The members of the Fuzz Force have a new mission: to catch the “terrific” Polter prince. It’s time to help them on this quest on this turn-based tabletop game-like rogue-like title. With the power of the dices, will you have success, or will you fail miserably? There is only a way to know it…
Here come the fluffy ghostbusters
On Fuzz Force: Spook Squad, you will play as a member of the team. At first, there is only one available, Finn the fox, but after a few minutes, you will unlock the other three companions: Dotty the dog, Lix the Lizard and Peppa the Mecha. All of them are very charismatic, has their weapons, passive skills and a special unique ability. Their initial equipment, and combat and capture animations, are different too.
The stages are like a tabletop game, first, you are at the gardens of the Booville Hotel, then you will enter it, and if you have enough skill, and luck, especially this one, after five floors, you will arrive at the roof where your target is waiting for you. The enemies are tabletop game figures too.
During your adventure, there isn’t a story, you will encounter random events, enemies, treasures (or enemies) and shops. You will resolve events rolling dices, except in some cases where you can use ghost jars, the game currency. Also, before open a chest, go to a shop or start a fight, you will have the option to roll dices to obtain some buffs in exchange for your ghost jars or your health points (HP). You can get better prices on shops, better rewards on treasures or some advantages for the next fight, but you can get bad things too, like more expensive products on shops, lose HP or meet enemies opening a treasure, or start a battle with a status ailment and with an enemy with extra HP.
Customize your equipment
Each character has a weapon to accomplish the mission. At first, only the initial is available but after completing some runs and completing some special missions, you will unlock more. Special missions are handicaps, like complete a run with a secondary dice with only zeros, or without shops, for example.
Weapons are customizable with dices and mods. On your weapon, there are six dices, two for attacks, two for defence and two for charge your battery. On all the categories, one is the main dice, which determine the quantity of damage that you will deal, the quantity or shield that you will obtain or the quantity of charge that you recharge; and the secondary dice is a constant number, which adds its value to the damage, shield or charge that you get.
Attack and defence are self-explanatory, but charge your battery is an important command too. Each character requires the battery to attack. If you run out of battery, you cannot roll your main dice, decreasing considerably your possible attacks or shields. Also, some characters have a passive ability which requires a determined quantity of battery to activate it. If you have less battery than the required one, the passive will be deactivated, but it will come back when you fill it again.
Some dices can cause status ailments and buffs. When you use them, you will cause the designated effect. There is an interesting variety of buffing and ailments, from poison to static, inflicting damage to the enemy when you charge your battery. From buffs, one of the more useful is the one that allows you to avoid the next attack received if you haven’t a shield.
You can change your dices when you want, except in combat, you will get some from treasure chests, from random events or buying them in shops. Also, in the blacksmith, you can upgrade (only one time each one) the equipped ones in exchange for ghost jars.
You can equip three mods for your weapon. You will obtain them from treasure chests, random events and shops. There is a big variety of them, from one that gives you a discount on shops, to others that give you the possibility to inflict status ailments on enemies, even making them permanent on your victims, among others. You can change the mods when you want, except on combats.
Dices, mods and status ailments or buffs offer an interesting variety of strategies to develop to try to accomplish your mission. The key is to obtain them in the precise moment, but in a rogue-like game, this not happens frequently.
Battling against ghosts
Battles in Fuzz Force: Spook Squad are turn-based. You can do three actions: attack, defence and charge. Dices will determine the quantities of damage, shield or charge, as they can cause status ailments on your enemies. Also, after some turns, the character can use his special ability, which probably turns the combat in your favour.
Enemies have dices too, and passive and active skills. They can attack you, put a shield, or using a skill, which varies from enemy to enemy. For example, some enemies can heal themselves, others will drain your shield or HP, or will inflict you some status ailments, among others.
Combats are usually one versus one, but on every stage, there will be at least one combat against a couple of enemies. These enemies are fused in one, and these combats will be more complicated because it will have the passive skills and the abilities of both components.
Enemies will vary from stage to stage, some are on several floors, but there are always new monsters to fight. Also, on stage two and four you will have to fight a boss.
Clearing the stages and levelling up
If you clear a stage, which includes getting all the treasures, discovering all the random events and shops, and defeat all the enemies, you will receive extra ghost jars and some bonus to level up your stats, or your secondary dices. When you finish a stage, you will get a summary of your performance, and on determined floors, you will have the option to upgrade your character. You can select between upgrade his HP and battery charge or the secondary dices. It’s recommendable to clear the areas if you want to catch the Polter prince.
Overall experience
Fuzz Force: Spook is a rogue-like based on rolling dices, you have to use them for all on this title. However, there is excessive randomness on the rolls. Most of the time, when I roll to get buffs or better rewards, I got bad things. Sometimes they result in a premature game over. Even trying some discounts at shops gave me more expensive prices. I don’t know if it was bad luck, or maybe it was the dice randomness itself, but I felt trolled in some runs. Also, it took me more than twenty tries to complete a run. The first completed was without rolling any dices, except the mandatory ones at combats. So on this aspect, it needs some fix.
There are good things too: The atmosphere of the game is great, a mix between Halloween, a tabletop game and cuteness. The characters are cute, and the enemies look like tabletop game figures. Also, it has some touches of humour, especially in some random events. The soundtrack is short but good, it accompanies you well; you have a theme for exploration, another for combats against normal enemies, another for bosses, and, of course, as a good final boss, the Polter Prince has his unique theme too. The game is only in English, but there are few texts to read, just the related to the random events and some before fight the final boss. Also, if you have any doubt, there is a little tutorial and a complete sheet that you can consult on your inventory during your run.
