Together Retro: First-Person Dungeon Crawlers

[pierrot]

Bilbo the hobbit (Milo in English)

I can't imagine why they would have changed that name.

However, they start at level 1 whereas my PC is level 9, so I’m up for some grinding to get them ready for the trials.

Arcus has been doing this to me, also. I keep getting saddled with level 1 characters, who I'm sure will be more and more useful eventually, but it's still kind of annoying.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Nice "loophole" you found by playing a Telenet game. Wonder of any Square fans will tackle Deep Dungeon this month?

I am also playing Shining in the Darkness. I have very little free time for gaming this month (this life) so I'm going for a comfort food sort of pick. This one is easy to pick up and play. My hero (oops I mean "Hiro") is level 8, the crab boss has been slain, and I just recruited the additional two party members. #timetogrind

[Exhuminator]

I'm doing okay with it, but I'm sure I'm missing things in each area. I'm going to have to backtrack at some point

I beat all the FromSoftware FPDCs without making maps, and I doubt you'll need to either. The more you retrace your steps the more familiar you'll become with the layouts. Also shortcuts start to become available (most KF has recursive level design) as backtracking is a thing in all KFs. There's a very powerful item in KF4 that can help you find any hidden doors, but I don't want to ruin it for you. In general KFs are full of secrets and optional items.

I'm glad you're enjoying KF4. I'm very interested to see what you think of the game's final stretch.

[nullPointer]

I'm doing okay with it, but I'm sure I'm missing things in each area. I'm going to have to backtrack at some point

I beat all the FromSoftware FPDCs without making maps, and I doubt you'll need to either. The more you retrace your steps the more familiar you'll become with the layouts. Also shortcuts start to become available (most KF has recursive level design) as backtracking is a thing in all KFs. There's a very powerful item in KF4 that can help you find any hidden doors, but I don't want to ruin it for you. In general KFs are full of secrets and optional items.

I certainly don't' speak with the same sort of knowledge as Ex on this topic, but in this regard King's Field has always struck me as an exceedingly well designed first-person Metroidvania. There's the requisite back tracking and gear-gating, but typically carried out in such a way that rarely feels tedious or repetitive.

I'm right on the verge of starting up KF2 myself, but it's taken a while to really get my feet under me with Megami Tensei. More on that later.

[Sarge]

I'm pleased at how much the areas eventually interconnect. Seeing that in action is pretty cool.

Also, I have the Wavecrasher katana, which is awesome. Even at 50 durability, it's worth using given its speed. I need to travel back to the blacksmith area and set a warp point there so I can repair stuff more easily. Apparently the katanas don't hold up that well.

[Erik_Twice]

I'm going to start a short Wizardry stream here, in case someone wants to help me a hand



EDIT: Done! I wasn't exactly eloquent but I had fun. Sorry if I explained myself really poorly, my English skills were as dead as my characters today.

Current map:

WhatsApp Image 2018-05-08 at 23.42.49.jpeg (121.75 KiB) Viewed 398 times

Death count: 4 (50% of my characters!)

I got two of my characters killed by being greedy. I fought against 4 Skeletons, which aren't an easy fight at level 1, and won by the edge of my teeth. I should have thanked the heavens, grabbed my things and rushed back to the city to heal myself. But I didn't, because they dropped a chest. And how can I resist a chest? Well, there was a bomb in it and it exploded. Oh well, my fault!

[SpaceBooger]

I started up Shining the Holy Ark last night. Got as far as Aborigine Mansion before I ran out of gear and had to port back to town. It's pretty good so far if grindy. It started off pretty tough and was nearly impossible when I entered the maze under the well but I went back and leveled up, got some new loot and it's pretty manageable now. Each are seems to have at least one bastard hard enemy type but that's fine.

The music is nice as well, it's a Motoi Sakuraba joint and sounds like other stuff from that era. The shop theme really sounds like something from Mario Golf.

Where the game is being let down is in the graphics department. I don't mind me some blocky 5th gen 3D but the weird pre-rendered NPCs and enemies over the top is a bit of a clash. The enemies do animate nicely in battle tho.

Enjoying this much more than the last time I gave it a go so that's good.

Is the mansion after the underground grave tunnel?
Also to upgrade characters have you just been buying the best gear? I have found that I had just enough money to buy all the gear before entering the tunnel.

[crazythink4]

EDIT: Done! I wasn't exactly eloquent but I had fun. Sorry if I explained myself really poorly, my English skills were as dead as my characters today.

Death count: 4 (50% of my characters!)

I got two of my characters killed by being greedy. I fought against 4 Skeletons, which aren't an easy fight at level 1, and won by the edge of my teeth. I should have thanked the heavens, grabbed my things and rushed back to the city to heal myself. But I didn't, because they dropped a chest. And how can I resist a chest? Well, there was a bomb in it and it exploded. Oh well, my fault!

Oh wow! The original Wizardry was a lot of fun, if grueling, but it's definitely a big challenge. I will say that it does get a little easier as you get leveled, but expect to get your teeth kicked in often by random chance.

Kudos to you for rising to the challenge!

[Exhuminator]

King's Field has always struck me as an exceedingly well designed first-person Metroidvania

This is an apt and fair description. Especially for KF2.

[Sarge]

Ancient City has some of this, but it doesn't feel quite as Metroid-like to me due to the lack of true movement-altering powers. You get the water amulet that lets you go underwater, and a pickax early in the game to break barriers, but much of the rest is just explore for stuff or find keys to revisit areas. The interconnected and seamless maps, though, are definitely a common point.

If KF2 skews even more towards that structure, though, I may need to try it out somewhere down the line. Is that the one that got localized here as the "first" game?