The Swords of Ditto has a massive free update that removes permadeath

You may remember The Swords of Ditto, the Zelda-like action RPG with the utterly charming art style from a year ago. While we quite liked the game, there were complaints about its punishing permadeath system. Developer onebitbeyond has released a big new update for The Swords of Ditto, and permadeath is now a thing of the past.

The update, called Mormo’s Curse, touches most of The Swords of Ditto’s systems.

“The game structure has been totally gutted, and the divisive permadeath feature has been removed,” the developers write in an update on Steam. “You will still fail a story if you die while climbing Mormo’s Palace at the end, or if you play in Hero Mode, but otherwise, if you fail, you will collapse and wake up in your house having dropped some cash and fragments.”

The studio says it has also improved Ditto’s overworld, added new areas, and reworked the endgame to give players more to do after they defeat Mormo. Once you’ve beaten her once, she will add a curse to your next story that acts like a mutator for that playthrough.

This reminds me a bit of the adjustments Tribute Games made to Mercenary Kings last year that wound up finally drawing me into to the game, and it’s a perfect opportunity for players who were put off initially by The Swords of Ditto’s permadeath to give it another go.