METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN
METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN
Game
Game2025Published by indie.io
Dark Deity 2
Developer Sword & Axe LLC
Dark Deity 2 is a tactical role-playing game developed by Sword & Axe LLC and published by indie.io. A sequel to the 2021 game Dark Deity, it was released for Windows and macOS on March 24, 2025, and was later released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. Set 25 years after the events of the previous game, the story follows the next generation of heroes as they defend the land of Verroa from an… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
269 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 5, 2026 · last updated Oct 7, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
75
LovedLoved
150 positive · 51 negative
95% range 68–80%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 150 | 51 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
68 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
1,570 of 1,763 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Critics, per Wikipedia
Dark Deity 2 received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic. Graham Russell of Siliconera praised the game and scored it an 8/10, writing that it had both stronger writing and stronger gameplay than the first Dark Deity. He complimented the sprite work as good and the maps as better-looking, although he thought certain elements could have used a little more polishing before release. Audra Bowling of RPGFan praised the character work, saying that the core trio of Gwyn, Riordan, and Arthur were strong characters, and their uncle Alden (from the first Dark Deity) was a surprising stand-out as well. She only thought it odd that the bond conversations between…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 269 · most liked firstDark Deity 2 is coming to Switch on September 4, 2025! The first game was a fantastic Fire Emblem inspired SRPG. This is the first console release of Dark Deity 2.
unlabelledView post →Game Night: Fight Monsters and Politicians in ‘Dark Deity 2’ (Minus World column by @stolisomancer.bsky.social ) hard-drive.net/news-games/g...
unlabelledView post →...not quite there yet. Dark Deity was a heavily flawed game, but it was the devs' first game, so that was understandable. Dark Deity 2 is unquestionnably an improvement on the technical side. But IMO it didn't improve enough to stand on its own without the "first game" excuse. In fact, I think its worse in some ways, particularly the dialogue. The story itself is serviceable, but the dialogue... Characters are whiny and annoying, and regularly use modernisms that clash with the medieval…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The strategic gameplay is solid, but the story was unbearable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hmm, I m on chapter 27 but the game started relatively strong with good art and great class designs. The gameplay is quite fun with a complex class system and skills, though some being really unbalanced. Personally, I was hoping to play a simple game with a complex gameplay and a decent story. However, the dialogue and the general story is not the most appealing and gets much worse later. The script writers are simply, for a lack of better word, naive and have poor understanding of politics…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm genuinely sorry to say that I don't really like "Dark Deity II" at all. The first game was clunky, but it was a charming start to a franchise that could've been polished into something really memorable. Unfortunately, instead of refining DD1's ideas, this sequel has thrown out the majority of the original's core mechanics entirely including how weapons worked, armor weaknesses, and the entire aspect system. I'm not even saying those things were well done in the first game, but if…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wasn’t sure what to expect this game, but after hearing that this game improved on DD1’s foundation (of which I enjoyed) I thought I’d give it a shot. Unlike the first game, this game’s story holds it back from being something I can actually enjoy despite the characters individually being much more interesting. It’s an improvement in some areas and somehow took a step back in others, which was disappointing if not frustrating. As with the first game if I could give ‘Mixed’ I would, but I’ll…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →WARNING: GAME HAS NO ZONE OF CONTROL. Game has no Zone of control for melee fighters + archers are pretty much 2-tile range + every enemy regardless of class has 5 movements. With the map usually being quite spacious, this is a recipe for enemies to just suicide poke my so-called back-liners. But there aren't really back liners to speak of because like i said, most "ranged" attacks are almost always 2-tile range, so you have a whole bunch of ppl just cluster fked there with enemies getting…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game tries WAY TOO HARD to be an Anime Dungeons and Dragons game. They focused far too hard on the story, and not nearly enough on the gameplay. The visuals trick you into thinking the game has depth but it doesn't, there are a ton of systems but they're all so shallow and BORING. Which is a shame because the visuals themselves are great. The writing is hacky and cringe. It's as if someone learned English from watching Anime dubs. And the game is AWFUL at explaining what is going on in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →STORY : 3/5 ARTSTYLE : 4/5 VOICE ACTING : 5/5 PROGRESSION SYSTEM : 5/5 VARIETY CLASS / ROLES : 5/5 As a Tactical RPG game, this game is well above average.