Knock on the Coffin Lid: Complete Edition by developer and publisher Redboon—Microsoft Xbox Series X review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes.
Knock on the Coffin Lid: Complete Edition is the console release of the game that originally came out on Steam in summer of 2024, complete with the optional DLCs. As for the game itself? It’s a gritty, turn-based roguelike that expects you to fail, but also anticipates that you’ll enjoy it enough to keep coming back for more. By and large, I’d say that the formula worked well for me, creating a generally enjoyable experience despite a couple of rough edges here and there.
The title of this game is a nod to the start of the story, which sees your protagonist waking up far from home without any memories. Oh, and he died and is getting out of a coffin. It’s a rather interesting premise and a well-told story that hangs its hat primarily on this solid narrative and pleasant art style that makes it rather unique despite so many familiar mechanics in the gameplay. The story’s not going to rival those told by JRPGs, but compared to many of the deckbuilding roguelikes out there, I actually found myself more interested in Knock on the Coffin Lid’s story more than most of its peers in the genre.
For those who are familiar with the genre and enjoy what titles like Slay the Spire or Nowhere Prophet, Knock on the Coffin Lid provides a similar structure. Combat is turn-based, and you draw cards that dictate your available attacks, skills and defensive tactics. I appreciated the variety that came from the options to have differing companions and play styles each run, but it does take some time for them to really start to differentiate themselves. That is because like many similar titles in the genre like Roguebook, you unlock new abilities with your repeated playthroughs. It can take a decent number of attempts to unlock these other cards that make different builds and playstyles feel truly unique from one another.
I will say that one card mechanic that I enjoyed was the equipment cards. Those are starting to become a bit more common in the genre (the recently released Monster Train 2 has equipment as well), but it does add a nice layer of strategy to the game’s tactics. All these elements are woven into the primary story, which sees your character going back in time when he fails a run. The premise is that you can make different decisions by taking different paths that might make your run unique from the last one.
By and large this works, because the variety of cards and how the core systems weave into the narrative is engaging. That being said, after a dozen or so runs, repetition starts to settle in. This is due to a couple of factors, one of which is the uneven (almost unfair near the end) spikes in difficulty. There are difficulty adjustments in the options, but I wouldn't call any of them easy. Secondly the lack procedurally generated maps (there's three of them) lacks some of the randomness normally associated with the roguelike genre. You can take different paths across the maps to try and make runs somewhat unique from prior ones, but a sense of 'been there, done that' started to set in sooner than I liked. I was still invested enough to want to see it through until the very end - though I found the final boss to be annoyingly frustrating.
The package around the game is quite good. The art style was unique and combined with the music, I thought the presentation was quite enjoyable. They helped to elevate the story, which I was already enjoying – they just made it better. The game itself is pretty easy to learn and for the most part the UI was intuitive enough to get around without much difficulty. There were a handful of instances where I thought some improvements could smooth out item selections, and there were some technical hiccups when playing as well – especially crashes. I suspect these will get resolved – they weren’t super common, but they did occur. At least the game frequently autosaves, so I seldom felt like I was missing a lot of effort when things did get a bit unstable.
All in all, Knock on the Coffin Lid: Complete Edition is a really solid entry into the genre of deckbuilding roguelikes. It’s mechanically sound with a stronger narrative and presentation than many similar titles. However, it is worth calling out that the ‘just one more run’ addictiveness that the genre is known for did seem to wear out for me a little earlier than some of my favorites of the genre, like Monster Train. The unlock progression is still engaging and the presentation is well executed, making this a title fans of roguelike deckbuilding would enjoy.
Score: 6.5 out of 10
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