It’s not about if your characters will go mad, so much as if you can finish the quest before they do – and how far you’ll push them when the prize is in sight. At the bottom of the stress system is endurance.
Even when you successfully complete quests, characters may be permanently marked – a new phobia, perhaps, or some persistent sickness. Such a slippery slope means that Darkest Dungeon will brutally punish the foolhardy.
When one loses their grip, the others will rarely be far behind. All of these activities impact your control over battles and constantly increase the stress of the other three heroes. Sometimes they even reveal a masochistic streak by “marking” themselves for enemies, screaming for death, and refusing heals. Often they’re fearful or selfish, desperate to save their own skin. Heroes can become abusive, hurling insults at their comrades. The Jester class has many moves that can ‘shuffle’ your formation, which can combine with other classes to move them in and out of position for certain abilities Photograph: Red Hook Studios In some cases they’ll respond favourably and inspire their compatriots but, far more often, the mind breaks. Each hero has their own stress meter, which is regularly added to by everything from it being too dark to the presence of a killer god, and when a tipping point is reached their mental fortitude is tested. This is stress, the idea that people subjected to the kind of horrors that dungeon explorers go through might crack under the pressure. Darkest Dungeon is a turn-based battler with an overarching structure, and one idea that lifts it way above the ordinary. Sacrificed on the altar of curiosity, for a cosmic kick in the teeth.
Everyone dead, quest over, all loot and treasure gone, all investment in those heroes lost. The last survivor looked at the corpse, clutched their own chest and fell. Back in the waking world, brains spinning at what had just occurred, one had a heart attack and died on the spot. I hammered the retreat button as another hero fell, and the final two escaped alive.
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