A completely unique and quirky puzzle-strategy hybrid from Acquire that flips conventions on its head to make a memorable (if a bit frustrating) product.
| Developer | Acquire; SCE Japan Studio |
| Publisher | |
| Franchise | No Heroes Allowed |
| Genre | Builder; Puzzle; Strategy |
| PSTV | Yes |
| PSN | EU/NA |
World-building & Story
The Demon Lord known as Badman has used all of his power to summon the God of Destruction and as such is vulnerable to capture by powerful heroes. To evade them, he has escaped to his underground lair and now relies on you – the player (who controls a disembodied hand representing the God of Destruction) to dig out an elaborate series of mazes and build an ecosystem of monsters to protect him.
That’s all there is to the plot of What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord? – a simple set-up establishing why you’re doing what you’re doing, otherwise it’s up to the player to fill in the gaps in terms of story and world. It’s an interesting premise though, and otherwise the strategy gameplay here more than makes up for any shortfalls.
Presentation & Sound
Fitting in alongside the sea of modern pixel-art 2D games, the graphics in What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord? are pretty bland – there’s nothing special here, but they get the job done.
Most of the time your screen will simply be filled with the same brown and grey coloured 2D rocks over and over again, although once you start digging out your underground lair and populating it with monsters, things get a little bit more lively. The different creatures all have their own animations – slimes simply side along the floor, lizardmen poke at things with their swords and lay eggs while demons take regular naps after climbing through an underworld portal to the surface.
The game looks at its best when a hero has invaded your dungeon and starts hacking and slashing their way through the hordes, casting spells and buffs of their own and starting fights with your army of creatures. There’s no slowdown to speak of either which is nice, but visually there’s very little else to appreciate about What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord – menus are simple, sprites are basic and background elements never change.
I did enjoy the various sound effects throughout the game – particularly the yells from the heroes as they cast buffs on themselves, but conversely music is quite disappointing with no real stand-out tracks to speak of.
Gameplay & Content
Somewhat of a cross between a real-time strategy and a puzzle game, What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord is a unique beast that deserves a lot of credit for thinking outside of the box. Some of its elements work better than others and it is an almighty challenging game, but if you can figure it out there’s a surprising amount of fun to be had here.
At first glance, it’d be easy to think that you’re playing a 2D version of Bullfrog’s classic Dungeon Keeper. You control a disembodied hand (representing the God of Destruction) who has control over the underground lair belonging to Badman and it’s your goal to dig a series of tunnels and breed monsters along the way so that when the heroes invade to capture Badman (who appear at regular intervals), they die along the way and you can loot their remains and keep your evil lair in tact.
You do this by digging out dirt which is as simple as moving over it with a pickaxe and pressing square. The type of block you dig out has an effect on which monsters you will get from it – see, everything here is based on the idea of ‘nutrients’, which cause the earth to become more fertile over time. If a block has lots of nutrients, it will release a stronger monster when you crack it open – there’s also a second resource called ‘mana’ which can unleash different types of monsters or be combined with a nutrient-rich rock to make an even stronger creature.
You’ll quickly discover that the game is therefore more about building an ecosystem than it is about crafting elaborate underground lairs. You’ll need to use slimes to move nutrients around (they take it from one block and deposit it in the next one along), then afterwards you’ll be able to create omnoms which are little dog-like things which eat slimes to grow stronger. Eventually you’ll be able to create lizardmen, liliths, demons and if you’re very successful then dragons – all by moving nutrients around and maximising the range of monsters in your dungeon.
Each type has their own different abilities and attack patterns – dragons fire in a straight line down a path, while demons will attack other types of demons if they come into contact. It can be a bit overwhelming to manage, but thankfully there’s a decent selection of tutorials when you’re first getting started to ease you in. You’ll pick up other little tricks from repeated playthroughs too – such as the ability to revive fallen heroes as skeletons to fight for you or how to get the heroes to expel all their mana into certain blocks, supercharging them for your army.
So after a few aborted tries and a bit of experimentation, What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord becomes a solid amount of fun. You’ll try out new strategies – digging out long elaborate tunnels that take the heroes to go down, or equally building a very small area so that nutrients get concentrated and you can create very powerful monsters. At times, the game feels more like a puzzle title than a builder/strategy as you often have a very specific route that you can dig, but the randomised nature somewhat helps stave off any frustration.
With that said, there’s definitely not a meaty offering here – the game is short, with only the story mode to play which features random block placement but the same handful of heroes appearing at set times whenever you play. There are specific challenges you can undertake (build x number of y monster etc.) which do little to add to longevity, even if the game can be unforgiving at times. Part of that comes from the creature AI – the way slimes move nutrients around can do more harm than good meaning at times you’ll just be crossing your fingers to get the right combination to create what you want.
Still, this is an interesting experiment from Acquire that mostly succeeds in what it sets out to do – it’s a bit rough around the edges and could do with a bit more fine-tuning, but sets out a solid template for the franchise going forward.
Conclusion
Part god game, part puzzle, part strategy, What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord takes the idea of Dungeon Keeper and expands on it in a variety of interesting ways to make a unique, memorable experience. Parts of it work better than others and there’s certainly a share of frustration along the way, but if you’re looking for something a little different in your PSP/Vita library, this is definitely worth considering.
6.5/10
kresnik258gaming 