Tangledeep is one of the most aptly named indie games I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Between the slew of customization options and deep-rooted mechanics, this title is abundant in nature. Pay close attention, lest you get lost in its lush world and gameplay alike. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Let’s explore, together, the unknown that is Tangledeep!

Freedom

You know what I miss? The old, overly-complicated RPG’s of yesteryear. You know, the ones where you can’t even start playing the actual game until you’ve gone through an hour’s worth of choices, questions, powers, abilities, factions, religions, perks, favorite color, dominant hand, toenail length, etc. Why? It’s so rare today to find a game where we, the players, can choose everything we want and experience true freedom! Now, Tangledeep isn’t 100% COMPLETELY customizable, but it sure is unsuspectingly so. So much, in fact, that I’m not even sure where to begin.

I guess we’ll just start at the beginning! Tangledeep opens with a scenic title screen – a scenery of greenery, if you will. It pans down slowly, whilst playing a delightfully enchanting tune. It’s one of those compositions you can sit and forget you haven’t chosen an option yet because you started to space out while enjoying it. I guarantee I racked up a few HOURS that way with Octopath Traveler as well, and I’m not mad about it.

When you snap back and realize the option menu has long since presented itself, you are given a few options: New Game, Continue, and Options. Now, if it’s your first time playing, or if you are unfamiliar with dungeon crawling style games, you may want to go straight to ‘New Game’ before perusing the options menu. Just trust me on this. Playing with default options is a great way to start. Once you get a handle on things, go back and customize to your heart’s content. I’ll give you a quick run-down as to why.

Decisions, Decisions

Just for the display of the game there are endless options. You’ll be able to change enemy and character info display, how far you want the screen zoomed in, and if you want gridlines to show. “But wait, there’s more!” Even just for the gridlines, you can choose how prominently they show, not just if they are visible or not. Gridlines help a lot in the grid or tile-based movement of the game. It may be distracting to some, but for the most precise gameplay, it’s almost mandatory.

More options include volume adjustment, movement, button mappings, and other visuals . . . the list goes on and on. Even the game’s default gameplay gives you three separate map choices to display on screen as you navigate, including a transparent style. Before you go nuts on all that, or get overwhelmed, just play the game. You’ll learn what preferences suit you and the transition will be nice and gradual.

Planting the Seed

When you select that New Game option a few things happen. First of which: a “seed” is created. Starting that new game creates a wholly unique world, with an individual ‘seed’ number. This seed is unique to your game, that file, and to your character within that file. Without spoiling too much right away, let’s just say this idea of a distinctive world ties into the game. Remember, Tangledeep is a mixture of genres, and will incorporate several different elements; some may be familiar, but many may be new.

Nintendo.com describes Tangledeep as a Role-playing, Adventure, Strategy game. While this is true, more specifically, it is strongly a turn-based RPG dungeon crawler, and a roguelike game. This means all the classic elements are present: a level-up system, equipment and equipment upgrades, job roles with associated spells and powers, and an optional pet. The combat is laid out in a tactical, strategic, turn-based dungeon crawling package. Where the roguelike factor comes in is when your character perishes. Of course, there are options – yay for accessibility! – that can minimize the sting of losing a character you’ve worked on for 10+ hours. And yes, I’m speaking from experience.

The way the game plays is essentially in a series of dungeon floors. You navigate through each floor, exploit its treasures and destroy pretty much everything in your path. Some floors have secret areas, either hidden by a breakable block or accessed through a second set of stairs. Every few floors will present a ‘rest’ area of sorts, or a boss battle sequence.

Pandora’s Box

One thing of note is how the player can influence the overall difficulty of the game. There are separate game modes that we’ll talk about momentarily, but surprisingly, those don’t actually affect enemies’ strength. What you’ll find throughout the exploration, enemy bashing, and sidequesting are special gold chests. These gold chests are called “Pandora’s Boxes”.

Opening a shiny, golden, alluring Pandora’s Box will reward the player with additional experience, job points, and gold. On the other hand they will also buff ALL monsters throughout the game, and even more so for the specific floor you are on. It could enhance strength, resistances, or other miscellaneous advantages for your foes. Early on, this is a great way to speed up leveling your character. Late game, you may want to hesitate before you touch them.

Heroes Get Remembered; Legends Never Die

Speaking of early game, one of the first questions asked when starting a new file is what mode you want to play: Adventure, Heroic, or Hardcore. As noted above, the standard ‘difficulty’ in each mode is exactly the same. What differs is what happens to your character when they die. Adventure mode minimizes the punishment of dying by simply sending you back to town. In the footsteps of classic RPG’s, you’ll also lose half of the current money, experience in your level, and JP, or job points, that you have accumulated. This is a safely-baked nostalgic cake! Most new-age RPG’s don’t even penalize the player for losing. It’s a sad reality when dying means nothing anymore; are you even a hero or heroine at that point?

In Heroic Mode, the intended experience for Tangledeep, you’ll earn your stripes in the wild. If, or more probably when, you die, you character is GONE. However, the world you’ve created lives on! Items banked, money stashed, trees you’ve planted, and monsters you’ve captured carry on with normal daily life. Time literally passes, but you’re able to start a new character and rejoin the same world you thought you left behind. In a way, it’s a sort of reincarnation – a circle of life. It’s bittersweet and beautiful. The stakes are real, and decisions need to be calculated. This is my preferred style of play. However, if you’re a masochist, there is one more option.

