MidBoss Review – A Possession Roguelike

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">Indie dungeon crawlers and roguelikes are some of my favorite games&period; When I was young&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d spend my summer vacations downloading as many freeware dungeon exploration games I could find&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d fill those hot days next to the air conditioner while slaying skeletons&comma; filling my inventory with scrolls&comma; and doing my best to explore every single grid tile of each game&period; <em>MidBoss<&sol;em> takes the traditional dungeon crawl game and adds its own unique twist&period; It feels nostalgic and familiar but offers interesting&comma; new challenges for seasoned delvers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">I guess it&&num;8217&semi;s no surprise that <em>MidBoss<&sol;em> begins in a dungeon&period; You play the role of an imp and his fiery friend&comma; Mid&period; They are being harassed by another dungeon inhabitant&comma; a skeleton&comma; and his moaning pal&comma; Zombie&period; A lot of sassiness is exchanged back and forth between fellow monsters until eventually&comma; they leave&comma; and our pal Mid encourages us to possess a rat&period; Apparently&comma; our imp form is so wimpy that possessing a common dungeon rat is a step up in life&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s not a whole lot of story to follow in the game&comma; but the personality in exchanges like these are refreshing and enjoyable&period; The cheeky conversation between dungeon associates successfully sets the tone for the rest of the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At the beginning&comma; possession is the only ability you know&comma; and you can only possess an enemy by killing them first&period; Luckily&comma; you can attack an enemy without any additional items or skills by simply clicking on them&period; When you successful possess an enemy&comma; you learn one of their abilities&comma; and as you level up that new form&comma; you master even more of their skills&period; The challenge of <em>MidBoss <&sol;em>comes from learning how to best utilize these new skills and determining when it&&num;8217&semi;s time to move on to a different form&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;125548" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-125548" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-125548" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;05&sol;21223455&sol;edit02&lowbar;possession&period;png" alt&equals;"Midboss&comma; Kitsune Games" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-125548" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">MidBoss&comma; Kitsune Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">Although you may collect many different potions while exploring&comma; most of the &&num;8220&semi;potions&&num;8221&semi; I discovered were of the poison variety&period; Similar to other roguelikes&comma; I had to learn the hard way which items to avoid&period; Instead of drinking unidentified potions&comma; the most reliable way to recover health points is actually through possessing or de-possessing other monsters&period; When you possess a monster&comma; you regain 100&percnt; of your health&period; If you are stuck in a tight spot and need an immediate health boost&comma; you can de-possess a monster&comma; return to your imp form&comma; and gain 30&percnt; of your HP&period; Eventually&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll learn which potions are safe to drink and also discover abilities to absorb health from other creatures&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At first glance&comma; <em>MidBoss<&sol;em> seems like a traditional turn-based dungeon exploration game&comma; but it’s filled with goofy elements&comma; like cratefish and yarn balls&period; I don’t think I had ever collected a yarn ball in a video game until I played this one&period; If you find some&comma; gather as many as you can&comma; because yarn balls are used as currency and traded to a cat merchant in exchange for items&period; I won&&num;8217&semi;t ruin the surprises cratefish unlock within the dungeon&period; Keeping in line with the witty theme&comma; your character can equip any armor&comma; weapon&comma; or shield he finds while exploring&period; Even your rat form can equip a shield&period; It doesn&&num;8217&semi;t make sense&comma; but the game is filled with tongue-in-cheek goofs that don&&num;8217&semi;t allow you to overthink the mechanics&period; I found that when I equipped a dagger to my plague rat&comma; he&&num;8217&semi;d start making sword noises when smashing boxes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">My favorite features of <em>MidBoss<&sol;em> are the death cards and grave goods&period; Upon death&comma; you are rewarded with a death card that you can share on social media&period; It looks just like a playing card and proudly &lpar;or often&comma; not-so-proudly&rpar; displays a screenshot of your death&period; It includes your name&comma; the floor on which you died&comma; the number of turns you survived&comma; your equipped items&comma; and a brief text summary of your character&period; The same death card can be loaded into a new game&comma; allowing you to start the new game with an item of your choice from the previous playthrough&period; Discover a really cool amulet and then accidentally engage in combat with a monster much stronger than you&quest; You can bring that amulet into your next playthrough&period; Genius&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;125549" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-125549" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-125549" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;05&sol;21223507&sol;edit13&lowbar;deathcarddetails&period;png" alt&equals;"MidBoss&comma; Kitsune Games" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-125549" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">MidBoss&comma; Kitsune Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;"><em>MidBoss<&sol;em> is filled with nostalgia-producing qualities&comma; both positive and negative&period; The music and sound effects are fitting for the genre and reminiscent of classic roguelikes&period; The dungeon graphics are clear and fitting for the theme&period; Unfortunately&comma; the font used in the game menus reminds me of my first attempts at creating cool-looking titles in Microsoft PowerPoint projects&period; The way the glow and gradient font effects are used have the regrettable outcome of making the game appear unprofessional&period; The developer may be holding on to this style choice as the game progresses in order to remain dedicated to fans of the itch&period;io version&comma; but first impressions are important when trying to win over more players&period; A more polished main menu may help to win the loyalty of Steam players when the game is released there on May 25th&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">It took me a few deaths to get used to the possession mechanic in <em>MidBoss<&sol;em>&comma; but I found myself wanting to return over and over again&period; The fact that I could transfer my favorite item from the previous playthrough helped to keep me interested and engaged in the gameplay&period; I think new players will enjoy the sense of humor and uniqueness Kitsune Games was brave enough to include in their interpretation of the classic roguelike&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC review copy of Midboss was provided by Kitsune Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;