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The Dungeon Crawler thread.
- Thread starter Krathoon
- Start date
Eye of Beholder I & II are my timeless classics from the 16-bit era. I played them to death multiple times, drew level maps in a squared workbook, edited saves in hex editor to get exotic items... loved puzzles with loosing orientation (floor tiles that were rotating you, the compass getting crazy). I once tried running the GBA version on a hacked DS, and it was great until the first fight: they switched from realtime POV to a stupid, turn-based battle on a separate screen... yuck. The whole charm was running away from the bosses backwards and throwing the whole inventory at them in hope of causing any damage and not getting stuck 
On a similar note, I strongly dislike how in Etrian's Odyssey, the monsters only appear when you enter their location, but are invisible even from the adjacent cell. Wtf.
Dungeon Master was one of the first dungeon crawlers I tried, but it had quite unpolished graphics and a convoluted spell casting system. Never finished it. Ishar I/II/III, on the other hand, had beautiful graphics, and felt more like playing a tabletop RPG; but its open-world structure didn't really click with me (it was too outdoorsy - no dungeons).
But I think that the best overall was Black Crypt. Like an even more polished EOB - with prettier graphics, better spells, better bosses, teleportation through the map etc. Fantastic!
One obscure 16-bit game that I think is not that well known is Perihelion: The Prophecy by Psygnosis. I don't know if it qualifies as a 'dungeon' crawler (it was more urban and not focusing on exploration), but its cyberpunk setting and highly stylized silver&gold graphics really did it for me.
On a similar note, I strongly dislike how in Etrian's Odyssey, the monsters only appear when you enter their location, but are invisible even from the adjacent cell. Wtf.
Dungeon Master was one of the first dungeon crawlers I tried, but it had quite unpolished graphics and a convoluted spell casting system. Never finished it. Ishar I/II/III, on the other hand, had beautiful graphics, and felt more like playing a tabletop RPG; but its open-world structure didn't really click with me (it was too outdoorsy - no dungeons).
But I think that the best overall was Black Crypt. Like an even more polished EOB - with prettier graphics, better spells, better bosses, teleportation through the map etc. Fantastic!
One obscure 16-bit game that I think is not that well known is Perihelion: The Prophecy by Psygnosis. I don't know if it qualifies as a 'dungeon' crawler (it was more urban and not focusing on exploration), but its cyberpunk setting and highly stylized silver&gold graphics really did it for me.
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Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land for the PS2 is one of my favourite games of all time.
Atlus published another game in Japan for the PS2 called Busin 0 Wizardry Alternative Neo which is set 100 years before the turret game but unfortunately it has never been localised in the West.
Atlus published another game in Japan for the PS2 called Busin 0 Wizardry Alternative Neo which is set 100 years before the turret game but unfortunately it has never been localised in the West.
RJMacready73
Simps for Amouranth
My favourite genre from my Amiga days so much so that i kept all my old games, Eye of the Beholder, Bards Tale etc such a genre ripe for VR
PanzerCute
Member
Stonekeep was my first one as a kid. Such an impressive game at the time!
Hypereides
Member
Nice thread. I got a few on my radar that I'm interested in playing:
Kowloon high-school chronicle
Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi
Labyrinth of zangetsu
Most recent one that I played which featured few elements of dungeon crawling was Tokyo twillight ghost hunters. It was unique in its own sort of way combining a plethora of genres. Quasi dungeon crawling being one of them.
Maybe its just me, but the genre seems to be more dominated by eastern developers these days.
Kowloon high-school chronicle
Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi
Labyrinth of zangetsu
Most recent one that I played which featured few elements of dungeon crawling was Tokyo twillight ghost hunters. It was unique in its own sort of way combining a plethora of genres. Quasi dungeon crawling being one of them.
Maybe its just me, but the genre seems to be more dominated by eastern developers these days.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Shining the Holy Ark on Saturn was also fantastic.
Evil Calvin
Afraid of Boobs
Thunderscape was good.
My favorites were Wizardry 8, Wizards and Warriors (PC), and Stonekeep!
My favorites were Wizardry 8, Wizards and Warriors (PC), and Stonekeep!
Sentenza
Member
A bit too heavy on the random encounter, unless modded to arginate the issue.
Diseased Yak
Gold Member
Dungeon Master on Amiga was my first love in this genre, and I've played a ton since. Eye of the Beholder as well on PC.
