The difference between Canon of Creation and Vengeance in Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance and where to start

I'm going to be very blunt here. Although I enjoy a wide verity of games, there's one "genre" that I'm not the biggest fan of... Roguelikes. Now don't get me wrong, I get the appeal of them, and I have played my fair share over the years, but I'm not the person who gets easily over new entries in the genre. So when Dead Cells was first announced, I honestly didn't give it too much thought. Did it look interesting? Yeah. Was it something I thought I was going to play? Probably not. That is until that one Saturday night where I had nothing else to do, and decided to take a chance on the game.

I wish I played it sooner.

The insane thing about Dead Cells is the fact that this is a roguelike that is clearly designed with "everyone" in mind. It is a game that is as easy or as hard as you want to make it, and it flawlessly blends the Metroidvania style with it's roguelike features. Not only that, but you can turn off the roguelike aspects of the game, and play it like a normal sidescrolling action game if you really want to. This is a feature you almost never see in the genre, and it opens up the game to an entirely different fanbase.

With all of that being said though, how is the game? I personally played through it both as a roguelike and as an action Metroidvania game, and hit all of the DLC along the way. That's how much I liked it, and I still plan on going back for more to tackle it's extra challenges. But why? Why did I enjoy it so much? And what about you? Will you enjoy it?

Well, today I hope to answer all of these questions for you!

The Story:

The story of Dead Cells is not straight forward at all. In the intro we find ourselves as a weird green blob that has the ability to take control of dead bodies. By taking control of a dead body found at a prison, you begin exploring this strange and dark world where the inhabitants have been "corrupted." Humans, animals, and nearly everything else has been transformed into horrifying monsters, and it's up to you to put them out of their misery as you make your way to the "King." 

Although the game features some short cutscenes, the entire story is mostly told from the environment, and little clues that you'll pick up along the way. While some of these clues are actually references to other video games (you can find a dead body with a Headcrab on it from the Half-Life series), others you find will hint at what is really going on with the story. People calling out for help from behind closed doors, old rooms with notes left behind by those who used to live there, and bosses that suggest that they are more than just something to take down. It's not a story that is in your face, but if you really pay attention you'll start to piece it together.

That being said, the story isn't really the selling point here. This is a pure action game, and that's where it really shines!

The Standard Loop:

The very core of Dead Cells is it's roguelike loop. As mentioned before this can be "turned off," but it doesn't prevent the game's cycles from being disturbed.

When you begin a new game, you'll always start at the prison, you will always gain your default body without any upgrades or gear, and you will always move forward into the next room to pickup your starting equipment. This can either be a sword, a bow, or a shield, and you're allowed to take two with you. The first time you start the game you won't have any other options, but as the game progresses more doors and content gets added.

No matter what, players will need to either die or complete a full playthrough a few times before all the features open up, and it's actually something you'll want to do sooner or later. So although the roguelike aspects can be disabled, it's recommended that you play the game the "normal" way at first. (Or you can just kill yourself a few times, or select restart to get the first few "cycles" out of the way.)

Once the game has established that you've returned to the prison a few times, your options open up a lot more and you're free to play as you see fit. Weapons, skills, and other items you collect during your playthroughs get added to a collection, and extra doors open up that lead to challenge rooms, a character customization room, and more. In short, the prison area basically becomes your main hub, and it's where you will always return to when you die (with roguelike turned on), or when you finish the game. But "finishing the game" doesn't actually mean that you are done.

The Level Structure:

Beginning at the prison, stages are randomly generated, with multiple exits. The map needs to be uncovered as you play through the areas, and warp points will be unlocked along the way. These warp points allow you to travel across the current map freely, but they cannot be used to warp to previous areas. The moment you "finish" a level and advance to the next one, you are cut off from everything that came before it. Exits are also clearly labeled so you know if you're about to leave a stage, and which exit you take will determine what stage you play next.

Although levels are randomly generated, they aren't fully unique each time. Key sections of the stages remain similar, so each go around you will know what to expect (they are just placed differently). Not everything can be accessed right from the beginning either, as some areas will require you to have access to specific abilities to continue. 

These abilities will be unlocked as you play through the other routes, and always stay with you even if you die. One of the early abilities you'll unlock lets you grow vine to climb up at key points, which in return will help you reach new doors to new stages. It's a part of the Metroidvania gameplay that Dead Cells has going for it, and helps funnel you through the stages in a specific order. Even so there's still plenty of freedom your first time through, but that freedom continues to expand as you advance.

