Patch Quest Review: Roguelikes, Metroidvanias, and Pokémon Likes Converge

At first glance the world of patch quest is inviting, colorful and warm. However, you soon come face to face with a colossal web-slinging spider, and suddenly the world seems much more dangerous.

In patch quest, you play as an explorer trying to piece together the quilted world of Patchlantis with the help of your monster friends. Your first few hours are an amalgamation of numerous games that have come before it: you can tame monsters à la Pokémon, collect items à la The Binding of Isaacand dodge for your life à la Enter the dungeon. But despite its clear inspirations, developer Lychee Game Labs has created something unique: a monster taming roguelike all for yourself.

Every time you embark on a quest, you’ll lose yourself, your monster-taming lasso and your trusty blaster, in Patchlantis’ maze of a world with one goal in mind: put the world back together, one patch at a time. At first, I ventured into Patchlantis and encountered my first enemy, a mere moth. The frail beetle seemed like a weak partner, but after taming the hypnoth, it proved a dominant ally whose power to make other beasts dizzy more than compensated for its puny stature.

On the back of your new colleague you travel through the quilt maze, defeat enemy animals and strengthen yourself with fruit ammo and amulets. You fight bosses, unlock shortcuts, and collect plants until you meet your ultimate downfall, at which point you return to your base camp. Before embarking on another quest, you’ll receive perks to power up your explorer and distribute plants around camp to power up your beloved pets and prepare for your next journey.

Now we’re ready to put the patches of the world back together – wait a minute, is that an armadillo in a hat? That’s what I’m talking about! The animals and creatures within patch quest lured me in with their cute behavior (even the creepy crawlies) but many of them aren’t interested in being my friends – some are wild beasts just looking for their next meal. The animals of patch quest are born wild and untamed, but instead of taming and collecting these animals, I must eliminate them.

Their projectiles clutter my screen and I try my best to dodge with the minimal space I have. There are definitely points where I should take damage or even die, but patch quest forgives in his tool kit. Instead of dodging, I can destroy or deflect projectiles, and sometimes my “dodge level,” which gives you a chance to take no damage on hit, is high enough to dodge all but the most blinding of shots.

several hours, patch quest began to feel a little to forgiving, so I checked the difficulty settings only to find I’d been playing on the lowest possible difficulty. Being the gamer that I am, I upped the difficulty to Level 8: Lethal. Oh, I soon realized I wasn’t the gamer I thought I was. patch questDifficulty settings range from inviting and approachable to punishing and chaotic. Have fun patch quest arises from revisiting higher difficulties as you unlock perks and level up your newfound companions.

After some experimentation and trial and error (often known as dying), I felt good about my understanding of patch quest‘s central gameplay loop. Although the maze itself is predetermined, the enemies and patches themselves are different every time, giving you a new experience with every run.

The beginning of patch quest it may take some time to fully work out, but every quilt starts with a single thread and needle. It quickly weaves in new gameplay elements to keep from getting dusty or dull. Taming monsters forces you to diversify your playstyle, and it doesn’t just feel like a random gimmick to make yourself different. The quest system gives you orientation in the winding maze, and the shortcuts ensure that you don’t endlessly navigate the maze to reach your goal. The combat hooks you back in and locks you into that satisfying roguelike loop of upgrading your gear and improving your final quest.

It’s impressive – especially for a game made by one single person – how many different genres and how many different gameplay loops patch quest manages to juggle without dropping a single one. It can be a Pokemon, Castlevania, Binding of Isaac, Enter the dungeon Smoothie, but it’s a smoothie I keep wanting to order again.

patch quest was released on March 2nd on Windows PC. The game has been verified using a pre-release download code provided by Curve Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. You can find For more information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy, click here.