There was a moment in Inkbound when I stood in The Atheneum Library and the narrator explained to me that all the books and stories within were made of different materials, had different purposes for being there and contained different content. Then he said, “...but they all share the same sickness.” The books and stories in The Atheneum have come under attack from a few very powerful villains. I stand, a Needless with my Kwill, ready to liberate The Atheneum from these villains and restore the pages that are slowly fading away.
The very concept of Inkbound is wildly intriguing. As someone who enjoys a good hack and slash, I wondered if a turn-based roguelike, such as Inkbound, was going to be a good fit. I am happy to say that Inkbound may be the best roguelike game I’ve ever played. That’s not to say that I’ve played every single roguelike out there but I’m also not a newcomer to the genre. If anything, Inkbound has made me want to jump in and play more roguelikes. From the first few minutes of the game all the way until a few minutes ago when I had to tear myself away, I have enjoyed every single minute.
Every roguelike has a run. In Inkbound, a run is a hunt for a villain of the player’s choosing and success is down to whether or not the villain is slain. Currently in Early Access, there are three villains to choose from: Argolath, Cynder, and Shadow of Ruhnstone. These villain battles are easily the hardest in the game with good reason but it will take several combat instances before being ready to take on a villain.
Entering a combat instance, enemies appear from the ink in a circle. This ink is no ordinary ink; it’s poisoned and will hurt to touch. The longer a battle draws on, the smaller the circle gets as the ink closes in. Everything the Needless does must be done in the ink free circle and is limited by a movement resource called Will. Will is used for both simple movement and attacks. Larger attacks with longer cooldowns typically use more Will than smaller attacks. To plan the next move in a single turn, the Needless can move freely within an area that won’t exceed the amount of Will in store. Once an attack is executed, the Will to use that binding is deducted and the amount of area that the Needless can move is further limited.
When the Needless can no longer move, it becomes the monsters’ turn. There will be indications before then of places on the circle to avoid being in at the end of the turn but it will be up to the player to make sure they save enough Will to move out of range wherever possible. The Needless’ Will is restored at the beginning of their turn and an orb appears that reduces cooldowns by one turn. If some Will has been used before the orb is collected, it has the potential to restore a small amount of Will during the same turn. Of course, the most satisfying moment for me comes when I realize that this will be the hit that ends the combat instance and I can continue with my run.
After combat, the rewards come in the form of different bonuses. Some rewards are straightforward like adding damage points to burn or poison damage or restoring some HP. Other rewards are bonuses that help you create unique builds. Unlike other roguelikes where you build power and bring that in with you each run, Inkbound starts you from scratch each time. This is because during each run, those basic attack skills are augmented and iterated on through pickups along the way. This in turn makes each run unique since these drops are randomized each time.
Every run starts with three bindings but Inkbound never offers just a random augment for those bindings. Instead, they offer three choices of binding augments and it’s up to the player to decide which augment best fits their needs and works well with other bindings. This could mean the difference of sacrificing range in an attack for more attack power, for example.
Vestiges give bonuses to a player directly. I personally like any vestiges that make me a trap. Some vestiges like Rosy Thorn gave me Spiked, the passive ability that whenever an enemy hit me, they took damage for their trouble. It’s kinda like hitting a barbed wire fence. Yeah, you’re bigger than that fence, and it may not stop you from getting over it, but it’ll hurt. Other vestiges can grant damage bonuses for bindings, or even healing and shield bonuses. Those were especially helpful in critical moments when the need to monitor and protect HP was dire.
One thing is clear: Inkbound is all about choice. This is true with augments and vestiges, and it carries over into Ascensions. These work as an evolution to the various bindings of sorts. Ascensions give players two options that require a choice that lines up with the strategy taking hold in a particular run.
As such, this could manifest in an ascension that augments a binding giving a power boost spread evenly across enemies, or a power reduction that consistently hits every enemy for the defined amount.
In each run, I would make sure that my “aspect” had been chosen, which is the class system. Upon starting Inkbound, there are three of five aspects available. Magma Miner is the easiest aspect to learn and relies mostly on brute strength. Mosscloak is an aspect focused on speed and agility, while the Weaver is based on slinging spells throughout each run. The other two aspects - Obelisk and Clairvoyant have to be unlocked as progression is made. Obelisks have a unique ability to inflict a damage type called “crush”. Clairvoyant uses a magic orb to attack, which I found very frustrating to figure out in practice.
While Magma Miner might be the easiest to play, I found more and more that my favorite aspect is Weaver. This is because at the start of every run, aspects start with three attacks, also called Bindings in Inkbound. Every player has to pay attention to where they are at the start and end of each turn, Weavers however, also have to keep track of every enemy on the field. This is because of a unique damage type that Weavers use called “threaded.” Many of the Weaver’s bindings only affect enemies that are on a literal thread. That extra bit of attention is important because some enemies are not on the field at the beginning of combat. A Weaver who isn’t paying closer than normal attention to the position of their enemies will inevitably lose sight of an enemy that they intend to attack. Has this caused me to lose some battles? YES, and It’s taught me that keeping an eye on my HP is incredibly important… and yet, I love the challenge.
Clairvoyant…what to say…it is the aspect I had the least fun with. During combat, the Clairvoyant attacks using an orb that follows them around everywhere. Wherever the orb is determines where the range is for the selected binding. Only one of the Clairvoyant’s attacks can move the orb at a cost to the movement resource, Will. The problem I had is that if there were a lot of enemies, I was simply using too much Will just to line up attacks and would get overwhelmed during large pieces of combat because enemies don’t attack the orb. They attack me. It may be that Clairvoyants are better in group combat situations but I personally prefer playing solo.
