Don’t sleep on this one. Rustil: Eternal Labyrinth Castle is the best action roguelike out there. Why? Because underneath its pretty accessible and intuitive surface, is a ridiculously robust action game with a dash of mystery dungeon roguelike flavoring, crazy monster summoning systems, highly interactive combat mechanics, and buttery smooth Gundam Extreme Vs inspired combat and movement. Action Roguelikes have always struggled with the balance of having a player kit that at a base level feels fleshed out and not shallow, while also maintaining the fact that the player kit also has to be a highly malleable blank canvas that can be heavily augmented with upgrades. Rustil is fantastic because it straddles this line excellently. This is because at their core, the three weapon types in Rustil actually have quite a bit of nuance. For instance, the sword special functions like a tethered grapple. It works as a gap closer attack that pulls you to the enemy with a quick press of the button. However, if you hold the input instead, you can grapple the enemy to pull them to you (even large enemies). In this way, the action can be used in a manner similar to Nero’s devil bringer arm from Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden’s flying swallow. The bayonet special gives you a projectile focused combo string that you can freely insert and mix and match with your basic combo. If you hold the input while walking or sprinting, you’ll be able to move and rapidly shoot enemies. You’re also able to seamlessly cancel into this mobile shooting state in the middle of your combos by just holding the special button in the middle of them and pressing forward on the analog stick (It’s these granular levels of action design polish that really push this game to another level). The magic staff is a high mobility weapon that has a special that’s augmented by your mobility options. The special on its own only does small beam blasts, however if used after performing a dodge or jump, it allows you to glide across the ground performing a projectile combo. To add onto this, if you perform a jump attack and then press the special button while mid-air, you’ll perform a unique and powerful projectile spin attack. This weapon is full of Gundam Extreme Vs flair and fluidity and it’s a delight. Utilizing the unique weapon functions (which also include weapon skill abilities mind you) in conjunction with Rustil’s flexible core kit that already features jump attacks, perfect dodges that recover stamina, perfect guards that stagger even the biggest of foes, as well as dodge jumps and sprint jumps that travel farther, provides a strong canvas to start from. And the best part about this, is that the core of the game also expands as the roguelike elements do. Through the metaprogression system, you’ll unlock the ability to swap between up to six different weapons at a time and twelve weapon skills in total. And this is especially interesting since a lot of the better weapons have different properties. You’ll find swords that specialize in rapid attacks, staffs that can use weapon skill abilities typically exclusive to swords, bayonets that give you more forms of currency, shields that can shoot fire in a spread like a shotgun when guarding, swords that spew magic, staffs with built in shields that nullify all damage when you’re attacking with spells, swords that do lifesteal on enemies, etc. It’s crazy and has a ton of tools to play with if you’re so inclined. And the rabbit hole only goes deeper, since the roguelike upgrades meaningfully change gameplay in significant ways. For example, one of the basic upgrades you’ll be able to find in the beginning is an upgrade called “Rising Spin”. It’s an upgrade that makes it so whenever you jump, an area of effect attack on the ground happens. In most action roguelite games, this would be a pretty lame upgrade. No big deal. However, in this game, what they don’t actually tell you is that the area of effect attack from the upgrade isn’t just damage, it also has a launcher property. So effectively, this seemingly simple upgrade turns your basic jump into a launcher that lifts enemies into the air and opens them up for aerial combos. It’s this kind of subtle action game design flourish that really puts in perspective that this was crafted by someone that loves and understands games like this extremely well. And the game is full of stuff like this. Roguelite upgrades are added to the pool as you progress the initial story run, with the upgrades themselves being handled in a similar manner to Hades where the different heroes you receive upgrades from are all focused on different aspects of the game (defense, magic support, summoning, etc.). They run the gamut of turning you into a summoning behemoth that’s able to turn enemies killed into allies, giving you a Ninja Gaiden/Shinobi-esque wall run if you jump or sword grapple onto a wall, giving your magical special attacks charged moves, giving you a huge attack buff after perfect dodging, giving you a double jump, turning your basic dodge roll into a faster quick step, turning your additional weapons into autonomously attacking drones like they’re funnels from Gundam, turning your dodge into a multihit area of effect attack, making it so your summons get significantly faster and more powerful when you’re guarding, making it so guarding with shields fires off magic bullets that reduce enemy defense, and more. It’s easy to see how a lot of these combinations can spiral into crazy synergies and builds, especially once you start factoring in that the different gear also have different unique skills associated with them and that you can capture, summon, and enhance all enemies and bosses to assist you. The game is also very accommodating for different skill levels. You can go in on Safe mode and slowly accrue a powerful arsenal that will steadily be enhanced, or you can do challenge mode and get a more authentic roguelike experience (I personally take it a step further and do the self-imposed challenge of just entering the dungeon with nothing every single time, very rewarding and well balanced way of doing things and the game even supports this playstyle with stuff like Survival mode after beating the game). But simply put, Rustil: Eternal Labyrinth Castle is spectacular. It’s delightfully interactive and a dream blend of the kind of meticulous action design you get out of a Team Ninja, Platinum Games, or Capcom title while using the full force of the mystery dungeon roguelike genre to propel it to new and exciting directions. Some gameplay clip examples: High mobility staff gameplay. https://imgur.com/a/nV0BPSe Wall running attack and jumping attack multihit setup. https://imgur.com/a/GiYqLJx Dragon shield flame shotgun setup with bayonet. https://imgur.com/a/R8rU2AA The systems all coming together in large group fights. https://imgur.com/a/PPOixPf https://imgur.com/a/fOhfbhx