Link: https://sites.google.com/site/infraarcana/

Roguelikes are infamous for their ruthlessness: instant deaths that could only be prevented with spoilers, early game hell gating most of the game for those who aren't able to learn all the intricacies of the system, many ways to permanently cripple your character in one wrong move, unbalanced classes / builds with no clear indication on what's a good choice for a beginner...

Some games like DCSS and Brogue see this as a fundamental flaw of the genre. Others lean into it instead, turning pain and (perceived) unfairness into a new masterpiece. That's Infra Arcana.

Let me predict your first run in IA:

• You open a door and meet face-to-face with a pack of wolves. They kill you easily.
• As you explore a wall collapses and a group of zombies appear. You either try to kill them and die or you try to run away and reach a dead-end. And if you somehow manage to get rid of all the zombies you end up being infected crippling your character for the rest of the run. Yeah.
• You meet a cultist with a shotgun. You make one step forward to them and they one-shot you.
• You confront a blind zealot and they maul you to death.
• You open a sarcophagus and a ghost saps your spirit in a few turns.
• You drink an unidentified potion and die.
• You try to cast a spell that removes all your spirit in one casting.

Even if you are well familiar with the genre you will find plenty of (deadly) surprises as you try to keep a character alive for more than a few floors.

Here's an example from my recent run:

I started as a rogue (focused on stealth) and opened a door in a room I spawned in. Immediately a wolf pack went inside started attacking me. I make a step back and a cultist with a shotgun appears!

I saved myself by tossing a Molotov cocktail but even then I already was one hit away from death. One of the wolves wasn't affected by the cocktail (the only way to include it in the "explosion" was by exposing myself to it too) so I had to fight it with my weak starting dagger. If I got a little bit more unlucky, that one wolf would have finished me off.

As you can see, the early game difficulty is somewhat offset by the amount of tools you start with. Every character (except ghouls) start with a melee weapon, a gun with some ammo, some explosives and throwing weapons. War veteran (the local fighter) starts with the best equipment overall while occultist (the local magic user) has the worst equipment. Since magic is very dangerous in IA and every occultist starts with only 2 spells, veteran is actually the most versatile character at the beginning unlike so many RPGs I know of.

Now, you might have a question: why would you want to play such a brutal and unforgiving game? Regardless of whether the game is actually unfair or just feels like that to a novice, it will still invoke the same feeling of a cheap death. Well, I cannot make you enjoy experience that just aren't for you but hear me out!

The game provides a formidable challenge but it's never impossible. From the very beginning you have the tools to confront the horrors of the cult: even the weakest starting gun deals a lot of damage, explosives can get rid of hoards of undead and starving canines, stealth is a powerful tool that's not punished at all (enemies grant no experience), spellcasting while dangerous is open to all who amass some spirit points, throwing weapons are a cheap and quiet way to damage enemies from afar, statues and braziers can be kicked on your foes to get rid of them wasting no resources.

Infra Arcana is a game that's very satisfying to conquer. And, no matter how harsh it looks at the beginning, it wants you to succeed.

Ohhhh, a true rogue like. How does it compare to dcss, is it much more work to play?

I would say it's the opposite of DCSS in many ways. Like:

• There's a tight clock named "shock". Shock increases at a steady rate and the main way to reset it is to move to the next floor. There are some alternative ways but they are either rare (a potion) or have a big drawback (drugs causing addiction). I'm generally not a fan of hunger clocks in roguelikes but IA has a really good one.
• Every encounter can cripple you in a long-term. Taking a big chunk of damage in one turn causes you to gain wounds which can only be removed by expending your medkit uses. So melee leans heavily into resource management. Guns use ammo and throwing weapons are eventually lost. Spirit (local mana) is very limited, takes some time to restore and will kill you if you reach 0. IA is one of the most management-heavy roguelikes out there.
• No auto-explore but levels aren't as big and you can't return to previous floors so backtracking is limited. I personally don't feel a need in auto-explore in IA.
• Enemies don't give experience. You gain it through exploration and identification of items instead. Stealth is a very viable play style here.
• Experience goes into traits - straightforward upgrades to your character like +10% accuracy with ranged weapons or +1 armor etc. The main form of character progression is through accumulation of items. Potions and guns are particularly important in my experience.

As for how much work it is to play, I find it surprisingly chill. ID game is simple and straightforward, no shops so I don't need to think about selling anything, no scrolls of enchant thing so I can just equip my current best stuff. You will be primarily occupied with trying to explore as much of the floor as you can before shock and enemies overwhelm you.

My only problem with the game is how it treats saving. The ONLY way you can save is by reaching stairs and choosing to "save and quit" the game. If you choose to proceed to the next floor instead, or if you load up your save after saving and quitting, you will need to beat the new floor until you get a chance to save the game. Quitting in any other way deletes your save file. It sucks.

Does it steam machine? Saving is not necessary there as you sleep the VM.

I had some extra time today, and a need to zone out for a bit. Played a few quick games. Could tell pretty quickly it was a game that someone cared about.

Will probably play more if I can. Thanks for the heads up about the saves. Would have been very frustrating to find that out later.

Thanks for the post.

I'm glad you had a fun time with it! The issue with saves did cause me some bad experiences thanks to my expectations from better executed saving systems in DCSS and Brogue. My best run (17 floors!) ended up because of this haha...

I felt compelled to make a second post. I've now played a few games and keep finding it to be very enjoyable. This is not without meaning considering I truly am not a big gamer. The author put a lot of thought into the game itself. That's what I am enjoying about it. The discovery of their deep dynamics and not being bogged down by a cumbersome and time consuming system.

As I just pick up and put down, the save isn't a problem. I'm usually dead by level 3 anyways. It is not forgiving.

Very impressive game to me at least. The games content is pretty unique. A lot of options that real life would afford you, yet other games omit (kicking objects at enemies, picking up stones). They would come up with a good idea and refuse to stop there, expounding on the idea with sub options. Sure, you can drink from that fountain to heal.... but.....

Very cool.

I always drink from fountains in hope for some experience or at least some shock removal. I'm glad it's not Nethack so there's no 1% chance I will have to face an out-of-depth monster that easily one-shots me.

I remember time when kicking objects wasn't explained in-game. When the hint was finally added, I felt in-love with the mechanic. Kicking is great, it's one additional keypress and so many added opportunities!

Speaking of realistic mechanics, throwing is pretty important in this game. I only learned about its' strength when I was watching ToneHack's playthrough of IA.