Rightfully, Beary Arms (Chumps Preview)

Chumps Preview is a special kind of post where we unofficially preview games in Early Access, Beta, or are otherwise “unfinished.” This kind of preview is meant to be a first impression rather than a definitive review where we provide a rating to determine a game’s value. As such, we fully expect a game covered in a Chumps Preview to have room for improvement, some bugginess/incompleteness, and other features associated with similar games in the category.

Rightfully, Beary Arms (RBA) is a bullet hell meets roguelite that enters Early Access on July 27, 2023. This past week, we were given access to a preview build ahead of its Early Access release and got a taste of the charming hell it has to offer. Overall, I’m impressed with its foundation, charm, and gameplay structure. We’re excited to see where it ends up as Daylight Basement Studio LLC refines it going forward.

RBA is incredibly charming at first glance. When I loaded into its tutorial I was gobsmacked by its humor. A friendly fox guided me through some basic mechanics for Beary (the main bear cub in turquoise pajamas) like shooting and dashing, and then I was off on my own journey. While this was some of the only charm and lore I was exposed to during this preview, I’m excited to see what is added to the game that tells us more about Beary, what he’s up to, and who he’s against. Seeing a pig using a gigantic trout as a weapon is cute and a gun’s “sex appeal” being measured by units of honey baked hams gave me a good chuckle, so I’m excited to see what other little bits are included to up the silliness factor.

I did not expect RBA to be as punishing as it was charming and silly. For comparison’s sake, I was very quickly reminded of how punishing Enter the Gungeon’s gameplay loop was, especially at the start, amidst its silliness of bullets using guns and wacky weaponry. Here, I was punished repeatedly by stage hazards, highly variable bullet patterns, and weapon/ammunition management. Like Gungeon, I had a default weapon with unlimited ammunition, and every new weapon I came across would permanently unlock but had a limited supply of ammo that could only be replenished from upgrade opportunities.

In typical roguelite fashion, RBA involved me taking Beary through multiple levels, each containing rooms and waves of enemies. Some rooms had stage hazards, like pits of water and billiards tables that emitted bullets when the tables collided with enemy and/or my own bullets. Each level had a randomized number of rooms as well as rewards of varying frequency. While level had a single reward to be obtained with 100% certainty, with second and sometimes third rewards dropping at a lower rate. Sometimes, the level’s reward will drop at in the first room, meaning that clearing the remaining rooms rewarded me with a handful of Plu (money); sometimes, the reward wouldn’t drop until nearly the end of the level. I wasn’t too keen on this, as each world contained upwards of five to six rooms, and not enough currency dropped in the non-reward rooms to make my progress feel…well, rewarding.

I was able to choose which level and subsequent rewards by spending Radar Jam (think action points), so that was nice. Having that power to determine my run’s path helped in gaining the currency and rewards I needed for advancement, so I didn’t feel that any given run was entirely out of my control. Roguelites often use variance to keep the gameplay loop refreshing, and RBA excels in giving the player a light degree of decisionmaking in a world where actions are made in exchange for jam. Once I ran out of jam, it was off to the first boss!

The first boss, The Rocktopus, was a literal octopus with drumsticks. Punny? Yes. Difficult? Also yes. It took several tries for me to get used to its attacks because its bullet patterns didn’t seem to be clearly telegraphed and its dash involved a blink-and-you-miss-it pause animation. For newer players, I would argue that bosses like this, especially those with bullet patterns and behavior that are different from the typical enemies of the first world, need some form of telegraph to remind them of what to do, where to dodge, and so forth.

The level rewards weren’t covered that heavily in the game’s tutorial, but the rewards’ descriptions were found deep in the menu. Plu is run-specific currency that could be spent in weapon shops. Radar Jam can be spent on visiting more levels. Inspiration is a permanent currency that can be used to purchase permanent upgrades (Prooves) like permanent bonus health, improved dash cooldown. RunTimes are run-specific upgrades that improve Beary’s abilities (think Hades’ boons) and/or make the run a smidge easier. Entry Weapons are upgrade opportunities, giving me a selection from three options where a new weapon gets permanently added to my inventory, an existing weapon can be upgraded for that specific run, and/or an existing weapon’s ammunition can be increased. As I type this out, it sounds like quite a bit of rewards, but because of additional rewards beyond the first in each level dropping with lower frequencies, most runs ended up with me getting maybe 2-3 upgrades per run before I hit the boss (assuming I was successful in reaching the boss at all).

