LootBound, the 2D Pixel Art Roguelike with quality aesthetics

Dark Pixel Graphics? Check. Trees with crystals instead of Leaves? Check. A Bard who goes out of his way to be annoying? Check. Brutal Boss fights? Check. Impractical Sword designs? Check. Shape based inventory management? Check. Lootbound checks all the boxes.

A Screenshot of the main menu of Lootbound, depicting the games name in a stylized font, a table in an abandoned room in a castle, the table is covered in stacks of books, with candles on and around the books, and a board game box on the center of the table. — A Screenshot of Lootbound, courtesy of ARTDOCK Games.

Lootbound, a fresh take on a 2D Roguelike.

Lootbound is an incredibly stylized Pixel Dark Fantasy 2D Roguelite, where the premise seems to be that you the player are playing an in universe Board Game. From a gauntleted hand rolling a D20 for certain in game buffs or items, the main map being a game board contained in a stone briefcase, and the shape based inventory system, ARTDOCK found an aesthetic that works incredibly well. “But AJ, this is a videogame” you might say, dearest reader, and you would be correct. Much like the humble Rectangle can be a Square, this too can be two things at once. Lets Dive in.

The nitty gritty of the mechanics.

Lootbound is a turn based Dungeon Crawler with a focus on creatively recycling all the preem loot someone left on the Monsters within the Dungeon. All of this loot directly translates into Memory Shards which can be used to purchase permanent upgrades for your character between runs. These upgrades run the gambit from increasing the two types of melee damage, health, mana, thorns which damage enemies who attack you, and chaos and order.

Chaos and Order are perhaps the most unique stats in Lootbound. In a Nutshell they buff different kinds of buffs or debuffs. Order buffs healing, armor repair, blessings, and other support abilities which is great for the Paladin character. Chaos on the other hand increases the strength of debuffs placed on enemies which is favored by offensive casters like the Witch. Items will also affect these stats mid run.

Inventory management is a huge part of Lootbound, almost more important than the combat. You have limited space in your backpack, which has a 6×9 grid of squares for you to shove various shapes of gear into. Gear can range from swords, armor, and instruments, to rings, mantles, and hats that only serve to bless your other items. Stacking items with complementing item types is the only way to survive. Bungle your inventory, and you’ll be cut down like a Gonk.

A Screenshot of Lootbound, depicting a character select screen where you can select a sidekick from either a large paladin in plate armor carrying a larger hammer, or a small with with a staff. — A Screenshot of Lootbound, courtesy of ARTDOCK Games.

Another large part of the game is Crew management. Most people don’t adventure alone, and you are not the exception. On your travels you will get to pick two other characters at certain points in a run. Your choices are scant, there’s four characters in total, but what they lack in quantity they make up for in quality.

You may choose from the Paladin, a large man in plate mail with a bigger hammer, and a knack for buffing his friends with healing and dealing crushing damage, the Warrior, a more standard sized man also in plate mail whose focus is on slashing damage and buffing armor, the Witch, a woman spellcaster whose whole job is to debuff the various monsters you will run into, and the Bard, a small man who goes out of his way to be annoying to his allies, but is also the best healer in the game.

So what exactly is the goal?

A Screenshot of Lootbound, depicting combat, in the lower left is the player character, a Warrior carrying a notched Broadsword that is longer than the warrior is tall, sporting an orange mane, studded shoulder pads, and a white helmet with five points coming off the top and sides, and scross from him is a rock monster with purple crystals protruding from its back. — A Screenshot of Lootbound, courtesy of ARTDOCK Games.

A wise author once said that not all who wander are lost, and choom, were gonna go wander. The primary goal of a run is to pass through three levels in a node map layout. You slay monsters, gain gear, manage your inventory and health, add buffs from the blacksmith and training grounds, and build your boss.

That is correct, in Lootbound you are directly building the Guardian, the main boss of the game. You pick this in three parts, and they all do a bunch of special things. The real boon of this mechanic is that you can choose boss items that your build can directly challenge. Focusing on Acid damage? Give the Guardian Armor, Acid bypasses it anyway. Focusing on Slashing and Critical? Give him Health, it will be depleted in short order anyhow.

The part with opinions.

Lootbound is, to me, a very good game that will not tell you how to play it. It lacks any sort of comprehensive tutorial, which is how I prefer it personally. This is not everyone’s cup of Tea. The Characters and the personal interactions between all of them are very entertaining, the Warrior and Paladin don’t like each other much, but will absolutely gang up on the Witch and the Bard around the campfire. The item designs are very good, especially the ones from the third biome which is Egyptian in theming, I like a good Khopesh.

The monster designs are top notch, from skittering horrors hiding in pots, to large bees and tentacled trees with gems in place of leaves, not a single enemy lacks in style. Overall I would rate this game a 7/10. I really like the aesthetic, that being said, combat can be unwieldy, there’s a lot of stats to track and you have no control over your companions which can cause a lot of frustration when their CPU commands are horrendously basic with no nuance. Otherwise, its a pretty good game.

With Total Apex Entertainment, this is Aj Day, signing off. Be sure to follow all my socials for more Gaming and Entertainment news. https://beacons.ai/ajday

For something completely else from someone else, may i suggest this Destiny 2 Article?