Each boss shows up around the third day of a new era and can be challenged at any time from that point on.

There are five total bosses across five eras. Nothing but darkness and water with horrifying otherworldly creatures. Othercide’s visuals remind of El’s trips to the Upside Down in Stranger Things. This makes the repetition less of a slog and actually offers even more strategy, as players can choose to end the current recollection at any time and start anew with better remembrances. Some of these remembrances offer resurrect tokens, while others buff daughters or allow players to start the recollection with some daughters pre-leveled to the one closest to the current boss’ level.

Remembrances are special perks that carry over between each recollection (playthrough). If players really want to hold on to a favorite daughter, though, they can opt to use a resurrect token, obtained as a remembrance or through completing certain missions. While this may sound unappealing, sacrificing one daughter to heal another will pass on some traits from the sacrifice to the daughter being resurrected, making the healed daughter much stronger and more effective in combat. To heal a daughter, another must be sacrificed, and the sacrificed daughter has to be at the same or higher level than the one being healed. For starters, there is of course, permadeath, but players shouldn’t fear the end of their favorite daughters as they can be healed or resurrected if injured or killed in battle. What sets Othercide apart from the more familiar Strategy trappings are the rogue-like elements sprinkled throughout. The guy on the left is referred to as The Child, or maybe he’s The Other and the egg is The Child? All i know is he creepily watches you during each combat encounter and serves as the main antagonist. There is little-to-no drug use but there is violence, death, and gore aplenty along with several references to lust, gluttony and other sins. This is more prominent in the close-up shots on the clothes and faces of each player’s “daughters” as they take damage in battle. Blood is plentiful and stands out amongst the black and white aesthetics of the game. There are themes of the occult and religion throughout as both The Surgeon boss and The Deacon boss speak of “curing” the suffering of those they have harmed through violence, fear, and promised penance. It’s pretty gruesome, and definitely pushes the game to its M rating.

Bones and rotting flesh intermix with most of the enemies, and some even look like a bag of intestines with feet. Othercide is interesting in that most of the action takes place from an isometric viewpoint, so you don’t often see the grotesque, misshapen horrors that plague the dreamscape in which your daughters fight throughout the game. Read on to find out how I had my expectations thoroughly rocked after playing Othercide. When I first heard about Othercide using these elements, I was skeptical, as permadeath is already a staple of the strategy genre and I couldn’t see how a system designed around permanently losing characters that you’ve worked to build would work with repeated playthroughs. Rogue-like means that players will fail, and fail often, but each time they will carry something over with them into the next playthrough. Othercide goes the extra mile in flipping the strategy genre on its head by eschewing any RPG elements often found in other games of this nature-there are no interchangeable weapons, armor, or cosmetics of any kind-in favor of Rogue-like elements that have become very popular in modern games. Since then I have tried to get my hands on every strategy game I can, as I love the level of customization and pre-planning that goes into not only the troops you take with you into battle but every single move made during a fight. My first foray into the strategy genre was with the JRPG/Strategy hybrid Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together on PS1. This main menu graphic really showcases the overwhelming odds your team of daughters will often face off against in Othercide.

Othercide armor