Nuke Nine’s take on the formula scratches all the itches
When we last reported on Nuke Nine’s retro-inspired action platformer Vagante, the title was campaigning for funding on Kickstarter. After unfortunately falling short of its funding goal the developers have brought Vagante back as an Early Access title on Steam. Just goes to show, you can’t keep a good game down.
Vagante was described as a “Spelunky-style RPG” by Rock Paper Shotgun’s Graham Smith, and after recently having a go at it myself, I think that’s an apt description. The emphasis here is on style, so if you’re worried that the game is just a cheap knock-off of the treasured roguelike platformer, you’ll be happy to know that Vagante is its own game entirely.
Admittedly, it does share some feature’s with Mossmouth’s title. Both have shops that appear within the level with randomized gear available for purchase. Levels are procedurally generated, complete with ladders connecting the different parts of the map. Even with these shared elements, Vagante still feels completely fresh to me because of its firm rooting in role-playing game design.
Each run through the caves offers new opportunities for loot. Some gear will be better suited to your character’s class than others. Each piece has stat-effecting properties that can either compliment your build or degrade certain aspects of it. It’s up to you to decide what you want to do. Higher Defense at the cost of losing a point of Dex? Entirely up to you.
Vagante uses an Affinity Point system to let you customize each of your characters. At the beginning of each run and after exiting each board, you’ll have one point that you can assign to unlock new abilities such as Anatomy Studies for the Rogue. This particular perk allows for a greater likelihood getting a critical hit when using daggers. For each class there are four different categories, or trees, that you can invest your points in to further develop your character.
Nuke Nine’s clever RPG spin on the Spelunky formula has fast become my favorite Early Access title in my Steam library. If you’re interested in trying it out for yourself, there’s still an earlier demo build available to try out free of charge.
Vagante is currently is available on Steam and the Humble Store.
