Slice & Dice: strategic monster-battling roguelike with tons of variety 

The dice rolling roguelike combat game Slice & Dice was released by individual indie developer tann on Steam on March 20. The game is also available on itch.io, Android and iOS, and these releases have also been updated to version 3.0. The Steam version received a lot of praise soon after release and it currently has a Very Positive review status. 

Slice & Dice is a turn-based, dice-battle roguelike with a retro pixel art aesthetic and 3D dice roll animations. You make a party of 5 heroes and fight your way through successive battles against monsters. 

Every move you make in battle is determined by dice rolls. Each hero and monster has six dice. Each die has a different layout, which reflects the skills and personality of the character. With 128 different hero classes (including Ranger and Lazy), this provides a lot of playability as you work out what combinations of heroes work best to get through all 20 battles and take on the final boss.  

Slice & Dice is a highly strategic game. In combat, the monster rolls first and decides what to do. Next, the player rolls. The player can see what the monster’s action is and can choose to keep their roll or try re-rolling some or all of their dice. You can redo your dice rolls a certain number of times each turn- so there’s no need to worry about a small mistake ruining your run. Once you are happy with your rolls, you then decide which opponent to use which move against. You can flexibly choose your strategy depending on what the enemy is doing. For example, if the monsters are attacking, you can pull off defensive moves. If the enemy is calling for reinforcements, you can launch a full out attack and go in for the kill. This game is not just about the luck of the dice, as it enables you to accurately assess the situation and pick an appropriate strategy- rerolling your dice as needed.   

Each time you defeat an enemy, you are rewarded with an item or a hero enhancement, which can be used to alter dice or level up your characters into a new class. Used well, these can give you an advantage in Slice & Dice. The game features many different ways to level up your heroes, each of which allows you to access different combos and strategies. The game has seven different difficulty levels ranging from “Heaven” to “Hell”. It also has various custom modes, some of which need to be unlocked. For example, Raid mode gives you 10 heroes, but you must take on twice as many enemies. In Generate mode, all dice rolls are random. Overall, Slice & Dice offers a lot of variety to keep you occupied.  

Slice & Dice is available on PC (Steam), itch.io, iOS and Android. A free demo can also be found on Steam. 

Written by. Verity Townsend based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2024-03-25 19:10 JST)