The Dungeon Crawler thread.

I tried Etrian Odyssey for few hours since it was included in the most recent Humble Bundle.

I can't honestly say I'm getting a good first impression. So far it's one of the dullest, most repetitive and tedious titles in the genre I've ever spent some time with and almost every part of its design (the amount of casual encounter, the way progression scales in the early game, "draw your own map", "can't save in the dungeon", "reloading means starting from your main hub", etc, etc.) seems to be purposefully aimed at boring the player out of his mind.

At cost of sounding casually racist, my first impression so far was something amount the line of "Yeah, this is the kind of dungeon crawler you can appreciate only if you played just on Nintendo consoles all your life and you lack a better reference point".

That said, I'm not giving up on it YET, but I swear I'm THIS close to uninstall it and forget about it.
 
This is legit my favorite topic on this forum. Always excited to see new posts. None of this is sarcasm. I know, wild for me.

Anyways, enough of the glaizing.

I posted this in the NextFest thread but this is something worth keeping an eye on.

The demo was decent and the dev seems like they are ambitious for feedback and refining the concept

 
Sentenza said:
I tried Etrian Odyssey for few hours since it was included in the most recent Humble Bundle.

I can't honestly say I'm getting a good first impression. So far it's one of the dullest, most repetitive and tedious titles in the genre I've ever spent some time with and almost every part of its design (the amount of casual encounter, the way progression scales in the early game, "draw your own map", "can't save in the dungeon", "reloading means starting from your main hub", etc, etc.) seems to be purposefully aimed at boring the player out of his mind.

At cost of sounding casually racist, my first impression so far was something amount the line of "Yeah, this is the kind of dungeon crawler you can appreciate only if you played just on Nintendo consoles all your life and you lack a better reference point".

That said, I'm not giving up on it YET, but I swear I'm THIS close to uninstall it and forget about it.
Click to expand...

I finished Etrian Odyssey 1 on Switch earlier this year (and currently playing 2) and compared to my original session on DS, it's not as charming because the game is like ~15 years old by now and some things (like the amount of random encounters, the midi music, the drawing) didn't age correctly. Drawing on the DS was much funnier, plus back then I would buy one game maybe every 4 or 5 months so I wouldn't have a +200 game backlog as nowadays when I want to finish them and continue with the next one. I don't mind not being able to save in the dungeon, that's still standard, rarely you are able to save anywhere (Legends of Amberland is the only one I remember right now you can save anywhere). Everyone says 3 is the best with the best soundtrack, unfortunately it was released after I stopped playing on DS so I never bought it.

I agree that it can become repetitive quickly. To continue with my experience, I played Labyrinth of Galleria and then went with Etrian HD 1 and it was like a huge downgrade, especially in the music and random encounters (the other doesn't have random encounters). But I loved both games back in the day and even though I completely missed the 3DS era I bought myself a few 3DS and now buying the 3DS Etrians to play them for the first time. Back in 2007-2008 Nintendo has had a huge amount of dungeon crawlers btw, I still got Arcana, Wizardry V, Might and Magic 3, Eye of the Beholder and Drakkhen for SNES plus there were many others that I couldn't get like Dungeon Masters. And in this playthrough I had my party wiped 4 times before I found the stairs to the second floor, I was kind of surprising because I didn't remember it being that hard (and playing it in Basic/Normal mode).
 
Plague Doctor said:
This is legit my favorite topic on this forum. Always excited to see new posts. None of this is sarcasm. I know, wild for me.

Anyways, enough of the glaizing.

I posted this in the NextFest thread but this is something worth keeping an eye on.

