Mangui
Last updated: 2025-04-22
- Fun, simple, and engaging gameplay experience.
- Unique Korean folklore and art style.
- Compelling story and characters.
- Excellent and immersive soundtrack.
- Lacks depth, replayability, and progression.
- High difficulty, limited resources.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 90% · Negative 10%. Score: 10 / 100
Positives:
- The game is consistently praised for being fun, enjoyable, and easy to pick up. Reviewers highlight its simple yet engaging gameplay, well-balanced difficulty, and satisfying sense of progression. Many found it surprisingly immersive and better than expected, making it a great experience overall.
- The game's art style, particularly its use of pixel art, is well-received and distinctive. The game effectively incorporates Korean cultural elements, such as traditional settings, folklore, and mythology, into its story, graphics, and overall design, creating a unique and immersive experience.
- The game features a compelling and enjoyable story, often described as reminiscent of Korean folktales or fairy tales. The characters are well-developed with distinct personalities, making the narrative emotionally moving and engaging.
- The game features an excellent and immersive soundtrack that enhances the overall experience. Reviewers found the music to be catchy, lively, and a perfect fit for the game's atmosphere.
- The game provides a well-balanced and accessible roguelike experience. It's easier to learn compared to traditional roguelikes, with a satisfying progression system and the ability to inherit skills upon failure.
Negatives:
- The game suffers from a lack of depth, replayability, and meaningful progression. Players feel that character growth is limited, itemization is unrewarding, and the roguelike elements are weak due to fixed stage layouts and limited save options, making repeated playthroughs feel stale and luck-dependent.
- The game's difficulty is a common point of concern, with players finding it unexpectedly challenging, especially in the early stages. Limited health recovery, turn limits, and a weak starting class (Mudang) contribute to a frustrating experience, potentially requiring specific strategies or luck to overcome.
- The game lacks proper controller support and customizable keybindings, leading to awkward controls and a less enjoyable experience. Players also noted the absence of mouse interaction for viewing skill effects, further hindering usability.
- Accuracy stat issues and item RNG create frustrating gameplay. The accuracy cap negatively impacts magic-based characters, while random item drops often provide skills and items that don't match the player's build, making them useless.
- Players find the skill system cumbersome due to cooldowns not resetting between maps, unclear skill tree presentation, and the inability to reorder skills. Checking character status is also inconvenient, requiring multiple steps to view information.
Gameplay:
- The game is a turn-based roguelike with permadeath, featuring multiple characters and storylines. Combat and progression are intuitive, with skills having cooldowns and a turn limit per map, requiring strategic play. The game balances accessibility with strategic depth.
- Players can sell unwanted items to a tiger merchant. Attacking the merchant grants a unique skill but turns them into an enemy for the rest of the playthrough, creating a risk-reward choice.
- The game emphasizes collecting and upgrading skills and equipment to create powerful synergies. Players must carefully manage skill cooldowns and decide when to replace skills to optimize their character build.
- The mini-map is functional but too small for precise step counting, though this rarely impacts gameplay. Map variety is present but feels limited, reducing its impact on the overall experience.
- The game shares similarities with Necrodancer but does not require rhythm or beat matching. This distinguishes it from rhythm-based roguelikes.
Performance:
- The game runs well on Steam Deck. Players have reported completing the game without issues and successfully using custom controller layouts and key mappings, indicating good compatibility and customization options for the device.
- The game features smooth animations. This contributes to the overall visual polish and fluidity of the gameplay experience.
Recommendations:
- The game is widely recommended, especially for fans of roguelikes or those seeking a light, enjoyable experience. Reviewers express excitement for future content and believe the game has significant potential, even in its early access state. Some suggest it's worth the full price and are eager for the official release.
- An improved save system would enhance the overall player experience. This would allow players to have more control over their progress and make the game more accessible.
- The addition of achievements is a requested feature. This would provide players with additional goals and a sense of progression.
- Adding gamepad support would improve the Steam Deck experience. This would make the game more accessible and enjoyable for players who prefer using a controller.
Miscellaneous:
- The game is currently in early access and was developed by a single person. This context is important for understanding the game's current state and potential for future development.
- Players have noted a lack of engaging content to pursue after completing the main storyline. This may impact the game's long-term replayability and player retention.
- The game uses a combination of pixel art for the map and hand-drawn art for character pop-ups during story sequences. This stylistic choice creates a distinct visual presentation.
- The game features a contrast between cute animal enemies and the descriptions of scary monsters, creating a unique and potentially humorous element. This juxtaposition might appeal to some players while confusing others.
