A few years back, Thunderful released a pretty interesting collaboration with EA in the form of Lost in Random.

As part of the EA Originals line, the incredibly talented Zoink Games imagined this fantastical, fantasy driven world where your actions are led by the roll of a dice. It was a creative, ambitious project that definitely caught attention and while we still don’t have a clear sequel, it appears Thunderful isn’t done with this world yet.

Introducing The Eternal Die, a Hades-like roguelike where you traverse four biomes in a mission of revenge as Queen Aleksandra, the previous ruler of Random.

Just like Hades, you’ve got multiple weapon types to choose from to fight against your enemies – bow and arrow, sword, hammer and spear and gradually upgrade each after going through run after run, building up permanent upgrades in tandem with temporary ones to keep ahead of the infiltrators of the realm.

In unison with the weapons are card-like abilities which give you an extra benefit in battle and these vary from whirlwinds to stalactites and fire flames that you’ll find in the rooms as you enter the world of Random.

But just like Hades, if you die, it’s not the end. You’ll find yourself at a Sanctuary which, gradually, gets built up by the folks you meet. One who gives you new attire to wear, one who upgrades your abilities and others with more unusual attributes that become more obvious over time. Even gathering new quests.

The Eternal Die has a very satisfying core loop and it even does some things differently to other games in the genre, like enable fast travel to previously visited rooms and let you revisit to unlock new doors and explore entire floors in a way that reminded me a bit of the earlier Persona games.

Rooms have their unique quirks too, like one where you quickly have to evade traps in order to touch the switch at the end to switch them off or a fun little mini board game where you roll your die to move spaces forward and try to touch certain spaces for treasure.

Of course, just like Hades there’s brutal bosses to battle, each needing to be fought again and again if you fall in battle. These are a good challenge and just as you battle your enemies, any slight lack of attention can see you get mauled pretty fast. You have to stay fast, loose and active.

Fortunately, the game feels and flows great, with combat genuinely satisfying whether you’re smashing enemies senselessly with the hammer or peppering them at range with the bow.

It will of course be a surprise to people expecting a direct continuation of the story – the games themselves are substantially diferent and while it’s not quite as good as the excellent Turtles-like Splintered Fate, this is still a great package with some lovely dialogue, compelling combat and a really bright and sharp world to explore.

The game is just incredibly smooth, free-flowing and full of energy, working a treat handheld on Switch as something you can just take with you and enjoy on the go.

Eternal Die is a little short, though, and once you get into the mojo of things and have solid, powerful upgrades, you can breeze through quite sharply. Much like Hades, the game’s story does gradually unfold as you fight through rooms, die, fight, explore, so the experience is as much in the journey and its development, and the combat itself really does help the game to flow in a healthy, enjoyable, digestible way.

But as you progress the enjoyment does subside a little and the game does start to feel a little repetitive. Something Hades did extaordinarily well is somehow keep you wanting to go back again and again into runs, with Zagreus imp’ish humor really shining through and the dynamics he has with the characters as well as his dad. While there’s good writing here, it doesn’t reach the same standards of quality SuperGiant Games have been able to achieve.

All that said, this is a very entertaining, very enjoyable romp that offers a fun diversion from the usual spate of titles you’ll play and is absolutely worth adding to your list of titles to dive into with its smart twists on convention and very well polished combat and core loop.

Verdict

Lost in Random: The Eternal Die is a fantastic addition to the isometic rogue-like genres and while it doesn’t reach the highs of Hades, it offers a constantly compelling combat loop, fun, witty dialogue, and enjoyable world to explore that will keep you coming back until you eventually roll credits, even despite its short length.