Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God, a very charming turn-based rogue-like for both PSVita & PC whose main emphasis is on how curry is amazing & Pupuru’s quest to find the ingredients to make the “Legendary Magic Curry” all in order to save her favorite restaurant from closing due to competition from a rival chain curry restaurant opening next door… among other wacky things that Pupuru will encounter & deal with thanks to the games rather diverse cast of equally diverse characters. Needless to say the game is charmingly comedic, nothing serious about it.
As mentioned, the Sorcery Saga is a rogue-like & as such, death is around every corner. Be it just plain strong enemies, drinking a paralysis potion instead of throwing it at a boss (true story) or getting surrounded by a mob of monsters because you’ve triggered a monster house, a staple of rogues games. The game is simple to pick up & play & it does a decent enough job to teach you the basic of it in the first hour or so. Press a button to attack, enemies move when you do, lose everything once you die & start from scratch both level-wise & equipment, etc. The usual rogue gameplay. If you’ve played at least one for a bit you’ve gathered the basics of them all & Sorcery Saga is no different. Level ups are not permanent, be it by death or starting one of the 6-7 or so randomized dungeons, you will always start from Lv.1. Instead you rely on your found equipment or magic to give you the edge next time you venture into the dungeons.
Ultimately, the game isn’t that high on the difficulty scale & while I am by no means a veteran of rogue, rogue-likes & the like, this game sure left a fair bit to be desired on that front & among other areas. Of the few deaths I had playing, only 1 or 2 where due to actual difficulty (taking a strong hit) & not product of a fuck up on my part or a monster house catching me off guard when arriving a new floor & not managing it correctly. Monsters take a few wacks with your weapon to deal with & oftentimes you will outpace them or use the terrain to your advantage & if that fails, magic. That wonderful thing that completely neuters bosses. While they can certainly dish out heavy hits, with a little range you can blast away from a diverse choice of spells & while they are limited in usage per stage, a few casts should be enough to flat out destroy the “big & scary” bosses. Eventually you will find a Paralysis spell which will buy you a few more turns to blast away.
You will not travel along in these dark & scary dungeons, no. You will be accompanied by Kuu, a Moogle wannabee trash compactor ball of fluff that will eat anything & everything. EVERYTHING. In any case, this thing will help you along by either attacking, being in the way, blocking monsters from getting at your tasty bits &/or curry (even in death the little bastard blocks enemies from getting at you), etc. The little beast besides being a nuisance, both to you & monsters, can also gain abilities, though randomly, from leveling up which can be beneficial to you (carrying extra items, combining equipment for boosts, etc), passives that help it or attacking moves like a laser that pierces the hea- monsters. Contrary to how Pururu gains levels by killing monsters, Kuu gains them by eating whatever thing you throw at him. Of course not all things are beneficial to his bottomless stomach per se, some dealing damage to his “Hunger” Bar but all add up to his EXP bar, so it is always beneficial to throw something at it considering he is immortal. His “death” only stopping you from going to a new floor until you at least give him something to eat & considering he helps you by tanking enemies, it pays to be somewhat nice to the little belligerent beast. Be aware that he loves attracting monsters when he gets too hungry but seeing as they tend to attack him, it is him on the losing side of things. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Before traversing the randomized dungeons first you must traverse the not so random forests. These are small 2-3 floor pre-designed areas that help you in gather a bit of EXP, items & whatnot before going to the big dungeons. This aspect of the game I didn’t like as I felt it added tedium to the already average game. Sadly you must always go through these to get to the main dungeons, something I could have done without. The dungeons are serviceable in design, nothing particular memorable or eye catching. The monsters likewise suffer the same fate. While they are varied in the ways they attack (some curse your items, destroy items on the map, etc), they are not tied to any specific dungeon so they will be everywhere & their pallet swaps doesn’t help in the least. This makes the enemy count feel sparse.
The story is told through a visual novel style, meaning static images on a still background. It is not a groundbreaking plot but it is certainly charming with plenty of wacky characters. The 2D art is pretty well done & overall bright & colorful, something I am a sucker for. When in dungeons it uses 3D chibi models, nothing out there but serviceable, dungeons themselves vary from bright & colorful to some rather dull tones. Basic as basic can be. To round it all out, the OST, much like the rest of the game is full of charming tracks, some slightly “serious” tracks & some annoyingly catchy ones like the Monster House theme.
Overall, Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God is definitely not aimed at veterans of the rogue/mystery dungeon genre. It is basic through & true, nothing particularly challenging & it does not bring much of anything new to the genre. Its cooking gimmick amounts to nothing more than that, a gimmick, with the curry cooked only amounting to minor stats boosts that last from anything like a few seconds to a whopping’ minute at best & considering it is never explained in-depth & info on the game is scarce, one will be hard pressed to make much use of it. It has a charming OST & story but outside of that it is not something that might seriously hook people, it is a beginner’s game & even then I am sure there are better ones to start with. Do I recommend it? Possibly, it is not inherently bad but I definitely would not go out of my way to purchase a Vita or Steam copy.
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