Heroes are often intensely psychologically tested by the horrors of their battles. Darkest Dungeon intermingles a health system with a sanity system that emphasizes the fickle nature of the human psyche. However, death is not the worst option for characters. It is a game as much about luck as it is strategy a perfect run can be sent into chaos with a single bad bout of luck, that creates a domino effect for the rest of the party. Only the strongest endure the battles levied against them and even then, sometimes even the fittest are damned to failure. In Darkest Dungeon, survival of the fittest is in full play. Serving as the commander of adventurers who seek glory or redemption, you guide them into the corrupted lands to strengthen them from the cruel battles inside the titular locale. In the game, you play as a faceless inheritor of a grand estate long scarred by greed and cruelty, upon which an excavation has uncovered terrible forces that threaten humanity as a whole.

Half Lovecraftian horror, half cruel Dungeons and Dragons, Darkest Dungeon is a strategic RPG that emphasizes the traumas of being a hero. Darkest Dungeon accepts those realities with a cold, almost sarcastic air. They neglect the struggle with near constant mortality, the intense stress of struggling against a foe, the isolation from living a life inconceivable to the common man. So many pieces of media ignore the brutality of such a life, instead emphasizing the heroism or glory that it entails.

Please note that this post will contain some large spoilers for Darkest Dungeon.

Darkest dungeon affliction chance