Together Retro: First-Person Dungeon Crawlers

[BoneSnapDeez]

Ninjas enemies are bastards in all Wizardry games. It's a tradition.

[Exhuminator]

Currently I'm playing Etrian Odyssey Untold, which I don't think counts for this TR, but I will follow along in spirit!

If you're playing through it on Expert like I did, good luck man. Great game, but yowza some of those bosses.

Ninjas enemies are bastards in all Wizardry games. It's a tradition.

I didn't know that, but I believe it. You can't hardly hit these jerks with normal weapons, they're too fast! I have to use offensive magic, or allied attacks. As in, have two party members hold the ninja while another attacks it.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Finished the cavernous Trials of Shining in the Darkness. Ready to ascend the labyrinth proper. The final Trial kinda sucked, due to the copious amount of pitfalls. The temptation is to locate, and subsequently avoid, all the aforementioned holes. Of course, there's a specific one you have to fall down to complete the Trial! Oof.

My lead character is level 25, and I've had some decent new gear made with the mithril ore I've managed to scrounge up. This isn't a particularly "hard" game; success is really just predicated on patience. Each floor requires many separate runs - slowly picking away at the treasures while periodically retreating to heal.

[MrPopo]

So you're probably an experienced Shining player, and know that cursed equipment is not worth using. I'm going to let you know the one exception to that; the whip you can make for Pyra. It hits all and the curse is that she potentially loses her next turn. The benefit far outweighs the downside, especially as the chance of losing the turn is 50% or less.

[Exhuminator]

I put three more hours into WTotFL last night, I'm close to seventeen hours into it now. I spent most of that time exploring the fifth level; waterfall caverns. This place has some seriously tough monsters, but also decent loot. Level 5 takes about 25 minutes to reach from the first level, mainly because level three is randomly generated and you never know where the exit down will be, and level four is a cemetery full of pitfalls and tons of enemies. So after two and a half hours I was towards the bottom of level 5, nearly exhausted in my supplies, and one character possessed.* I was desperately searching for some sort of shortcut back to level 1, when I unexpectedly got hit by a boss encounter. (Level bosses tend to just show up out of nowhere.)



I had no healing potions left, and only one heal spell left. So this boss battle was crucial... dying meant losing all hours of progress and loot, plus permanently losing the possessed character. This boss had gaze hounds which I hate because they can cause party members to miss turns. Very carefully (and luckily) we managed to beat the boss and its minions. But four of my characters died, with only my main barely surviving, and luckily the possessed character by a slim margin. So I warped back to town and resurrected, exorcised, rested, resupplied, and then it was the long march back to level 5 again. This time we made it to the bottom of the waterfall caverns, and indeed found a new shortcut back to level 1. Meaning for now on, I can get directly to level 5 from level 1. I imagine we'll be able to enter level 6 shortly tonight. The kid gloves are definitely off and WTotFL wants us dead.



*Reapers randomly appear in levels and chase you around. If they catch your party, they randomly possess a party member. That possessed party member is permanently dead if they die while being possessed by the reaper.

[Sarge]

Geez, that sounds brutal. I've always wanted to snag a copy of that game, but just haven't. It's one of the PS2 games missing from my RPG collection.

[Exhuminator]

Geez, that sounds brutal. I've always wanted to snag a copy of that game, but just haven't. It's one of the PS2 games missing from my RPG collection.

WTotFL is absolutely worth owning if you enjoy serious FPDCs. Its presentation is above average for the genre, even versus today's modern FPDCs, high praise for a seventeen year old game. I'm seeing copies on Amazon and eBay for about $30 in good complete condition. It's worth that price. But I want to be clear that playing this game is a serious investment though. It can be grindy, byzantine, and occasionally outright unfair. But the sense of accomplishment provided from a successful dungeon run is addictive, and I love its atmosphere.

[BoneSnapDeez]

So you're probably an experienced Shining player, and know that cursed equipment is not worth using. I'm going to let you know the one exception to that; the whip you can make for Pyra. It hits all and the curse is that she potentially loses her next turn. The benefit far outweighs the downside, especially as the chance of losing the turn is 50% or less.

Good to know. I sold the item that allows cursed equipment to be crafted -- but I can buy it back later.

The inventory space in this game is..... limited.

[crazythink4]

In the final Trials cave in Shining in the Darkness. Almost a comical difficulty spike at this point. Enemies are much harder now, and there's one-way doors and pitfalls galore! According the the internets I'm not even halfway through the game. Yikes!

Yeah, due to time constraints, I’m probably not going to get to the end before the month is out, either. I just finished the second trial in the cave of courage, but I’ve only covered about two thirds of the first floor. I suspect I’ll need to explore further before I can move onto the next one.

But, will definitely play to the end after the month is out!

[prfsnl_gmr]

My wife went to a party this evening, and I stayed home to watch the kids. After they were in bed, I did what all men should do when they have their houses to themselves...I played a lot of Shadow Tower!

I feel like I am making a lot of progress all of a sudden. I got a ton of new equipment, I defeated a boss - Apollos - pretty easily, and I kept going into the fire world. While there, I murdered a lot of genies, got a lot of awesome drops, and trekked back up to the top of the tower to trade HP for equipment repairs. Sadly, I still don’t have enough total HP to repair my Tower Shield of Honor, but I should after I delve a bit deeper...