I did try multiplayer a few times and there are some benefits to doing so. Aside from the obvious perk of having more firepower to work with, it also doubled the number of targets for my enemies. Inkbound does a great job of striking the balance between difficulty and fun even in multiplayer. I expected as soon as I had someone with me that we would blow through every combat scenario, but honestly, the difficulty scaled to keep it challenging, even in a group. Shiny Shoe may have intended the difficulty to lessen with more players but gratefully I can say that isn’t what I experienced.
Despite some attitudes about accessibility and various difficulty modes, I’m always in favor of difficulty settings being included in a roguelike. Online experiences are key to the world that is being created in Inkbound. In fact, to play Inkbound, you must be online. Like other online games, Inkbound must be able to have an equal difficulty for everyone hopping into an online session. Inkbound did an amazing job of allowing for this without actually putting difficulty into the settings.
Instead of using difficulty levels, Inkbound uses character classes - i.e. aspects, to allow players to control their difficulty. If you need an easier experience, play as a Magma Miner. If you want a more difficult experience but like the idea of brute strength, play as an Obelisk. As for the difficulty in Inkbound, the choice is entirely yours and I couldn’t be happier with how that was achieved.
While Inkbound doesn’t tell players upfront the Magma Miner is the easiest to play, it is certainly the most straightforward with the least amount of strategy required. That said, you may find a different aspect is easiest for you or perhaps that Magma Miner is more difficult to master. That’s what is truly amazing about this - you can create your own difficulty by finding what comes easy and what comes as more of a challenge!
One thing that does hurt Inkbound’s player-generated difficulty is the randomization in different builds. Because ascension bonuses and other components of the build are completely randomized each run, the difficulty is at times much easier or much harder simply based on what build you get cornered into making. I wish that builds were slightly less randomized to give people who select easier aspects, easier bonuses.
It would be possible for Inkbound to give me three choices of augments for a Magma Miner that all keep things fairly easy. Another option could be to give me the choice of three augments where one is on an easy track, another on a medium track, and the last on a hard track. In that way, players could be given the freedom to choose their difficulty without it affecting the game at large. Though, it’s worth saying that this is a very nitpicky criticism because Inkbound is so good.
A huge chunk of what makes Inkbound so good is that its replayability is absolutely through the roof. It takes an already compelling premise and makes me want to come back more and more. The music is like an earworm. It is always appropriate for the current location and situation. When I’m in The Atheneum, I am greeted by calming music that really adds to the ambience of being in a library. The books have dreary music that make me feel like something is wrong and clearly something is wrong. Combat music is exciting and makes my blood pump faster. Every time I finish playing, I simply want more. I want more combat, I want more of the music. I want another chance to take down a villain and I want all of it now - not tomorrow, not later on…now.
I mentioned in my preview coverage that the season model felt underdeveloped and that Inkbound hadn’t given me a reason to care about it. I compared it to Fortnite and how that game ties season progress and quests to in-game swag. I’m so happy to say that Inkbound is doing something similar. Leveling up in Inkbound does unlock in-game cosmetics for players to use in the character creation tool. There is a seasons model in Inkbound that makes me wonder if we’ll get more or different villains as seasons progress to push the narrative forward. For now, there is more than enough to keep this Needless entertained.
Inkbound, like many games nowadays, contains microtransactions. There is an area to purchase in-game currency for buying cosmetics but so far it looks purely aesthetic. I know microtransactions are a fairly polarizing topic but people vote with their wallet and as long as people pay money for in-game items, they aren’t going anywhere. Furthermore, I’m not entirely opposed to microtransactions but I really want players to stand on their own two feet. I hate the idea that a player could engage in pay-to-win tactics. With Inkbound’s multiplayer being co-op, I would hate it if my teammate had bought us an unfair advantage. Hopefully, Inkbound stays away from that side of microtransactions.
Inkbound, for all it does well, is not a perfect game. For instance, Bin and Nib, the spirit-like Yin and Yang characters in the Sea of Ink, are completely wasted. There are characters in The Atheneum that I’ve had regular interactions with that can’t hold a candle to the personality of Bin and Nib.
The use of voice acting is wildly inconsistent. Sometimes I get very small interactions that are voice acted and sometimes I get very long segments of voice acting. Unfortunately, I can also say that I get both long and short segments of just written dialogue from either a character or the narrator. At times it feels like I’ve cracked open a book for an upcoming book report. I would prefer to have everything voice acted but even more than that, I’d prefer for it to be consistent. Make me read everything…or nothing. Playing voice acting roulette is not my idea of a good time.
Every Needless has a Kwill. Kwill are like little spirits that follow the Needless around everywhere. They remind me an awful lot of Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The big difference being that Navi, while annoying, served a purpose. Kwill on the other hand, don’t speak English, offers no advice, and yet seems to be important to Inkbound for reasons yet to be discovered. I don’t necessarily dislike the Kwill but I’m confused as to why they are in the game in the first place. When so much of Inkbound seems intentional and serves a practical purpose, the Kwill seem very out of place, at least thus far…
I genuinely hope you take a chance on Inkbound. It has appeal for players that enjoy a multitude of different game styles. It has elements of MMOs, MOBAs, and roguelikes. It can be enjoyed by players who like playing solo or in groups. It has a high ceiling of potential in a way that makes it feel more polished than it actually is. So I guess the only thing left to do is issue the challenge - will you join me and the other Needless in saving the stories at The Atheneum?
