The game offers a lower difficulty setting for newcomers, but after playing the game for several hours, I found the experience to be very fulfilling in the harder difficulty. I played it on its middle difficulty setting: Darkest. Dismas was left teetering on the brink of death. Towering above these four shattered souls, the beast let loose one more attack focused on Dismas and Reynold. Everyone was left barely standing from this last attack, and it wasn’t to be the end of it. Reynold stood up to this mighty creature in defiance as he attempted one final attack to defeat the small creature, but this was only met by an even mightier blow from the Swine Prince leaving all but Dismas stunned and unable to move. Frantically trying to heal the party and succeeding to some small degree, Stanley could tell his efforts were going to be in vane should they attempt to follow through with their efforts. Reynold bellowed, “It is protecting the small swine,” as Caradas fell to her knees overcome by paranoia.

Immediately, the Swine Prince let out a bellowing roar and brought down fury upon the entire party with one fell swoop of its massive, destructive blade. Pressing his trigger with a quick and decisive motion, he caused significant damage to the miserable creature. Honing in on the smaller beast, Dismas took aim with his trusty pistol. All these things work together to bring the characters to life. Additionally, your characters can overcome their stress and become heroic which also affects your characters’ dialogue. You will end up with a different sort of story every time you play thanks to this. As their stress levels raise, they will develop certain problems called afflictions, and how they speak and interact with one another changes based on this. The journal entries in this game do the same by showing the absolute hopelessness which most befalls most people when they enter these lands.Ī set story isn’t necessarily told when you venture out into each dungeon, but the story sort of actively writes itself as you play based on how your characters develop. These add to the story in a way similar to how books in Skyrim give you insight into the lore of the land. Each one of these are so dark and excellently written that they felt like they could have easily fit into a Stephen King novel or Edgar Allen Poe story. Occasionally, you will find bloody sheets of paper with detailed recounts of several doomed parties’ attempts at exploring the wretched lands. Journal Entries are dark and well written.

Darkest dungeon gameplay paranoia