Ribbit Rogue

Ribbit Rogue is a roguelike deckbuilder, but instead of collecting cards, you collect dice (and all the inherent randomness that comes with dice rolling). If you liked Rendsword but wish you didn’t have to spell so many words, this might be the perfect game for you.

You play as an armored frog fighting corruption in the swamp. Delving deep, you’ll battle enemies from a first-person view à la Dragon Warrior, one to three at a time. Each turn, your enemies will have their next action appear above their head, and you can decide how to proceed from there with the handful of dice you drew that turn from your “deck.” Some dice are offensive and some are defensive, and you’ll earn gold and experience after each battle, and level ups will reward you with relics that give you a permanent boost until the end of the run.

The map lets you decide between different paths on your way to the end boss: do you want to take an easier route through a campground and a fishing spot, saving your HP but also earning less experience points? Or do you want to fight the hardest monsters on the way, earning stronger dice and more money/experience? You might have less HP by the final boss, but you’ll hit really hard and your shields will be strong. You start with weak-but-capable dice at the beginning, but by trading them out for more powerful ones you collect on the way, you can make sure you’re ready for whatever challenges await.

There are a LOT of different status effects that you can inflict on your enemies or vice versa, but luckily there is an easily accessible guide to them all through the menu button on the Playdate. Like in Spilled Mushrooms, you’re not expected to memorize them all, but each new one can drastically change your favored strategy for that run. You can roll four dice per turn, and the big decision you’ll have to make is balancing attack and defense. You can tell how much damage the enemy will hit for during the turn and need to block as much of that as you can, but then you won’t be doing much damage of your own if you only roll defensive dice. You always get to act first, but your opponent will get stronger the longer the battle goes on, so it would behoove you to end it quickly.

If you biff it, no worries… just try again! You’ll have a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t on the second go-around, and maybe you’ll get better random relics and encounters that are a little easier this time. Each run feels tough but fair, and there are far worse ways to spend 30 minutes at a time with your Playdate on a sunny afternoon.

(Released April 22, 2025, on Catalog. Copy provided by developer. See Simply In Dev’s other games here.)