![]() The only way to heal one daughter is to sacrifice a daughter of an equal level or higher, and this requires some hard decisions to make. These daughters not only work well together on the battlefield, but they sacrifice themselves for the greater good between battles. It’s the kind of story that you’ll find yourself pouring over each obtuse snippit to understand the overall picture better, and you’ll love doing so because everything else about the game is fascinating. But it’s also poignant, powerfully told, and as rich in the same opaque type of lore as a Dark Souls or (more thematically appropriately) Bloodborne. ![]() Is this a less-than-subtle metaphor for the woman’s experience? Perhaps (I’d say it’s overt enough to be clear developer intent). The male villains meanwhile are terrifyingly powerful, but they also work individually and even when your team is swamped by them, the enemy AI is less tactical than it is burgeoning. The daughters work best in groups of three or four – individually they’re weak, but as a group powerful and complementary. The central figure in the game is the Mother – a being of God-like power that can birth daughters into the world to fight against (male) beings representing one reprehensibly vile thing or another. See, what Othercide actually is, is a darkly beautiful, gothic tale of female solidarity and sacrifice, and none of that required it to be difficult or repetitive. Instead, it comes across as a very arbitrary and even cynical pathway to get that “hours played” counter up. Othercide derives no such narrative or thematic value from having players replay levels, other than by doing so it gave the developer carte blanche freedom “to be difficult.” Difficult Othercide certainly is, but I’m not even sure that suits the game’s themes or narrative. It was a game about stress, depression, drudgery, and the gameplay loop supported that. Darkest Dungeon used the repetition effectively to drive home its narratives and themes. Having to grind your way through the same enemies, with the same mission structure, using the same three (eventually four) character types, and on so few maps is exhausting, and actually unfair to the raw creative energy of the rest of the game. The problem is that the randomised levels and combat becomes far too samey for a game that is so compelling, different, and eye-opening in every other way. What is common to Othercide and Darkest Dungeon, though, is that you’ll fail over, and over, and over again, and have to start the chapter over fresh, albeit with some incremental carry-over from one “run” to the next that will eventually result in the chapter being easy enough to roll through. Othercide is different in that it’s Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics-like tactics action instead (who knows why other critics are comparing this game to XCOM, since the tactical action in Othercide doesn’t feature things like cover and you won’t be watching the “chance to hit” percentage anywhere near as closely). In Darkest Dungeon, the experience played out as 2D-style dungeon crawling. The game is broken up into “chapters” of escalating challenge, and within those chapters you’ll need to play through a series of randomised levels. Othercide is a roguelike in a similar vein to what Darkest Dungeon pioneered within the genre. ![]() I just wish I could have been done with it much sooner. Unfortunately, it’s also yet another victim of the industry’s obsession with giving players content over having the confidence to allow what should be a fairly short game simply be short. It boasts a strong concept, an incredible aesthetic, and some excellent moment-to-moment gameplay. There is a lot to admire about Othercide.
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