In between stages a mini hub area will be provided to you where you can cash in resources to upgrade your gear or unlock new content, and it's also where you can heal or refill your health items. On harder modes these resources are more limited, but that's not something that's even an option until you've finished the game at least once.

While the multiple branching level paths may seem confusing at first, thankfully there is an overall map that will show you what connects where, so there isn't a lot of guess work involved. Sure, some stages will have specific requirements (or hidden keys) that you need to meet, but it's still pretty straight forward.

The Gameplay, Skills, and Upgrades:

Being an action game, Dead Cells has a LOT of combat. Stages are filled with enemies that will slaughter you if you're not careful, but the same enemies can be dominated by you as long as you know what you are doing. While many enemies out there can be taken out in a single combo, others will require you to pay attention to their tells and guard against their attacks. The game utilizes a simple combo system, with a dodge roll button, the ability to jump (and ground pound), and the ability to shoot and latch your head onto enemies to grab hold of them to deal extra damage. While many enemies you face will be pretty easy to take care of, there are some that are no joke.

Elite Enemies are basically mini bosses that show up in every stage, and killing them will net you different rewards. Other normal enemies can also drop rewards, but it's a bit rarer than taking out an Elite. These rewards themselves come in the form of either money, cells, weapons, skills you can equip, or sometimes stat upgrades. Different enemies will drop different types of items, and those items get better the farther into the game you advance.

Weapons themselves come in three main categories, with one of them being the shield. The shield lets you parry attacks and protect yourself, while melee weapons have different ranges and attack speeds. Swords are closer fast hitting weapons, while you might also come across a slow moving giant axe that explodes the ground it touches. Bows and other throwing weapons are range based, but some magical and special attacks fall within this category as well. There's actually a wide range of different weapons hidden throughout the entire game, and they all have their advantages and disadvantages.

Besides weapons, the game also allows you to equip two "skills" which are basically extra support or attack items. One skill might give you a shield or increase your health for a set time, while another may be an ice bomb that freezes enemies it touches. Which ones you get during a run is random, like the weapons and everything else, but all of them are in fact useful. On top of the skills there's also special equipment items you can gain throughout the game, and these too will provide useful buffs or other support effects.

Along with everything else equipment and skills offers, each item in the game can also have added bonus effects. These effects could be something like allowing you to jump four times in the air rather than once, or you can get crazy ones like "setting the ground on fire as you walk on it." All of these effects help give you an edge, with shops becoming available later on that let you reroll your gear's bonuses. And that's one of the uses for money.

Like in other games, cash is something you'll want to have. In Dead Cells it is used to upgrade gear, but it can also be used to buy items from shops. These items are often stronger than what you'll find laying around, but they require a lot of funds to pick up. There are also special doors that can be opened for a fee, but you're also given the option to just smash them open and take what's inside yourself. The down side to this is the fact that the doors will "curse" you, and make it so the next hit you take is an instant kill. Only way to lift said curse is to kill so many enemies without dying yourself, and that can be easier said than done! (Especially when said door asks you to kill 50 enemies in a row.) Cash can also be used to alter your passive abilities, but that's mainly if you decide to reset them.

Passive abilities themselves are rewarded to you as you clear stages and get to the between areas. An NPC will allow you to pick one passive each time, for a maximum of three at once. Again, money can be used to change your mind, but it's not needed if you know what you want from the get go. There's a pretty large list of abilities to pick from, so it's best to choose what you think will help you the most in your current run.

The final way to help improve yourself is to find level up items throughout the stages, which will increase your health, skills, and provide you with other bonuses as well. You are given three choices when picking up a level up item, so it's best to choose what you need at that moment. Does one choice increase your health by 15% while increasing your attack? You have to ask yourself if that's worth it, or if you'd rather pick the option that increases your health by 70%? It's up to you.

And the final, final, way to increase your power is to use extra buff options that are unlocked in the prison. Using these deactivate the ability to get Boss Cells though, and are more for just having fun. (Boss Cells being difficulty options that unlock each time you beat the game on the current highest difficulty.)

Unlockables:

Dead Cells is a game that's packed full of unlockables, and most of them come from the "Cell" system. When killing enemies cells can drop from them, and said cells can then be traded in at a shop. These trade ins will allow you to unlock new weapons, new gear, new outfits for your character, and even new functions at the prison. This is also how you unlock more inventory space to hold additional healing items, or even recover more money when you die, but that's all only scratching the surface.

