Webster defines a rogue-lite as: a game with a loop that becomes more and more rewarding the more times the loop is completed till you finally finish the game.
Webster defines a roguelike as: dogshit… or a lesson in constant frustration.
Yes! It’s important to know Merriam Webster’s proper dictionary definitions for these two incredibly challenging genres of games. One is close to the pinnacle of perfection and the other is a smoldering pile of shit. Roguelikes feel impossible to win and when you finally do finish the loop and kill the big bad, you’re rewarded with the ability to start all over from scratch. This is a style of game where you only get better by playing; no upgrades, no RPG mechanics, nothing. Some people enjoy this style of game. Those people are fighting game fans, also known as crazy people. Flinthook, in its heart of hearts, wants to be a roguelike, but thankfully it falls into the camp of rogue-lites.
Till the end of the first three bosses in Flinthook, the game plays very similarly to the excellent Rogue Legacy. In my opinion Rogue Legacy is the premier of the rogue-lite genre. For those who haven’t played Rogue Legacy, here’s the general gist, you’re in a castle, you kill enemies, collect gold, there are four bosses that you can take on in any order, however there is a natural order in terms of which one you should defeat first. Whenever you die you can use your gold to upgrade your “characters” (a lineage with hilarious random traits). You can also find weapon, armor, and perk upgrades that can be equipped. When you defeat a boss you are unable to challenge them again until starting a New Game+. Now that’s important to know because here is Flinthook’s loop. After you finish the tutorial ship in Flinthook you choose a boss to fight, these are unlocked in a specific order. Each run, or life, starts the same. You have a pool of 10 points to spend on perks all with varying costs and abilities. For example, you may choose a life perk that costs 2 points (from your perk pool), but will increase your health by 10 points. When you begin you always start with the same gear regardless of perks, you have your blaster, grapplehook, and a time belt, which allows you to slow down time. Each boss requires a certain amount of “ships” (levels) to be completed in order to “find” him. For the first boss you have to complete 3 ships and then you can fight him, and remember, this all needs to be completed in one run. In addition, when you are on the ships you’ll find subweapons; stores that sell perks that only last for that run; stores that sell healing items that are used when purchased; and the illusive, but highly sought after, green tokens.
After you complete a ship you’ll be given a grey token needed to get to the boss, and either one or two green tokens. These green tokens are used to buy persistent upgrades. An example of a persistent upgrade, 5 green tokens and you can increase your health by 10. You can also buy more perk points so that you can equip more perks for a run. Or buy new subweapons. There is also an experience system that plays into when things are unlocked in the “Black Market”, the persistent upgrade store. But back to the green tokens, 5 green tokens, which as I mentioned can purchase a permanent +10 life upgrade, could take anywhere from one to five runs (as long as you complete one ship per run) to collect. This is important to note because each boss increases the total ship count needed to reach him. The first boss takes 3 ships, the second 4, the third 5, and this is when Flinthook becomes a totally different game. On the fourth and final boss, Flinthook gets roguelike tendencies, **spoilers ahead**, to fight the final boss and complete the game, you have to complete 12 ships, after you finish the first 3 ships you re-fight the first boss, after 4 more ships you re-fight the second boss, 5 more, the third. Now you need to finish all of these ships and bosses in one run, including fighting and defeating the final boss. Now you can still upgrade your character so it’s not totally a roguelike, but similar to most roguelikes you have to finish all of these bosses in one life, and unlike most roguelikes, this takes about an hour. Now that we have a common understanding I can begin to review the game. I just wanted to give you a heads up, so that you know what you’re getting into.
