Part 1 (Sep 2023) · #26 of 35 in that tierWatch the moment (1:45:05)
Patch Quest
- Developed by
- Lychee Game Labs
- Published by
- Curve Games
$14.99
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!
Consensus
B71.2/100
Steam players93.5% positiveVery Positive2,792 reviews
Metacritic ↗80/100Users: 7.2/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈83.7K copies · ≈$803K gross
What creators say
Ranked Jun 2023 · #3 of 12 in that tierWatch the moment (0:47:25)
Ranked Sep 2024 · #1 of 6 in that tierWatch the moment (0:15:01)
Ranked Apr 2023 · #4 of 16 in that tierWatch the moment (2:03:54)
What players say
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; 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.
Players love
- 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
Common complaints
- 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)
Can feel tedious
- 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
What's unique
- 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
Players want
- 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
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
AdventureCreature CollectorRogue-liteBase-BuildingBullet HellShoot 'Em UpArena ShooterCo-opTwin Stick ShooterAction Roguelike
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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.
Liked
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