The Swords of Ditto: Mormo’s Curse

Genre: Top-Down Roguelike Action-RPG

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

(Note: Included in The Plucky Squire x The Swords of Ditto: Mormo’s Curse Bundle, along with The Plucky Squire.)

Swords of Ditto is Top-Down Action-RPG with Roguelike elements that is very clearly riffing on the Legend of Zelda series, taking a lot of that series’ tropes and approaching them from a different direction with amusing results.

So picture this – an evil magician is threatening to take over the land, and the only thing that can stop this is the latest reincarnation of the legendary hero, who must travel across the land to various dungeons and gather special weapons from those dungeons to fight the final battle with the magician to bring peace to the land.

Sounds pretty Zelda-ish, doesn’t it?

Where the game takes this formula very tongue-in-cheek, however, is that because this “reincarnated hero” schtick has been going on for generation after generation, it has kinda’ become old hat for everyone involved. The evil wizard and the wise mentor trade insults back and forth with the familiarity of an old couple squabbling, the people of the land don’t seem especially interested in whether or not you succeed, taking on an “eh, win some, lose some” kinda’ attitude, and everyone treats the latest reincarnation of the legendary hero as expendable, since the “reincarnation” thing means that if he fails, another one will come along eventually. What’s more, this cycle has been going on long enough that society and technology have progressed to include some modern stuff along with the medieval and magical, with bizarre sights like a magic bus summoned by a kazoo next to a hot dog stand.

With that said, clearly this game is not lacking in the personality department, and the sound and visuals back this up, with appealing, cartoony graphics and a decent, mostly cheerful soundtrack.

When it comes to the gameplay, this game makes clever use of its Roguelike elements, where each death or each victory against the evil wizard leads to a completely changed world in the next reincarnation, with things worse off if you lost, and better if you succeeded, with the ultimate goal of you trying to find a way to end the cycle permanently.

As Zelda-style games go, it does a fair amount right. The randomized weapons you get, for example, being really creative, and the “toy” theme being a clever departure from the usual. You’ll be fighting with items ranging from toy guns and remote-control drones to sentai suits and a giant disembodied foot.

However, the game does have its problems, too. The game’s Roguelike nature can make the world design feel aimless, with pathways that lead to dead ends, and no real rhyme or reason to the world. Also, it feels like there’s a lot of grinding in this game, with multiple types of resources, and a lack of healing options that makes buying healing items vital to survival.

The result is that while Swords of Ditto has a solid premise and great personality, the game can feel really tedious in areas. It’s still overall a pretty good game that’s well worth checking out, it’s a game that requires some patience to enjoy.

tl;dr – The Swords of Ditto is a fun riff on the Zelda formula that has you playing the reincarnated hero fighting the evil wizard in a more modernized world where the whole “reincarnated hero” thing has become old hat for everyone. It’s a clever idea that gets a great presentation here, but the actual gameplay itself can get a bit tedious at times. Still, the game is well worth playing for its constant originality.

Grade: B

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