Dungeon crawler recomendations

[guigui]

Crown Trick has a nice discount on the shop currently.
https://www.dekudeals.com/items/crown-trick

Reviews mention some Mystery Dungeon elements in there, sounds nice. Anyone tried this game ?

[m.sniffles.esq]

Just a heads up:

Lots and lots of 3DS dungeon crawlers on sale

[Rastan78]

Dreamcast Record of Lodoss War will always be the dungeon crawler GOAT.

[Ghegs]

Encouraged by my enjoyment of Potato Flowers in Full Bloom, I've gone and dipped another toe in the genre. I picked up the Saviors of Sapphire Wings / Stranger of Sword City Revisited -combo pack and played through Saviors over the last two weeks or so, and finished it today with about 36 hours on the clock. I'd still have the postgame left to do, but it'd require me to first grind some "friendship levels" before I can properly start it, and I think I'd rather take that time and apply it towards another game.

The game's a bit more of a JRPG, in that rather than creating the characters from scratch, they're met in-game as the story progresses and they have their own (pre-chosen) names, classes and such. Though they can be fully customized to your liking, so they can still work as blank templates, as far as their stats go. But deviating from the defaults would, in some cases, create a mismatch between their class and place in the party and what they're doing in the story.

And speaking of, the story, and the world, is a very by-the-numbers, cookie-cutter, generic fantasy setting with a Big Bad Guy, legendary weapons, Light vs. Dark, answering Fate's call, and all that stuff, with maybe two small twists to it but not really any turns. But in a way it was refreshing to just have a basic, straightforward story about a group of heroes bringing down the Big Bad, since those aren't really done anywhere anymore.

I did like the game overall, and it managed to keep me hooked the whole time. I've got some other Switch dungeon crawlers coming in, maybe I'll hold off on starting Stranger and play one of those instead. Or maybe I won't. Don't know yet, I think I want to play something completely else for a little while so I don't burn myself out on the genre.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Dreamcast Record of Lodoss War will always be the dungeon crawler GOAT.

While this game is incredible (and the best RPG for the Dreamcast imho), I wouldn't consider it a 'dungeon crawler' (at least not is the Wizardry pedigree). ARPG or Diablo-like is more fitting.

(Unrelated, I swore I already made this post. Weird...)

[Ruldra]

Sup guys. Long time no see.

I really like playing dungeon crawlers on my phone. The pick-up-and-play nature of the genre and the fact you can stop anytime means it's perfect to play on the go. So I'm gonna recommend a few mobile dungeon crawlers here.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon: Pixel Dungeon is an open-source game, so there are dozens of variants out there. Out of those, Shattered is by far the best one, much better than the original. It's very polished, the dev is still working on it and adding more stuff. Obvious influences from Brogue, you drink strength potions to be able to use higher tier equipment and use upgrade scrolls to improve items and lower their strength requirement. Features 4 classes with 2 subclasses each and an alchemy system to craft items along the way.

Though I've seen people with 200+ runs without winning once, I think roguelike veterans won't take long to figure out the game and beat it. But once you do, you unlock challenges and this is where the fun really starts. You can activate as many as you wish, ranging from making the game harder (tougher bosses, smarter enemies) to crippling you in some way (healing potions poison you, you get hungry faster, armor barely protects you). SPD veterans usually play with 3-6 challenges turned on. Winning with all 9 challenges activated is not unheard of but very very few people managed that.

SPD is free on Android and paid on iOS. Also released on Steam not too long ago.

Labyrinth of the Witch: A Mystery Dungeon clone. Has IAP and ads but can be safely ignored, the game is fully beatable without spending a cent. Features multiple dungeons and in usual Mystery Dungeon fashion, you can start the run with no items or bring equipment you've upgraded over the course of multiple runs. I can confirm it's possible to beat the regular dungeons without starting with items.

The game is not as good as Shiren but honestly it's pretty decent and you can't go wrong for the price of free. Available on Android, iOS and paid on Steam

Pathos: NetHack Codex: Ever tried to play NetHack but got frustrated by how obtuse the game is and essentially requires you to play with the wiki open? Pathos is a modern reimagination of NetHack, with a mobile-friendly UI and presents all the information to the player. Found a fountain? The game will list all the possible outcomes of using it and the odds of them happening. If you found a corpse, the game will tell you if it's safe or not to eat and the odds of acquiring any intrisincs. Also comes with its own encyclopedia you can check anytime.

