Prior to every fateful showdown with Mormo, players have the options to delve into two Toy Dungeons that each bestow the player with a unique Toy at its end, rather than in the middle as Zelda has conditioned us in the past thirty years of gaming. There are so many rooms and randomly generated areas that I’ve gone through multiple generations without seeing the same dungeon design twice. The Swords of Ditto’s inspiration from Zelda in terms of dungeon design fuses quite well with the roguelite framework that Onebitbeyond has developed.

Sword attacks can be woven into bomb-throwing, record flinging, and golf club swinging attacks that can be as useful for solving dungeon puzzles as they are deadly. Once your hero unlocks new Toys of Legend, Ditto’s version of the puzzle-solving tools from any Zelda game, these work nicely into combat. The third sword clash felt delayed and lead to getting hit mid-swing so often that I opted for the first two swings and then dodge rolling away. Each hero is limited to a basic three-hit sword combo, with extra abilities being unlockable via upgrades in the form of stickers. Swordplay is one of those aspects to The Swords of Ditto that pales compared to the rest of the title. Don’t like the hero you’re playing as? Sacrifice yourself to Mormo and plunge the island into despair for another century for a chance with a more stylish hero. In each generation, the Sword you play as is random and ever-changing cosmetically (with no effects to skill and power) sometimes you’ll be a cat, luchador, robot, or plain poofy-haired heroine. Tasked with the goal of pushing Mormo out of power and delaying the inevitable, their task would be insurmountable to overcome in only a few days time.

The Swords of Ditto are a group of heroes that show up but once every hundred years.

The swords of ditto