Vagante

An excellent, deceptively unshowy blend of platformer and roguelike.

If you breeze through Spelunky and its ilk, this is unquestionably the game for you.

Vagante is, at times, an impressive game that feels incomplete. There is no denying the incredible amount of dedication that the team put into certain aspects, especially into the visuals and variety of upgrades available, but there isn't enough of a game here to make it all come together into a complete package. The combination of a short adventure, the lack of any story, arbitrary difficulty, and minimal tutorials makes for a hard recommendation. The Nintendo Switch has plenty of incredible roguelikes and run-based indie games, and your time is better spent on them than Vagante.

Vagante is exactly what I think of when I picture a roguelike. For better or for worse. If you can get past the annoying UI and actually dive in, Vagante offers a tight, sharp experience that values your time and experience.

Over the last few years the rogue genre (and its many offshoots) has seen a mass influx of titles. From heavy-hitters such as Hades and The Binding of Issac, to an abundance of lesser known indie titles, there’s been no better time to be a rogue-like-lite fan. One such game that’s attempting its own spin on the formula is Vagante.

Vagante is a moody RPG/platforming roguelike looks neat, if dark and gloomy, and plays well. It's not groundbreaking, but there's enough to keep genre fans busy with the copious amount of items to try out. It's a little on the tough side, but that's also the idea.

Vagante is a brutal roguelike game with a beautiful pixel art style and a procedurally-generated world. However, some might find it more frustrating than it is fun.

Whilst Vagante feels like it has been a Labour of love in some ways, it’s lack of variety and shortness means it falls short of being a title I can recommend. Had there been more meat on the bones and a more compelling story to focus upon then this could have been a decent little game and I genuinely feel bad for not liking it but I have to be honest about what I found and whilst it is not the worst game I have played in recent times, Vagante fires plenty of arrows but fails to hit the target.

Roguelikes can be really tricky to evaluate as their often inherent challenge is an addiction for some but can obviously put others off...

‎Vagante is an entertaining roguelite that will give you many hours of gameplay, which also contain much more than it seems. With cooperative for four, on the same device, local and online, it is a great game to enjoy in company, although it is true that its combat is something simple and the texts come to us without translating.‎