In recent years, I have become an avid player of roguelikes since Hades and Risk of Rain 2 came out. I always liked the aspect of being able to die and start over but be more powerful the next run. When I heard a new rougelike was being released to console in November that focused on twisted fairy tales, I knew that was a game to look at.
Fairy tales have always had a massive influence in my life, and with Ravenswatch, it is no different. Yet, we don’t just follow the classic fairy tales of Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, and other princesses. In this game, the developers take a look at myths, fairy tales, and legends set about from all cultures and areas. With the added elements of a top-down roguelike and amazing storytelling, Ravenswatch allows for players to get a different view of their favorite stories being retold.
How Passtech retells the stories is by giving players the characters memoirs that slowly get unlocked as you play the heroes. Most are full of bittersweet memories, such as Carmilla’s story. As players listen to Carmilla’s story, they are able to hear the love and tenderness she has for Laura, but slowly Carmilla’s eternal love becomes a monster she cannot fight. This one story shows how the nightmares have overrun the country of Reviere by Baba Yaga’s command. Players get to see these nightmares and monsters in action through the three chapters that are available.
All three chapters are 18 minutes in total, not counting the boss fight, which can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. Each chapter focuses on an area, with the map never being the same thing twice. The randomness of the maps can oftentimes determine whether or not your run will succeed or fail. I personally experienced one run where I could not find any chests till the very end, and the chests I did find were all red, meaning more nightmares at higher difficulty.
I really liked how in Ravenswatch I had to explore the world in order to become stronger. Not only that, but the developers give players a small head start on where to go, showing five points of interest. The other information given is what level of difficulty they are, with the colors being green, yellow, and red. The developers don’t just stop there with giving players a challenge; I noticed that there are four difficulty modes to pick your adventure from. Each difficulty adds new challenges by increasing the number of corrupted enemies, reducing the amount of exp by amounts of 10%, and requiring players to revive themselves.
There is also a feature that allows players to add challenges into the chapters. They consist of Untouchable, Black Moon, Power of the Sun, Adrenaline, and lastly, Terra Incognita. These challenges have both good and bad effects on the current mode. The effects typically have good and bad traits to them. As such, when looking at Untouchable, players can see that their dash has a small cooldown, but there is also reduced healing and higher damage for enemies. Meaning that staying out of attacks is the main goal.
I also enjoyed the side quests that I highly recommend completing in order to get legendary gear. The quests consist of helping one of the Swine Brothers in chapter 1, saving Sinbad in chapter 2, and in chapter 3, you have to complete a 2-part quest that involves saving Morgan and killing King Arthur in order to save the tree.
All of the quests add more depth to the storyline that is already a complex tale Passtech has made. They also made it interesting with the different items and abilities the player is able to pick up. All items are in reference to one tale or another, such as the cards you are able to pick up from a grimoire or chest being a reference to Alice in Wonderland. They also add a new quest for players to complete for their heroes if they so choose. One such quest is for Carmilla, which is called life essence; players will have to unlock this talent and kill 30 nightmares with her Death Kiss (bite). Once the quest is complete, she is then able to gain 20 health every time she kills someone with the bite.
Ravenswatch adds a unique concept to the normally single-player roguelike genre: multiplayer. I was able to find a group to play with while also being able to play it on my own. Oh, and if you are worried about not being able to find a group on your console, fear not! There is cross-platform compatibility and an in-game looking-for-group function added. Just be fairly warned that you might find a team and get ready to jump into the adventure, and all of a sudden someone leaves, and you have to find a new group. The other thing of note for multiplayer is that the more people you have, the higher the difficulty, and there are more enemies you deal with.
I was able to play with a group of four as well as by myself. I would typically play Carmilla while the others would play Aladin, Sun Wukong, and the Pid Pipper. To which we got to the end of the game and defeated the so-called final boss. Even though we died many times and had to start all the way back to chapter 1 of the game.
The best part about Ravenswatch is how every character is unique, with different builds and items needed to become strong enough to fight the nightmares off. One of these characters, if you know how to play him, is the most powerful of all of the Ravenswatch heroes, the Pid Piper, otherwise known to the community as “Rat Boy.” Once his special is fully upgraded, he can run through the entire game with barely a scratch on him.
In my playthroughs, I was able to experience every character, as it was required to unlock all the heroes in the game. The core four for Ravenswatch are Scarlet, The Pid Pipper, Beowulf, and lastly, the Snow Queen. In order to get Aladin, Melisune, Geppetto, Sun Wukong, and Carmilla, players need to complete Chapter 1 of the game with the others first. I was able to play all of the characters and can say that they all have their fun quirks to find and play as. My two favorite characters, though, are Carmilla and Scarlet, for the main fact of how powerful they become late game.
Every hero can reach up to 9 levels, with every few levels unlocking new and better talents to be used. Players are also able to get new memoirs in the game for every couple of levels. With the last two parts of every character’s story being locked behind completing the epilogue and beating the darkness level. This aspect compelled me to play to completion so I could get the full story of all of the characters that I love.
For me, Ravenswatch gave me lots of enjoyment and frustration while playing! I can definitely say that the story and the one-liners that the characters give make this game feel more alive. The balancing is also done very well and allows for single players or co-op to complete the game while still needing to work for it. The tales are just dark and twisted enough to grab players’ attention that it is a must-play for fans of the rogue-like games. The storytelling aspect is alive and well in Ravenswatch. Allowing for an important look at what books, tales, myths, and legends can become.
Sara played Ravenswatch on Xbox Series S with her own bought copy.