Let’s start with the gameplay. It’s very tight. The masked protagonist controls silky smooth and after a short period of time it’s easy to swing across the ship dodging enemies and hazards as you go. The moment to moment gameplay is also very exciting, knowing that you need to avoid damage can so that you can make it to those bosses with as much health as possible. While the gameplay may control very well, and it’s truly a pleasure to play, that doesn’t mean it’s forgiving. You may enter a room with 75% health and if you take on the wrong enemy (damn you laser-eye cyclops dude) or miss a jump (thanks a lot spike walls), you could leave with 50% or less. It’s not unusual to lose 30 health in a room and when you begin with only 100, before perks and persistent upgrades, that’s a lot to lose. Overall though I found the ships to be mostly fair. It was a boss that I found to be a tad frustrating, specifically the third boss. The third boss has a move that is almost impossible to dodge. He shoots this laser beam that moves very quickly, clockwise and the only way to not take damage is to hook shot around his ship clockwise, as fast as possible, but this is also the only time that the boss is vulnerable. I found after a couple tries that I needed to just take the damage, however he had other moves that were also difficult to dodge. So, if I entered his lair with less than 75% health I usually resigned myself to defeat, and this was with nearly 200 health, after upgrades and perks. Now I assume the last boss is even more frustrating at times. I say assume because I am breaking my own rule and reviewing this before I finish it. I am only breaking this rule because the final boss run takes so… damn… long (again, between 45 minutes and an hour). You can imagine what it would be like to get to the third boss, 30 minutes into the run, and then lose because you weren’t able to hold onto 75% of your health during the 12 ships that you had to complete beforehand. Now before I make this game seem totally unfair, there are a few boons given to the player. Normally after every battle you get an apple, which heals for 10, and you can buy run lasting upgrades. You can also buy healing items, that are used upon purchase, but you better hope that there are stores that sell potions and that you have the money to buy them. I did try the final run several times and realized that I had played the game for 15 hours, overall enjoyed my time, and did not want to dislike the game by forcing myself to finish this last boss. Take that as you will.
If the gameplay is tight than the pixel art is phenomenal. It has a ton of character. Most of the characters you meet on the ship are super imaginative and while you’ll see them many times during your play, there are almost a dozen of them and they’re all really great. On top of these NPCs, the boss design is also wonderful. I really want to play a 4-player co-op game where me and the first three bosses team up and raid larger ships. If I was to lay one criticism of the art it is that the environments get very stale. I know they wanted to keep with the space pirate ship theme, but I could’ve done with a pirate ship that was supposed to be a jungle or some other type of eco-system. I understand that that is not what the developers wanted, and I respect that, but 15 hours in things were getting a little bland. One thing that is not bland or boring, the music. I love it! It might not be the “feels” fest that Celeste was, but it’s awesome rock tunes. I bought the album and put it on when I’m playing other games. You can hear it in the background right now. It’s such a great soundtrack. I don’t know if it will stay with me the way Undertale and Celeste have, but I would put it up with anything Jake Kaufman has done, including Shovel Knight.
Art and Gameplay is what Flinthook is about, plot is not. There is a story hidden in there, but there’s not much to say. In actuality, there’s nothing to say. Another amazing thing that Flinthook does, there’s no dialogue, everything is shown. The character animations for the “cutscenes” (5 – 10 seconds at most) explain what’s going on and what your motives are. This was something that I thought Hyper Light Drifter did amazingly well and I wish more games tried showing instead of just telling. I love a great story as much as the rest, but game developers should know what their strengths are and rely on them, and for the developers of Flinthook, Tribute Games, they know that they are the “Mercenary Kings” of tight gameplay. All in all I was super impressed.
If you’re looking for an excellent rogue-lite to play on your Switch (or PS4, Xbox One, or PC), then look no further. Till we get Rogue Legacy this is the king of the rogue-lites on Switch. I cannot say enough kind words, but like I said I didn’t finish it, I didn’t want to ruin my opinion of the game by forcing myself to play another 5 – 10 hours to finish something that I felt I had seen the majority of. If you feel that you can trust a reviewer who did not “get good” enough to beat an extremely challenging rogue-lite, then heed my advice and play this game. There are a lot of worse ways to spend $15. I give it:
170 ghost tokens / 200 destroyed space pirate ships.
Reviewed by: Brian Wegener
Played On: Nintendo Switch
Score: 7/10
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