In recent years, we’ve seen the nonstop rise of roguelites. This wave ranges from unsuccessful projects that merely tried to ride on others’ success to acclaimed titles that show just how versatile the genre can be when it comes to incorporating unusual ideas and a certain degree of randomness into formulas established many years ago. Whether through demonic slot machines or a deck of rigged cards, the genre continues to prove its unique ability to breathe new life into traditional gameplay systems. That’s the case with Dark Scrolls, the new title from doinksoft.

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Even if combining the sidescroller style with roguelite elements isn’t exactly groundbreaking, the game looks for its edge in the frantic intensity of danmaku — the shoot-’em-up subgenre defined by screens saturated with projectiles. This idea is also paired with clear inspiration from 8-bit-era classics like Castlevania, Gauntlet, and Ghosts 'n Goblins. The studio, part of the Devolver Digital portfolio, has established itself as a specialist in retro-styled action experiences, with other notable titles on its resume such as Gato Roboto and Gunbrella.

Following the structure of its inspirations, the game opens with a quick cutscene to tell its story, which makes no real difference in practice but does establish the main goal: the search for the dark scrolls. Progression requires the player to complete multiple runs, since each successful campaign grants only one fragment of the artifacts needed to finish the game.

At first, only three of the nine playable characters are available: Bruto the barbarian, who can throw axes and do a Mario-style ground pound; Esmeraldo the mage, who fires magical orbs and has an aerial dash; and Colomba the rogue, who throws knives while jumping. The full roster can be gradually unlocked either by completing specific side objectives or by discovering hidden characters throughout the campaigns.

After the introduction, the player is placed in a somewhat unintuitive starting hub. The space brings together character selection, a training area for testing damage and movement, access to co-op mode, and a shop for buying upgrades. However, the lack of NPCs or any kind of signage explaining how these facilities work hurts the experience. Having to explore and figure out the purpose of each section, simple as it may be, ends up creating an uncomfortable sense that something was left unfinished.

It’s in the stages that the roguelike elements come into play. Since they’re procedurally generated, each run is a little different from the last, which helps keep things interesting. Don’t expect highly complex or detail-packed stages like the classic Sonic games; even so, the levels vary enough to feel “different” from the previous run.

As you move through the stages, you’ll come across enclosed areas where enemies spawn nonstop. If you defeat enough of them before time runs out, you earn a cannon that launches you forward, letting you skip a good portion of the stage and avoid hazards. These areas are also great for farming coins, which you earn by defeating enemies and can spend on upgrades in the shop.

The shop appears during the stages, and this is where the lack of instructions becomes especially obvious. As we attack, we build up stars below our health bar. Once we collect five, we unlock a special attack unique to each hero. The problem is that the game never makes it clear how this feature works: we don’t know whether it’s limited or if we can use it freely.

On top of that, the upgrades you buy in the shop depend on how many stars you’ve built up. For example, you gain speed with one star and fire damage with two. That creates a dilemma: should I save my stars to keep the bonus, or spend them on the special attack? In practice, the best approach is to use the special whenever possible, since it resets the counter and lets you take advantage of the upgrades more dynamically. A simple explanation or tutorial would have avoided this confusion.

The early upgrades are extremely basic, mostly limited to fire rate, movement speed, or shot type. But like in other roguelikes, more upgrades can be unlocked in the starting hub’s shop as you complete runs or fulfill side objectives unique to each character, allowing for some extremely fun combinations and giving the game even more variety and longevity.

Once you understand how this system works, the difficulty is affected drastically, especially if you’re playing in co-op. After all, there will be twice as many projectiles on screen tearing through every enemy in the way, which makes progression much easier, but it can also make it hard for some players to understand exactly what’s happening amid so much visual clutter.

Speaking of multiplayer, the experience is definitely improved when playing with a friend, not because of the difficulty, which can feel messy at times, but because the game ultimately delivers a bit less than I expected. My first contact with Dark Scrolls was at the Gamescom Latam booth, which got me excited to try the final version, but the end result feels like something that could clearly have been much better.

The lack of explanation for the game’s basic mechanics — which could have been introduced through a quick tutorial right in the training area — leads to some frustrating failed attempts. On top of that, the procedurally generated stages seem interesting at first for trying to create a fresh experience with every run, but after playing a few times, you may start to swear you’ve seen the same pattern before. And beyond that, the environments themselves are simplistic. Even though the game includes alternate routes on the stage select screen in the style of classic Castlevania, they’re still extremely simple.

The boss battles also follow a fixed pattern, with the same bosses always appearing at the end of the same stages, and their moves are easy to memorize. On one hand, it’s a good thing the game only draws visual inspiration from Ghosts ’n Goblins and not its excessive difficulty. Even so, the bosses could have offered a bit more challenge. The result is a game that leaves a lot to be desired and fails to stand out in a market already overflowing with similar ideas. It’s far from a bad game, but also far from memorable. Still, a few updates adding extra content and fixing some basic issues could improve the title dramatically.

Dark Scrolls

22 junho 2026

Plataforma; Roguelite

Developer: doinksoft

Publisher: Devolver Digital

Rating: General Audience (G)

Tested on: PC