I downloaded this game early on when I got Game Pass, but for whatever reason, I only got around to playing it now. BACKGROUND:
I remember seeing this on a stream one time and loving the art style and the classic Zelda vibe, so I kept the game in mind. I intended to play this on Switch, but I thought I'd try it on PC first since I have the opportunity. Perhaps I'll buy it to keep on console depending on what I feel during my time here. PLOT: The game is set on the Isle of Ditto, which is under a terrible curse. Every 100 years, the evil being known as Mormo awakens, bringing ruin to the land. The island's only chance at hope lies with the Sword of Ditto, a hero who wields a legendary sword and is tasked with slaying Mormo. Whether or not the Sword succeeds, the cycle continues every century, with Mormo's strength dependent on what happened in the last cycle. It's a pretty basic, not at all deep story: chosen hero rises up to fight an ancient evil, with the added twist that the story repeats itself each time with a few changes. Both aspects are straight out of Zelda, though the main difference is Swords of Ditto has a significantly more light-hearted vibe. Everything from the dialogue, characters, and story elements are silly and humorous (like how the powerful artifacts of the game are straight up just toys called Toys of Legend), which meshes well with the game's presentation. PRESENTATION: Right off the bat, the game's super cartoony art style caught my eye. It looks and animates as if it's straight out of a new show from Cartoon Network. Everything from the locations and the monsters has a charming aesthetic, and the vibrant palette makes playing through this game a delight. The music matches the charm of the visuals, with cheery (and catchy) tracks that complement the vibe of the current area. Along with that, there are plenty of goofy sound effects that add to the cartoony feel (including a lot of kazoos). GAMEPLAY: Swords of Ditto plays like classic Zelda games like A Link to the Past: top-down perspective, big world map to explore, slash bitches with your sword, and clear dungeons to obtain special items. The main goal is to enter Mormo's Dungeon and defeat her in combat, and like the original Zelda (or if you want a more recent example, Breath of the Wild), you have a fair bit of freedom on whether to explore the world to get stronger or face Mormo immediately. More than a few things make Swords of Ditto stand out from classic Zelda. For one, there's a leveling system where your damage and HP grows as you earn XP. Levels matter when it comes to enemy encounters, as all enemies have levels that dictate how much damage they deal and take. There isn't a great need to grind since there are a lot of enemies and quests that give you XP, but I observed that it does take some time to level up. Combat is pretty basic, and swinging your sword is enough to get you through. You can of course use alternate weapons and deal different damage types, but for the most part, slashing and dodge rolling is enough. The main thing that sets this game apart from the games it's inspired by is its rogue-like conceit. The cyclical nature of Mormo's curse is present in gameplay, which means dying or succeeding starts a brand new run. For each reset, the game's layout changes slightly, the dungeons have different layouts and rooms, and all the enemies are stronger. Depending on whether you defeated Mormo or failed, the world improves or gets worse (in gameplay terms, the number of enemies you encounter changes). The resets are a cool concept on paper, but some elements of the gameplay kind of get in the way of making it a satisfying mechanic. In most rogue-likes, many elements of each run change to make every play session unique (whether through the game's RNG or through your choices). In Swords of Ditto, nothing significant really changes apart from the shuffled layouts and the stronger enemies. You're doing the same thing of gathering power to face Mormo and visiting mostly the same locations until you succeed. The journey to face Mormo also has a caveat: you only have a couple of in-game days to prepare before you're forced into the dungeon to face Mormo. The time limit isn't actually that bad in practice since time only passes in the overworld and there are ways to extend the limit, but there's something rather unintuitive to me about giving the player a big area to explore (with plenty of secrets, no less) and only having so much time to explore it. I would have preferred a scenario where either the time limit was removed entirely or the game is reworked completely to make the time limit a more effective mechanic. The game has difficulty options that allow you to play however you like. The lower difficulties make some of the mechanics (like the time limit) more lenient, but the hardest difficulty retains the permadeath nature of the original release. The lower difficulties are more forgiving with the deaths, with only deaths in Mormo's dungeon counting as a reset, but in the highest difficulty, any death starts you over. As someone who plays way too many rogue-likes, I don't mind permadeath at all, but it just feels terrible in this game. If you lose in other rogue-likes, it'll feel bad, but at least there's the promise of the next run maybe having the items or upgrades that'll get you a win, or there'll be things that allow you to keep permanent progress. Swords of Ditto doesn't really have that silver lining. Very few things carry over across runs (certainly not the things you want to carry over), nothing significant changes in the next run apart from map layouts, and there's nothing in the game that will force you to change your game plan (the basic flowchart of do dungeons and grind before time ends is enough to see you through). Death in rogue-likes shouldn't feel like a chore, and I feel like Swords of Ditto unfortunately fits that bill. It's a shame given how death is a big part of the game's story, but I found that I would rather play this on a lower difficulty. Although you can beat a run once and call it a day, getting the true ending requires you to win five or six times. Given how little changes in the world and the fact that you pretty much do the same things each run, that may not feel worth it for some players. If you're the kind of person who gets a sense of satisfaction in optimizing runs and such, you may actually enjoy this aspect of the game. There are also a few strange bugs or quirks that make the game less enjoyable. One that I found particularly notable is that enemies falling into a pit doesn't count as them dying, so you can get stuck in a dungeon room where you need to kill everything to unlock the door. Also, the tutorial character pops up a lot. That may be annoying for many people. My apprehensions aside, Swords of Ditto is a solid Zelda-style game. There are a ton of locations to find, the dungeons (while the puzzles are basic) have cool rewards in the Toys of Legend (which are the equivalent of special items like the bow and bombs), there's a cool customization mechanic where you can equip stickers (which give you different passive buffs), and I like having the option to face Mormo immediately (which is pretty challenging) or take the time to weaken her/strengthen yourself by playing through dungeons. There's even the ability to mix up your runs with different starting gear. VERDICT: I really wanted to love Swords of Ditto, and I do love certain aspects of it. The presentation is charming and reminds me of cartoons I enjoy, and the Zelda-style action-adventure gameplay (along with a few twists) is pretty good. However, the design decisions they made with its rogue-like mechanics didn't feel right in practice, and it ended up weighing down an experience I would have enjoyed otherwise. I thought the concept was interesting, too, but the execution just doesn't work for me. I think I need to give this game another chance (I still intend to get it on Switch on sale), but based on the time I spent with it, I'm not sure this one is for me. Of course, this isn't to say the game is terrible, or that it isn't for you. Outside of my qualms with its design choices, I think there is plenty of merit to checking this game out. The art is quite delightful, and if you don't mind the rogue-like aspect and are OK with grinding and/or time pressure, I think the gameplay is a good callback to the Zelda games of old. Here's the game on Steam: The Swords of Ditto: Mormo's Curse on Steam (steampowered.com) - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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