Tangledeep

While its difficulty spikes can be a little tough at times (and the sheer amount of information presented quite overwhelming, especially to genre newcomers), it's impossible to not appreciate just how much has been crammed into Tangledeep's roguelike crevices. From taming monsters and turning them into pets to the ever-changing layout of its dungeons, this is a roguelike RPG for players who yearn for a return to SNES games of old. It's smart, deep and rewarding, but be warned: this is an adventure designed almost exclusively for seasoned players.

Overall, I found both Tangledeep and its expansion to be fun and very charming experiences, albeit challenging. If you haven’t played before, I suggest giving it a try as long as you’re an experienced RPG fan and want a difficult challenge. But if you’re like me and you don’t PC game, the Legend of Shara DLC is supposed to eventually come to Nintendo Switch as well.

For fans of old-school roguelikes, a lot is to be enjoyed in Tangledeep. For those who enjoy tinkering with skills, weapons, passives, and feats, the expansive menus and options also offer a great deal of depth to be explored. However, this depth comes with the price of making the experience somewhat unintuitive, which is exacerbated by the clunky movement system. Players will find a lot to enjoy in Tangledeep if they have the patience to explore its complex systems to discover what lies beneath the surface.

Once you get over the initial hump with Tangledeep, you’re looking at a game that you can play over the long term. If nothing else, it’s lovely to know that there are some developers out there that understand what Rogue when creating their “roguelikes.”

With a new take on turn based combat, Tangledeep makes old feel new again. What I can only describe as Superhot in Final Fantasy, Tangledeep is one to download sooner rather than later. Be warned, the loot and inventory are not as robust or rewarding as Diablo.

Tangledeep is a game that drips not only with 16-bit nostalgia, but also a myriad of complex and interwoven game elements that offer hours and hours of replayability. All that would be moot, of course, if the core combat and exploration mechanics weren't so enjoyable. Thankfully, Impact Gameworks has created just the right balance of story, difficulty, strategy, consequence, and progression to keep players coming back, even after sinking multiple hours into each character. Tangledeep is without a doubt one of, if not THE best roguelikes to currently grace the Nintendo Switch.

I went into Tangledeep expecting to enjoy it and it didn't disappoint.  The game looks and sounds great, the gameplay mechanics aren't too difficult to learn, you can hang out in lower levels to grind a bit if need be, and the myriad of optional modifiers means you can tailor the difficulty to your liking.  If you're looking for a roguelike dungeon crawler to keep you entertained and possibly challenged depending on your settings, Tangledeep should have you covered.

Overall Tangledeep was a lot of fun and short of the movement scheme, very well designed. Adding in a bit of accessibility into something as unforgiving as a Roguelike made for a familiar yet new experience that takes some of the stress away from the front end of the experience while in another way never removing it at all as the sharp fangs are simply better hidden.

If you're looking for the next great Mystery Dungeon game then Tangledeep will definitely fill the void.

Some elements of these mystery dungeon-type games will always be inscrutable, but Tangledeep does the best job I've seen at making it playable for everyone. The Switch version might not be ideal thanks to the clumsy interface, but it's worth figuring it out because underneath the difficulty and few crusty layers lies a beautiful game with a ton of enjoyable RPG variety.