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scarymilk
@scarymilk

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.

  • This was originally written as a blog on Destructoid a while ago but I’ve edited it a bit to post here.

  • 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.


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in reply to @scarymilk's post:

Despite being the resident King's Field expert, I haven't touched any of the grid-based and turn-based DRPGs besides the original Persona, unless you count SMT3: Nocturne (which is structured like one and has a 1st-person view in NG+).

I have been vaguely interested in them though, so I bought Mary Skelter: Nightmares and I have been eyeing the sequels alongside Labyrinth of Galleria and the Etrian Odyssey ports. Not gonna fully commit to that kind of DRPG unless I'm sure I like the format, but I got Lunacid last year as a rad King's Field clone and this new one called SORROW seems promising:

https://twitter.com/SORROW_RPG/status/1753750693213553111

Yeah that does looks fun! I’d never heard of it before, thanks. I’ve not yet played Lunacid, though I am a big fan of Kings Field IV and Eternal Ring. They both seem a bit speedier than KF though lol

I would definitely recommend EO as a starting point (even though they’re overpriced at the moment). The first game is amazing, especially considering the remastered version has updated map controls (a problem with the original). That whole DS trilogy is top of the class in terms of turn based JRPG dungeon crawlers. Strange Journey Redux or Persona Q2 ( if you’re into Persona) may also be a good bet. Altus just really know how to make a good drpg! Labyrinth of Refrain Coven of Dusk is on my to play pile as I hear it’s pretty interesting - but LONG :(

Insect mages?!? WHERE????

Nice blog btw. I've only dabbled a bit with Etrian Odyssey 4 (got stuck at a lizard boss), but I still wanna give EO4 and EOU a try. Oh, and also Phantasy Star

Great writeup !
I agree about the tension being essential.
The first Etrian Odyssey really made a very strong impression on me, I wonder if it wasn't in part because I was new to the genre. I never completed a game in the series again, I went pretty far in II and IV but then just didn't care to finish them. They didn't feel as challenging too.
I had played SMT III Nocturne before though and I had a similar experience of often feeling like I was pushing my luck by trying to make it farther, in the labyrinth of Amala especially.

Thank you! I think Etrian Odyssey 1 is quietly a really revolutionary game. It brings so much to the table in terms of level design with FOEs and how it integrates mapping into the players experience. It does the same thing that people love about Dark Souls too, in that it develops a world and then reveals it’s all interconnected; with stairs that lead to previous stratum. It’s got amazing music, and even though there are limited classes combats still super fun and varied. I would say it’s only flaw really is introducing Samurai and Hexer too late.

Yeah, playing catch up to have a viabke Samurai and Hexer was a pain.
I think that the whole character redo mechanic wasn't too great. I was never tempted to make use of it at least.

This is a genre I want to get deeper into. Looking to play Grimrock and Legends of Amberland on Switch soon, maybe try one of those Etrian games on 3DS. Also recently got this $4 steam game called Freakhunter and liked what I played. It's very simplistic but it has this surreal horror atmosphere that I love. The combat is like a rail shooter.

Haha wow Freakhunter looks mad! I’ll need to check it out at some point :) Grimrock is stellar; massive recommendation! Grimrock 2 is also, of what I’ve played, a brilliant sequel. Amberland is great, check it out. On a very pedantic note Amberland falls more into the classic first person CRPG, I.e. Might & Magic rather than a pure dungeon crawler. It’s basically the same thing haha but it’s got an open over world to explore and small, less complex, less nasty dungeons. In fact, in terms of dungeons it’s pretty weak. But on the whole it’s a fun open world retro rpg. And it has a 7 person party! For this it get an immediate 10/10.

I must disagree with the assertion that Etrian Odyssey isn't horror. This is the game where, upon being invited to rest in a cute flower patch, your party is DEVOURED ALIVE BY MURDEROUS BUTTERFLIES. This is the game where you come across mutilated corpses of dead adventurers eaten alive by wolves and proceed to loot the body. This is the game with a dedicated track for "shits about to get real fucked" (usually called something to the effect of red and black.) And need we forget that this is the game in which, famously, deadly enemies quite literally begin an in-dungeon chase scene?

Haha I take your point. It’s a very deadly and horrifying fun anime adventure. The game’s just so buoyant most of the time! Yes, you’ve just been devour by butterflies but then you load your game and the town soundtrack is fun and breezy.