Listed here are two statements I firmly imagine in: Paper Mario’s visible model has a lot unused potential (particularly within the indie recreation area), and the dungeon crawler is a hella underrated style.
That is why earlier this 12 months, Cube ‘n Goblins caught my consideration. It is obtained the basic dungeon-crawling gameplay, and it is in that pretty hand-drawn paper model.
The great little demo I performed had the standard dungeon-crawling points blended with fashionable RPG fight, making for a singular expertise that was considerably paying homage to Etrian Odyssey’s gameplay.
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That mentioned, whereas the distinctive meshing of genres and artistic cube mechanics charmed me within the demo, RPGs are sometimes gradual burns that must work onerous to maintain gamers engaged, so the total recreation does not at all times maintain up the identical.
Particularly with an explicitly RNG-focused battle system, Cube ‘n Goblins has a ton on its plate to try to hold me awake, and never simply make fights a matter of getting fortunate or enjoying lame.
On this overview of Cube ‘n Goblins, I am going to dive deep into the fight and exploration of this cutesy recreation and present the way it handles development—whether or not it finally ends up a slog or a enjoyable romp by some dungeons.
Do Or Die
The primary gameplay is split into two halves: the battles and the dungeon crawling. You may anticipate the dungeons to be flat, maze-like constructions, however they’re normally
constructed extra like Zelda dungeons
, which I feel is unbelievable.
There’s an enormous motive to discover each a part of the map, since you’ll be able to find chests which may provide you with new objects to make use of in battles, or extra money to purchase objects which are normally very strong choices general.
When you run into a giant purple orb of an enemy, although, you transition proper right into a battle the place it’s good to roll the die to assault, defend, or heal. This does make the sport extremely random at instances, however I benefit from the chaos.
For one, you’ll be able to customise the cube you are rolling with no matter stuff you discover within the dungeon, and you’ve got stamina that can be utilized up with particular strikes or rerolls—which is my most important gripe with the fight.
You’d anticipate rerolls to easily randomize your quantity inside its vary, nevertheless it hardly works like that. The cube are all physics objects within the battle, and might hit partitions or ceilings, usually making rerolls not random in any respect.
This ceaselessly led to irritating sequences the place I might burn my stamina on a reroll just for the die to go nowhere and land on the identical quantity. The particular assaults can considerably mitigate this, however not sufficient to make it a non-issue.
When it is all mentioned and achieved, this fight system feels
just like a recreation like Slay the Spire
, and particularly like Dicey Dungeons, however with quantity combos that may grant particular results that hardly ever come about resulting from how janky rerolling is.
I might additionally get pleasure from it if the fight influenced the exploration in any respect, as dungeon crawling feels the identical all through the whole recreation whereas fight is consistently altering, however on the very least, it is vitally satisfying to win onerous battles.
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Roll For Charisma
Development goes nearly the way you’d anticipate. You run into tankier enemies with larger harm assaults, and managers require a bit extra technique resulting from a brand new standing impact or gimmick they make use of.
The one problem I discover with that is merely the thought of therapeutic cube in itself. You’ll be able to win virtually each struggle on this recreation by having two assault cube, a defend cube, and filling the opposite slots with therapeutic cube.
This technique is gradual, boring, and works on each struggle within the recreation with zero drawbacks. The sport by no means will get so difficult that it’s good to consider a construct that facilities round one particular technique; you’ll be able to simply heal every thing off.
I might have a lot most well-liked the addition of consumable therapeutic cube, however by the second dungeon, you’ll be able to have already got two therapeutic cube that stick round completely and make tanking hits supremely viable.
Mix that with the power to transmute protection cube into extra therapeutic, particularly since doing this makes that roll much more efficient, and you’ll think about how the everyday troublesome struggle finally ends up going.
You’ll be able to simply say, “Properly, if that is so boring, then simply do not do it”, however the actuality is, gamers are at all times going to take the trail of least resistance, and when that path is that this readily obvious, it makes the entire recreation really feel uninteresting.
The story in Cube ‘n Goblins is definitely what saved me probably the most engaged, with moderately foolish and amusing dialogue, and cutscenes conveying a narrative that suggests a grander world than you’ll be able to see with some sinister parts.
Each character you get to speak to is gratifying in their very own methods, from a thief who makes a cope with you regardless of you by no means asking, to a humorous mouse that tries to maneuver diagonally and is punished for even contemplating that.
It is not all goofy shenanigans, although. The lore behind the setting you end up in and why your clan moved to a moderately desolate advanced of dungeons exterior an deserted artillery space is kind of fascinating.
