When comparing Yodanji vs Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, the Slant community recommends Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup for most people. In the question“What are the best roguelikes on PC?” Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is ranked 5th while Yodanji is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is:
There are a few different classes available at character creation, each one has it's own abilities that are different from the others. Creating one is quite simple, which makes for a fast way to get into the game and start playing.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Solid roguelike gameplay
Yodanji is a good mix of RPG, roguelike and dungeon crawling elements. You explore a dungeon, battle enemies, level up and learn new skills, and find useful items while avoiding traps, finding secrets, and enduring sudden ambushes. There's even a hunger mechanic, adding a bit of a micro management aspect when you're not fighting. All of this creates an enjoyable experience that can satisfy most players looking for a good roguelike game.
Pro Suspenseful atmosphere
While Yodanji's supernatural premise and eerie sound effects could've been enough to create a tense atmosphere, the limited vision makes it very suspenseful. You can only see enemies directly in your line of sight, so you'll only notice an enemy right after turning a corner. This also allows them to ambush you, since just looking into a room won't inform you of anyone hiding in that room's corners. It's a simple mechanic, but it makes exploring a lot more intense, since one wrong move can lead to your death.
Pro Educates you about the Yokai of Japanese folklore
All of Yodanji's playable characters are Yokai - supernatural beings that appear in many types of Japanese folklore. This includes Yuki-onna (snow woman), Kamaitachi (sickle weasel), Nekomata (a possessed two-tailed cat), and many others. Each Yokai has background info at the character selection screen, providing insights into that Yokai's origins and supernatural origins. This gives you a chance to learn interesting tidbits about Japanese culture while playing the game.
Pro Simple character creation with different classes
There are a few different classes available at character creation, each one has it's own abilities that are different from the others. Creating one is quite simple, which makes for a fast way to get into the game and start playing.
Pro Gold Standard for roguelikes
The controls and replayability have been refined over the years. Whether the player chooses to play with Tiles (graphics) or console (ASCII) the game works well even when choosing online or offline play. Either way there is just enough interface to play the game.
Cons
Con Very basic visuals
Aside from the nicely drawn character pictures, every other visual in Yodanji is very basic. Environments, items, and even character sprites are very pixelated, lack detail, and have a very limited color to them. While the developer might've gone with this retro-esque style intentionally, it probably won't impress players looking for more impressive visuals.
Con The soundtrack can get repetitive easily
As you're exploring the dungeon in Yodanji, you'll be accompanied by a simple tune, consisting primarily of a string instrument and a flute with some ambience mixed in. While the audio quality is great and the tune sounds nice, it's only about 15 seconds long and loops endlessly. As a result, after playing for a couple of hours the tune might start to become unbearable, causing it to even feel distracting.
Con Have to fiddle with controls
Being that the game uses an emulated keyboard on screen it works best on tablet, though is not really the preferred method (but is the only one) since it takes up screen space.