Ranking of Roguelikes #1: Crown Trick

It's here, the first installment of my hopefully long-running series, the Ranking of (Modern) Roguelikes. I'll be looking at as many as I can, viewing them through the prism of four categories: improvisation and experimentation, risk/reward calculations, multiple solutions to problems, and teaching through failure.

For more information on the what and why, check out the original blog here. Suggestions are welcome!

This is the first time I've done something like this, and I'm still working out the specific format. If you have some specific requests or feedback, I'm happy to hear it.

All that said, let's talk about...

Crown Trick

Time Spent: 7 hours

Cleared main campaign? No

Platform: Switch

Crown trick is an interesting game, a unique take on the top-down, turn based roguelikes of old. It takes a kitchen sink approach to its design: does it work well in another genre? Let's throw it in! Random color-coded loot? Put it in! Permanent upgrades you can purchase with special currency? Put it in! A system for breaking enemy defenses and leaving them vulnerable to extra damage? Put it in! Elemental enemies strengths and weaknesses, and different element effects? Put it in!

A sarcastic and borderline hostile ally that accompanies you on your quest? Put it in! (I wish that developers would retire this tired trope. It's never been clever or fun.)

Crown Trick tells the story of Elle, trapped in a realm of nightmares and forced to clear the different nightmare realms in order to escape. She's aided by the aforementioned sarcastic ally, the titular Crown. It grants her the powers she needs to survive, and guides her through the various nightmare realms.

How well does it reward experimentation and improvisation?

In my experience, it's pretty straightforward. There aren't a lot of unexpected interactions with items, monsters, and the playing field. Fire burns things, electricity shocks, barrels explode, and potions heal. Item descriptions tell you pretty much exactly what they'll do. You do have plenty of weapons and spells to choose from, and there are some interesting combinations that make for more or less powerful builds, but it mostly boils down to damage types and attack ranges. I was never surprised by what I tried.

In addition, enemies have elemental resistances and vulnerabilities. Don't have the damage type they're vulnerable to? You're going to have trouble, and there are few if any ways to get around that.

How about risk/reward calculations?

The game is a lot stronger here. Every weapon has a unique range, damage, and special effect. For example, guns have a long range and are powerful, but must be reloaded manually once they run out of ammunition. Mess up your timing on this, and the enemies will mess you up. The familiars offer some strong risk/reward, too. Each one has a cooldown timer, so picking the right time to use it can mean the difference between success and a grisly death.

The unique thing about Crown Trick is the blink ability, a short range teleport that doesn't count as a turn. This lets you position yourself for attacks or escape from danger. Managing its charges is crucial to surviving the many battles you'll face. Healing items are limited and rare, so avoiding damage is vital. Your blink ability is crucial here, and using its charges wisely means the difference between life and death.

Multiple ways to solve problems?

Sadly, there aren't that many. In order to get through each room, you have to defeat the enemies. To defeat them, you have to "break" their defenses. The only way to do that is through damaging them. You can damage enemies with weapons, familiars, or items. You can use environmental hazards, as well, but it's just another form of damage.

Teaching through failure:

You will have a lot of opportunities to meet and lose to different creatures and bosses. The problem I found with it is the power curve of the enemies seems to ramp up very quickly, so you don't have a lot of time to understand how to use what you have before being overwhelmed.

The other thing that keeps you from learning too much in each run is how much randomness is in the game. There's just too much of it: the weapons and items you get are random, and each one of them has a random set of bonuses. The boons and abilities you find are random, and might not synergize well with the weapons you find, or with each other. The vast majority of my runs ended in failure not because I played badly, or didn't understand the enemies' abilities, but because I didn't find a useful combination of things to work with. This is a huge mark against it, and kept me from wanting to try again.

Where does it rank?

This is a mid-tier roguelike with fantastic visual flair and an interesting hook, but it's ultimately not much more than that. I'd have a hard time recommending it over other similar games. There's too many variables to consider, and the excessive randomness makes it difficult to learn from and enjoy multiple runs. It's not the worst, but it's far from the best.

However, since it's the first episode of this series, it's currently number 1 on the list. You can be certain it won't stay there for long. Thanks for reading, and let me know what I can do better next time!