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The writing for this game is bad millennial core
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Decent gameplay but worst story and characters then 1st title. Take it with care.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Story is thin and drops you in with no idea who or what anything is if you did not play the original. You cannot check the map to know where the other kingdoms are for reference. Those I could forgive but the gameplay decisions are some of the worst I have ever seen in a video game. Hard time limits on missions, horrible menus to navigate, paying to remove runes from weapons and having to use what little money you have to train. This means you can very easily waste all your money training or…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love the first one as a Fire Emblem clone. Even though it's clunky and has awful UI, it's charming and hits the proverbial FE nail on the head. This sequel, however, has some issues. The plot, first off, kind of meanders. It has sections with separate plot issues that never really grabbed me. You also have moments where you can choose a different "route" or ally. But it never really changes the story much and you always get the other ally you didn't choose anyway. So they lack weight. The UI…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hey y'all, figured it's time to make the jump! I'm a game developer making Dark Deity 2 - a strategy RPG with an expansive story and tons of replayability! No microtransations, no use of AI, just good old-fashioned single player RPG goodness. #indiegamedev #gamedev #rpg #gaming #srpg #pixelart
unlabelledView post →Yikes. At first I really enjoyed this game. Mechanics are interesting, the classes were interesting, but wow does the story suck. Like leave a bad taste in my mouth suck. I don't know what children they found to write this garbage, but at this point its soooo bad, I am not sure I even want to play the last 3 chapters to finish this game. Please stop using power puff girl logic in games about war, and genicide. It's just stupid.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pro: - Good art and animation - Good gameplay - Voiced cutscenes - Combining classes are fun - Custom options make replaying fun Cons: - Main character needs constant validation (after multiple breakdowns) - It's a modern mindset in a medieval setting and I don't like lectures. - 3 maps with Fog of war. - Found some bugs and rings that doesn't work - Deity difficulty is easy, but demonic too annoying with "Unit death cause GAMEOVER" (Just make a permadeath or "too injury to enter…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pros: - Almost fully voice acted (everything except support conversations) - Fresh new combat and weapon/ability system, massively improving over the first game - Varied characters and motivations, making the world feel more interesting and real. - More innovative level design - Branching choices resulting in different levels/rewards, adding more replayability - Original music very much suits the aesthetic of this style of game, complimenting every scene Cons: - Limited…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played twice on demonic/ fixed/ turn limited. In maybe the first half of the maps, The game feels good early on. The first time I played, I thought it was better than many Fire Emblems, especially the first beast map where every enemy moves and there's a ton of reinforcements. However, the further and further you play, the more ability focused the game becomes. This may not seem like a problem at first because the abilities you get at the start are pretty mild, but the abilities later on are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →DD2 is improved and expanded DD1. If you liked DD1, you will like DD2. Here are some of the game features: General - square grid, turn-based combat - 30 chapters (missions), 6 challenge missions and 5 training missions (which you can repeat as long as you can pay 1000 gold) - about 30 hours gameplay, depends on difficulty you choose - if you want all achievements you will have to replay a few missions - a shop selling basic stuff available after each chapter - your squad can contain…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →They say that a game made for everyone is a game made for no one . . . well, this game certainly isn't that. It is a game made for one person, and that person is me, seeing as my biggest complaint is that there isn't enough to do after its over. Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration. I do have some other gripes with the story (mostly due to one specific later chapter, prepare for a downer in the mid-to-late 20s) and some other small things, mostly to do with minor QoL changes and musical…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dark Deity 2 is a significant improvement over its predecessor, Dark Deity, and because of that, I absolutely recommend anyone to give this game a try, especially if it goes on sale if you're looking for the classic GBA Fire Emblem itch. I'll go over positives, cons, and personal grievances of mine. This game was most certainly not perfect, and there were some issues scattered across the game, but there are significantly less bugs and flaws that make it way more enjoyable than the infuriating…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game kills one of your units in a cutscene like 5 chapters before the end and doesn't replace them with a similar unit. Imagine losing a unit in Fire Emblem not because of poor strategy or making a mistake but because the game decided it needed some shock value.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After nearly 20 hours of playing, I can honestly say I really enjoy this game. Unfortunately, it's held back by a number of annoying technical issues. While they may seem minor at first, they definitely aren't. The biggest issue I've encountered is that the BGM randomly cuts out. It usually starts during the player's turn, with the music disappearing during battle animations. After a while, all of the BGM is gone, leaving only the battle sound effects. I didn't run into this problem until I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun turn-based strategy game with very strong voice acting, a competent story, good animations, and overall worth the price; looking forward to Dark Deity 3! Pros: --Gameplay is fun, each of the characters/classes has their niche (some more useful than others) between player phase and enemy phase --The abilities are also very fun--whether allowing another slow but powerful unit to double attack or warping another unit out of danger or to the frontlines. The buff and debuff abilities are also…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is... fine. I want to say that right out of the gate; it's mechanically solid and coherent, the story makes sense and has character work, there's not a lot about this that I would call BAD. I'm still not recommending it because I feel that it fails on several levels to be an interesting game. I think the first way is the story - while it means to be character focused, there's such a heavy emphasis on the political situation of the world in a way that never pays off. It's not…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have never and will never understand stories that go ''Hey, remember the mc from the first game you probably liked, yeah, their marriage broke appart completely.''. Why do stories keep doing it? What is this strange obsession with making sure to drag drown previous main characters. They are constantly either divorced, washed up, dead or turned evil, sometimes all of it. Like, just treat your previously mc's proper?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Genuinely some of the worst reddit slop writing I have ever had the displeasure of reading. I'm not sure why anyone claims the gameplay is any more complex or rewarding than the average Fire Emblem game. Map design and enemy placement are not interesting, special tiles are few and not varied at all, and secondary objectives are often just time-wasters. Enemy design is also lackluster as there is very little differentiation between them. Maps also tend to just flip-flop between hosting majority…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly, overall, it's a good game, we can feel the love for Fire Emblem. The gameplay is fairly solid, but the balance is out of whack. For example, we find a good amount of good staves (relics) early on, but there are barely any classes that can use them. By the time I reach tier 3 classes (the last tier) I still didn't find any interesting focus. Despite the fact a lot of magical and even some melee classes use that. There are literally maybe 2 out of the 25 classes that use relics. The…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is GBA Fire Emblem but not exactly GBA Fire Emblem (Almost like Sacred Stones) The battle animations are really good
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dark Deity 2's Demo dropped so I guess I'll give that a shot soon. The banner no longer looks like absolute dog shit with a NPC more central then the main woman of the game. Seems like maybe having a new writer on the game has improved it so I am willing to give it a shot after it looked bleak.
