The Curse is Resthaven is, first and foremost, a mystery game. During your reign as governor of this slightly worrying little town you’ll be upgrading it, trading with merchants, and going on expeditions into the wilderness, but you’re only really doing all of this to find your sister Amalia. She lived in Resthaven for a bit before disappearing in typically mysterious fashion, and the town landed itself in a time loop. That’s handy because this is a roguelite. Quite convenient, actually, except for all the monsters.
Resthaven is a dark, melancholy place that you’ll get to know very well. The town is full of intrigue and little mysteries, from disappearances to suspected murders, and the rest of the island is home to some pretty unsettling things. Think inexplicable creatures and warped people, that sort of thing. It’s absolutely delightful, in a grim sort of way, and the people are just as interesting. Everyone here is endearing and distinct, from the mysterious old witch woman who can reveal details about expeditions, all the way down to Pieter, who runs the local food shop.
You’ll get to know all of these thanks to the game’s interrogation system. You start with some generic topics, like Resthaven and Amalia, but as you progress you’ll fill out a pretty lengthy list of things you can ask the town’s residents about. Ask the right person the right thing and you’ll get something juicy and important, hopefully something that will help you piece together what happened to your missing sister. This system works really well, I only had one issue with it later on where I got a bit stuck after being expected to choose three specific options from everything I had available in a set order. Other than that, if you’re paying attention you’ll likely have a decent idea of what and who to ask, which really does feel a bit like you’re personally uncovering a mystery by asking the right questions.
A big part of that is going on expeditions into the wilderness. Each expedition is a card that has a requirement on it for you to complete the expedition, that being either a specific item or a companion with a specific skill. These requirements can be revealed by Agata, the witch, for money or a relic, or you can take a guess.
The expeditions will also cost you some money to launch, which is where trading and upgrading the town comes in. Both of these systems are very simplistic, but I think the game benefits from this. They don’t distract too much from the central mystery, instead complementing it by providing something else for you to do with some of your precious time. Traders will arrive at port every day and you, as the governor of Resthaven, can collect tribute from each of the local businesses to trade, making the town more prosperous and giving you some money to go find your sister out in the wilds.
The actual trade is a case of increasing your price until a dial shakes too much, then lowering it, but it’s quick and satisfying enough most of the time to not be an issue. Each merchant has their own preferences and as you trade you’ll improve your relationship, unlocking hints that can help you make massive profits, which is very helpful later on when expeditions get more expensive. I did encounter a few weird issues, though. One time one of the merchants tried to negotiate a lower price for the item he was selling, then walked away from the transaction offended when I tried to agree to his own price twice in a row, which was a bit strange to say the least. The way you have to keep pressing a button to advance the conversations before the trade has resulted in me accidentally selling things for a lower price as well, which is frustrating.
As you’re doing all of this – expeditions, trading, and interrogating people, specifically – time will pass. Each of these actions takes up a certain amount of your day, and your day is split into six chunks, two each for morning, afternoon, and evening. It’s a little bit like Blood of the Dawnwalker in this one specific way – well, that and all the horror and sadness – or perhaps reminiscent of Majora’s Mask. At the end of each day you’ll say goodnight to your butler and go to bed, so you’re ready to get right back to some sister-finding the following morning. However, on the sixth day, some sort of apocalypse will happen, everything will be covered in moths, and Resthaven will be destroyed.
And then you’ll appear back on the docks on the first day, freshly arrived, but having retained all the knowledge you’ve learnt. Suffice to say that the overarching plot is very enjoyable and gripping enough that I was thinking about it idly whilst I wasn’t playing the game. I have to say it’s one of the most unique rogue-lites I’ve played, using it to inform the story just as much as it does the gameplay and allowing you to witness events repeatedly through multiple loops as you get closer to solving and perhaps even stopping them. Also the town upgrades and completed expeditions are persistent as well. Funny that.
Curse of Resthaven has a slightly morose cartoon style to its visuals. The expeditions, which play out with a series of prompts and artwork, could sometimes use a few more graphics, often resorting to a black screen with text on them. All the characters are fully voiced as well, without a weak link in the bunch, though there are a handful of characters who you interact with a lot who could use more variety in their opening lines. The music is great as well, it sets the tone quite well.
There are a handful of minor issues that get in the way though. Bugs, for one, such as one character’s picture not loading and just being a big white rectangle during trading and the aforementioned issue with a trader. I also spent a good amount of time trying to get to someone so I could talk to them, when I finally did I even got a trophy for it, but the game bugged out somehow and when I clicked interrogate it did so with another character who wasn’t even in the room. I can not understate how confusing this was. I also had one conversation that was supposed to happen on a specific day trigger a day early somehow.
