However you may feel about psychedelic retro-style graphics, the gameplay loop offered by this roguelike is very addictive, and the soundtrack slaps, so give it a try!

Between weapons, rings, potions, and spells, different playstyles emerge as you run through the dungeon over and over and over again. There is enough variation in the levels that they don't feel stale even on your 20th run, and with the ability to sometimes enter secret levels in the middle of a dungeon (if you can find the portal!), you can also alter your path away from normal progression if you so desire.

I have been playing exclusively on my steam deck, and have had a lot of very promising runs thwarted by crashes and freezes, but even if the game isn't officially supported on deck yet, every patch has improved performance to where I can get a little further every time. While your progress in any single run isn't saved when you exit the game (via crash or otherwise), any upgrade currencies or 'ring fingers' you identify are, so it isn't too bad to lose a run. Even if I haven't succeeded in getting to the end in spite of my playtime due to the aforementioned performance issues, I have yet to feel frustrated to the point of wanting to stop playing. It's that good!

If you're playing on a deck, however, I would strongly recommend altering the control layout to using the right trackpad as a mouse surrogate controlling the camera instead of the joystick - it'll make your life so much easier.

So far, Dungeons of Blood and Dream (abbreviated to just "Dungeons" hereafter) has been pretty fun. I feel like there are a lot of familiar roguelike elements such as acquiring currency and spending it to enhance your character, learning spells (and writing them down in bloody ink in your spellbook) as well as learning concepts which you can discuss with various entities in the world to get some lore drops.

I honestly haven't tried many weapons though there are several because the ring system is what defines this game. You can wear rings, and depending on what finger they go on they can have different effects. You can over-write rings with new ones, and I believe you can even cut off your own finger to re-use a ring, though I haven't tried it myself.

The story is another thing I should mention; it's pretty mysterious but I really like the general setup for the setting. I won't spoil it as there isn't a lot of text that defines the plot or lore, but I can say it made me want to know more about the world, the Jesters, the Feast and what the real world looks like compared to... wherever we are right now.

The aesthetic is pretty gloomy and reminds me of Cruelty Squad mixed with a N64/DOS Dungeon. It definitely has its own thing going on despite there being some minor artistic similarities, but realistic isn't one of them. A lot of this takes place in dreams or a dream realm, so things can get a bit unusual which I liked.

Has controller support with inverted look and works on my Steam Deck, too.

All in all I'm enjoying it quite a lot and I'm interested to see where the idea goes.

Absolute peak