Game file / ROGUE BY ROGUEPatch Quest
In a labyrinth surrounded by vicious monsters, Explorers must rely on their Lasso to survive! Capture and tame ANY monster to leap, glide, surf, tunnel and websling through a treacherous, patchwork maze. This roguelike/metroidvania seems cute, but it’s a deceptively difficult bullet-hell challenge!
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Video reviews
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Archived third-party reviews and community material may refer to different versions. External opinions and ratings are presented separately; consult the original videos for their full context.
Community discussion
A cute hand-drawn twin-stick bullet-hell roguelite/metroidvania where you lasso and ride 50+ monsters through a huge jungle labyrinth called Patchlantis, collecting pins, plants and pets.
Patch Quest is well liked by players (Steam 'Very Positive', about 93.5% of roughly 2,800 reviews per the local data; the Steam store page itself showed a higher, Overwhelmingly Positive figure on a smaller review count) and by the handful of critics who reviewed it (Metacritic 80 from 5 scored reviews, ranging 60 to 90). Praise centres on the charm, the variety of rideable monsters, tight controls and a real sense of exploration and progression. The recurring complaint is that the loop becomes repetitive and the very large, non-random map turns into a long trek, with enemy damage ramping up so runs must be restarted. Released in early access in May 2021 and in 1.0 on March 2, 2023; it is a finished game with a soundtrack DLC, is Windows-only on Steam (Metacritic also lists iOS), and is frequently discounted to a few dollars. Recent patch history could not be confirmed.
What players praise
- Lasso-and-ride mechanic: taming any monster and using it as a mount with its own attacks and traversal ability (leap, glide, surf, tunnel, websling) is the signature hook and widely loved
- Charming hand-drawn art, goofy monsters and pun-heavy writing; several players said the art put them off at first, then became part of the charm
- Very smooth, responsive twin-stick controls; one reviewer called them among the smoothest they have played
- Deep customisation: ammo fruits and charge shots, badges/perks, pets, mounts, biomes and a customisable home base give lots of build variety
- Metroidvania-style exploration with pins, shortcuts and gadgets gives persistent progression on top of the roguelite runs; players report a shift from 'fooling around' to strategising runs
- Local co-op is praised by one reviewer who 100%'d it with a partner as one of the best co-op games out there (local only; others wanted online co-op)
- Low-commitment 'one more run' loop with lots of content: reviewers describe getting sucked in for hours and a real sense of progression
What players criticize
- Repetition: several negative reviewers say they had seen nearly everything after roughly 5-7 hours; enemies and bosses behave similarly across the map
- The map is huge and fixed (not randomly generated), so crossing it repeatedly is slow; one reviewer estimated about 20 minutes just to reach a far goal
- Enemy damage ramps up over time, forcing restarts roughly an hour into a run and making players re-tread the same ground
- Enemies are very tanky so encounters drag, and some players feel rewards (treasure perks, unlocks) are underwhelming relative to the effort
- Fast travel only works on tiles visited in the current run
- Mounts and bullet types feel too similar to some players, and the gun itself never changes, only its effects
- Co-op is local only; a few players wanted online co-op and did not find a way to play remotely (Remote Play Together is the only listed workaround)
- A minority report technical problems: startup crashes, frame drops, sticky movement (Steam community thread titles and one negative review)
Distinctive features
- Monster-taming in a bullet hell: every enemy you can capture becomes a playable mount with its own moveset, rather than picking from a fixed character roster
- Fusion of genres: twin-stick shooter, Pokemon-style creature collecting, roguelite runs and metroidvania map progression in one package
- Ammo crafting by blending fruits/plants into different bullet effects, with charge shots per ammo type
- A large hand-made (not procedurally generated) labyrinth map with shortcuts that persist between runs
- A home-base island with pets, decorations and customisation, plus a post-game challenge mode on hardest difficulty
Divided opinions
- Difficulty: some call it surprisingly hard and brutal, others say the casual mode, bullet cancelling and assist options make it friendly to casuals as well as hardcore players
- Length and map size: seen as content-rich and engrossing by many, but as bloated and padded by the negative reviewers
- Repetitiveness: critics and players split on whether the creature variety carries the loop or whether 'once you learn one monster you know them all'