I loved it quite a bit, and seeing cutscenes pop up simply ceaselessly sufficient for me to really feel rewarded for attending to the foremost story factors made the pacing fairly nice. The entire journey felt enjoyable due to it.
Paper Skinny
On the floor, the visible model is kind of good, with the hand-drawn textures for areas working effectively with the cel-shading, and completely pretty drawings for every character that convey all of them to life.
My most important problem is with the animations and lack of selection. It is fairly off-putting to see enemies attacking by rotation 45 levels on me, and it does not have anyplace close to the oomph that one thing like Paper Mario achieves.
I want there have been at the least a handful of drawings for every enemy, as their designs are so fascinating and effectively achieved, however then they transfer throughout the display with linear interpolation, which appears to be like totally unnatural.
The animation may use a ton of labor generally. Every thing feels inflexible and slides round mechanically with no new sprites as a substitute of transferring naturally, and the paper characters are so stiff and lifeless that it takes me out of the sport totally generally.
Move The Aux
The music in Cube ‘n Goblins is nice when it is not annoying the hell out of me. It is a pet peeve that’s in all probability solely this annoying to me particularly, however I hate how the music by no means loops correctly.
The track enjoying throughout dungeon crawling goes on for a bit, then stops for just a few seconds, and begins again up once more rapidly, made even worse by the dearth of transitions or fade-outs between totally different tracks.
The sound design is fairly generic, too. It is an audioscape that’s usually disagreeable to my ears, not due to the sounds themselves, however normally as a result of poor implementation ruining the deserves of the tracks.
That mentioned, in isolation, the music is moderately calming and gratifying whereas dungeon crawling, and thrilling when it is time to battle. However even then, the choice is moderately restricted and might get repetitive by the top.
Sprucing Flooring
All through my time enjoying the sport, I could not assist however discover
an unbelievable lack of polish
. I had excused this once I performed the demo, as I might assumed the sport would considerably enhance by the total launch, nevertheless it did not.
All of the animations look as fundamental and janky as attainable, I obtained soft-locked after the primary boss for checking my abilities, and I can spot that default Godot particle impact on the victory display from a mile away.
It seems like the bottom for the sport was created, the bottom visuals had been made, and the sounds obtained a tad rushed. Then they determined that packaging all that along with shoestrings and duct tape was adequate.
The sport is about as fundamental as it might probably get, given the premise. There isn’t any trendy aptitude, and the hassle to interpolate issues in a barely extra fascinating approach wasn’t put in both. It simply all feels a bit sloppy, sadly.
World Map
Total, within the time I had with Cube ‘n Goblins, the sport solely actually left a strong impression on me at the beginning, and the remainder of it felt like extra of the identical with out evolving its core ideas practically sufficient.
The fight feels grindy as a result of I used to be by no means challenged in a approach that made me change my technique, the dungeons all felt virtually the identical with a brand new coat of paint, and the bosses are simply alright.
With just a few months of additional growth, I may see this turning into an actual banger, however within the state it is in, whereas I am enjoying it, I do not suppose it is all that. It is enjoyable, it is cute, however I will not be longing to return again to it anytime quickly.
It is an important idea, the battle system might be enjoyable with barely totally different execution, and all of the ideas and concepts it has are nice. It is simply the sloppy execution of the vast majority of the sport’s strengths that soils it for me.
Closing Ideas:
Cube ‘n Goblins is a enjoyable, cute RPG dungeon crawler that suffers from an excessive lack of polish, gameplay that does not shake issues up sufficient, and a few questionable mechanics. The model is cute and appears fairly good, nevertheless it lacks animation and has a low variety of drawings for characters. With story and nice illustrations, it nonetheless felt like a worthwhile romp, nevertheless it finally ends up being mind-numbing or irritating in most different points. It is a sufferer of unbelievable concepts with half-hearted or poor execution, and had me wishing it was a lot extra.
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Reviewed on PC
- Launched
-
April 4, 2025
- Developer(s)
-
Tsukumogami Software program
- Writer(s)
-
Tsukumogami Software program
- Engine
-
Godot Engine
- Variety of Gamers
-
Single-player
- Distinctive dice-based RPG fight.
- Pretty artwork and characters.
- Nice dungeon crawling gameplay.
- Weapons that each one have quantity combos giving particular results.
- An unbelievable lack of polish throughout.
- Rerolling that hardly ever works correctly.
- Generic sound design and poorly looped music.
- Therapeutic cube make the sport far too boring.
