Published by same studio that invited us to Enter the Gungeon, Devolver Digital is trading guns for swords in their announcement of a cuter-than-normal rogue-like: Swords of Ditto. The announcement came with a YouTube video as well as pre-release pages on Steam and GOG. Together, all three give a solid idea of the core games mechanics.
Players will fight their way through both overworld and dungeons on the Island of Ditto to defeat the evil Mormo. However, each adventure the player takes with a hero is part of a larger story; if your hero dies then they might become an inspiration for the next. A statue of a former hero might be erected in your home village, or your heroes may even find treasures in the graves of their less than successful predecessors. Alternatively, if a hero is successful in defeating Mormo, your next experience will be of a more peaceful world.
Beyond this unique approach to the rogue-like genre, Swords of Ditto is going to be both a single player and local co-op experience. Furthermore, the game already looks like exactly the refreshing visual change that the genre needs. Previous rogue-likes have given us dark or monotonous colour palettes along with similarly dark themes. In contrast, the cute, colourful and cartoonish design of Swords of Ditto makes it stand out in a genre that sometimes tries too hard to be “edgy” (*cough* Binding of Isaac *cough*). Releasing on PS4 as well as PC, the game’s adorable aesthetic makes it more accessible to play with kids or casual players who need a helping hand. Meanwhile, even the most hardened gamers can get excited about giant tabby cat merchants and a chill looking octopus.
The Swords of Ditto will likely make a feature in Devolver’s E3 presentation next week and is also the first release from onebitbeyond and studio head Jonathan Biddle, formerly of Curve Digital. Swords of Ditto releases in 2018 on both PC and PS4. To find out more, check back in with Checkpoint for our E3 coverage next week!
What do you think? Is Swords of Ditto just what you want in a rogue-like? Are Indie developers getting lazy with all of these rogue-likes? Let us know in the comments!
About the Author
Lex Leighton
If Lex isn't sitting in front of his computer writing uni assignments and playing video games, he's probably playing a board game with friends, running a Dungeons & Dragons game or trying to read without his glasses because he's left them somewhere again.
