Video Game Review: Rogue Explorer

Rogue Explorer

 Zoo Corporation, EastAsiaSoft

Action

Nintendo Switch

Exploration and adventure. Those two words call to the spirit of mankind. The lost days of pioneering across uncharted lands and striking it big in an unknown world. That’s the start to our journey in Rogue Explorer. 

Gameplay

The game opens up with a tutorial to familiarize you with the controls then lets you explore different dungeons to acquire new weapons, armor, and materials. You traverse these dungeons by jumping and descending to find a portal to the next level. Obstructing your path are various traps and enemies that seek to end your life. Despite the numerous different enemies, at the end of the day, almost all of them are simply reskins of enemies that appear in the earlier stages. There are boss battles that help to break up the monotony, with many of those being fun but very simple. In addition, a dungeon will always be identical in the “base” form of a stage. Only once you complete one and unlock the depths option will you get procedurally generated stages.

When you clear a dungeon or die, you revive in front of the tower that you climb and can explore the hub world, allowing you to upgrade your abilities and craft new weapons and armor from the materials that you gathered. There are many weapons that you can craft that change how you attack, letting you customize your fighting style. Many of the upgrades and new items do little beyond simply a stat boost, making it so that many don’t feel meaningful.

Audio

The music is exciting and bubbly, giving a fun background to your adventure. In addition, the sound effects are crisp and exciting, giving lots of feedback to dealing and taking damage. However, the looping soundtracks with similar beats can make the game feel more monotonous when you have to grind through stages for the same materials.

Art

The art style is a fun mix of pixelated characters with a nice hand drawn background that helps to make the character and enemies pop off the screen. Many of the effects are well done, making everything feel fun and bouncy. However, the walls are all a flat color and lack many details that would make the world pop out. This is crucial since you will be seeing the same walls again and again, especially if you have to grind for gear. 

Conclusion

Overall, Rogue Explorer is a fun romp through a fantasy world, killing monsters, finding loot and crafting better gear. However, there’s little to hold onto past that. The graphics are simple, the audio can get repetitive and the gameplay loop repeats a lot. If you’re the kind of person who loves the endless grind for better gear, it can wind up being a blast.