The Darkest Dungeon Gave me Light
Darkest Dungeon completely enraptured me when I finally gave it a try many years after its release. It is no shock to me now that I would love the game. It is grim dark turn-based dungeon clearing game with D&D 5e-like combat and a mysterious plot that keeps you on your toes.
The game has, deservedly, taken many hours of my life as I have braved the darkest dungeons with my group of broken heroes. What hit me hardest was “your decisions matter”. By far the easiest way to make me jump out of my seat as a gamer is establishing there are good and bad consequences to every action.
When opening the game you are greeted with the following message:
Quick Backgoround
What a wonderful way to set the tone of the game from the start. No messing around, no guesswork, this is what you are in for. I find that extremely refreshing in a world were games unintentionally or intentionally mismarketing their games in order to drive sales or reach corporate goals.
So when the sequel to Darkest Dungeon was announced I was so excited, ready to jump on. But it was announced that it would be going through early access on Epic, which deflated all my excitement. Instead I opted to wait for a “finished” game, holding my breath.
A year and change later, the game fully released, and I was thrilled to have waited. The game exceeded my expectations and my jaded early access skepticism. There were new relationship systems added, a fresh coat of graphical paint, and new bosses. What more could I ask for?
Well it would seem the community was not in agreement (but when is a community ever? Maybe during a controversy where everyone can agree to dislike a thing or person?). There was valid criticism of the game’s departure from the original game systems. DD2 focuses more like a rogue-lite where you upgrade your character after every run, but they retain being the same character as long as you survive. Where DD1 was more a meatgrinder to the heroes, new adventures coming through in droves in order to feed the required manpower required to defeat the evil unleashed!
The debate goes into far more detail and nuance. I found myself of the perspective that I liked and played both games. DD2 doesn’t replace or make DD1 inadequate in the same way DD1 doesn’t do the same to DD2.
The Thrill
What absolutely thrilled me, what gave me that special “high” that I believe most gamers chase when playing video games (for different reasons) was the ending of DD2. For me the shrines set up an ending that gave me goosebumps due to my own life experiences.
SPOILERS
At the end of the game you are facing the corrupted scholar that unleashed the madness of the darkest dungeon on the world. This is the appreciation of the narrator who was killed in sacrifice of the ritual that brought all these creatures to the world.
Inside the final fight you fight your way vertically until you are facing the appreciate in his eldritch throne. Displaying an incredible 1000 health (that’s a lot in Darkest Dungeon 2) it feels like it is going to be another costly final battle.
Sure enough, after a few attacks the game asks you to “FACE YOUR FAILURE”. Here I groaned, disappointed that the ending of the game was much like the first. The final boss of Darkest Dungeon 1 is the heart of darkness at the center of the Darkest Dungeon…dungeon. It forces you to sacrifice two character if you bring in a full party. The forced sacrifice is a eighty and brutal decision that I believe reinforces the type of game DD1 represents. DD1 is a game where no matter the outcome sacrifice is necessary. It is about making the best of a bad situation. Even in triumph there is loss.
Reluctantly and with a sigh I choose my Grave robber as the first to go in the DD2 final boss fight. In the moment I click, I do not find my character obliterated, no! Instead their greatest fear/regret appears fighting beside the boss. It is the graverobber’s abusive husband!
Suddenly I am at full attention and grinning cheek to cheek. None of the other characters can do any damage to this eldritch apparition which gets my game master feels jumping! Only Graverobber can do damage to this nightmare and when she defeats it she is given a special attack that deals about 250 damage to the final boss.
At his point I’m shouting to myself like a crazy person, basking in the beautiful weaving of storytelling and game design. To me, it is incredibly thematic that the characters unlock all of their skills by facing their repressed memories of the past. Each character faces the most devastating, hurtful, and broken parts of their life (minus the flagellant?). After facing each of these memories, the characters are now face to face with their past. A perfect challenge of character growth! “Who are you now? How do you deal with what haunts you today?”
Thematically the other characters can’t damage the summoned apparitions because it is not their fight to conquer. Each hero must defeat their own personal demons in order for them to move forward. I don’t know about you, but as a massive fan of storytelling, that hits all the right spots for me.
Each hero finds a way to defeat their past, symbolizing moving on. A way of processing grief for the past in the most Tabletop RPG type of way I could imagine. The evil boss using your characters greatest fears against them, only to have the heroes overcome their fear because they have grown in the face of this hopeless, evil world is what stories are made for.
Mechanically each character facing their past is exactly enough damage to defeat the massive pool of health the final boss presents. When you strike the final blow you are shockingly given an ending of hope. An ending I found unexpected at first but fits the themes of the game. DD1 is about sacrifice, DD2 is about hope.
Both are wonderful games I absolutely recommend people give a try. If you resonate with it, you will probably love it.
Now I am off for another run, because the world won’t uneldritch itself.
-Reed
