One of my favourite genres is the First Person Dungeon Crawler. This, of course, is a sub-category of the RPG genre; a sub-sub-category even, considering that I’m splitting hairs by prefacing the Dungeon Crawler genre with First Person. But I do want to be pedantic here, because I believe there’s something unique about a really good First Person DRPG which no other genre, to my mind, achieves.
For a start, and before we even get to the notion of ‘good’, simply being in the first person immediately puts you right into the environment. It emphasises the claustrophobic quality every good dungeon should aspire to have! Say as many good things as you want about third person Dungeon Crawlers but they never quite make you feel like the ceiling is going to cave in on you in the same way a first person one will. The first person perspective inherently limits your field of view, stopping you from seeing what’s over the next wall or even what’s immediately behind or to the side of you. Limiting the player’s view is integral to this sub-sub genre’s impactfulness and cannot be overstated. And already we’ve touched on two aspects which, in my opinion, all good First Person Dungeon Crawlers capitalise on: atmosphere and exploration.
- Before we go further it’s worth reiterating that this is all my own feelings about the genre. I use the word should a lot. I can’t think of a better way of stating my ideas without each time saying something like “I believe”, which is boring to write lol sorry. Additionally, I'm not a game developer, just some guy whose, for whatever psychological reason, pretty obsessed with the notion of exploring dungeons, mazes, labyrinths, mildly complex corridor layouts even
Exploration
In a good DRPG, curiosity can be rewarded or punished. This means that exploration should be a choice which is weighed up and prepared for. A good dungeon should never feel like a linear place to explore (once you get into the meat of the game) and instead, I think, should require some thought and attention to navigate. This might mean the player needs to physically map the dungeon, but most modern games with auto-mapping still require you to be conscious of traps, pit-falls, teleporters, illusionary walls, shortcuts and so on. Strange Journey has an auto-mapping feature, but any player whose navigated Sector Eridanus knows it requires more than simply following the map.
Atmosphere
A good DRPG should be tense. One might be tempted to argue that DRPGs are like the survival horror of the RPG world. This temptation should be immediately squashed by the fact that one of the best series in the genre feels like a Ghibli-inspired anime adventure (Etrian Odyssey). The tension of a good DRPG therefore comes not from horrors (though there are some horror themed DRPGs, such as the recent Undernauts or the much older Realm of Terror) but from the fact that you only have so much resource (be it HP, MP, hunger, thirst, etc) and at any point you might meet something which entirely eats all that up.
Every step forwards, each unknown corner rounded, therefore becomes a risk. In Dungeon Crawlers which feature them, such as the prototypical Wizardry senarios, the Town should tug on the adventurers to return, rest and refuel. Ipso facto, good DRPGs have to be challenging enough to halt the uncautious or unprepared player’s progress. It might seem antithetical to good game design, but I also believe that a good Dungeon Crawler is allowed to be ‘unfair’ or ‘mean’ to the player. Knowing that the dungeon itself can screw you over adds to this tension and further cements the fact that the environment is hostile, antagonistic and dangerous. While I initially discarded the word ‘horror’ from the genre, I think something like ‘dread’ could be a keyword here. And like I mentioned with Etrian Odyssey, this is not to say all dungeons need to be grim and/or dank. But, I feel like there needs to be a thread of tension which follows you through the labyrinth.
Combat
Combat is pretty key. Other than exploring, or menuing (depending on the game), most of the First Person DRPG player’s time will be taken up with preparing for, anticipating, worrying about, or engaging with combat. As with exploration, combat should be, in the best case senario, a dangerous proposition; each encounter offering a challenge which rewards the careful player and punishes the cavelier. This might mean quick-saving before each encounter, or a sense danger building as you move further and further away from your last saved game.
Dungeon Crawlers, in my imagination, play with the notion of the heroic adventurer; where the party may start as swashbucklers or brazen warriors, but for them to truly succeed they must become much, much more administrative in their approach. Dividing resources, discussing effiencies, and making cautious decisions about when to risk it and when to play it safe are all traits of the successful dungeoneer.
Personally, I love party-based combat, and I think the best Dungeon Crawlers allow the player to create a varied party which feels unique to them; whether that be a team of 3 insect mages and 1 hulking mintotaur, or a cheerful squad of farmers!
…And that’s it!
So, that’s my personal take on what makes a good First Person Dungeon Crawler. It’s perhaps an overlooked genre in the West, which has shown a great deal of promise in the past - being almost synonymous with the Western CRPG to start with - but it is starting, tentatively, to gain in popularity once again. Japanese developers on the other hand have continued to engage with it, here and there, since very early on and it remains a surprisingly vibrant genre in Japan to this day (possibly being as popular as ever right now).
I’ve certainly not played them all and I’m far from an expert on them. But I do heartily love the genre and I think it’s still got a lot to offer audiences. I’m really excited by games making the genre more accessible, but just as much I love how the genre can revel in obscure, obtuse, and antagonistic design philosophies.
P.S.
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This was originally written as a blog on Destructoid a while ago but I’ve edited it a bit to post here.
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I was thinking of using this as a method to rate drpg games, ala CRPG Addict’s Gurps (or whatever acronym he uses) to see how they fit into these 3 areas (E.A.C.) and hopefully act as a spring board to see what the genre can do outside of these tenants. I certainly believe I’m being narrow here in my criteria and I hope I can find examples which discredit/develop my beliefs lol.