The demo was decent and the dev seems like they are ambitious for feedback and refining the concept

Click to expand...
Thanks

And yes this is also my favoriye thread. Always excited to see what pops up here

Like this game
 
ReyBrujo said:
I finished Etrian Odyssey 1 on Switch earlier this year (and currently playing 2) and compared to my original session on DS, it's not as charming because the game is like ~15 years old by now and some things (like the amount of random encounters, the midi music, the drawing) didn't age correctly. Drawing on the DS was much funnier, plus back then I would buy one game maybe every 4 or 5 months so I wouldn't have a +200 game backlog as nowadays when I want to finish them and continue with the next one. I don't mind not being able to save in the dungeon, that's still standard, rarely you are able to save anywhere (Legends of Amberland is the only one I remember right now you can save anywhere). Everyone says 3 is the best with the best soundtrack, unfortunately it was released after I stopped playing on DS so I never bought it.

I agree that it can become repetitive quickly. To continue with my experience, I played Labyrinth of Galleria and then went with Etrian HD 1 and it was like a huge downgrade, especially in the music and random encounters (the other doesn't have random encounters). But I loved both games back in the day and even though I completely missed the 3DS era I bought myself a few 3DS and now buying the 3DS Etrians to play them for the first time. Back in 2007-2008 Nintendo has had a huge amount of dungeon crawlers btw, I still got Arcana, Wizardry V, Might and Magic 3, Eye of the Beholder and Drakkhen for SNES plus there were many others that I couldn't get like Dungeon Masters. And in this playthrough I had my party wiped 4 times before I found the stairs to the second floor, I was kind of surprising because I didn't remember it being that hard (and playing it in Basic/Normal mode).
Click to expand...

I don't think age is a great excuse, because Lands of Lore is way older, and IMO (having only dabbled in Etrian Oddysey), Lands >>> Etrian in charm, even to this day I feel the CD version of Lands of Lore is a dungeon crawler that is nearly unrivaled in charm and little touches of detail in every corner of that game.

The added personality the infrequent VA added from the CD, and all the hand drawn pixel art animations and UI effects are one of a kind still IMO. And the way you can uncover so many hidden lines of dialog by mixing items with each other or by clicking on super small sections of different screens/shops, even the way you buy items and weapons by actually picking them from a drawing is amazing.

Lands of Lore IMO is one of the GOATs of dungeon crawlers, easily in my top 3.
 
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Minsc said:
I don't think age is a great excuse, because Lands of Lore is way older, and IMO (having only dabbled in Etrian Oddysey), Lands >>> Etrian in charm, even to this day I feel the CD version of Lands of Lore is a dungeon crawler that is nearly unrivaled in charm and little touches of detail in every corner of that game.
Click to expand...

Etrian got its own style built from scratch for the DS at a time when quirky games were all the rage (Osu Ouendan, Phoenix Wright, Lost in Blue, Dusk Hotel, Trauma Center, etc). It's not for everyone but wasn't for everyone back when it launched neither. Also It was never meant to compete with PC variants but test the waters, it was a dungeon crawling "lite" experience.

Personally I don't feel comfortable comparing console and PC games because PC ones usually have much larger scope, better controls, possibilities for configuring or modding, They can include hundreds or thousands of branching paths in conversations where you can feel you are making a difference. Console games are usually much more straightforward (especially in handhelds and especially the differences between consoles and computers was much noticeable). When I said it didn't age well I said that comparing it to console alternatives, otherwise as you said it wasn't even near to the best PC crawlers of that era.
 
Algolemeth, the crawler where you program your party has been pushed to 2026.



Progress looks going fine though, I like they expanded the log which can serve for debugging purposes.

 
Plague Doctor said:
Heads up this is releasing on November 10, Demo is there if you want to test it out.

Click to expand...
Looks cool! Thanks for sharing.

Hopefully it's more of a King's Field than that wannabe that's Lunacid :goog_relieved:

edit: lol I already knew of this game from this video. Worth a watch:

 
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Etrian Odyssey REMAINS a disappointment even after giving it a good extra 15 hours and getting into the end game.
Yeah, it gets MARGINALLY more engaging as your characters level up and can do more stuff and as you start hunting down secrets, but the core experience remains incredibly basic and grind-heavy.

Inspired by the desire to get some sort of palate cleanser -and given that M&M X is out of the question as I replayed it just recently- I decided to reinstall Legend of Grimrock 2.
I'm few hours in and I have to say the dungeon and puzzle design remains more or less a masterclass in the genre. It's also been years since the last time so I remember so little that it's basically a fresh experience again at this point.
Too bad for the UNFORTUNATE decision from the devs to go with the tile-dancing real-time combat, that sours a bit what could have been otherside considered an all time classic in the genre.
And maybe it still counts as one.
 
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I wish Wizardry Variants Daphne wasn't so riddled with Gacha design bullshit... it really pains me to see that this has the potential to be one heck of a dungeon crawler, if it weren't for design decisions made because they wanted to make a Gacha mobile game...
 
This popped up on Steam for me


Dont really like the ui style but the game seems really interesting at least. Sadly just EA currently
 
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Sentenza said:
Etrian Odyssey REMAINS a disappointment even after giving it a good extra 15 hours and getting into the end game.
Yeah, it gets MARGINALLY more engaging as your characters level up and can do more stuff and as you start hunting down secrets, but the core experience remains incredibly basic and grind-heavy.

Inspired by the desire to get some sort of palate cleanser -and given that M&M X is out of the question as I replayed it just recently- I decided to reinstall Legend of Grimrock 2.
I'm few hours in and I have to say the dungeon and puzzle design remains more or less a masterclass in the genre. It's also been years since the last time so I remember so little that it's basically a fresh experience again at this point.
Too bad for the UNFORTUNATE decision from the devs to go with the tile-dancing real-time combat, that sours a bit what could have been otherside considered an all time classic in the genre.
And maybe it still counts as one.
Click to expand...

Is Grimrock 2 better than 1? I found 1 very enjoyable in the first half, but I actually felt like the second half of Grimrock was overly designed and tedious to the point it soured me on the game. I loved M&M X!
 
Minsc said:
Is Grimrock 2 better than 1? I found 1 very enjoyable in the first half, but I actually felt like the second half of Grimrock was overly designed and tedious to the point it soured me on the game. I loved M&M X!
Click to expand...
I gave up after 10h in grimrock 2. It is lacks focus imo and i just got tired of the massive maps + constant puzzles. It is too open ended for its own good
 
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Minsc said:
Is Grimrock 2 better than 1? I found 1 very enjoyable in the first half, but I actually felt like the second half of Grimrock was overly designed and tedious to the point it soured me on the game. I loved M&M X!
Click to expand...
A MASSIVE improvement in terms of puzzles, dungeon design and overall variety.
The combat is more or less the same shit.
 
Minsc said:
I don't think age is a great excuse, because Lands of Lore is way older, and IMO (having only dabbled in Etrian Oddysey), Lands >>> Etrian in charm, even to this day I feel the CD version of Lands of Lore is a dungeon crawler that is nearly unrivaled in charm and little touches of detail in every corner of that game.

The added personality the infrequent VA added from the CD, and all the hand drawn pixel art animations and UI effects are one of a kind still IMO. And the way you can uncover so many hidden lines of dialog by mixing items with each other or by clicking on super small sections of different screens/shops, even the way you buy items and weapons by actually picking them from a drawing is amazing.

Lands of Lore IMO is one of the GOATs of dungeon crawlers, easily in my top 3.
Click to expand...
Perfect chance to shill the Lands of Lore OST!

Xeen recently uploaded a Roland SC-55 version of the OST and it sounds amazing, all 3 hours of it.

 
Not sure if this counts but, at the very least, the pixelart is amazing:

 
falconhoof said:
Perfect chance to shill the Lands of Lore OST!

Xeen recently uploaded a Roland SC-55 version of the OST and it sounds amazing, all 3 hours of it.

Click to expand...


I forgot how great the music was from that game! I'm sure it's nothing special if you haven't played the game - like most game's OSTs, but I instantly recognized the tunes from skipping around a few spots, I strongly feel the music from games before the PS3 generation (well the late 80s-early 00s) is where it all peaked.
 
Hudo said:
This looks like an Amiga game. Pretty neat.
Click to expand...

From the Amiga, to you!

