Games You Might Have Missed: Roguemance

Roguemance is Lucas Molina’s rogue-lite about love and relationships, released on February 13th, 2018. You explore the “heartipelago”, going through 6 different areas and fighting monsters. As you travel, you can enter taverns where you’ll meet different procedurally-generated people you can partner up with for your adventure. They have summaries of their abilities, as well as how they’re feeling, making your choice based on what you think you’ll need and work well with instead of gender.

In battle, you’ll have to learn to negotiate your fighting style with your partner’s if you want to win. Both of you have four battle commands, but unless you’e earned your partner’s trust, you’ll only be able to control yourself. With your companion operating separately, you have to account for their actions in addition to those of your enemies. This gives combat a bit of a puzzley feel, challenging you to figure out the solution to each fight.

Interacting with your companion is a big part of this game’s ingenuity and charm: you build relationships with your partners, and their level of trust and comfort with you determines how you interact with them. You build relationships with them by following where they want to go on the map and making choices they agree with.

Negotiating these choices is another aspect of this game I appreciate. When on the road, your partner will want to take one path and it’s up to you to decide if you’ll follow. This decision can be difficult, do you follow your partner to build your relationship, or do you choose a different path based on the number of enemies, or opportunities to heal or gain new skills? You have to manage these decisions wisely if you want to maintain your partnership and survive.

Aesthetically, Roguemance is incredibly cute. The scenery is colorful and each area of the heartipelago has a unique personality and feel, including enemies and bosses equipped with powers to match the area’s theme. Characters are brought to life with cute pixel art, and you’re able to customize your own character through multiple skin color, clothing, and hair options.

Adding to its themes of companionship and romance, you can play this game in single-player mode or with local co-op.

If you enjoy RPGs and Rogue-lites or likes, and want some lighter fare, Roguemance might be for you. It’s available over on Steam for $6.99 (though if you’re reading this as of 2/16, it’s on sale for $6.29).