Even NetHack veterans speak favorably of Pathos. Might not be as deep but is certainly far more accessible. It's free and also has a desktop version.

Dungeon Ascendance: A Desktop Dungeon clone but with a major difference. Instead of healing by exploring the dungeon, you instead do it by eating food items scattered all over the place. That alone makes the game far more playable to me. Besides that, it plays in the same way. Enemies never move and only attack when you attack them, and you need to kill the boss to escape, or alternatively clear the whole dungeon. Features over 10 unique classes and dungeons.

DA is only available on Android and it's a paid game, but there's a demo that lets you play for quite a long time.

Buriedbornes: Honestly didn't play much of it but also heard it's good. Mentioning this one in case someone wants to give it a shot.

[ZellSF]

I was feeling curious and industrious so I went and looked up every blobber-dungeon crawler available on the Switch I could find, might as well collate the data here in case anybody else finds it useful:

You missed Vaporum. Also Vaporum: Lockdown.

As for other "light" dungeon crawlers on the switch, I tried the demo of Heroes of Monkey Tavern, but everything felt sluggish in there. I read good things about Operencia Stolen Sun. The classic Vaporum sounds maybe a little too on the puzzle side for my taste, but maybe the new Vaporum Lockdown address this ?

I would not call Vaporum puzzle heavy, it's puzzles are rather basic. I mean yeah it's supposed to be a gameplay element, but it's no Dungeon Master / Eye of the Beholder / Legend of Grimrock.

[Klatrymadon]

The title screen for Wizardry: The Five Ordeals is essentially a screensaver of rolling enemy art and it's all Elminage-quality stuff, which is to say it's extremely good. Genuinely worth the price of admission before I've pressed start.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

What language are you playing it in? The Steam page says that English is unsupported, but I've been able to find footage of it running in English. Does the game actually have English support now and the Steam page just needs to update their info? Or is there an unofficial patch for it?

[Klatrymadon]

I'm playing in English, so far! I think it's a similar deal to the PS1 Wiz remakes, or Prisoners of the Battles, this game's predecessor - the text essential to playing the game is translated (menus, names of things), but there are odd bits of writing which aren't, some of which might be important for progression in one scenario or another (there are five main scenarios and hundreds of fan-made ones). The developer does plan to translate the five main campaigns in full, but I doubt there's much they can do about the rest. Plenty of English-speaking players seem to be getting on just fine with both the official stuff and the fan content, though...

I believe the dev also plans to port Prisoners of the Battles if this one sells well enough, which would be fantastic. Seems an odd way of doing things, though - putting the 'expansion' before the 'base game'.

Edit: from what I can dimly recall, Prisoners was more than playable enough with the partial English translation, but Five Ordeals did have a few puzzles involving messages written on walls. If I had any idea which scenario these messages were in, I'd probably wait before putting too much time into it.

[BIL]

"Prisoners of the Battles" is the kind of bulls-eye title that'll make me blind-buy a game without knowing WTF it even is.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Thanks for the info! So I guess there's a JP -> ENG option you can toggle or it detects it based on your system language or something?

[Klatrymadon]

There are a bunch of toggles in the options menu, but the game may well auto-detect your region, because I didn't have to touch them.

And yeah, one of the all-time greats, that name!

Lots of excellent user-created dungeon names, too:

MADPLAYGROUND of DEMONS
A shrine of Rave genius
Halfhearted R.P.G.
in the Abysmal Bottom
Muscle Hustles Apostles
Zoo of the Nightmare
Residents of the Prison City
The Envoys of False Peace
IN THE BLACK JAIL

A full Sigh album, there.