Thanks for this thread, I've already seen a couple to try out!
Thanks for this thread, I've already seen a couple to try out!
Hudo
Member
Yes. You're right. So let me rephrase that: Modded Wizardry 8 is probably the pinnacle of the genre.
I forgot about the encounter rate in vanilla... fucking hell...
MadchesterManc
Member
If you're looking for something a with a different style to the typical dungeon crawlers then the Mary Skelter games are worth a look.
One of my favourites to be honest. Had to start so many games though as the Saturn drains the save rom battery like there's no tomorrow
One of my favourites to be honest. Had to start so many games though as the Saturn drains the save rom battery like there's no tomorrow
_Ex_
Member
The best 3D dungeon crawlers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_Field
The best 2D dungeon crawlers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandish_(series)
The best 2D dungeon crawlers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandish_(series)
ReyBrujo
Member
I hated the random encounters from Etrian as well but maybe because I was still kind of "a gamer" back when the DS was around I didn't mind them, it was somewhat the norm for console RPGs back then. And the OST is really nice, especially if you play them back to back because you notice an improvement, however if you play similar games nowadays the midi tones might feel dated after a while unfortunately. While the Switch got better graphics I like the charm of the DS version, besides the map is larger and you can interact directly with the stylus (it's somewhat clumsy in the Switch version until you get used to using ZR/ZL).
I recommend Labyrinth of Galleria, you can see the enemy icons around (except in some sections due story reasons and when you got some status effects) and the soundtrack is really nice, it got a nice set including jazz and vocals, plus it's as long as all three Etrian together (took me 300 hours to beat while the Etrians took me around 75 hours each).
Nice thread. I got a few on my radar that I'm interested in playing:
Kowloon high-school chronicle
Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi
Labyrinth of zangetsu
Most recent one that I played which featured few elements of dungeon crawling was Tokyo twillight ghost hunters. It was unique in its own sort of way combining a plethora of genres. Quasi dungeon crawling being one of them.
Maybe its just me, but the genre seems to be more dominated by eastern developers these days.
I bought a copy of Undernauts from Ebay, waiting for it to arrive. And holding on Zangetsu because my backlog is already too long (and P-Qube is known to have aggressive discounts at the Switch store). I will also check Kowloon but unfortunatley it's not in our e-shop at Argentina.
I started getting some dungeon crawlers on SNES, back then I bought Wizardry VI (loved that game), Arcana and Might and Magic 3, and last year I got Eye of the Beholder and Drakkhen.
Then on DS I got both Etrian which brought me back to the genre (the map drawing was so well done). And The Dark Spire let you choose between graphics with textures or wireframe (which has its charms, I played it that way).
By the way, I liked some of The Entire History of RPGs, the beginning is mostly text adventures and dungeon crawlers since those were the precursors of the genre itself.
ClanOfNone
Member
Stumbling my way through Bane of the Cosmic Forge and Crusaders of the Dark Savant are some very of my favorite pc gaming memories. The games were brutally tough, especially in a time before walkthroughs and other online help was easily available.
I never got to play 8, but I’ve watched plenty of let’s plays and reviews since the rise of YouTube. The insane amount of character dialogue was great. But man the early 3d visuals for nearly all games of that era have aged terribly. I missed the beautiful spritework of VII.
Hudo
Member
Agreed. If I could, I would wish Wizardry 8 with Wizardry 7's visuals into existence.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
My only issue with this game is there were no bosses when I played.
Hohenheim
Member
Hm, that's strange. There were bosses when I played it. Not many, but pretty cool bosses.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Did that come with 1.0 release? I think I had like 12 hours played and no bosses when it was before 1.0 launch.
Fermbiz
Gold Member
Here's a modern-ish game I enjoyed in the genre.
It even has grid-based movement.
Legend of Grimrock Is an awesome game. The sequel is on my top 3 greatest games of all time list.
cash_longfellow
Member
Kind of different, but still a dungeon crawler in my mind. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
Hohenheim
Member
I've played and finished it very recently, so yeah, maybe the 1.0 version added the bosses.
I never bother with games before they're out of early access.
IAmRei
Member
At least the graphic is yes, small upgrade. But the artstyle is changed, for better or worse, depend on yourself.
March Climber
Member
I’d like to make a controversial nomination for the thread: Doom 64.
