Mystic Gate Review - By-the-Numbers Roguelike

The roguelike genre is riding high currently. There’s a number of popular titles which perform well regardless of how many platforms they seem to continuously seem to be launching on. Such success is a double-edged sword. It breeds both innovation and imitators. Under which title does ZOO Corporation’s effort lie? This Mystic Gate review will answer exactly that.

In Mystic Gate, the Gods created a gate in the human world. It’s said that if you journey through the gate, all of your wishes will come true. However, it’s not as simple as walking through. You’ll face a number of trials along the way. You, as an adventurer, are apparently the perfect candidate to try just that.

But sadly, in reality, you’re not the perfect candidate. Not yet, at least. Mystic Gate is a top-down roguelike dungeon crawler. If you already know what that is, you’ll know exactly what to expect, as Mystic Gate doesn’t stray too far from the mold. Slower than Enter the Gungeon, less depth than The Binding of Isaac, and less original than Wildcat Gun Machine, you might be wondering where Mystic Gate fits. While it’s undoubtedly fun, despite pumping a dozen-or-so-hours into the game for this Mystic Gate review, we’re still not entirely sure.

The game uses the familiar twin stick set up on randomly generated levels. The player must obtain three boss keys before they are able to fight the boss, complete the trial and earn a reward. To do so, they must defeat the enemies in the level, with rooms being locked until all within are vanquished. An interesting mechanic – and perhaps the most unique thing about Mystic Gate – is the reticule. A line determines the player’s aim but upon it sits a reticule, which also denotes when you have a lock-on. Further to this, select power-ups will pull said reticule in the direction of the nearest enemy, demanding less accuracy of the player once acquired. It’s essentially like slowly upgrading an auto aim system. Super helpful when under pressure.

Oddly, your in-dungeon successes seem to have no affect on the overall progression of your character. You can purchase items and skills at the in-dungeon boss, but these will only last until death. The currency you collect is different to the currency required for permanent upgrades, and does not convert. To purchase permanent upgrades you must earn gems through gaining entries in an encyclopedia (attaining firearms, killing enemies etc.) or achieving set tasks (completing a level, kill X enemies with Y weapon). As these challenges are preset, there’s no room for gems to be earned outside of significant landmarks. As such advancement is very slow. It may well take several runs to earn a passive skill that gives you a 2% chance/boost of some kind. Not exactly a huge leap in power levels.

Thus, Mystic Gate is a mixed bag. It’s a pleasant enough challenge that does compel you onward, but at the same time there’s a list as long as your arm of games that do it better. The co-op gameplay is certainly welcome, but again isn’t uncommon. In the writing of this Mystic Gate review we tried our hardest to love it, but there’s simply no reason to recommend the game above numerous peers except to die hard fans of the genre.