Here are some which have full English translation, too:

The ancient tower of Eleia
～ Cosmic Earth ～
Abyss of the Ancient Relics
Fate of Accursed Beings

[drauch]

Lots of excellent user-created dungeon names, too:

MADPLAYGROUND of DEMONS
A shrine of Rave genius
Halfhearted R.P.G.
in the Abysmal Bottom
Muscle Hustles Apostles
Zoo of the Nightmare
Residents of the Prison City
The Envoys of False Peace
IN THE BLACK JAIL

A full Sigh album, there.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I already have enough games on my backlog damn it, stop tempting me with even more dungeon crawlery goodness!

[BIL]

Lots of excellent user-created dungeon names, too:

Takes me back to this thread, home of Morbid Blood Onslaught, Jamaican Forklift Inferno, and Bionic Lightning Of The Damned

RESIDENTS OF THE PRISON CITY

[drauch]

^That sent me down a fun rabbit hole remembrance of a few of shmups' most rambunctious tykes, Siren and St Dragon. Good times.

[Klatrymadon]

I already have enough games on my backlog damn it, stop tempting me with even more dungeon crawlery goodness!

Never! I forgot one tantalising detail: the soundtrack is a Basiscape/Hitoshi Sakimoto thing. I thought it sounded a bit good for a budget release!

A general tip for anyone who might buy this: go into the 'Utilities' tab on the 'Edge of Town' menu and play around with the display options. There are various 'HD' and 'SD' modes which change the presentation of the dungeon and the menus pretty dramatically (I quite like the '3:2' mode with the resolution bumped up to max, for chunky Elminage-style menus), as well as the option to switch between classic wireframe graphics or the modern stuff. Turn off 'fast' movement for more natural-feeling traversal of the dungeon, too (with actual turning animation). :p

[Ghegs]

Just finished Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi. It took me 53 hours to finish the main game, and this time I went for the post-game which I finished at just under 70 hours.

I liked how the game offered free respeccing at any time outside battles, it's nice to be able to switch your party's skills on the fly to be better suited for exploring, killing bosses or grinding. And it was pretty neat to be able to create doors, bridges, etc. your self to make your own path through the dungeons, even if it was only on pre-determined spots so it's not like you can make a beeline to the boss.

I do think the game had a bit too much insta-kill attacks that have no defense against. When my tank, who has more HP and defense than the whole back row of the party combined, gets one-shotted from full health just because the enemy managed to do a critical hit, there's something a bit screwy there.

Overall I did like the game. Obviously, or I wouldn't have spent so long with it. But I'll definitely need a bit of a break from DRPG's now, though I have several more lined up. I read somewhere else that Experience's titles don't have the best dungeon design, so it'll be interesting to try a different dev's output later on.

[Mero]

^^ I'm playing through Undernauts myself right now, I'm on dungeon number 8(the Stronghold). I haven't bothered redistributing skill points or changing jobs, I'm just going to soldier on with what I've got, there shouldn't be too many major problems hopefully.

Getting through the dungeons isn't too taxing if you take them in the order the game suggests though I did have to do quite a bit of grinding for most of the earlier bosses, I beat the last two at the first attempt though.

I haven't had too many people getting one shotted so far, I anyone gets killed I revive them back at base then come back, it doesn't take long to get back to where you were once you've opened up the dungeon with doors and ladder, the dungeons aren't that big.

I don't know my playtime without looking but I bet it's over 50 hours already, I'd like to clear this before Cotton comes out but that's unlikely now.

[Ghegs]

I haven't bothered redistributing skill points or changing jobs, I'm just going to soldier on with what I've got, there shouldn't be too many major problems hopefully.

Hopefully you've at least promoted people, some of the skills available after promotions are really good.

I haven't had too many people getting one shotted so far, I anyone gets killed I revive them back at base then come back, it doesn't take long to get back to where you were once you've opened up the dungeon with doors and ladder, the dungeons aren't that big.

And with the Large Door Flower you can make your own entry-points to dungeons so in that sense it's not a huge issue, but it was annoying when I was doing some grinding for AG and my tank would get killed right off the bat solely due to RNG, forcing me to exit out, revive him and lose ~10k AG in the process, making the whole endeavor cost me money instead of making a profit. And yes, having Substitution Balls in your inventory would revive him straight away, but I wanted to save those for bosses. If the critical hit would just deal a whole lot of damage, that I'd be fine with, but one-shotting the one character that's specifically designed to take a lot of punishment just felt overly harsh.

