This week we cover the new (2025) tetris-deckbuilder mashup from Sleepy Mill Studio, Drop Duchy, and add it to the tier list. Is it a puzzle game or a Tetris game? Does it matter?
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On this episode we talk Tetris and David's deep love for it, then try to reconcile how not-Tetris this game is despite the very Tetris-forward presentation of it. If you go into Drop Duchy expecting a roguelite take on Tetris then you're probably in for a bad time, but if you just look at it like a new puzzle roguelite then there is a lot to like here. We talk about the development (it started as a training project then went for a commercial release) and the specifics: different phases, acts, bosses, buildings, factions, and difficulty modifiers.
We found Drop Duchy to be a really unique take on a puzzle game - it's a clever system which brings in some deck-building elements along with a rock-paper-scissors style combat that is influenced by the relative positions of your buildings and terrain that is plopped down onto the board. The metaprogression felt a little tacked on and there's maybe some balancing that should happen at the higher difficulty levels, but we're reviewing this pretty shortly after release and seems the developers will keep supporting in.
Definite recommend if this is your kind of genre!
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