System: Switch
Release date: January 23, 2025
Developer: Passtech Games
Publisher: Nacon
“Once upon a time” is an almost universally recognised phrase, beginning tales that many of us will have heard before, and will almost certainly follow a familiar pattern. There will be a hero, a villain, and in the end the former will defeat the latter, and the tale will have a happy ending. In modern interpretations of these classic tales at least, it’s rare that you’ll find one that doesn’t have a happy ending, unless it has been deliberately contrived for the sake of provoking shock in the audience, which it typically fails to do, being so exaggerated as to feel more cliche than original. Ravenswatch, the second game to be developed by Passtech Games, is an extremely rare example of this inversion of fairy tales done right, with some solid roguelike gameplay to back it up.
The game is set in Reverie, a dreamland that has been corrupted by the Nightmare, a sinister force of unknown origin but clearly malicious intent. In order to save the land from the corrupt forces that now plague it, the Ravens who serve as its guardians have called together a group of well-established heroes to form the Ravenswatch. Unfortunately, not even those heroes are immune to the corrupting effect of the Nightmare, and each has become a twisted, fallen version of their former selves in some way. But as they are the last, best hope of Reverie, they’ll simply have to fight through it as best they can.
By itself this is not a particularly captivating premise, and you’ll find similar ideas utilized in plenty of other games to arguably much greater effect. It’s not uncommon for titles to feature mythological figures in particular in major story roles, using their already established identities to form an emotional connection with players and thereby avoid needing to take the time to craft a character’s personality and backstory that may not resonate with everyone. Ravenswatch is no different in some respects, plucking figures from fairytales and folklore seemingly at random, although there is a nice degree of variety to the cast, meaning that the majority of people will likely already be familiar with at least one or two of them.
However, rather than being played as straight adaptations as you might expect, each of these heroes is instead a “what if” scenario that takes their pre-established tale and spins it in a violent, twisted, and absolutely fascinating new direction. For example, Scarlet (better known as Little Red Riding Hood) has been infected with lycanthropy, and now becomes the wolf at night herself. Aladdin has lost his Princess as, in a bizarre twist of fate, she has become the genie of the lamp. The bleak, relatively featureless backdrop of Reverie suddenly becomes the perfect setting for these fallen heroes, and as you unlock more of their twisted, tragic tales, it breathes an unexpected amount of life and originality into what at first glance seems to be another unnecessarily bleak, grim roguelike world to add to an ever-growing mountain of them. Discovering how the stories of these heroes differ from how they are traditionally told is one of the most enjoyable aspects of playing through Ravenswatch, and despite each one coming from vastly different cultural backgrounds, Passtech Games has done an outstanding job at bringing them all together into a cohesive (albeit very piecemeal, as is typical of the genre) narrative.
Ravenswatch is a top-down action roguelike, with combat that is slower and more methodical than is average for the genre, and it walks a very delicate line between being reasonably difficult and unfairly punishing. Enemies are almost aggravatingly spongy at times, hit significantly harder than the player, and the slower movement and general lack of consistent recovery options (primarily you’ll be healing through infrequently dropped health orbs or upon level up) can lead to some frustrating defeats, particularly when enemies come at you in large numbers, and they will chase you across the map for some time, refusing to allow you to interact with anything else until you’ve gotten rid of them. The game is surprisingly generous with the number of Raven’s Feathers (which revive you upon death) it gives you, however, so you have plenty of chances to chip away at stronger opponents or mobs when combat becomes overwhelming. When playing in co-op the number of Ravens Feathers are split amongst players to compensate for the increased support and potential for damage output, which feels surprisingly balanced.
Much of what you do in the game is tied to your current run, with all levels, upgrades, and magical objects being reset at the start of the next one. Long-term progression is tied to the score you receive at the end of each run, which is converted into experience points to increase the Rank of the character you played as. This will unlock new Talents to use in combat (which in most cases makes it much more enjoyable and manageable on higher difficulties) as well as Memoirs that reveal more of their story. You have some measure of control over your rate of progression thanks to modifiers that will increase or decrease your score rate, but without factoring these into the equation the rate at which your characters will develop is perhaps slightly faster than is typical for the genre, although with most of what you gain in a run being lost at the end of it, the focus often feels as though it is more on individual playthroughs than long-term progression, making it feel less like a roguelike and more a traditional action RPG in the moment.
A standard run in Ravenswatch consists of three stages, each with a time limit of three days and nights (in real time around twenty minutes) for you to get as strong as you can before the Master Nightmare awakens and you are forced to fight it, whether you’re ready or not. The passage of time is a mostly aesthetic effect (unless of course you’re playing as Scarlet, in which case you’ll spend your nights running around as a wolf with a completely different moveset) although you can encounter different enemies and a handful of additional events depending on the time of day. Passtech Games has hit something of a sweet spot with this time, as it generally gives you just enough time to do several side activities, but nowhere near enough time to explore the entire map, encouraging selective exploration, picking your battles wisely (because of course, creatures litter the map in groups and will attack you on sight) and weighing what will give you the most benefit. Completing side activities such as opening chests, speaking to NPCs, and battling enemies will all yield experience points, and levelling up will allow you to acquire Magical Objects to improve your combat capabilities. You can also find currency scattered around the map in crystals to purchase upgrades directly from a vendor.
The maps themselves are all visually distinct, but there isn’t a great deal of variety to what is in each of them outside of the few side quests that you can encounter, which are a little more involved than simply fighting off waves of enemies and will typically culminate in a miniboss fight. These are of course more rewarding than the standard side activities due to the amount of time they take up, and also add some narrative flavor to the game’s stages, giving a slightly broader picture of the struggles that are unfolding in Reverie even as your character seeks to end the threat by taking on the Master Nightmare of that area. Over protracted periods of time it can begin to feel repetitive, but as the game is clearly designed for shorter sessions this feels more intentional than it does tedious, and you’ll quickly become familiar with the various activities, and how to best make use of your limited time before that climactic boss battle waiting at the end of it.
Your choice of character is a meaningful one, as each comes with their own unique set of fixed Talents that perfectly compliment both their established origin and the new, twisted elements to their tale introduced by the game. As well as a unique Trait that is always in effect and a standard attack and dash move, each character has a Power, Special, Defense, and Ultimate ability which all have a short (with the exception of Ultimate, typically less than thirty seconds) cooldown period, giving them a surprisingly varied movepool. The roster is quite small, with only four characters initially available and five more to unlock, but each one feels particularly well-balanced and caters to a specific playstyle, which only deepens as you increase their rank and unlock additional Talents.
Ravenswatch does an excellent job at catering to all playstyles through the use of modifiers, which can be set before beginning a run, and provide a variety of beneficial or detrimental effects. The game comes with a number of preloaded suggestions, although you can set your own mix of up to five, choosing from beneficial effects such as permanent boosts to experience growth, and detrimental effects such as increased enemy damage. While these are an excellent gameplay mechanic that make the game more approachable for players of all skill levels, the way in which they have been applied feels unnecessarily restrictive, particularly for those who would prefer to play with beneficial effects applied. Beneficial effects come with a negative score modifier, forcing an entirely unnecessary grind to increase a character’s rank if you choose to apply them. Playing with modifiers will also disable the ability to unlock additional difficulties and outfits, which seems somewhat counterproductive as it reduces the incentive to play with detrimental effects applied.
The Verdict
Despite being more punishing than is strictly necessary at times, Ravenswatch is a solid roguelike with combat that generally leans towards being tough but fair. Its unique takes on its fairytale-inspired cast makes it stand out from its contemporaries, and although its accessibility options could use some work to make them feel more worthwhile for long-term progression, they make the game both approachable for newcomers and a robust challenge for those looking for a little more than the base experience provides. All in all, it’s definitely worth a look if you’ve been craving a game that you can play in short twenty-minute bursts, with the scope for longer sessions.
Ravenswatch copy provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