unlabelledView post →I really tried to like this game but man it just feels unbelievably bad for anyone who has played fire emblem esque games prior to awakening.. The characters are boring and every scene has to have some joke made or some sort of glazing of a character when they havent done anything worthy of note.. (Saxon at the start / Gwyn from her father and the gang) So we have : Gwyn - The girl boss who can do no wrong Riordan - The one no one takes seriously and is a mirror to Gwyn being a girl…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →To start off I wanted to say that I did play the first game and for the most part i did enjoy it, the gameplay was really fun but the writing and presentation left a lot to be desired I went into the sequel expecting about the same and i was incredibly pleasantly surprised Dark Deity 2 is a enormous improvement on everything the first game did it just about every way maybe its because i went into it not expecting much but the story and writing is significantly better and i actually…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Playing this game gave me a greater appreciation for FE. Imagine stripping down all the depth of fire emblem, and you get this game. The dialogue was half the game and kind of unappealing. The weapons system doesn't really seem intuitive. No displays for comparing weapon strengths when you're trying to decide what to equip. Overall, the UI wasn't very user friendly. Your units kind of plateau like halfway through the game and the progression doesn't feel that satisfying after level 25. Playing…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoyed this as a game more than Dark Deity 1 but the story left me unsatisfied. It had a really good start but the middle ended up being kind of mediocre and then the ending was pretty disappointing and doesn't answer any questions you may have. The game is close to being a fantastic game but falls short due to the writing and the latter half of maps not innovating enough. I would have preferred to see more characters from Dark Deity 1 show up, but almost all of that cast is missing.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not a bad Fire Emblem clone. A bit easy but not too crazy easy on regular difficulty. Voice acting was pretty great but characterization was...interesting? Not sure why they made so many main characters flat out unlikeable. Also a weird choice for certain late game story beat with gameplay implications. Combat and classes were good. Enemy variety needed more (as usual). Story was fairly boilerplate. Final boss was meh I think DD1 was better in that regard.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's fun, still miles away from symphony of war but okay nonetheless
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved DD1, but the choice to make the graphics worse, the UI tiny, the maps less engaging, the progression system worse, the menus worse, the bonds worse, the class system worse, the skills less immersive, and so on. I just don't get it. DD1 was really, really good. I might have enjoyed it more or just as much as FE Engage. But DD2 is absolutely a bad game, and objectively worse than DD1 in many areas. Played DD1 for almost 60 hours, and I'm not even going to finish DD2 once. Sad. The worst…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Right off the bat, you can tell this is one of those "Just OK" games. Quick good/bad Good: Suprisingly, the voice acting is great. I was ready to cringe, its actually good. Animations are great, character designs are decent to good. Bad: Game expects you to be here for a reason, its a fan game made for fans of fire emblem and not made to be its own game. It drops you in, gives you 7 text boxes as a tutorial and expects you to know how tactic games work in general, no movement/attack…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →#JustBeatIt @polykillpodcast.bsky.social No.102 Dark Deity 2 (NSW). Can an already fantastic game be improved upon? Why, yes it can! This sequel is phenomenal. Rock solid gameplay, a ton of customization options and a much improved story. Great for beginners and veterans alike. Highly recommended!
unlabelledView post →Keep it short and sweet Gameplay - 8/10 - most of the conceit is that you can mix and match the jobs and promotions to get ineresting builds. However some jobs are simply far superior to others and the speed stat being king as always with these games. Unfortunately the normal difficulty is simply too easy. I'll probably do some harder runs in the future. Story - 4/10 very bland, predictable and frankly just barely holding the context of the world together. I frankly could not find myself…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can't lie the second i see the dialogues i cringe so hard. idk if i can continue playing this game. i thought the review was a lie
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I played the first Dark Deity on Switch and enjoyed it a lot. It was a bit buggy and not particularly original, but it was still easily one of the better indie TRPGs I'd played. So I happily picked up the sequel expecting more polish but otherwise more of the same. What I got was one of my favorite TRPGs of all time. Dark Deity 2 completely reinvents the series, tossing out most of the first game's unique systems and replacing them with something more original, but more importantly, much more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Much improved over Dark Deity 1. Narrated storyline, excellent voice cast who really voiced the game, not a script. New additions of Training Grounds to train up lagging characters, and Challenge stages which reward completion with high damage weapons and rare resources. The story is well-written to flesh out narrative, provide urgency in spots, and develop the world around the game. Battles are a bit more forgiving in that's not so heavily weighed to the paper, rock, scissors…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In a way, this reminds me a lot of Symphony of War. Both games have terrible writing (Symphony being the worst by far), but they also have pretty good and ambitious systems that are clearly held back by evident budget limitations.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The recommendation is for the gameplay, which I enjoy a-lot. As for the story, I think if I were 10 years old it's possible I'd enjoy it... Millennial writing slop (dog-sh*t cringe and it doesn't get better).
