rogue-likes have a BIG problem | Slots & Daggers Review

Good >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> night.

>> [music] >> I want to talk about Slots and Daggers, a rogike game by Freriedman that I've been playing for the past few weeks.

[music] More specifically, I want to complain about something I've started to notice and a lot of rogue likes that have come out in what I've been calling the post Batro era. But first, an overview. Slots

Batro era. But first, an overview. Slots

and Daggers is a widely received cheap video game self-proclaimed as a retro mini rogueike inside a slot machine in which you fight your way through a series of endless turn-based fights with a slot machine full of weapons and

skills you purchase between the battles.

While the game does include several mechanics that allow the player some sort of agency, like purchasing items that can appear on each slot or between rounds, [music] some of which involve timing based skill shots that improve their potency, you ultimately are at the

whim of a random chance. The core

gameplay loops culminate into simple battles by smashing the slot button over and over, hoping that your enemy's health bar gets smaller quicker than yours. You can argue this is a pretty

yours. You can argue this is a pretty unobtrusive, honest game. And for five bucks American, it mostly feels that way. But how you end up progressing

way. But how you end up progressing through it is where I find fault.

Between each victory, you earn chips, [music] uh currency that can be used to buy permanent upgrades that carry through each run. Upgrades like

increased gold gain, increased damage, and more slot uh slots. This is a mechanic often utilized by other rogike games called asymmetrical or nonlinear progression where after losing enough

times, generally speaking, you will unlock boons or abilities that will help mitigate losing in the future. This is a future that when done well, the player doesn't need to use it. But in slots and daggers and other postbelro era games

that have released in the past year and a half, there's no real way to progress without it. You see, in my playthrough,

without it. You see, in my playthrough, a couple hours into the game, I had unlocked all the possible weapons and items you can find between runs, but purposely ignored the nonlinear chipbased progression, wanting to see if I could get by with just skill alone.

But I found myself consistently losing on the third level, because the damage and health of the enemies scales so immensely, it becomes almost impossible to win unless you got incredibly lucky.

And that's the problem. The reason I call these games postpilotro era is not only because most of them have done away with the facade that is rogike deck building to reveal the true core of what these games are gambling, but also

because they follow or attempt to follow the particular flavor of incremental progression that happens in Bellatro. A

sort of learn from your mistakes while slowly being dripfed items that help you progress. But I'm finding more and more

progress. But I'm finding more and more that these games often miss the plot and lean too heavy on the asymmetrical progression systems until they act as sort of a crutch that makes up for the lack of finesse [music] or RNG

balancing. Ultimately creating a game

balancing. Ultimately creating a game that reveals its hands too soon and dole aspects of the genre that I personally find most engaging. Aspects like problem solving, intuition, and exploration. In

Slots and Daggers, there's no reward for trying new strategies when you're always going to reach a wall that can't be cleared without an immense amount of luck. I ended up just using my chips for

luck. I ended up just using my chips for upgrades out of pure frustration. After

trying every combo of items I felt were viable and immediately I passed easily through the levels I had struggled with prior and proceeded to beat the game with a build I had tried before with little to no effort. In the end, I was disappointed. I was left with this bad

disappointed. I was left with this bad taste in my mouth that [music] coalesed with this feeling I've been having for a while. A sort of onwe about the video

while. A sort of onwe about the video game industry. I think we can all agree

game industry. I think we can all agree that following trends has been a driving force for the game industry for as long as we can remember. But in recent years, it feels it's become the only force. As

though everyone is waiting for the next original idea to come out so they can regurgitate an unrefined replica. And

while I can understand the desire to strike while the iron's hot, the reality is, at least for me, I can barely recall playing most of these games. They're

like fast food. They feel good in the moment and they fill you up, but you'll never look back fondly on the McDonald's burger you ate 3 weeks ago. They're

empty calories. I've said for a while that we deserve better as players, but this goes even further than that. I

believe that devs deserve better as well. I understand that imitation is a

well. I understand that imitation is a great way to learn and build a skill set, and there's nothing wrong with taking another game's successful mechanic and putting it in yours. But

the media environment we live in now encourages quick and dirty meshing together of random successful parts of every trendy game of the week. And it

creates a shoddy foundation for the future generation of games. It enforces

a feeling of indifference that I believe is eroding at creative integrity in the modern world. This sense of, oh, I don't

modern world. This sense of, oh, I don't need to create anything unique. I can

just combine the feel-good parts of other things. You owe it to yourself not

other things. You owe it to yourself not to only explore what works, but take risks and exercise your creativity in unexpected ways that strengthen your creative core. I understand that the

creative core. I understand that the system as it stands now encourages iteration over innovation because failure is increasingly tied to one's livelihoods. And because of that, the

livelihoods. And because of that, the margin of experimentation has gotten smaller. But we owe it to ourselves to

smaller. But we owe it to ourselves to take creative risks. I owe most of what I am as an artist, designer, and creator to the risks I was willing to take. And

yes, while I may miss out on some of the most instant gratification we've been taught to crave because of it, the success I've had, big or small, has stuck with me my whole life and made me who I am today. Okay, I may have gone

off track here a bit, so let [music] me bring it back. Slots and Daggers isn't a bad game. It has many design features

bad game. It has many design features that have proven themselves to work time [music] and time again. The style and feel are great, and it does show a visual refinement that one can only get through a willingness to explore and

experiment. but it falls prey to this

experiment. but it falls prey to this air of insecurity that I believe we face more and more each day, which dampens its overall experience. If I were to rate the game, I'd give it a D+. It's

not [music] boring, but it's just empty past its shell. And while it's not the worst game in the world, I can't recommend it. Yes, it is cheap, but

recommend it. Yes, it is cheap, but something being cheap doesn't imply you need to buy it. You can easily get more value of something else. Thanks for

watching.

Hey there. If you made it to the end of the video, I appreciate it. I apologize

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