. Attached to your stagecoach is an actual flame that not only lights your way, but it acts as the actual last hope of the world. You must carry the flame to the end and make sure it doesn’t go out. If it does go out, get ready for a tough battle with cultists that you must win if you want the flame back.
There are seven total regions you can traverse in Darkest Dungeon II. You always start in The Valley and end at The Mountain. In between regions, you can rest at an inn that lets you prepare for the next location. At the inn, you can level up different moves, repair or modify the stagecoach, and choose your next location. The locations are always random so two routes are never the same. While you traverse a region, you can encounter many battles, shops, moral choices, and places to heal/buff/debuff yourself. Each one of these can also affect the aforementioned party relationships and stress levels.
When you are at a crossroads, you will have to choose a way to go. Sometimes, your party members will wanna go a specific route, and this decision will lower their stress and raise someone else’s. While traveling, you may encounter a Shrine of Reflection. These will explore a hero’s backstory and also give them a new move. Each hero has five chapters in their story that can be a flashback or a battle, and these can only be explored at a Shrine of Reflection. This is how you unlock a character’s full skill list, and completing their backstory is very rewarding. You encounter many obstacles in each region, some may even make the final boss harder, so be careful and always check where you’re going.
Again and Again
You will die a lot in Darkest Dungeon II. The game has five acts that get progressively harder. During a run, you will earn candles for completing different challenges or progressing. It is best to wait until you are at an inn, if you want to end early as they have the best candle payouts. After a run, you end up at the Altar of Hope, which is where you spend the candles to unlock more heroes and permanently buff them. You start the game with a limited item lineup in all the shops and inn, but this is where you unlock more as well. In addition, the Altar of Hope is where you buff your stagecoach and unlock other benefits to help you on your journey.
Darkest Dungeon II can feel overwhelming at times, but its systems can help alleviate some of the burdens that comes with being a roguelike. The game is optimized for multiple runs starting with a save system for your party layout, and every hero’s move layout. It has a list of status effects and symbols at the ready for you to bring up when you need it. The game has a very comprehensive tutorial list with all the information you need in the pause menu. It can feel very tedious to navigate it, but it’s still an excellent tool to have.
With so many systems present, the game also feels like menu overload at moments and you can find yourself accidentally filling the screen just by pressing a button. Fortunately, it doesn’t take long to get adjusted and get a good run going. RNG still plays a big role, so you will have bad runs at times. It’s still super easy to jump in and start a new one, however. Each run feels unique, and it’s easy to lose track of time as you start a new one.
Beauty in Darkness
Darkest Dungeon II has an art style I can only praise. There is a gothic art style that is a delight to see, even if the world is filled with madness. The characters are all 3D models, but they look like beautiful and highly detailed drawings. The game feels like a Lovecraftian pop-up book and I can’t appreciate it enough. It’s easy to let a battle run a little longer just to appreciate the models and backgrounds.
This praise carries over to the sound of the game as well. The music is a delight and adds another level of charm to the world. Each track fits the game so well, giving you an amazing audio-visual experience. The game’s narrator also fits the world perfectly. His voice feels integral to everything and I can’t praise the performance enough. The game is beautiful on all fronts, and I almost find myself recommending it just for the audio and visuals alone.
The Journey Ends
Darkest Dungeon II is an unforgettable experience, despite its faults. The amount of systems, difficulty, and roguelike mechanics will not be for everyone. Those who continue will be rewarded with an intriguing RPG that keeps challenging you. You will encounter some tedium, and you will have some bad runs. But, if you persist, you will have a rewarding experience. Amazing visuals and sounds help alleviate some bad luck and repetition while also bringing beauty to this world. This is an unforgiving game, but also a beautiful one I won’t forget.
Disclaimer: Red Hook Studios provided a Nintendo Switch copy of Darkest Dungeon II to Final Weapon for review purposes.