I know some here might not think this qualifies, but technically you start level 1 in a dungeon environment and keep going deeper until you reach the deepest depths of hell. I’ve always considered it a dungeon crawler FPS in the multiple times I’ve played it throughout life and it still remains a personal favorite to me.
I know some here might not think this qualifies, but technically you start level 1 in a dungeon environment and keep going deeper until you reach the deepest depths of hell. I’ve always considered it a dungeon crawler FPS in the multiple times I’ve played it throughout life and it still remains a personal favorite to me.
Duchess
Member
I've yet to play it, but that's quite an endorsement!
Shadowstar39
Member
LOVE LOVE LOVE Wizardry 8. Have on steam deck to replay.
Other good crawls are are ultima underworld (non team, solo 360deg 3d),
Might and magic 3-5 trilogy for grid/turn based , and 6-8 for real time with pause.
Also have the jrpg wizardry games, but they are not the same as Wiz8, Also bought the ps2 tale of the forsaken land, just to own it (before its too expensive).
For console and portable. The Dark Spire on DS was amazing. SMT Strange Journey for sci-fi futuristic/ dark fantasy bent
Etrian odyssey for mapping.
Now Grimrock was fun, but it wasn't as fun as the older games, to me, due to too many puzzles and spongy combat (from what i remember). It seemed more focused on real time puzzles then level progression, story and class cohesion.
Fun if that is what you are into. i was hoping for a more wizardry 8 / might and magic 3-5 type of thing. It was more inspired by dungeon master/eye of the beholder.
Shadowstar39
Member
I’d like to make a controversial nomination for the thread: Doom 64.
I know some here might not think this qualifies, but technically you start level 1 in a dungeon environment and keep going deeper until you reach the deepest depths of hell. I’ve always considered it a dungeon crawler FPS in the multiple times I’ve played it throughout life and it still remains a personal favorite to me.
I raise you one, DOOM RPG!!! a phone game that unfortunatly is lost to time
(unless someone here nows how to play it on a phone or pc). There was a wolfenstein one too.
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ReyBrujo
Member
Yesterday I finally finished Legend of Grimrock for Switch. A pity the 2nd part won't be out in that platform, I really enjoyed playing it on Switch (I had just finished Wizardry and changing controls always take a while but got used after a couple of hours). It's also maybe the first dungeon crawler I played for Switch where most enemies don't respawn (compared to random encounters like Wizardry or Etrian) so it feels a bit empty near the end but at least it lets you backtrack to find missing clues. There are options to play on hard (I played on normal), create your own team (I picked the default one so I didn't know about the traits at all until finishing the game) and play without a map. That sounds like something I would like to attempt eventually but after 43 hours I am ready for the next one. I think I will relax a bit (?) with Ember Knights.
IlGialloMondadori
Member
It truly sucks it didn’t get the success it deserved, and we haven’t seen a grim rock 3
Sentenza
Member
Legend of Grimrock 2 is a MASSIVE improvement over the first, for the record.Yesterday I finally finished Legend of Grimrock for Switch. A pity the 2nd part won't be out in that platform, I really enjoyed playing it on Switch (I had just finished Wizardry and changing controls always take a while but got used after a couple of hours). It's also maybe the first dungeon crawler I played for Switch where most enemies don't respawn (compared to random encounters like Wizardry or Etrian) so it feels a bit empty near the end but at least it lets you backtrack to find missing clues. There are options to play on hard (I played on normal), create your own team (I picked the default one so I didn't know about the traits at all until finishing the game) and play without a map. That sounds like something I would like to attempt eventually but after 43 hours I am ready for the next one. I think I will relax a bit (?) with Ember Knights.
Shadowstar39
Member
Ultima underworld was my first game on CD rom it was with wing commander 2 (guess it had better audio than the disk version of uw). My family had gotten a new pc a 386 sx with soundblaster abd vga graphics (I was coming from a hand me down 8088 with 4 color CGA so it was amazing).
Ultima underworld levels were something I haven't seen matched to this day, well kingdom come deliverance comes close but that's not fantasy. It made it feel real. The rustling brook that gets faster, the music or lack there of at times. The goblin village and the ability to talk to people. The 9 layers of hell (or how ever many there was). It was all so surreal and being trapped added to thr tension.
