Dungeon of Rikka

My instinct with budget roguelikes from solo developers is to keep expectations in check, and Dungeon of Rikka mostly rewards that discipline. This is a traditional, turn-based dungeon crawler from Poorly Drawn Squid, a one-person studio out of Sweden, and it wears its old-school influences without apology. The visual style draws direct comparisons from its own player base to classics like Castle of the Winds, and if you lived through that era of PC gaming, that reference will either hook you immediately or tell you everything you need to know about the production tier. The central design idea is sharper than you might expect from something this small. The boss sealed at the bottom of the dungeon gains power the longer your run takes, which means every decision about routing, resource spending at the town's Blacksmith, Enchantress, or Runekeeper carries a time-cost attached to it. That is a legitimate tension loop. It is not just "get stronger before the fight" - it is "get strong enough, fast enough", and that distinction matters for how runs actually feel. You pick one of four classes at the start - Berserker, Warrior, Magician, or Hunter - and immediately allocate eight attribute points across four stats. The build is locked in early, so class choice has real downstream consequences rather than being cosmetic. The game structures its progress through distinct zones: caves, then a crypt, each gated by keys that unlock the dungeon proper. Procedural generation keeps floor layouts from going stale across runs, and permadeath is full - dying sends you back to character creation with no carry-over, traditional roguelike rules applied strictly. One quality-of-life concession exists: mid-session saves let you quit and return without losing progress, but dying wipes the save. That is a reasonable compromise for a game at this price point. Controls are the most frequently cited friction point from players, specifically the non-standard WAXD movement scheme, though the numpad works as an alternative for anyone with a full keyboard. Where Dungeon of Rikka falls short is in depth of decision-making once the run is underway. The four-class setup and the town vendor interactions give the early game a sense of agency, but the mid-run strategy layer is thin compared to what the genre's stronger entries offer. There is no mod support, no difficulty scaling beyond what the boss timer provides, and the community around the game is tiny, which means no wiki, no build guides, no external scaffolding for newcomers trying to figure out optimal attribute allocation per class. For players coming in blind, that is a steeper curve than the simple graphics suggest. For genre fans who grew up on ASCII crawlers or early shareware RPGs and want something low-friction to pick up in short sessions, Dungeon of Rikka scratches a specific itch. For anyone expecting the mechanical density of a Cogmind or even a Shattered Pixel Dungeon, this will feel underdeveloped. The Steam user reception sits at a small but positive sample, suggesting the target audience finds what it is looking for. Go in with a clear sense of what kind of game this is - a lean, retro-coded time-pressure crawler built by one person - and it holds up.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

Be the first to comment on Dungeon of Rikka.