- Value: several positive reviewers bought it on deep sale ($3) and say it would be worth full price, while one negative reviewer felt it was not worth $15
Repetition and friction
- Long, interrupted walks across a very large map, especially after dying or after the damage scaling forces a restart
- Completionist chasing: missed pins and decorations are hard to track down, decorations require clearing 4 tiles each, and some do not spawn in a given run
- Only 3 pets can be brought back per run, which a reviewer computed as about 20 runs to collect them all
- Needing both sticks constantly; players on keyboard and mouse find it awkward and it has a learning curve
- Bosses and some enemies create very dense bullet patterns; a few reviewers describe being killed in 5-6 hits even with maxed stats
Hoped-for improvements
- Shrink or restructure the map, or make shortcuts and fast travel much stronger so backtracking is less of a slog
- Add variety to enemy behaviour and boss patterns so monsters across regions feel different
- Rebalance enemy health and damage scaling so runs are not forced to reset and fights are quicker
- Let players bring more than 3 pets per run and carry spare pins/decorations between runs, to reduce completionist grind
- Add real online co-op (players asked for it, and local-only is repeatedly called out)
- Improve the late-game reward quality and story payoff; one player found the story fine but unsatisfying
Early access launch May 7, 2021 (devlog series helped build a following; several reviewers say they followed it from those devlogs), 1.0 on March 2, 2023 from Lychee Game Labs and publisher Curve Games at $14.99. Metacritic critic coverage is thin (5 scored reviews; Polygon's review is listed as praising how it juggles genres, score tbd; TheGamer is the outlier at 60, calling it repetitive with limited progression impact). Metacritic user score is 7.2 on only 10 ratings, so not meaningful. OpenCritic could not be retrieved (no data found, reported as null). Steam: Windows only, no Mac/Linux; a soundtrack and a guide add-on exist. Steam review counts differed between sources (local data 2,792 reviews at 93.5%; the store page fetch showed 95% of 1,057), likely reflecting language/time filters. Note: the WebSearch budget for the session was exhausted, so no Reddit or broad web discussion could be retrieved, Reddit and Polygon fetches were blocked, and I could not confirm any recent patch notes or console ports; community themes come from Steam reviews, Steam forum topic titles and the fetched critic pages. Verification: Metacritic page re-fetched confirms Metascore 80 from 5 critics and user 7.2 from 10 ratings; only GameGrin (90) and TheGamer (60) individual scores were visible on the page, so the INVEN/God is a Geek/Games Machine figures were removed as unconfirmed. OpenCritic left null.
Community sources
- Top helpful positive and negative English Steam reviews (local file) ↗
- Local Steam metadata: appid, tags, review counts, Metacritic 80, SteamSpy owners ↗
- Steam store page: description, tags, early access date, release date, soundtrack DLC ↗
- Metacritic: Metascore 80 from 5 critics, user score 7.2 from 10 ratings, outlet verdict summaries ↗
- GameGrin review, 9/10: praise for genre blend, art, 50+ mounts; notes difficulty and bullet-hell repetition ↗
- Steam community discussion topic titles: crashes, frame loss, controls, co-op partner search, pet questions ↗
- Estimated revenue (Boxleiter method): approx $1.04M gross, $305k net ↗
- OpenCritic search page fetched but returned no game data (score reported null) ↗
Archived creator commentary 1
Third-party summaries based on automatic captions may contain transcription or interpretation errors.
Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Patch Quest is a recent (2023) monster-taming roguelike where you explore a large, expanding world, tame monsters, and fight your way through dungeons and bosses. He finds the taming hook and cute art style unique, and likes the campaign-like sense of discovery. However, it becomes repetitive quickly, with too many similar monster abilities and samey dungeons and travel. He places it low in B tier and doubts it would climb much higher even if it improves.
What the creator praises
- Monster-taming gimmick is unique within roguelikes
- Large world that expands as you explore, with a campaign-like feel
- Thrill of discovering far-off locations and bosses
- Cute art style with its own identity
- Unique passives found during runs are cool
Issues raised by the creator
- Gets repetitive very quickly
- Every monster has four abilities, many very similar, so it is overwhelming and hard to keep track of as you swap monsters
- Same passives show up fairly regularly
- New dungeons feel much the same after about 10 hours; travel between locations is repetitive with tile types
- Sidekick character has an annoying voice (but it does not affect rating)
Design observations
- Taming monsters as a core roguelike mechanic, each with its own abilities
- Campaign-style world expansion layered on runs