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Having played both the first and this game, I can safely say I'm no longer interested in this series. There are improvements: the active Mana-consuming abilities are fun to use, upgrades work a lot better and are less punishing if they don't work out and maps are more involved as well, featuring hazards and terrain bonuses. However, there are also many problems. The game's tone is incredibly inconsistent, just like modern Fire Emblem. Any time a scene becomes emotional, there's gotta be a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bad writing and annoying characters made worse by voice acting. Awkward UI and menus. Gameplay isn't worth dealing with these cons.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The world's on fire but video games are still neat. This weekend I: - Played more of last year's WWE. The Women's CAW story is wild! - Picked away at Dark Deity 2. Great Fire Emblem like gameplay. - Started up Metroid Prime 2, which immediately became a co-op game with my kiddo.
unlabelledView post →First patch for the Dark Deity 2 demo is out! Preview of updates: -2 new story scenes -Option to start a campaign without turn limits -Option to remove RNG from levelups -Codex explaining stats and effects Full notes here: store.steampowered.com/news/app/244...
unlabelledView post →The World of Verroa is a incredible map project I created for Dark Deity 2, an upcoming sequel to Sword & Axe’s turn based #RPG. While these close-ups don’t entirely reflect the final look of the in-game map, it definitely hints at a rich and exciting world! #fantasymaps #mapmaking #commission #noai
unlabelledView post →Even on sale, I can't recommend this game. I wanted to enjoy it. I wanted to give it a chance. But the writing is so bad I wanted to rip my ears off. "Millennial" writing... I hate that is now a legit term. And ♥♥♥♥♥♥ does it apply here. It's so obnoxiously stupid.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i did not play dark deity 1, but overall, i liked the game for what it wants to be. while it does feel like a solid fire emblem clone at its peaks, its a poorly written VN in its valleys. the story is fine, as there are route splits you can take and interesting but long unfolding plot developments. the voice actors sound fine, but the dialogue felt like something a high schooler would've wrote. however, i am glad to say the gameplay does make up for that deficit, as features like rings and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun game! The combat is fairly strategic, there's a nice variety of characters and builds, the art is charming, and the voice acting is really top notch, surprisingly better than it has to be.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cronos, Daemon X Machina, Star Wars, Splatterbot 🇦🇺, Dark Deity 2, Everybody's Golf Hot Shots and some other game called Hollow Knight: Silksong 🇦🇺 - this week on the eShop www.vooks.net/nintendo-dow...
unlabelledView post →Today's final indie game is Dark Deity 2, a turn-based tactics RPG! Fight through challenging battles, recruiting new heroes & branching into 40+ classes! The campaign has randomized elements & custom difficulty options for tons of replay! Released today! Dev: @darkdeity.bsky.social Link below!
unlabelledView post →Be sure to give our friends at Dark Deity 2 some love folks! They launched today, and to celebrate, we'll be streaming their lovely game starting at 9PM EST on twitch.tv/whoopzreal ! Come by for Unfated QnA, along with mechanical and aesthetic review of the game! #DarkDeity #Unfated
unlabelledView post →What a let down. This game had me pumped for whats to come with the next Dark Deity, I was so excited for the second game, let alone the third which I was surprised was announced as well even if this game is almost a year old and then... I first played it.... oh god... it doesn't play like the original dark deity at all. Yes a lot of people had their complains with the game, I did too, but I love the simplicity and charm to the original it had, this just feels like the devs REALLY want you to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Disclaimer, this game is not a fire emblem replacement. It is written by a beta cuck. The gameplay is ehh, the character development sucks. I wish I could refund it but I already past the 2 hours mark, if you have bought this game, my genuine advice is to refund it or if you haven't bought it, do not buy it. Get an emulator and play fire emblem instead. Do not support this creator. I know I won't going forward. The story is bad, it is another one of these where you have to forgive the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty good tactics game, which is certainly a rarity these days. Only real gripe is there are choices that you make in this game and basically every outcome seems designed to make you feel bad. It's exhausting, was almost enough to leave a negative review. And it's silly because in every case, the problem would be resolved if you would take time to talk to anyone involved.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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