Hey, let’s take another look at some of the features in Crimson Keep and what inspired them!
Hunger
Hunger has been a staple in roguelikes since, well, rogue. I feel it helps sell the immersion of being in a terrible place that is easy to get lost in, full of enemies, traps, and dangers, including starvation. It also serves as one more vehicle for things that seem benign but can hurt you, spoiled food is similar to a chest mimic, trap, or dangerous potion, and can lead to memorable, if distressing moments. In Crimson Keep, hunger essentially serves as the game’s timer, but there is a little more to it than that. Food staves back hunger, but also restores hit points, so if you are in a situation in which you’re full, but low on hit points, it presents the player with a decision to make. Heal myself and waste the food’s nutrition, use a potion which can be harder to come by and works much faster than food (so it is more useful for a boss fight) or hold out for another way to heal up. Crimson Keep also has tiered buffs and debuffs depending on the player’s level of hunger, even slightly reducing movement speed when ‘too full’ which was inspired by the Sega Genesis roguelike Fatal Labyrinth.
Classes
Almost every RPG uses a class system of some sort. Classes act as lenses through which a player interacts with content. For me, the fun of classes is getting to experience vastly different playstyles, testing my own skills and limitations. Classes also serve as somewhat of a difficulty meter in games like Dark Souls, starting the player down the path of a particular playstyle with sometimes vastly different starting provisions. Take for example the Knight versus the Deprived in Dark Souls.
Recently many games have taken the Dark Souls and Elder Scrolls approach of classes being open ended without any unique traits, or permanent limitations. That is, it doesn’t really matter what your starting class is in Dark Souls or Skyrim, if you max out the character they can use every spell and ability reliably. I’m not a huge fan of this. When I try different classes in these games I find myself falling back on the same, best strategies I’m comfortable with, because I can. This was one of several criticisms people had with FF12. Because each party member had access to essentially the same skill tree, players set each character to do damage, and then cast a heal when they or their comrades needed it. Every character fell into the same archetype, making teamwork between the characters far less interesting.
Classes in Crimson Keep have unique abilities, as well as different statistical strengths and weaknesses that can never be fully muted. That being said, in classic roguelike and Dark Souls style, everyone can use everything. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Thanks for reading!
-Ian
