Crown Trick - Turn-based Classic Rogue Adventure

No thread for this gem yet is a travesty. Let’s correct that. The demo (beta?) for this came out earlier this year, and all I remember of it was I really liked it but I couldn’t recall exactly what it was about or why. I wrote this about it back in April:

I got invited into a beta for a cool little rogue-like I forgot I signed up for, it’s called Crown Trick and the story is you, a young lady, are pulled into a nightmare realm to repair the damage an evil villain has caused. A sentient crown is your condescending guide and mentor and invests its power into you so you can run through the dungeon and defeat the evil badguy. Along the way, you’ll find cool relics, potions, weapons, and other goodies and even be able to defeat and tame Familiars that let you use their powers! Also, it’s a really, really nice looking game

The premise is pretty simple and it runs you into a quick tutorial that explains the basics of classic Roguelike gameplay (this plays to me more like a “like” and not a “lite” Rogue experience, with classic turns and limited resources in many ways, though I’m sure there is a debate to be had here, as ever) from waiting to let enemies come to you to “equipping” familiars to gain access to special skills.

It’s also just gorgeous, and it’s available on the Switch!

There is a meta game element to unlock blue prints which can be turned in at shops and create items potentially available in future runs, and when I defeated the first boss at the end of level 2 I unlocked Pistol and Staff weapons which will now potentially spawn. I rescued a few characters in the dungeon that then were waiting back at the “hub” for me so I could upgrade a few things for future runs. I admit that games with a strong Meta to them, requiring many runs to unlock features that seem critical for a runs success (for example, I upgraded my health elixir so I have an extra use of it each floor) bother me, but the gameplay and the meta structure seems really well done here so far, so I’ll reserve judgement.

A look at my character sheet towards the end of my first (and only) run:

There are some really cool mechanics here, from Relics you can find and equip to weapons that vastly change how you play but also how every time you select a Relic or a Weapon you are given an option of 3 so you can really tailor a play experience as you go, and I think that’s going to be key in the long run. Otherwise it’s a bit like “Brogue” in that you start with just a blank slate and any given run could feature long ranged combat, melee spec, or some sort of mage build that takes full advantage of powerful Familiar abilities.

I’m only a few hours in but I am going back in for more here in a bit, and I wanted to get my impressions and thoughts on the game down now. It’s 10% off on Steam, it’s even cheaper (and for me, tax free) on GreenManGaming (I paid just over $15 there) right now, and I believe it’s worth every penny.

I know this one has been discussed in a few other threads, so if anyone has any tips or suggestions for someone just getting into it, let’s pool our knowledge.

Never heard of the game. I like the artwork.

I told myself not to buy any more roguelikes because I’m not persistent enough to ever get close to finishing ANY of them, ever, and tend to take loooong breaks between bouts of obsessed weekend binges… meaning I end up playing only the early game over and over every single time I sit down and engage the game.

But this game has me tempted to add it to the massive stack of roguelikes I’ve never drilled very deep into.

Was hoping someone would make a thread. This is absolutely a roguelike. There is some metaprogression, but it is largely in opening up new options to equip or find. There are some power bits, though, like increasing number of potions you get and how effective they are. The video below shows some of the progression stuff at the end.

The thing that is unique to this game, IMO, is that it depends more on skills than consumable items. Also, your magic resources reset in each room, so you are encouraged to use the tools at your disposal, not horde them, in order to preserve your hp.

I haven’t played in a few months, but looking forward to giving it another go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcH2LbKVJDI

Yeah, the cool part are the “Blink” and the “Break” mechanics.

Blink boots basically give you a limited amounts of teleports by battle that don’t use up a turn. Enemies “Break” when hit enough so that their break counter is set to zero, stunning them and making them vulnerable for a few turns.

So for example you have the axe that hits the 8 tiles around you. You can blink diagonally next to an enemy with a counter of 4. Hit him once and his counter will go down by two, because enemies lose 2 points instead of one when hit in the 8 adjacent tiles next to you. The enemy will use up his turn to get in one of the four horizontal tiles to attack next turn. Attack again and “poof” enemy broken before he has a chance to hit you.

