By Mary-Ellis Ryan

Are you tired of slow-paced mobile RPGs with endless, unskippable cutscenes? Maybe it’s time to jump straight into the fun with Dicero. 

In this game, instead of using traditional weapons, your battle power is determined by your luck and strategy with the dice. You roll a set of five dice at the bottom of your screen, using three rerolls per turn to get combinations like pairs, straights, or five-of-a-kind. Each match multiplies your attack damage, allowing your character to release elemental skills and clear the stage before onscreen monsters can reach you and deplete your health.

If you’re thinking, “This seems difficult,” don’t worry it’s not. The controls are super simple since you just tap the screen to roll. You start with 10 stamina points (which, humorously, look like pieces of meat) and enter a stage like Quiet Frostvale (Stage 1). Enemies slowly walk down a path toward your hero, and you have to beat them before they reach you. 

However, while the controls are simple, developing a strategy is more of the tricky part.

There is basically no writing or plot in this game. You start right into Stage 0 with a fast tutorial, and it lets you start playing immediately, which is great if you’re the type of person who just wants to skip the talk and jump straight into the gameplay.

At the bottom of the screen, you have five dice spots. You hit the main “Attack” button to roll them, trying to get matching pairs or sequences to multiply your attack power. You get three rerolls per turn. If you roll a bad number like a one, your attack power stays low. So you have to decide which dice to reroll, adding strategic decision-making to the game.

The multipliers are clearly laid out on a cheat sheet menu in the game. You can find this by pressing on the little book on the bottom corner of your screen. Then, you’ll find the essential info:

• High Roller: x1 damage (the baseline)
• One Pair: x1.5 damage
• Two Pairs: x2 damage
• Three of a Kind: x2.5 damage
• Straight: x3 damage
• Full House: x3.5 damage
• Four of a Kind: x5 damage
• Five of a Kind: x10 damage!

The game also throws random events at you to keep it interesting. Sometimes a frog merchant holding a staff pops up and lets you spin a “Try Your Luck” wheel. You can win awesome things like a Legendary Skill or extra health. But there is also a dangerous red heart slot that takes away 15% of your health. Spinning the wheel creates a really fun and risky moment.

To circle back to the skills, every time your hero levels up during a battle or completes a specific wave milestone, a “Select Skill” screen pops up. The game pauses the action and gives you three random, color-coded skill cards to choose from. These choices allow you to customize your build, forcing you to pick the card that best fits your current dice combinations and strategy.

Skills are used for:

• Unlocking More Dice: Giving you more slots at the bottom of the screen so you can roll higher-tier combos like a Full House or Five of a Kind.
• Adding Combo Triggers: Automatically launching extra attacks or firing elemental waves whenever you successfully match your dice.
• Scaling Your Damage: Multiplying your base sword power according to the specific numbers showing on your rolled dice.

Some examples of skills are:

Dice Unlock (Battle Dice +1): This is a highly recommended utility upgrade. It permanently adds a brand-new active dice slot to your layout for the rest of the run, jumping you from three dice to four. More dice mean way better odds of hitting massive multipliers.

Sword Will (When forming a Dice Combo, gain 3 Swordwave stacks): Every single time you lock in a successful match, even just a simple One Pair, your hero automatically shoots out three glowing energy waves to slice through multiple enemies at once.

Sword Oath (Gain Swordwaves equal to this die’s number times one): This is a math-based scaling skill. It checks the exact face value of a specific die you just rolled; if you roll a six, you instantly gain six extra swordwaves to shred the monster’s health.

To move on to the visuals, the style also upheld my expectations. The main menu immediately caught my eye. It shows your little, white-haired hero resting by a campfire at night, with a giant full moon in the background lighting up a snowy path. It feels super cozy but dramatic at the same time. The cool 16-bit retro pixel art style looks super clean and unique, and when you get into battle, everything is also animated beautifully.

For sound, there’s nothing particularly outstanding about it, but I’d describe the music as a fun, upbeat retro soundtrack that fits the vibe. It’s all instrumental, so it doesn’t get annoying or distracting while you are trying to think about your next move.

Overall, the concept of Dicero is awesome. It takes traditional dice matching and adds a thrilling fantasy twist that makes the traditional mobile play feel fresh. However, it’s important to note that past Chapter 5, the game hits a major difficulty wall. The enemy’s health goes so high that even a perfect dice roll won’t beat them unless you grind for hours or spend real money on small transactions. So this game all depends on your personal interests – and bank account. For some, this can get frustrating, while for others, it’s engaging. So whether you usually hate these kinds of games or love them, I’d still recommend giving it a shot. It can definitely keep you hooked for a few days.

Mary-Ellis Ryan attends Baruch High School. She is the one of the newest interns at the New York Videogame Critics Circle.

---