RBA’s stinginess in providing rewards keeps the game difficult, but I do wish that runs felt a smidge more rewarding. Plu typically expires when a run is over (unless I pick up a RunTime that makes my Plu persist to the next run). Most Prooves cost more than 2 Inspiration tokens, so it could take several runs to feel like Beary’s power is increasing. Coming across shops were rare, and most of the time, I didn’t have enough Plu to spend at a shop simply because defeating several waves of enemies yielded a couple hundred Plu whereas the items cost over a thousand Plu. Some levels had boxes that dropped Plu when they were destroyed, but the boxes themselves were designed to withstand multiple bullets to offer Beary some cover against enemies. After battles, I didn’t want to waste time shooting the boxes over and over. The default weapon has unlimited ammunition but low magazine, and I didn’t want to waste special but stronger ammunition because of the boxes’ durability. If the boxes could be easily destroyed after a battle, it would make gaining Plu feel easier/more frequent.

I just loved the silliness of the weapons, though. I picked up a wide variety of weapons during my preview ranging from a glue gun that shot four bullets in a spread to a water gun that shot bubbles in a machine gun fashion. My favorite gun was a pixel gun that could only shoot on an X,Y axis (meaning horizontally OR vertically and nothing in between). When I stumbled upon the occasional temporary weapon upgrade, I could feel a meaningful shift in how the weapon handled, even if the upgrade was a slight damage boost or an additional bullet in the magazine.

Beary has several abilities called “Gambits” available for use in any given room, but using them comes at a cost of a single full heart until the room is cleared. The three Gambits I had from the start slowed down time while increasing my damage (think OTXO’s slow-mo mode), speeding me up and making me small, and an explosion that deleted all projectiles on the screen Touhou-style. I loved how these Gambits enhanced the bullet-hell experience, but they absolutely should have been explained better and/or made available later. Starting out, Beary gets just three hearts, and I didn’t know that using a Gambit temporarily locked me out of a heart until I had died several times and was mucking about in the menus. Powers like this should come at a cost, sure, but perhaps varying those costs would make the onboarding experience less punishing and more of a thoughtful choice. If the Gambits are to cost health, and only cost health, then they should be made available later for players with more health to wager.

There were times where Rightfully, Beary Arms kicked me when I was down after a tough loss through its “Calamity” system. Upon dying and starting a new run, you’re presented with one of three Calamities that make your run more difficult, like hiding the percentages of health spawns in each biome, adding an additional wave of enemies, and increasing enemies’ health by 25%. Defeating a boss gives players a choice of an additional Calamity, too. “Good” variance in roguelites ensures that each run is unique, to the benefit AND detriment of the player. Here, it’s entirely to the detriment of a player who was unsuccessful in a run to now have to pick their poison of detriment that will assuredly make their next run more difficult. I would expect Calamities to exist as an end-game option, such as Hades’ “Pacts of Punishment,” that up the risk, difficulty, and rewards for those who’re up to the challenge. I fear that Rightfully, Beary Arms may push newer players away simply because the players are frustrated with artificially making their runs more difficult for the sake of variance.

I need to emphasize a few things before I conclude this preview. In no way am I against the idea of a difficult game. In no way do I feel that RBA antagonizes players in the early stages of the game, either. However, I fear that perceptions of feeling antagonized may emerge from players who become stuck in its current gameplay loop that skews more difficult than most roguelites. Don’t get me wrong, I love a tough title, but I don’t want players to become discouraged by its difficulty and put it down too soon. If it’s to remain as difficult as it is, it should lean further into its difficulty and portray itself as a bullet hell roguelite from hell. On the other hand, I see an opportunity to alleviate part of the difficulty and perceived punishing nature of its variance to make the Calamity system kick in later, perhaps after the first boss. An “easy” mode akin to Have a Nice Death’s “Self-Fulfillment” difficulty could be an easy solve, too.

Because RBA is in Early Access, we’re unable to assign a score at this time. However, I have faith in Daylight Basement Studio LLC in continuously refining their premiere title and interacting with their Discord community. On the game’s menu, they’ve emphasized that they’re interested in feedback and that more is to come. The Early Access system has helped refine some awesome roguelites, including Rogue Legacy 2, Have a Nice Death, Hades, and Risk of Rain 2, just to name a few! Taking all of this together, I am eager to see how development on RBA evolves going into its full release in the future.

Witty. Charming. Punishing. Chaotic. Difficult. These are all terms to describe my experience with Rightfully, Beary Arms so far. On paper, these terms may give some players pause, but they shouldn’t shy away from its current challenging roguelite gameplay loop as it enters Early Access on July 27. We will be keeping an eye on it as Daylight Basement Studio LLC adds to and refines it going forward, as I want a good challenge, but I also want to enjoy its incredible humor, too!