So yeah, that’s one simple example. It’s a bit more tactical than your average roguelike.

I really liked the beta/demo I played a few months ago. Curious to hear more about the finished game.

So huh wow, I actually beat it. I stumbled into some really overpowered build for the final fight and the final boss barely could act while my HP was constantly being restored. So I guess the game is about 10-20 hours long (they’re working at adding a harder post-game mode).

It’s a nice little game, I’d recommend it. It has a bigger tactical layer than the average roguelike, especially if you pick spell sets that have inherent synergies. Blinking around the battlefield and breaking all enemies before they get a chance to do anything in a flurry of adorable death never gets old.

I do have to point out that I have a lot of niggles with the game though, but the devs know about it and are working at patching them. I said some things in the other topic, but mostly the mid-dungeon “stuff” doesn’t feel very good. Slot machines and Gasha machines seem like a waste of your precious gold. They’re not called one-armed bandits for nothing.

The game also offers you multiple cursed “deals” every floor, most of them are really, really dumb. Deal double damage, but receive quadruple damage? Yeah, no thanks. There’s also another one that makes you bleed every step you take until you kill an enemy, except there might not be an enemy left on the floor and even if you know exactly where one is, you might bleed most of your HP out just getting there, all for a relic that might do nothing for your build. Pass.

I nearly beat it last night on my 5th run, which honestly is a fun sign for me that I’ll have a lot of fun playing around in a more casual mode, but a way to make the game harder/more challenging might be good as I’ve barely unlocked anything yet. Oh, you know what? I might not have come close after all - I got to Vlad and thought he was the big-bad, but I just remembered I have a character/meta tree left to unlock so there must be more past Vlad, whom I have only gotten to the one time and he kicked my ass.

Anyway, related to the bit I quoted, I am glad to hear they are addressing some of this. I didn’t even realize it until you pointed it out just now, but the slot machines are terribly unfun and I have taken to ignoring them, and the cursed chest/statues are just not worth it, which makes most of a floor not worth engaging in. The story obelisks or whatever they are called are cool, chests of course are the best, and most anything else I’ve been avoiding.

I’m also kind of obstinately bad at the combat, I just can’t make myself slow down and make the best tactical choice, I tend to want to charge in and swing a sword or axe and kill stuff. That worked earlier in the game, but now each run I start in the ocean level and the enemies are fairly tough even with some bonus goodies to open up a run with.

You know there are multiple Dungeons…right?

Yup! There are actually five dungeons right now.

The first real boss (Vlad) is much easier if you choose strength. The other option is much harder, IMO, but you can probably cheese it more easily if you plan for it in advance.

New patch and explanation of the elemental effect, which, admittedly, wasn’t that clear:

The new patch with the new post-game content is up.

They say they “optimized” the slot machine, not sure what that means.

Currently 20% off.

It’s on gamepass pc, and I started it playing it. It’s a nice tactical ‘light’ roguelike. It reminds me of Tangledeep, I suppose because both drink of the same sources of inspiration (like Mystery Dungeon series).

It’s very noticeable how the game is an effort in bringing the roguelike experience to the masses. It has:
-a very pleasing to the eye art style, the type is liked from kids to adults
-a well done tutorial that doesn’t suppose any previous experience from the player in this type of games
-a dual color ‘chessboard-like’ pattern in the floors, so the tiles for movement and attacks are clear without having to use a superflous grid
-permanent metaprogression like the now more popular roguelites, that eventually makes the game easier
Very distilled down, streamlined mechanics, with:
-only one weapon which can be used (and not weapon inventory)
-only 4 magical abilities (which comes in pairs so you can’t fully mix and match four distinct ones)
-mana that automatically fills out in each combat room
-a ‘blink’ universal ability which can be used a few times per room, which is ideal for noobs in roguelikes, as they usually don’t know what to do when the enemies get in their faces and they can’t fall back anymore

Of course, even with that apparent reduction on complexity, they still have a good core experience of knowing when to attack, move around or retreat, when and what abilities to use, how to combine them in synergies, how to use elemental barrels and gadgets in some areas, etc.