Inscryption (2021)

Fun time. I'm starting to find that I really enjoy games that take hard core genres and scale them back to fit the mold of typical, challenging but not exaggerated single player experiences. Tunic does this with its Soulslike elements (sort of a toned down Hyper Light Drifter) and Inscryption does this with its Rogue-Like, Deckbuilding elements.

I'm interesting in other games that do this with the other hardcore genres, not just 'easy' version of the genre, but things that are formulated to be more typically challenging, typically complete-able, and typically linear experiences. It's a really vague set of markers, but I imagine there's a way you could do this with, say, a single player focused Fighting game or Frustration game that's actually mean to be fun. If you have suggestions for games that package up these types of experiences for otherwise 'out there' genres, let me know.

I'm nearing what I'm fairly certain is the end of the game and been doing a lot of thinking. This hasn't been the home run I expected it to be. I had a lot of fun with this dev's previous games but this one just isn't hitting right. I also have some criticisms regarding the way it handles early progression and player agency that I feel are maybe too wordy for the review I intend to write eventually. So this'll be where I put them instead! I'll tag what I deem to be major spoilers but honestly the game is best approached blind I think so if you have yet to play at all or have only played the opening hours, be mindful of that and maybe skip this post entirely until you have.

Inscryption pretty quickly establishes itself as a roguelite deckbuilder and begins introducing various mechanics of the card game at its core. I've never been super into card battling video games, but this one is pretty fun and deserves some praise for it. This is still a roguelite, so it's expected you're going to lose and have to restart. They're often made to be hard so that you make use of the gameplay loop to improve and potentially gain access to new skills.

Stuff gets spoilery below here.

The thing is, Inscryption isn't all that difficult. It's very easy to get a broken deck with some thought and a little luck. Because of this, on my second run through the game I was doing really well. I made it much farther than I expected to until I ran into what the community seems to call the "Too fast, Too soon" event. What this event is is a (mostly) scripted loss that occurs when you reach either the Angler or Trapper/Trader bosses on your second or third run of the game, respectively. The game master (Leshy) will spawn an army of bears on his side of the board that will almost definitely demolish you in a turn or two, essentially forcing a loss. The consensus is that this occurs so that the game can ensure you learn about additional mechanics on your next loop. It is technically possible to beat the bears with a proper setup, but if so why does the game even bother throwing them at you?

This is probably one of the most clunky ways I've ever seen a game try to force a tutorial and it totally took me out of the experience. I had a fantastic run that was totally snuffed out because the game went "Uh uh uh, you're doing too well, that's not allowed. The training wheels have to stay on for a while longer." It felt like a total violation of my agency as the player and soured my mood on the game for a while.

I've seen some defend this as great game design and also claim that it's immersive because it shows Leshy doesn't play fair. To the former I'd say that if you're designing a tutorial don't pretend the player is free to play as they like when you're going to ruin it should they do it too well. The latter I honestly struggle to wrap my head around. Yes, the Stoat does say Leshy cheats but the Stoat says a lot of stuff that's flat out wrong anyway and as far as I can tell Leshy plays very fair outside of this one instance. It doesn't even make sense for Leshy to punish the player for getting far into the game anyway. He's trying to run a fun game in his own way, why would he end it prematurely when the player is dutifully playing by the rules he himself set? He, being a good "game master," would know that that makes no sense.

Fast forward a couple runs and I'd opened up all the drawers in the cabin. I had freed the wooden wolf from the cage in the corner and got the knife, which was what Stoat and Stinkbug instructed me to do as far as I could tell at that point. I had a really good deck set up and it cleared me all the way through the final boss. Because I was doing so well I didn't think to use the knife I'd acquired. I assumed it'd come into play eventually by itself or its use would be made obvious. Silly me. No, the game expects you to use it when you're backed into a corner, in turn revealing it was the key to discover another secret in the cabin and progress the story after the "final boss." So when I beat him that run I was confused to be dumped back at the beginning until I googled it and discovered the issue.

Again it felt like I was punished for doing too well, this time because I didn't need the knife at all for my run. Admittedly, in this case I should have just used the knife out of curiosity when I got it, but I just didn't see a reason to when I was doing fine as is. The other items are designed to give you an edge when you need it. This one is too, even.

It's difficult to feel motivated to play a game that assumes I'll play worse than I do and slows my story progression as a result. Thankfully there've been no more odd issues like this since then, but the game as a whole feels like it has gotten even easier as I've gone along, with some bosses in Act 2 posing virtually no threat at all to the deck I threw together haphazardly. I'm here for the story, but the gameplay still needs some bite to it or else there's no point interacting with the cards' creative mechanics. I'm hoping the final leg of the game puts up more of a fight.

This probably came off as ranty, but "Too fast, Too soon" feels like a major design flaw. It's like a much worse version of those boss fights you're expected to lose because here the game pretends you're free to play and be rewarded for playing well when really it's waiting for you to slip up so it can give you more tools to succeed. Good examples of how to handle this imo are DMC V and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Both expect you to lose an early boss fight due to how inexperienced you probably are but if you happen to win, the games go out of their way to acknowledge it with a unique scene. DMC V even tosses you an achievement for it.

Of course all I said above doesn't mean I think this is a terrible game for it or anything. I just found it frustrating in the moment and disappointing in retrospect. I was interested if anyone had some other thoughts or wanted to discuss how the game handles the situation I ran into. Is it bad design? Great design? What would you do differently?

I like a lot about this game but I absolutely, positively hate the actual card game part. I just do not find the actual card game fun even a little bit, even when it evolves and there are other "colors" (to borrow the Magic term) with different mechanics.

If this thing had gameplay like Slay the Spire I'd stick around and finish it, but I can't keep playing this specific card game.