THE RANGERS IN THE SOUTH REVIEW - YOUR SANITY GOES TO DIE
Ever wondered what would happen if Diablo and Vampire Survivors had a pixel art baby that was raised by a solo developer with an unhealthy obsession with permadeath, then sent that baby to the School of Roguelike Hard Knocks? Well, The Rangers in the South answers that question, and the result is a beautiful mess of ambition, charm, and just enough jank to keep you on your toes.
PRETTY AS A PIXEL, DEADLY AS A DEMON
Let's start with the obvious, this game is gorgeous. The 2.5D pixel art style feels like Octopath Traveler's younger sibling who decided to go retro but kept some of the family's expensive lighting habits. Every biome pops with detail, from the starting grasslands to the snow-capped mountains, making exploration actually worth your time even when you're getting your ass handed to you by the local wildlife. The lighting effects are particularly impressive, when your magic starts flying, it's like a disco party in a fantasy realm.
FREEDOM IS JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR "OH GOD, WHAT BUILD IS THIS?"
The game's "build your own class" system is where things get interesting, and by interesting, I mean potentially catastrophic in the best possible way. There are no preset classes - just you, your questionable decision-making skills, and a buffet of random abilities to choose from every time you level up. Want to be a shield-wielding mage who somehow also shoots arrows while vampirically draining health? Go for it. The game won't judge (though it might kill you). The randomness of the skill options means every run feels different, even if that difference is sometimes just "how spectacularly will I fail this time?"
DUNGEONS AND DRAG-ONS (YES, THE PACING REALLY DRAGS)
The dungeon crawling aspect is where things start to feel a bit repetitive, like watching a hamster run on its wheel - sure, it's moving, but it's always the same circle. Every dungeon follows the same "find two levers and fight a boss" formula, which gets old faster than milk left out in the desert biome. It's like the developer found one dungeon layout they liked and just went "yeah, this'll do" for the entire game. A bit more variety here wouldn't hurt - maybe throw in some different objectives or layouts that don't feel like they were copied and pasted from the "Generic Dungeon Layout 101" handbook.
DEATH BECOMES YOU (REPEATEDLY)
True to its roguelike nature, death is permanent - and you'll be seeing it more often than a mortician. The difficulty curve isn't so much a curve as it is a cliff with spikes at the bottom, then more spikes, and then some lava, just for good measure. One minute you're one-shotting everything in sight, feeling like a god among mortals, and the next you're getting destroyed by basic enemies in a new zone because you dared to venture too far too fast. It's like the game is constantly playing "Red Light, Green Light" with your confidence.
TECHNICAL TEMPER TANTRUMS
For a $4 game, you get what you pay for in terms of polish - which is to say, about as much polish as a muddy boot. The game has more bugs than a summer picnic next to a dumpster, from items getting stuck in mid-air like they're auditioning for a levitation act, to abilities that seem to have an identity crisis about whether they want to work or not. The optimization is also questionable - sometimes it runs smooth as butter, other times it chugs harder than a freshman at their first college party.
PROGRESSION THAT ACTUALLY PROGRESSES
One bright spot is the persistent progression system. Even when you die (and oh boy, will you die), you keep your exploration progress, stashed items, and gold. It's like the game is saying "Hey, at least you're failing forward!" This system gives you a reason to keep coming back, even after your tenth character has been turned into monster chow.
CONCLUSION
The Rangers in the South is like that scrappy underdog you can't help but root for. Despite its flaws - and there are plenty - there's something undeniably charming about this little pixel art adventure. For the price of a fancy coffee, you get a surprisingly deep action RPG that's clearly been made with passion, even if that passion sometimes forgot to include basic quality-of-life features. It's rough around the edges, sure, but so was your first apartment, and you probably have fond memories of that too.
Score: 7.2/10 - Like finding a diamond in the rough, if the diamond occasionally crashes to desktop and the rough needs better optimization, but you keep coming back anyway because damn, those pixels are pretty