Originally developed in Assembly for the Commodore Amiga, Roguecraft has been faithfully ported to PC, preserving its authentic retro charm while bringing the experience to modern systems. Whether you're a seasoned roguelike veteran or new to the genre, Roguecraft offers a respectful, tightly designed experience for all adventurers.
 
Wildebeest said:
The best thing about Grimrock 2 is that it doesn't have the insane respawn rates of Dungeon Master 2.
Click to expand...

I kind of liked 1 because most enemies just didn't respawn, so if you got stuck in a puzzle you could just walk around or go back to the starting prison to find clues or hidden stuff or just walk around to think about it. Legends of Amberland 2 has a setting to choose whether overworld enemies respawn or not every month, good for grinding or turn it off for more challenge.
 
Labadal said:

From the Amiga, to you!

Originally developed in Assembly for the Commodore Amiga, Roguecraft has been faithfully ported to PC, preserving its authentic retro charm while bringing the experience to modern systems. Whether you're a seasoned roguelike veteran or new to the genre, Roguecraft offers a respectful, tightly designed experience for all adventurers.
Click to expand...
Look, man. I wasn't alive back then.
 
Labadal said:
I was more thinking that you were spot on with your comment!
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Well, thank you. I do wish I'd been alive during the Amiga times, though. Must've been cool crazy times going from a Commodore 64 to an Amiga. It would've blown my mind, at least. And then going from those 16 bit sprite-based graphics to a Playstation 1.
 
Okay update. This game fucking rocks!


Way better than Dread Delusion. Tough to say if it passes Lunacid since Lunacid's soundtrack fucks (and that matters to me). Verho though has more diversity of locations, magic, and feels more like an old Fromsoft game in how the world branches out. Only big downside is the voice acting misses more than it hits. This is an inide dev, so it can be forgiven that couldn't land good VO.

I wish I had it in me to do a OT for this game. I'd fuck it up though.

Also it plays well on a Steam Deck.
 
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Article:
Baroque is a game originally released on the Sega Saturn in 1998. The original title was only released in Japan, though its remake for the PS2 and Wii was translated by Atlus back in 2008.

Though the original game was a dungeon crawler, the series went on to explore many other genres. In Japan, a physical "Baroque-ya" pack with four different titles is coming out for Switch on December 18 and it includes the original Baroque, the ADV Baroque Syndrome, Baroque Shooting Reversed and Baroque Become a Meta-Being Revive.
 
midasmulligan said:
How y'all like Moonring? Just released for switch
Click to expand...
You mean this?

It's great! Especially considering that it's free. The guy is working on Moonring 2 already.
That being said, I wouldn't say that it's a dungeon crawler like Wizardry et al. It's more in the vein of Ultima. Maybe an Ultima-lite (because it's not nearly as deep).
 
John Bilbo said:


Article:
Baroque is a game originally released on the Sega Saturn in 1998. The original title was only released in Japan, though its remake for the PS2 and Wii was translated by Atlus back in 2008.

Though the original game was a dungeon crawler, the series went on to explore many other genres. In Japan, a physical "Baroque-ya" pack with four different titles is coming out for Switch on December 18 and it includes the original Baroque, the ADV Baroque Syndrome, Baroque Shooting Reversed and Baroque Become a Meta-Being Revive.
Click to expand...


Oh, saw this one, one of the games is the dungeon crawler, that one I want. BAROQUE Becomea Meta-Being Revive and BAROQUE SHOOTING: Reversed are already listed in the eshop, the others two including the dungeon crawler are missing still. Might get the physical, too. I own the Wii version of Baroque but didn't play it that long, I was already on the way out of gaming when I bought it. Should have kept it sealed, lol
 
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midasmulligan said:
How y'all like Moonring? Just released for switch
Click to expand...
Actually very good. You don't need to really care too much about Ultima because you have probably played more famous games that copy Ultima already like Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda or Dark Souls. The combat is Roguelike as well, not Ultima.
 
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Holy shit, somehow I had Moonring in my library already but I never paid any attention to it and forgot about its existence.

I gave it a quick look and it seems like a I was overlooking a little gem.
 
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