I’m Kinglink, I’ve played a lot of Roguelites over the years, but when I got my Steam deck, there was one that really stood out and still gets a lot of playtime.  That title, of course, is Brotato.  But what is Brotato? 

Brotato comes from that line of games that are similar to Vampire Survivors, almost casual rogue-lites with simple control schemes, usually just a single control stick.  And while there are a lot of imitators, Brotato stands out for quite a few reasons.  I mean, the first thing is you’re playing as a potato. 

I want to call something out as I play, keep a close eye on my characters, while you can select your character, every upgrade your character buys seems to appear on their body which reminds me of Mr. Potato Head and can be quite funny. 

Anyway, back to the genre, where Vampire Survivors and most of its similar games are endurance survival mode, Brotato is about surviving 20 waves of enemies with a simple shop that appears between each wave. It’s a relatively fast game to pick up and play, but also has enough moments where players can put down the title and take a breather, or in the case of the Steam Deck, turn it off for a while.

I’ve been thinking about this game a lot, even before it left early access, but now that I’ve put in some hours into the official release, it’s the perfect time to look into what makes this game stand out. 

So sit back, and give me a couple of minutes to talk about the three biggest things that draw me to Brotato.  Let me choose my character.  

Ok, Well-Rounded is pretty average.  

Hmm, Oh man the Mage, awesome, magical attacks, though I always forget the elemental items.  

Ooh Lucky is fun, you get lots of drops there. 

Ooh, Generalist, having to choose 3 melee weapons and 3 ranged weapons.  That’s a good one.   This is hard.

This is the first thing I wanted to bring up.  Choosing a character is important.  Every character will play the same game, and yet every character has bonuses and benefits that start them differently.  The Mage is going to look mostly for elemental items, someone like Loud who has more enemies, needs to deal with crowds more.   Even someone crazy like Bull who can’t equip weapons, isn’t going to play the same as anyone else. 

There are so many characters in this game, and what’s lovely is you have to earn them by completing achievements.   Every main achievement in the game unlocks a character, and beating a full run of twenty levels earns you a second achievement which unlocks an item. 

I’d think it might be useful to break down more of the game by talking about three specific runs, we’ve already seen a bit of a run, where I focused on ethereal weapons which grant bonuses based on how many enemies you kill in a wave with each specific weapon.   

But let’s take a look at an Explorer.  This guy started with more trees spawning in a level which means healing, but the thing is this is just the starting point of a character.

The second big thing I love in Brotato is how each character’s journey changes mostly by what you choose in the shop or which direction your load out takes.  Explorers tend to be weaker but have a lot of enemies that appear and fast ones at that.  I was trying to get my speed up to 50 percent to unlock a new character on this run, but to do this I also decided to invest heavily in tool weapons.

See, as a Brotato you have a mystical ability in this game, instead of a single weapon or two, most characters are allowed to carry up to 6 weapons, and each weapon is upgradable three times, to tier four.  Upgrades will make you more powerful, but it’s better to have more weapons than just higher-tiers.  So two tier 1 screwdrivers are better than 1 tier 2. 

The fact is my Explorer from the first level to the tenth will look and feel different, but so does the map.  And that’s a big thing I love about Brotato.  I’ve played hundreds of runs in this game, and I can honestly say I feel pretty powerful in almost all of them.  You start with a simple character, but you almost always build something interesting and unique.  You get a randomized shop but you never feel held back by that randomness.  

I’ve shown two odd characters, but let’s try a character that’s all about normal damage, the traditional style of gamer. 

And the thing is this leads us to the question.  How far are you going to be able to make it? Which is our third topic. 

Brotato is a rogue-lite, but this is a rogue-lite with a set limit for a standard run, 20 waves, all with the same map.  The first wave is 20 seconds, the time grows until it’s 60 seconds, and honestly, a successful run takes about 15 to 20 minutes depending on how long you stick around in the shop and try to make a decision. 

But 15 minutes means the ramp-up happens relatively quickly, and while the first ten levels may make you feel powerful, Brotato is there to smack players back in line.  It’s one thing to feel strong in wave 10, but the question is can you keep dodging enemies, killing them, and keeping the cash flowing until wave 20… 

And the fact is, a lot of runs don’t make it.  Like this one.  But the thing is Brotato never really has a “bad beat” to use a poker term.  I never walk away thinking the game is unfair or cheated, if anything I feel my build lacked something critical, and that’s on me, the player.  The thing is that’s a great feeling because it just feeds into a loop common to rogue-lite, that desire to play just one more game and maybe this time you’ll beat it. 

Think about that 15 to 20 minute time limit.  It’s one thing when I lose a deep run or a character in other games that I’m passionate about or have learned to love over an hour or so.  That loss tends to make me stop especially if a majority of my runs don’t go that deep.  In Brotato though, if I lose 10-15 minutes into a game, it’s perfectly reasonable to start a new run and go at it again.  And Brotato does a great job at that fast turnover… Oh crap.  Another loss… 

Ok, remember that Explorer, let’s see how he did.  Now remember that I talked about achievements, Brotato isn’t just about beating the game, though that is important, but also unlocks, which hey, I just hit level 20 for the first time since the full game was released.  A new achievement, huh, that should be a character.    

This run though was a bit special as well because I was stacking speed, not because I thought it was good, but because I wanted to try to get another achievement…. And hey… Sweet, another one.  Dang, this is a pretty good run. 

But admittedly, my explorer wasn’t built that well, focusing more on avoidance, so once we reach our final boss, you can see here, it’s not going so well, I’m barely damaging him and I’m mostly forced to dodge his attacks, which makes it harder… And wait… what happened? 

Remember I said 20 waves, and the last wave is 60 seconds.  You can beat Brotato even if you don’t kill the final boss, and when I was recording this I expected to show three failures because failure in Brotato is fun, but you know what’s good too?  A big old win to wrap up a video.   And I could just toss that run out, but I’m not going to lie to make a narrative, besides, rising above a challenge whether it be the run itself or a specific achievement is enjoyable. 

So that’s the big thing I wanted to talk about with Brotato and what I feel makes it stand out in the sea of rogue-lites.  I just adore this game, and every run has that same rollercoaster ride.  Choosing my character is harder than it should be because it’s so varied, I tend to just choose the random option to avoid that choice… But then watching that character evolve depending on what I can find in shops is always interesting because there are so many unique choices… I love seeing what is available.  Sometimes what you’re working towards needs to be changed because you don’t get a key piece…   Which of course may mean you’ll fail, but that failure just is oddly enjoyable because it pushes players to give it another chance. 

All this in 10-20 minutes, means a tight gameplay loop, and honestly, that’s why you should check Brotato out if you haven’t.  Even if you played it in Early Access, the full release added a few more characters and more to do. I’m glad I picked it up again, and trust me, this is a pretty special title. 

That’s what I have for Brotato, so let me know whether you played this in early access, bought it on its full release, or have you not played this yet.  What are you waiting for?  It’s a five dollar title, which makes it a low risk proposition.  And just before recording I finished unlocking all the characters, I did beat difficulty 4 with Ghost, and finished difficulty 5 with knight, and will now have to raise the rest of the group to that difficulty.

If you enjoyed this video, you know what to do, subscribe, and ring the bell to hear more from me,  Oh, and let me know what rogue-lites I should consider covering.  I do have one that I’m toying with, but it takes a decent amount of time before I feel like I’ve seen enough of a rogue-lite to talk about it.

See you next time.