[m.sniffles.esq]

So I grabbed the Makai Kingdom/ZHP double-pack for Switch (they're also available individually on Steam) because I remember hearing people rave about ZHP, but I didn't own a PSP.

And it's good. TOUGH, but good. It combines usual Nippon Ichi SRPG mechanics with 'mystery dungeon' gameplay (lots of picking up and throwing stuff). But it's been a little jarring after playing a bunch of newer roguelikes that take it somewhat easy on you to go back to the days when "rogue" = really hard

[Mero]

Hopefully you've at least promoted people, some of the skills available after promotions are really good.

.

I've used the promotion flowers I've found so far though I hit the last dungeon yesterday and two of my party are still unpromoted so they're pretty hard to come by.

And with the Large Door Flower you can make your own entry-points to dungeons so in that sense it's not a huge issue, but it was annoying when I was doing some grinding for AG and my tank would get killed right off the bat solely due to RNG, forcing me to exit out, revive him and lose ~10k AG in the process, making the whole endeavor cost me money instead of making a profit. And yes, having Substitution Balls in your inventory would revive him straight away, but I wanted to save those for bosses. If the critical hit would just deal a whole lot of damage, that I'd be fine with, but one-shotting the one character that's specifically designed to take a lot of punishment just felt overly harsh.

If your characters cost 10k AG to revive then you must have been way higher level than I am now. The only mob enemy I've met so far that poses an instakill risk is the rank 3 tiger enemies.I know Sorcerers and Clerics have skills that can reduce the chance of instakills though I haven't really used them much yet. I wonder if some characters are more susceptible to being one-shotted, it doesn't happen often to me (so far..) but when it does it's nearly always the same character.

[Ghegs]

Some DRPG news...

Class of Heroes 2 gets a remaster, no mention of western release. Apparently the first game also got a remaster on Switch back in 2018 and that's still JPN-exclusive.

Labyrinth of Zangetsu to be released in September in Japan, no mention of western/English release yet. Hopefully it'll get one, because it looks pretty cool.

KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! Cursed Relic and the Perplexed Adventurers to be released in September as well. The first game is still JPN-exclusive, so not getting my hopes up for this one.

Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society is the sequel to Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk that's finally getting a western release next year. It was originally released in Japan back in 2020, so it's certainly taken a while.

[m.sniffles.esq]

Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society is the sequel to Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk that's finally getting a western release next year. It was originally released in Japan back in 2020, so it's certainly taken a while.

While I'm glad it finally has a release date...

UURRRGGHHHGGGGHH!!! That's SOOOOOOOOOOO LOOOONG

Especially since the word seems to be 'if you liked Refrain, you'll love Galleria'
I really, really liked Refrain. So c'mon already!

[Mero]

In for Galleria, I was starting to wonder if it was ever going to make it over.

[BryanM]

I thought it probably would...

... but am still having doubts on their dungeon meshi game.

The last youtube video anyone uploaded on it was five months ago, and only has a few more views than my Last Battle video. (Which is sitting at zero views currently.)

[cj iwakura]

Speaking of Wizardry, I still can't believe no one's localized the sequel to Labyrinth of Lost Souls...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WcBF8pSJew

It wasn't a great game or anything, but I still enjoyed it enough to write an FAQ on it.

[guigui]

Legends of Amberland: The Forgotten Crown on the NWS. Anyone tried it ?
https://www.dekudeals.com/items/legends ... tten-crown

[Ghegs]

Speaking of Wizardry, I still can't believe no one's localized the sequel to Labyrinth of Lost Souls...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WcBF8pSJew

It wasn't a great game or anything, but I still enjoyed it enough to write an FAQ on it.

Dang, don't remember the last time I saw a 144p Youtube video.

I have wondered why there hasn't been any Wizardry games released on Switch, not even Labyrinth of Lost Souls which is already available on multiple systems.

---

I finished up The Lost Child this weekend, took about ~39 hours to finish the main quest. I found out my local gaming shop had one copy still around, so I went and picked it up.

