u/DoubleSurosMazing

At its core, the Darkest Dungeon series contains: a home base (hamlet, Inns), a turn system (weeks in DD1, days in kingdoms, regions in DD2), and different environments/regions to traverse (Weald, Foetor, etc). It goes without saying that any third game would include these core gameplay tenets in some fashion.

Brigand VVulf’s raid into the hamlet and the Kingdom’s Inn sieges are a perfect blueprint for how an invasion mechanic could work. Instead of a singular boss fight like VVulf or the campaign long quests and siege timers of Kingdoms, a simpler mechanic in between the two would add a layer of complexity to any third game and be an interesting avenue for new content.

Imagine instead of a long quest line, you receive an alert at the start of your next turn; an enemy force is marching/marauding through a region, en route to your inn/hamlet with murderous intent. This would start a timer similar to an inn siege, within a certain number of turns you must venture into said region and fight a mini boss, or the timer runs out and you fight a difficult battle at your base.

Such a mechanic would add an air of randomness and challenge as the traditional enemies of each region are supplemented by new foes, and the player is forced to balance the coming threat and their own long term planning. As well, such a mechanic would allow for Redhook to introduce new and old enemies to the game easier than an entire region, as only a mini boss and a few units would be needed to create our invasive factions.

It goes without saying the importance Wayne June’s voice has had on the Darkest Dungeon series, to the point that any attempt to replace him with a similar voice actor would likely fall a little flat.

Instead, Darkest Dungeon 3 should find a way to include multiple voices, including our Ancestor/Academic himself where possible. Via either player choices, or region/faction specific voice actors, this method would allow the next game to simultaneously tell a brand new story without trying one up such an iconic part of the series. This method would also allow the devs to reuse Wayne’s voice where needed, namely informing the player of their brave and foolhardy adventurers’ imminent deaths.

You’d get the best of both worlds: new voices to explore a new take on the world of DD and the continued advice of the series most malevolent mentor.

To fully understand this idea, we need to establish some context first. In the original Darkest Dungeon we are tasked with facing a world ending threat from a single estate. With all of our cosmic evil emanating from a single area, building up the hamlet as a base is the wise choice. We can spend all our resources on a single place, knowing that our brave warriors will be able to trek to face their foes from safety.

The second game is a different story; an entire kingdom is being despoiled by manmade* horrors beyond our comprehension. We can no longer build up a single town to send our mercenaries into the fray, as the city, farms, wharfs, and woods are all corrupted by evil. Therefore we must adjust to the scale of conflict ahead, by splitting our resources across a number of inns and the almighty stagecoach. By optimizing our resources to travel across the country side, we are able to confront the enemy across the entire Kingdom.

This points to a concerning development: with each successive game, the areas affected by eldritch horror grow. In the next game we may need to travel to distant and horrible lands (such as New Jersey), where our venerable stagecoach and malevolent horses cannot travel to. As we move from a provincial to national to regional scale, our base of operations must grow as well. To that end, I believe a port is the most likely location for Darkest Dungeon 3. It would allow the same base building as the original game yet still allow our brave and foolhardy adventures to travel around the world and die of spider bites. It could also allow for dual progression of the port and ship, forcing players to balance their base and their traveling upgrades at once.
This would capture the magic of both of the original games while still being a unique and exciting challenge to face.

*While the source of the Iron Crown is unknown, it is protege (us) who puts it on and ruins everything.