This time it’s Hades that Shiny Shoe’s game feels similar to, but with some delicious differences that make this roguelike stand out all on its own.
To understand the allure of Inkbound, you have to understand a bit about the developer making it. Shiny Shoe made a game called Monster Train that came out a few years ago, and it was a roguelike deck-building game influenced by Slay the Spire, but imaginative enough to spin that influence into its own thing – and then good enough to deliver it. That’s not an easy genre to stand out in, but it did. Understandably, there was a lot of excitement for what the studio would do next, and Inkbound is it. And whisper it, but I believe Shiny Shoe has done it again.
Slay the Spire isn’t the dominant influence this time; Hades is. There’s one huge difference in that Inkbound combat plays out in turns, rather than in real-time – and that it’s got optional multiplayer co-op for you and three others – but otherwise, so much feels the same. The way you start from scratch and build and modify your character through a run feels the same, as does having a choice of rooms to progress onto after you beat an encounter. The hub you return to where characters wait to speak to you and give you quests also feels the same, as do the dialogue panels that pop up when you talk to them. Heck, the game’s whole tone doesn’t feel that far removed. So there’s a lot of Hades here, and maybe that sounds derivative but it isn’t – Shiny Shoe has spun the formula again in a way that’s beautifully its own.
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