VERLIES II

I have a soft spot for solo-dev projects that don't apologize for what they are, and VERLIES II wears its hostility like a badge of honor. This is a first-person, grid-based roguelite dungeon crawler from Koya Game that asks one simple question: how far can you get before the dungeon wins? The answer, at least for a while, will be "not very far at all." The core loop is straightforward but layered with friction in the best sense. You pick one of eight unlockable hero classes, stop by a hub village to prepare at the blacksmith, merchant, inn, or magician, then descend into procedurally generated floors packed with traps, chests, puzzles, and monsters specifically tuned to end your run. Permadeath is always on. The skill system rewards genuine optimization rather than casual button-mashing, and the loot pool is large enough that repeat runs genuinely feel different. The 2.5D cartoony art style has a dark fantasy edge to it that reads as hand-crafted rather than asset-store generic, which I appreciate in a package this compact. The Steam reception sits at a "Mixed" rating, and that split is honest. The difficulty is real, not performed. Community threads already have guides titled things like "Verlies II is easy" written by players who clearly took the time to understand the systems, and that tells you something: there is a learnable logic underneath the punishment. Players who treat the hub village as a box-ticking chore rather than actual preparation will hit a wall hard. Players who engage with the economy, read the gear stats, and treat each death as a debrief will find the runs accumulate into something satisfying. Roughly eight hours of playtime seems to be the point where the game's shape starts to make sense. What holds it back is the lack of accessibility options. A single fixed difficulty with permadeath is a deliberate philosophy, and the developer clearly meant it that way, but it does mean the audience is narrow. If you bounced off Angband or found early Darkest Dungeon too opaque, VERLIES II will probably frustrate more than reward. There is also very little handholding in the early floors, which the pinned community tips thread quietly acknowledges. The presentation, while charming, does not have the sonic atmosphere of richer indie crawlers. It is a game of systems, not mood. For the right player, though, there is something quietly admirable about a one-developer project that commits entirely to difficulty, builds a real loot and skill economy around it, and ships it for a price that barely registers on a budget. It knows what it is. The dungeon was built to beat you, and that clarity of vision counts for something.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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