Crown Trick Beta Gameplay Preview – Challenging Turnbased Roguelike

Crown Trick is a turn based dungeon crawling rogue-like. Don’t let it’s cutesy artwork fool you though, this is a pretty difficult game.

The game is a true roguelike in that it is a run based game. Once you die, you lose all progress and start over from the beginning. The developers have stated that they intend to add in player progression for the full release so that the overall learning curve of the game will become a little less difficult.

At the start of the run, you have the option to choose one of three familiars and one of two weapons. Each familiar gives you the ability to use two spells and each familiar has a different elemental affinity. The two starter weapons spawned at the beginning are completely random and can range from rifles, to swords, or spears. Each weapon has different elemental affinities as well as status buffs and debuffs.

As you progress through the randomly generated dungeon, you will clear it room by room. Rooms with enemies will result in a combat phase. The game is a turn based game. If you attack or move one tile, it will count as a turn and the enemies will act. Some enemy attacks will have an area of effect and it will display a number. The number indicates how many turns it will take to launch the attack.

To make dodging enemy attacks easier, you have a blink ability available. The ability has a limited number of uses so you can’t constantly blink away from enemies. As you attack enemies, you will wear them down and eventually stun them.

Other possible room encounters include a slot machine to gamble coins for a chance of better loot, treasure rooms to unlock random relics, challenge rooms, chances to roll for permanent stat buffs at the risk of getting permanent debuffs, and so on.

Relics grant passive bonuses such as a chance to cast spells at no mana cost. Challenge rooms require you to defeat all enemies in ten turns. If you can meet the challenge, you are rewarded with a treasure chest containing a random item.

Overall the beta shows that this game has a lot of promise but at it’s current state suffers from balancing issues. It’s to be expected from a beta, but I am making note of them nonetheless. The game skews a little too much on the difficult side, with it being very hard to make it to the end of the game without using the Pumpkin familiar and MP relics. He lets you use the Triumphant Charge spell which will stun any enemy, including bosses. Combined with the MP relics that reduce MP costs, you can use Triumphant Charge indefinitely. Used in conjunction with the regular attacks, you can almost permanently stunlock bosses to prevent them from attacking.

The game would be more enjoyable if different playstyles were equally viable and tenable. Fans of roguelikes and difficult games have a possible title to keep an eye out for as the game keeps developing.