Silent Hope review

The foundations for a decent action-driven dungeon crawl are undermined by several glaring balancing blemishes.

Although the marketing makes no mention of it, Silent Hope is a spin-off that’s two degrees removed from its source material. Sure, the game lacks the agricultural pursuits that drive the Story of Seasons or Rune Factory franchises. But it’s difficult to overlook the characteristic cow lingering around Silent Hope’s hub town, declaring a relationship with Marvelous’ other properties.

But instead of the customary pursuit of wealth and a spouse, Silent Hope wants you to aid a tragically taciturn world. The game’s opening cinematic details a king quelling communication across his realm before leaping into a cavernous abyss. The game’s eponymous hope comes in the form of seven different combatants who are willing to descent downward and help the afflicted king. In execution, there’s not an abundance of explanation. But there doesn’t have to be, given Silent Hope’s approach, which leans on fairy tales and fantasy archetypes to do some of the storytelling.

The Quiet Bunch

This means that you’ve probably controlled all of Silent Hope’s playable heroes before. There’s the sword-and-shield carrying Wanderer, the Warrior who uses two-handed weapons, as well as an Archer and Caster for players who prefer ranged combatants. For some, one upside will be the game’s anime-inspired character art, which offers a Rogue dressed like a maid and the pitchfork-carrying Farmer clad in an adorable pink coat and light blue rain boots. But until you cultivate a character to unlock their advanced classes, combat can feel tedious.

Initially, each playable character begins with no more than a basic attack and an evasive dash. As characters acquire skill points, they can purchase up to three additional abilities that can be mapped to different controller buttons or keys. And while the skills themselves can be leveled-up, the upgrades don’t make you feel particularly powerful. And given the speed of Silent Hope’s rather sluggish cooldown gauges, you certainly won’t be able to spam skills. Instead, you’ll be kiting the game’s weapon-carrying creatures, which grows tedious before too long.

The Enemy Stat Inflation Cycle

Another issue: your chosen character seldom feels powerful. As each party member descends into the abyss, you’ll gain materials that be converted into better weapons, rings, and earrings. Additionally, you can slot in any magistones you find during exploration, which can change elemental damage types, provide resistances, or give XP boosts. But as you head downward, monsters persistently scale up in power and resilience, resulting in some woefully spongy adversaries. Although there’s some enjoyment in Silent Hope’s combat, it’s blemished by elevated enemies that can withstand numerous strikes, which can make Hope feel like a fight of attrition.

But fighting isn’t without a few upsides. Once a character reaches the fifteenth level, they’ll have access to a trio of new skills. These inject a bit of innovation, allowing you to create a build that fits your play style. Silent Hope uses an interesting system for cultivating your party members. Lone-wolfing your way downward is theoretically possible, but you’ll have to contend with a limit of two health-restoring medicines.

Alternatively, you can nurture your own team of up to seven silent strikers. Sure, it will take additional time to grind each additional character. But the upside is that you’re able to sporadically swap out characters- providing access to a much larger pool of health. Given that Silent Hope likes to separate its boss battles from its checkpoints by as many at ten floors, you might want a few characters to bear the burgeon of absorbing damage. The game even incentives this action by providing incoming party members a passive buff.

The Waiting Game

In between excursions, you’ll return to your topside town. Here, any resources gained from harvesting or butchery can be used to craft better equipment- provided you’ve procured some new blueprints. Here, Silent Hope makes some contentious design decisions, between having to process raw materials before they can be used, and the in-game waiting periods associated with this task.

Even if you aren’t customarily bothered by in-game busy work, Silent Hope’s logistics don’t provide much satisfaction. Sure, it would be acceptable to force players into speaking to multiple NPCs and pass time if the final product offered a significant upgrade. But all too often, your labor results in a nearly imperceivable statistical upgrade of a percentage point or two. Sure, you can pay to instantly complete a job, but this benefit feels a bit too close to the systems used by hundreds of money-hungry mobile games.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, Silent Hope demonstrates potential. Delving deeper into a hostile chasm recalls Riko’s harrowing descent from Made in Abyss, while the action-driven combat evokes Diablo’s loot-driven formula. Had Hope’s exposition and execution come closer to the impact of either of these properties, it would have been a recommended experience. Instead, guiding these seven characters downward too often feels routine.

Silent Hope was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.