I really, really liked it. Unlike the others DRPG's I've played so far it only has two real characters, who are more or less locked into fighter and mage roles, and the rest of the group is made of enemies that you can capture with a special attack. I understand this, and the game in whole, is similar to the Shin Megami Tensei games, but I've never played those. I wasn't initially thrilled about the enemy-capturing aspect, but I did grow to like it a bit. Enemies and spells are associated with a particular attribute (Water, Fire, Wood, Wind, Lightning), each of which is powerful against one and weak against another. You can have three companions in the main party, and six more in the subparty, and during battle you can swap companions between these without any penalties, so building a balanced overall group is preferable and switching out party members as needed. Though oddly changing the line-up outside combat, in a dungeon, does have a small penalty to it.

The story takes place in modern Japan and is kind of a weird mish-mash of a lot of religions, there's angels, demons, fallen angels, many other gods appear as either characters or enemies (Ra, Shiva, Amaterasu...) and Cthulhu mythos also plays a big part. Some scenes are even fully animated in anime style, which was neat to see.

What really made me enjoy the game was the maps. The maps in Saviors of Sapphire Wings and Undernauts were often large, symmetrical, but a bit on the empty side. Here the maps are more compact, they feel less constructed, and there's a heavier focus on puzzles. There was even a (really simple) Sokoban puzzle which was just fun to see. Most notably there are puzzles that take good advantage of the world you can see. Like there's a puzzle where you need to make your way through corridors without looking at specific walls, so you need to pay attention to the surroundings and move sideways, backwards, turn at the correct moments, and so on. Or another where you need to find an enemy by looking for flickering lights on the ceiling. It's a shame this game doesn't allow you to look around freely like Potato Flowers and Undernauts, it would've worked great here (and wasn't really utilized in those games in any meaningful way).

As a sidenote, I like how none of the maps takes place in a forest. Seeing forest paths go in perfect 90 degree angles just rubs me the wrong way.

After the main quest there's still a 100-level additional dungeon to go through. I thought I might give it a go since I had a nice team built up (I don't think I grinded once, either). The first floors are easy and straightforward, then there was a kind of annoying teleporter maze (and the map doesn't track which teleport connects to which, naturally) but already at floor 7 I was ready to be done with it. It's a super annoying two-floor maze, where you need to find the correct hole in the ground to drop down through to the lower floor, then go back up to the floor above, and repeat the process several times until you find the exit. And naturally there are dozens of wrong holes, mostly hidden by appearing as normal floor tiles, to drop you down to the wrong spot and then you have to climb back up to try another floor tile. It took me over an hour just to map out the path through the first half, and it just took longer and longer to get back to where I was before, thanks to the 10-second loading time between floors and random battles. Nearer the end it would probably take a good 3-4 minutes just to try out the next floor tile and hoping it's the correct path to take.

Very much not fun, and feels like a really cheap way of prolonging the game, when it's just pure trial and error. Luckily I found a map of the floors online and was able to get through using that, even if the map didn't fully match the floor layout. Not sure if that's an error on the mapper's part or if the layout was changed between the Japanese and European release. And then after that floor there were some short 10-minute floors again. Hard to say without knowing exactly what's further down the line, but it could take another 30 hours just to finish the extra dungeon, though using a map for annoying floors like that would certainly cut it down. I do think I might be done with the game, though.

Other than that, my complaints are very minor. The translation doesn't always seem as clear as it should, the explanations of items' attributes are useless, and the autopilot walking speed is the same as your normal walking speed. The walking speed can be configured in the options, but the autopilot speed should always be the fastest. And I wish there was a way to really speed up the combat, for those times when you end up battling enemies far lower-level than yourself. Would also appreciate if there was a combat log to be checked afterwards. Overall I liked the game quite a lot, would recommend.

---

Before I started on The Lost Child I picked up Moonshades from the eShop, but it didn't really grab me. It's real-time combat so square dancing is a thing, and the game feels like it was ported from mobiles. Not that that's a bad thing in itself, but UI feels really clunky here. Rather than having plain, boring, yet functional menus, everything has a button dedicated to it. You go to inventory by pressing left on the analog stick, you use potions by hitting L3 or R3 (depending which character you want to quaff), and other weird things like that. It just felt like a mess and I wasn't invested enough to get to grips with it.