Game file / ROGUE BY ROGUEWithering Rooms
Withering Rooms is a challenging 2.5D horror RPG set in a procedurally generated Victorian mansion that changes each night. Explore Mostyn House to collect the perfect items for your build and face a huge cast of overgrown undead, invisible ghosts, devious witches, and more.
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Video reviews
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Archived creator commentary 1
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Top 10 of 2024 (#7)
Withering Rooms is a 2.5D action horror roguelike mixing stealth and soulslike mechanics in a surprisingly large adventure. You play a young girl who starts out weak and hiding from monsters, then grows into a fighter or wizard. He calls it the most surprising and interesting game on his list, feeling more like an action horror adventure than a typical roguelike. Despite UI, repetition and weak-boss complaints, he highly recommends it to anyone wanting a different roguelike experience.
What the creator praises
- Surprising scope: keeps expanding until it feels like a massive adventure game
- Intentionally slow, simple, clunky gameplay that supports the vulnerable start
- Progression from helpless hiding to becoming a true fighter or wizard
- Hardcore death system that sends you back to chapter start, making combat risky and frightening
- Remembrance shrines let you pay to permanently keep items, an interesting player decision
- Curse rot mechanic changes visuals, audio and gameplay, with fantastic effort put into the changes
- Strong sense of adventure and unique monsters
Issues raised by the creator
- Map and inventory UI could use better filters and player feedback
- Late-game fast travel is lacking
- Gets repetitive by the end despite its size
- Player became so overpowered as to be near invincible
- Many bosses look cool but are mechanically uninteresting, and infinite lives in boss fights reduce the threat
Design observations
- Permadeath treated as a hardcore chapter-reset death system rather than a full run reset, keeping levels and permanent items
- Curse meter that rises with horrifying events and transforms the world and mechanics
- Roguelike elements (random loot, rings with randomized stats) serve an action horror adventure