There are DOZENS of unlockables gained from trading in cells, and many of them do require a high amount. You can also sacrifice some of those cells to another shop that gives you better drops, but the main trade in actually lets you choose what you want. One useful unlock randomizes your starting items, while a later version of this randomizes and gives you multiple sets of starting items. It's something that makes future playthroughs much easier, and it means you are always making progress even when you die and restart. It's a part of the main gameplay loop, and makes it so dying isn't always a punishment. Instead you can look at it as a way to get more cells even faster.

But again, even this is only scratching the surface. The game is packed full of things to find and collect, and a part of the fun is when you discover something new. So that's all I'll say on this matter. (I don't want to ruin it.)

Unique Approach to DLC:

Like many other games out there, Dead Cells does in fact have multiple DLC packs. While many updates and additional features were free, these paid DLCs expand the game in new ways... And I mean expand the core game, and not add some extra modes.

What's unique about the DLC here, is the fact that it adds content into the existing level structure. New doors and paths are added to the existing levels, and those in return take you to these new areas. These new areas then reconnect to existing areas, but sometimes allow you to bring something completely new with you. Be it new weapons, or a pet monster that follows you around and eats stuff, it's new features that add to the existing game.

It's actually pretty nice, and makes it feel like one solid connected experience, instead of it being additional post game content, or a mode all it's own. Even the larger Castlevania Crossover DLC adds stages into the main flow of things, with other game altering features being seamlessly integrated into what we already had. It is simply more, and those who fall in love with the game will just want that. More levels, and more paths they can take to the end.

(Of course the game is still great without the DLC, but the DLC for sure helps improve the experience.)

Assist Options and Customization:

From the get go I mentioned how this is a "roguelike for everyone," and that's pretty much true. Thanks to the assist options, you can freely customize how the game is played. You can enable options such as "auto attack," which does all of the fighting for you, and you can even set how much damage enemies do to you, and how much health they have. These are basically difficulty options, that let you pick how easy or hard the game is without altering the key experience, or to help those who may need assistance playing an action game like this. There's nothing wrong with using these settings, as they are there to help those who need it. Of course the game itself recommends that you play it on default, but it's your choice.

The main feature here is the option to turn on multiple deaths. Turing this feature on takes away the roguelike permadeath feature, and makes it so dying respawns you at the start of the current stage. You can give yourself "lives" and have it where you can only respawn a limited number of times, or you can set it to allow you to respawn however many times you need. When dying you are still given a choice to return to the prison if you wish, but you're also free to just keep going and beat the game before starting a new cycle. It's a really nice feature for those who don't like roguelikes, or it can also be used to help learn the game your first time through.

Besides the assist options, there's also customization which lets you modify your current run. These settings alter the core game, and allow you to turn on/off features, and even choose what items can or can't spawn in. It's made to tailor the experience to suit you and what you like or want to do in each run, and it's a pretty nice feature to have in a game with so much randomness going on. It also helps each run be even more unique, as you can also use this to challenge yourself in new ways.

Should you play it?

After taking a closer look at the game, and experiencing dozens of playthroughs... I still stand by the "everyone" claim I made. While those who are not fans of sidescrolling action games might not change their minds for this one, everyone else may want to at least consider it. 

The game has a nice pixel art style, the music fits the game perfectly, the action combat is fun, there's a wide range of weapons and enemies to use them on, and there are plenty of levels to make your way through. A single run doesn't take that long (once you are able to finish the game), but there's so many ways you can play the game that you can keep coming back and still find something new. There are a lot of levels to conquer, and so many things to unlock that you can easily spend hundreds of hours playing. 

It's just pure action platforming fun, with a Metroidvania format, in the roguelike genre. The customization options allow you to turn off permadeath to transform it more into a pure action game, and the sliders and other assist options ensure that players of all skill levels can get through the game. Those who want a challenge have plenty of ways to increase the difficulty, and they can further customize the experience to get what they want out of the game. While it's impossible to truly please everyone, Dead Cells does a great job of trying just that.

If you want a fun pick up and go action game, or something you can sink hundreds of hours in by just trying something new... Dead Cells is the game for you. I'd for sure recommend it, and that's something I never thought I'd say about a roguelike.