Vambrace: Dungeon Monarch is a dark fantasy tower defense game from Dvora Studio Co. Ltd. Several forces invade your dungeon in an attempt to reach the base portal. You must rally a defensive force to hold off the attackers while sometimes joining in the defense. However, you are also a double agent trying to bring the dungeon to an end. Balancing both duties is a tough act but you must choose a side before it’s too late.
Mixing tower defense with deck-building is an interesting combination that inspires you to figure out how it works. Gameplay is challenging and tests your skills while giving you a variety of strategic options to play with. Unfortunately it has some bugs, and the story doesn’t make much sense. As good as Vambrace looks, the final product still feels like a game that’s 90% complete.
You play as the titular dungeon Monarch who betrays his dungeon crew for the Guardians, his real employers. However, he is betrayed by the Guardians before waking up as if it were a dream. The Monarch tries to act normal, but realizes that events are playing out just as he remembers. Treating his dreams like visions of the future, he does his best to make sure things play out differently.
The story suffers from many problems despite being the backbone of your experience. Vambrace tries to weave a complex narrative but forgets the foundation of a good story. You aren’t invested in the characters beyond base motivations. Lots of background exposition is missing at vital moments, which makes the story difficult to follow and keep up with, weakening the potential of Story Mode. And because there isn’t enough exposition to help you learn much about the setting at first, you don’t understand how characters are important or what’s actually at stake. It’s only around the last half of the story that the plot starts to make sense. Then the story shifts into gear for Part 2 which takes a different direction, and at that point the story starts wearing down on you since it’s essentially a reset. Without a strong story, progressing through the campaign is difficult. Since there’s more information locked away in the campaign, you can’t just jump to free play.
Gameplay consists of two parts: actual defense management and base preparation. You decide what structures go into your dungeon that enhance certain factions. These factions supply the troops you use to fight the dungeon invaders. Similar to a roguelite deckbuilder, you don’t choose your lineup and get a random assortment of faction soldiers. You position these soldiers in certain spots to intercept the invaders before they reach the portal. Using tower defence mechanics makes the game challenging in a good way. Each faction’s soldiers have different abilities that may be relevant for your situation. You may have a plan or must resort to using whoever you can get. This tests your strategic capabilities and ensures you always have a challenge regardless of your progress. You must also think about what might help you for the next battle.
Several factions give you the chance to form your own strategy with everyone developing their favorites. Each faction suits a different playstyle but you can mix and match to create a balanced army. You get several factions available to you but two more are unlocked later in the story. This doesn’t include the Monarch who you can control with cards after summoning them to the field. There’s a lot of flexibility with combat that makes it fun to experiment with.
However, the learning curve is high because there are several concepts that aren’t properly explained. There’s a brief tutorial but it barely scratches the surface of the gameplay. For example, you learn about the importance of structures. But you aren’t told about how they work or the fact that most don’t provide benefits to your soldiers. You also don’t learn about the faction’s strengths and are forced to pick it up on the go. The lack of explanation often means you are diving into the deep end without fully knowing your options. You might not even know how to get Mystic versions of your units or how some units individually seek out enemies. The tutorial doesn’t cover these aspects and that makes it frustrating when you find out features don’t work as intended. You also can’t refund your choices if you do something wrong, making it risky to commit when it could stall you.
There are also bugs and errors that haven’t been fixed. Some are minor like grammatical errors but others are more inconvenient like a prison that can’t process multiple prisoners. While some bugs have been fixed since writing, there are still a few that impact gameplay. It’s frustrating to see as some of these have been present since Vambrace released into Early Access and haven’t been fixed, making the game feel rushed and incomplete.
Vambrace: Dungeon Monarch brings a new twist on tower defense by including deck building. However, it’s dragged down by the story, lack of explanation, and some leftover bugs from the Early Access period. This makes the overall experience exciting at first, but it quickly turns into repetitive dread. While the game could be improved with some fixes and better explanation, that may be a tough ask at this point.
Victor played Vambrace: Dungeon Monarch on PC with a provided review copy.
