A year and some change has gone by and One Bit Beyond has released the Mormo’s Curse update for The Swords of Ditto on May 2nd. The Swords of Ditto released April of 2018 and it really fell flat for me. Time limited games really do not let the player enjoy a lot when they have the game whispering in their god damn ear that the time (usually haunting one of the corners of the screen) is winding done and they had better be ready for the final boss, which destroyed the most fun about the game, the exploration. Annoying is an adjective that I would describe the initial release of The Sword of Ditto, but after two major updates I do believe that One Bit Beyond can be proud of the game that released over a year ago.

The Swords of Ditto can be classified as an action/adventure RPG with little to no rouge-lite aspects. The only perma-death now is when your character dies while trying to climb Mormo’s castle. Gameplay is simple: swing a sword, roll to dodge bad guy attacks and level up “the sword” to have he or she gain more health and deal more damage. the combat makes it super easy to play on the PC, Playstation and Nintendo switch. Playing with a friend makes the game a hell of a lot more fun to play. It melts my god damn heart every time: When a teammate goes down you can give them a hug and transfer some of your hearts to them. While exploring the randomly generated world, there are bad guys that need to be cut down, dungeons to be explored and stickers to be collected. Dungeons provide a small, fun challenge but nothing that exceeds too difficult. Each dungeon has a modifiers that slightly affects gameplay in a certain manner. The harder the difficulty, the more modifiers there are. Stickers provide a lot of the enhancements in the game: Provide more armor, food consumed give more health, elemental resistance and the ability to deal more damage.

The Swords of Ditto looks damn good. It is always a pleasure to look at even when it is a game’s story is steeped in darkness and sadness. Every thing is cute, even the baddies. The various vendors that litter the area are just plain adorable: A fat cat, a robot that sell stickers, a There are plenty of bad guys that inhabit the Isle of Ditto: Ghosts, slugs, flaming skulls, flying brains, zombies and man eating plants are only a few of the enemies that the player will encounter while exploring the world. The Game is beautiful in its colorfulness: The forests are lush green, beaches are drenched with the yellows and oranges of the setting sun and the dungeons are dark but glow with the flames and magic that fill the air.

In the end, it takes guts to take apart a game and restructure it so that it does in fact become a better game. The developer wrote that “the game structure has been totally gutted, and the divisive perma-death feature has been removed.” With time limit being almost removed entirely, The Swords of Ditto is a new game with more emphasis on exploring the fascinating world. Each dungeon and even the final battle was exciting and was challenging enough that it left me with a want to play more. The music is a mix between relaxing and creates a certain atmosphere within dungeons. The combat can be dull at times, but with the inclusion of “toys” the combat does amp up at times. The game is overall one of the most charming games that I have ever played. Beautiful in every fashion. The Swords of Ditto definitely has come along way and has evolved into a game that I will play even in my free time.