Inkbound Review: "A Remarkable Roguelike"

, from developer Shiny Shoe, is the studio's follow-up effort to the award-winning. While they're starkly different, they do exist within the same roguelike genre, and it appears that lessons learned from the previous game have colored what's available in. What's here is a remarkable roguelike that successfully captures the «one more time» gameplay that characterizes the greats, all the while captivating with metaprogression that keeps things fresh enough to warrant deeper exploration.

stars the Needless, a mute protagonist who emerges from a sea of ink into the Atheneum, a library-like sanctuary at the end of the world. A plague of monsters has descended upon this world and begun to steal the ink from the pages of stories, causing them to fade from existence. The Needless quickly proves that they're able to bond with a Kwill, allowing them to mimic the heroic aspects of fabled legends of the past. Using that power, they explore ink-filled stories in an attempt to make sense of a world that's not everything it seems at first glance.

Inkbound is an excellent new roguelike launch with enough differences from other successes to make a strong case for repeated play.

functions a lot like any other roguelike when it begins a run, putting the Needless in front of a choice of three different worlds to choose from after selecting which boss they'd like to face if they're lucky enough to reach the end of their journey. The bosses all function differently and learning how they operate is often at the expense of losing a run, but they're also tied to story beats and progression unlocks, so there's incentive provided to experiment anyways. The worlds themselves feel different aesthetically, but enemies do blend together (with bosses as exceptions).

Once a run begins, the Needless progresses through a map by selecting potential pathways that yield treasure, combat, or opportunities to manipulate their loadout. Rather than, say, a deck of cards, the Needless' chosen Aspect