Darkest Dungeon designers really aren’t sadists: ‘We’re realists’

The first sign that I was playing something unique — a rarity in my 30-plus years of taking on role-playing games — came after my first encounter in Darkest Dungeon. I looked at my Vestal, the priest character with healing powers, for a spell to cast after combat to cure my Crusader, as I’ve done in dozens of games before. He’d take a copious amount of damage from some brigands.

No such spell existed. In fact, I learned you couldn’t even use your characters’ abilities between encounters.