Rogue Status

And that “one more” is Hardcore mode. This is what I would consider a true roguelike: NOTHING carries over. If your character dies in this mode, that’s game. The world you created is no more, and your file is deleted. There is no way to recover anything, and you’re stuck left wondering where you went wrong in life. Did you waste your time? If you had fun I would argue not. And this game IS fun. However, since RNG plays a factor in this indie title, I’m glad the developers included a solid middle ground where not everything is lost. You learn to become better, and, potentially, have a head start when jumping in again.

1000 Words

Speaking of jumping in, we’re over 1000 words in and we’ve only discussed the games options and basic gameplay pattern. But what of the story? Tangledeep is interesting in that the world you live in is underground. The entire population has no memory of the surface world, and some have a special ‘touch’, or magical qualities. Though, you wouldn’t be able to tell any of this if it weren’t for some of the lore you get in NPC dialogue and the introduction sequence. Simply put: you play a 16-bit humanoid sprite looking to explore and uncover the secrets of Tangledeep, and any information of the surface world.

“Tangledeep” is a brutal labyrinth connected to your town that people don’t usually return from. It’s full of caves, caverns, portals, hidden areas, boss battles, and temples. You may even run into the occasional NPC for special sidequests, or unusual, and very humorous, conversations and interactions. Legendary items are said to be located deep within Tangledeep. The fact that is known, however, that the further you delve, the less likely you are to make it back. What secrets does it hold? Is there even a surface to be reached? Could there be someone in charge? What sort of mystical treasures are there to acquire? That is all for you to find out, should you be cunning enough.

Progress

With such a simple and mysterious story, it’s no wonder the game is predicated on the combat and gameplay. I would say this is the second greatest element of the game. But, better still, and the single greatest aspect of Tangledeep is how the game progresses. You are very clearly instructed on how to begin and where to go. Everything from how to take your first steps and on. The game will lead you to different NPC’s and shop keepers to speak with. It’ll help you navigate menus and get your bearings. You’ll eventually be led to the entrance of Tangledeep.

When you finally enter this labyrinth the player is, again, presented with an option to play the tutorial floors. It’ll then ask if you want the hints and directions to keep popping up. By the time you’re through the tutorial floors, you’ll already know how to play the basics of the game. As new situations arise, you’ll organically be taught what to do and additional functions that may be available.

Dedication

For an absolutely complex game, there is a comprehensive ebb and flow in design that shows the dedication in the crafting of Tangledeep. An otherwise daunting learning curve becomes an intuitive, accessible experience for so many to enjoy. And the fun doesn’t begin after you learn to play, but rather starts while learning and ramps up in conjunction with your skill level. Forgetting all of the options, game modifiers, and harder modes available, this unsuspecting indie title will present a challenge to even the most experienced dungeon divers out there.

This is how you know a game is done right – when everyone can play, everyone can be challenged, and everyone can have fun doing so. Granted, turn-based games, by nature, are slightly slower-paced than that of say of an ARPG. However, skilled and planned maneuvers that play out successfully gave me such a large amount of satisfaction. Something you don’t usually experience in more fast-paced games. As long as you know this going in, I don’t see how anyone couldn’t find enjoyment in the heights of Tangledeep. But as good as it is, I’ll mention the few criticisms I have.

Criticisms

It is hard to know how a job/ role will play in combat until you actually experience it. This goes for the special abilities specifically, as weapons and armor are fairly self-explanatory. You can see the range, patterns, elements, etc. but there’s a certain synergy with many abilities that would be hard to visualize from descriptions alone.

There are specific areas and items in the game that may affect the game’s difficulty. This could either be a buff to general monster strength or the area’s/ room’s collective difficulty (dream levels). The criticism is you don’t have a great idea of exactly how tough it will be. Though you’ll have a general difficulty RATING (Easy, Average, Hard, etc.), the entire room’s ACTUAL difficulty could be increased by having a large number of enemies in a small area or running into a single highly aggressive enemy with lots of resistance.

The overall item selection is not quite as large as expected. Don’t get me wrong – there are a ton of items. However, compared to the options, rooms, and variety of enemies, the items seem to be the least diverse. What makes them different is really only the rarity and passive effects/ buffs, etc. I would love to see a larger variety of items that could be used in unique ways for even more clever combat options.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Tangledeep is an underrated gem. I can see myself playing this for a while and will probably come back to it many times. Between customization, accessibility, and so much to see within the game, there’s no way you could experience everything in one go, or even in one day. There are so many job roles to try (and a few to unlock) with unique abilities, you could easily play this game many times over. I currently have three different files ongoing at the moment, with slots for many more! If you are a fan of RPG’s, dungeon-crawlers, or roguelikes, why not pick up this game that incorporates all three? I highly recommend you do so!

Thank you so much for reading this review! It may have been tangled, and it may have been deep, but it was all true! If your here you must be a ran of RPG’s so give our reivew of Reverse Crawl a short click. If you like what we do here, consider joining our Discord or checking out our YouTube channel. Would you like to support further? We have a Patreon and a Ko-fi fund for those who want to see us do bigger and better things in the future. Thanks again; until next time!