Might and magic 4 and 5 were my games in the early 90s. I didn't play 6 to 8 until 2009.lol. They were fun but world of xeen was a thrilling open world in 1994.
Vyse
Gold Member
My man. Get out of my head. Same experience!
ResurrectedContrarian
Suffers with mild autism
The one thing I can't get into at all is the "click to attack" or realtime systems. I love a dungeon crawler perspective in something like Gold Box AD&D games where it switches to proper battle view, or if you at least have turn-based dynamics fully in place, but I can't stand realtime, cooldowns, clicking, all of that -- sort of ruins the genre for me.
ssringo
Member
Oh man what a nice surprise; this thread reminded me of Grimrock. I played the first one way back but apparently never got around to the sequel and for whatever reason I've never seen it pop up during sales. Well, turns out both are on sale on Steam at the moment and can be had for $7.50.
store.steampowered.com
Legend of Grimrock Bundle on Steam
Includes 2 items: Legend of Grimrock, Legend of Grimrock 2
PanzerCute
Member
I am playing King's Field 4 The Ancient City at the moment and I am blown away by the atmosphere and the level design. Combat and movement are slow AF but everything else I find top notch and very impressive for a PS2 game.
And you can see the strong influence this serie had on new FS games which I find very interesting.
And you can see the strong influence this serie had on new FS games which I find very interesting.
ReyBrujo
Member
I really liked it, liked it so much that I got the limited edition, then played the previous one Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk (wasn't in the Argentine Switch e-shop and it was impossible to get a physical copy at first) and also liked it quite a lot. It has a more adult story (which surprised me, I was expecting a more childish one), slightly rougher mechanics (you miss a few of the new mechanics for a while) and it's shorter (roughly took me 120 hours to fully beat it). But both are beautiful games I plan on playing again (something I seldom do with the huge backlog I got). Liked them both so much I bought the limited editions (wish I could have gotten a sealed Refrain one but scalpers were asking 400, 500 bucks for it).
By the way, I bought a few games dungeon crawlers that were suggested in this thread which I had no idea that existed for Switch (yep, and a normal version Refrain as well). I plan on buying the Wizardry physical when it's released (Ami Ami already have it on presale but was waiting for a NA or EU version).
IAmRei
Member
Solid collection dudeI really liked it, liked it so much that I got the limited edition, then played the previous one Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk (wasn't in the Argentine Switch e-shop and it was impossible to get a physical copy at first) and also liked it quite a lot. It has a more adult story (which surprised me, I was expecting a more childish one), slightly rougher mechanics (you miss a few of the new mechanics for a while) and it's shorter (roughly took me 120 hours to fully beat it). But both are beautiful games I plan on playing again (something I seldom do with the huge backlog I got). Liked them both so much I bought the limited editions (wish I could have gotten a sealed Refrain one but scalpers were asking 400, 500 bucks for it).
By the way, I bought a few games dungeon crawlers that were suggested in this thread which I had no idea that existed for Switch (yep, and a normal version Refrain as well). I plan on buying the Wizardry physical when it's released (Ami Ami already have it on presale but was waiting for a NA or EU version).
ReyBrujo
Member
Just bumping this thread to mention Wizardry: The Five Ordeals has been announced for Switch in a standard and special edition.
Box contents
Box contents
- Switch Game: Wizardry: The Five Ordeals
- DLC "The Absence of Misericordia"
- Original Soundtrack CD
- Acrylic Stand
- "The Five Ordeals" Monster Cards
Vyse
Gold Member
Nice!Just bumping this thread to mention Wizardry: The Five Ordeals has been announced for Switch in a standard and special edition.
Box contents
- Switch Game: Wizardry: The Five Ordeals
- DLC "The Absence of Misericordia"
- Original Soundtrack CD
- Acrylic Stand
- "The Five Ordeals" Monster Cards
Icymanipulator
Member
Wouldn’t the entire Etrian Odyssey series count?
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Yes they are all Dungeon Crawlers and you generally have to map out the dungeons too.
justiceiro
Marlboro: Other M
Hey guys, is the Ultima series any good? I just realized I have all 4 initial titles on my gog library, so I was wondering if was worth my time.
If you have any other recommendations for someone ignorant on the genre and just want to dip their toes, or that costs less than one euro on steam, let me know.
If you have any other recommendations for someone ignorant on the genre and just want to dip their toes, or that costs less than one euro on steam, let me know.