Inkbound review: A real page turner

It doesn't feel like it's hard to find a roguelike RPG these days. They seem to be popping up all over the place. It takes a strong premise for anything in this genre to stand out. Fortunately for developer Shiny Shoe, Inkbound appears to be different enough to stand apart from its contemporaries. Not everything this RPG does works, but it offers enough satisfaction in short enough bursts to make it worth revisiting every now and then.

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Inkbound's story begins with the player character emerging as a Needless, which is essentially a literal blank slate of a character emerging from the endless Sea of Ink. The godlike beings Nib & Bin need help with a mysterious evil force that has been causing the world's stories to unravel and Fade away. The idea is to venture through the lands of the world's many stories, defeat the evils currently plaguing them, and restore the mystical Atheneum to a pristine, evil-free state.

To prepare for the fight ahead, players will select from one of four available Aspects, which represent the game's classes. Four others are unlockable over the course of the story and players are free to switch anytime between runs. The Aspects are basic archetypes, but the fun is in how they're developed over the course of any run. While every Aspect has a set of basic Bindings, which are class attacks, players will gradually unlock new temporary Bindings, Vestiges (which are set bonuses), and Augments to offer various buffs. The goal is to build as powerful a character as possible and either emerge victorious over the villain of any given run or return defeated to the Atheneum to try again.

What makes Inkbound unique is the manner in which battles unfold. These are turn-based battles, but they're not exactly executed in the traditional sense. Characters fight enemies with their available Bindings using Will, the game's equivalent of mana. They take turns going on offense and then must manage a separate movement resource and position themselves to take as little incoming damage as possible. There's profound strategy in moment-to-moment battles, as well as in building strong characters that can survive them. There's a level of depth at work that's rarely seen in a game like this.

This is especially true when determining where to go after every battle. Characters can only carry so many Vestiges, but this leads to an even more interesting idea. Certain areas will allow players to permanently destroy their Vestiges for a greater bonus that lasts for the remainder of the run. It leads to a deeper meta-game of which Vestiges work better when equipped and which serve a grander purpose when they're sacrificed. It's a formula that I still haven't nailed down. It's also one that I continue to hammer away at joyfully in hopes of giving my character larger and larger status effect stacks.

Reliable protagonists

The world's stories provide a backdrop for Inkbound's various settings. Players will hear exposition from an unseen narrator, venture into a colorful new world, and sometimes meet eclectic characters. Some of those characters work as shopkeepers, others offer more details on the story, and some of them help fulfill various objectives. That's great, but it's also the basic extent of what players experience from those environments. There's no real way to interact with these stories and it isn't long before a sense of repetitiveness kicks in. Win combat encounters, move on to the next scene, maybe break some pots or hit a random fishing spot, and do it all again. This is a big part of the reason why Inkbound is best meant for shorter sessions.

The formula feels all the more monotonous once your progression peaks and you start dying repeatedly, especially against some of the game's more brutal villains. There's no real leveling up in Inkbound, but rather, players unlock additional vestiges for future runs. That's great and all, but it does mean that once you hit a real wall, there may be no surmounting it.

Fortunately, at least for me, I got a little more fun out of the game's multiplayer. Matchmaking with random strangers was an easy enough process and Inkbound quickly proves to be even more enjoyable when you get paired up with someone who's nailed down the mechanics. I was fascinated to see that even on a theoretically level playing field, my co-op partner was able to skillfully put together a Mosscloak rogue build that stacked tons of poison damage on foes, making even the toughest battles a little easier. The possibility for co-op synergy also goes a long way in adding a sense of enjoyment to runs.

The next chapter

Inkbound can be a demanding mistress for those looking to see it through to the end. It has a lengthy campaign, so while individual runs are often short, you'll need a lot of them to reach the end. Even if my progress is slower than I'd like, I haven't jumped off the Inkbound train just yet. I dig the formula immensely and while running solo can get old, going through runs with buddies is a blast. The latter is especially recommended for those looking to run through some of the game's tougher foes, because taking on a villain alone can sometimes be no fun and downright unfair.

Inkbound is a vast library of tales and not every book will be worth a read, but there are enough good ones to make for some fun summer reading.

This review is based on a Steam code provided by the publisher. Inkbound is available now on PC for $29.99 USD. The game is not rated by the ESRB.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?