Moves of the Diamond Hand by Cosmo D Studios
Moves of the Diamond Hand depicts a dystopian, surreal city. Its setting is an absurd world filled to the brim with eccentricities, where large pigeons and human clones are the norm, anthropomorphic humanoid creatures roam the streets, and the inhabitants of the aptly-named Off-Peak City are enveloped by a heated mayoral race.
Admittedly, it’s a lot to take in, but thankfully, the game’s oddities are still rooted in familiarity, making it a bit easier to relate to all the weirder things on display.
Political Moves
The aforementioned mayoral race is one of the main focal points of Moves of the Diamond Hand’s narrative. NPCs talk about which candidates they’re rooting for, and by proxy, you’ll learn more about each of them. You’ll even be given the opportunity to debate people on the street to sway public opinion on them as a side activity.
This aspect of the narrative does a solid job of adding just enough intrigue to the game to make the narrative feel engrossing.
There is so much depth to the game’s writing. Besides its overarching narrative, there are so many NPCs you can talk to. It’s almost insane how much content is in this game already. NPCs each have their own alliances and motivations. Many have plenty of dialogue options to sift through.
There is a lot to ingest here, which can be overwhelming to those unwilling to immerse themselves. You’ll spend most of the game reading dialogue text, reminiscent of games like Disco Elysium.
Diamond Dice
The main core mechanic revolves around dice rolls. Almost every action in this game requires you to roll the dice, besting your opponent’s total roll. You can re-roll twice if you want a higher number. Success relies heavily on this mechanic. Everything, from fixing something in the environment to persuading people via dialogue options, relies on high-numbered dice rolls.
As you progress, you gain experience points. Even unsuccessful actions can net you more experience points. These are then used to upgrade the number of each side of the die of your choosing. Each die corresponds to a category of stats.
For example, I spent a lot of my upgrades on my music and observation skills. This made dialogue options corresponding to those more likely to net me higher dice rolls for success.
What’s great about this system is that the game doesn’t often lock you out of dialogue options if you’ve upgraded one skill over another. Dialogue options have mostly all the skills to choose from, so Moves of the Diamond Hand never feels like it is forcing you down a specific path of skill upgrades. Instead, it feels open to whatever skills you like to focus on.
Tough Talks and Advantageous Outfits
That said, from my observation, it’s best to upgrade as many skills as possible. You’ll need multiple successful dice rolls to get information out of some of the NPCs you encounter, so it can feel like upgrading all the skills is more of a requirement than a suggestion.
This feels like the smartest approach given the way dialogue options are set up. This, in theory, should be fine from a progression standpoint, but I often felt like I had to grind a bit too much to gain enough experience to upgrade my skills. Grinding in Moves of the Diamond Hand involves busking for the public, which is accomplished via more dice rolls.
If your skills aren’t up to snuff, you’ll have a rough time. Thankfully, you can find objects to make your dice rolls higher. Drinks and pizzas increase your total dice rolls number, e.g., potentially adding a +1 to your total roll.
You can also wear outfits with effects like the ability to re-roll one or more of your opponent’s dice. This is a crucial part of the game’s core mechanic and adds a lot of fun and depth.
Rough Rolling in the Offbeat, Off-Peak City
Moves of the Diamond Hand relies heavily on its dice mechanics; even opening some doors requires it. I get that this is part of the tabletop experience, but it can feel like a chore, and for me, it hinders the exploration, making the pace feel sluggish.
Exploring the world and learning from NPCs would be more enjoyable if everything didn’t rely on dice rolls so much, but you rarely get a break from them.
The game opts for a dark graphical presentation. The dark city streets are foreboding places to explore. Some NPCs have realistically unnerving face textures that look a bit too real, making for a weird but unique overall look, which is enhanced by a synth-heavy soundtrack of groovy, often upbeat electronic rhythms that sometimes radiate to the forefront, demanding attention.
They add a lot to the game’s overall tone, giving things a lively and otherworldly feeling in the best way: an atmosphere that feels familiar yet invitingly odd.
The Verdict:
Currently in Early Access with the first two chapters available, Moves of the Diamond Hand is already a deep RPG experience with an intriguing and eccentric world to explore. It’s almost a no-brainer to check out for those who are even remotely interested. I’m looking forward to seeing how it progresses.
Moves of the Diamond Hand is available via Steam Early Access.
Check out the official trailer for Moves of the Diamond Hand below:
