For any Japanese gaming enthusiast, just seeing associated names with a video game FINAL FANTASY it can only be a reason for inexorable attraction. And for this very reason, in spite of a presentation that left me somewhat perplexed, I could not help but convey in the direction of DUNGEON ENCOUNTERS all my attention: in short, it’s really hard to resist when you put together personalities like Hiroaki Kato, Hiroyuki Ito And Nobuo Uematsu. Therefore, in spite of an aesthetic and a staging, in my personal view, somewhat questionable, as soon as we were kindly granted a review code for the production SQUARE ENIX, I had to jump on it with greed. And in some ways I wish I’d never done it: but let’s go in order.
- Title: DUNGEON ENCOUNTERS
- Platform: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC
- Version reviewed: PlayStation 4 (EU)
- Type: JRPG
- Players: 1
- Software house: SQUARE ENIX
- Developer: SQUARE ENIX
- Tongue: English (texts)
- Exit date: October 14, 2021
- Availability: digital delivery
- DLC: nobody
- Note: the PS4 and PC versions of the title will be available at a discounted price of € 23.99 until the end of October
We reviewed DUNGEON ENCOUNTERS with a PlayStation 4 code provided to us free of charge by SQUARE ENIX via Koch Media.
Minimalism is the way
If you are a lover of immediate productions, which vehemently shun pompous introductions and baroque narrative trappings, DUNGEON ENCOUNTERS is definitely the title for you. After loading, in fact, you will not find us waiting for you no wraparound cinematics, no eye-catching splash screen: a bland starting screen, in fact, will be followed by a short text, which will be used to better introduce us to the game setting. Nothing striking also in this case, since we will be informed of how four demonic beasts suddenly appeared in the world and, as usual, how it is up to us to eradicate them. All after having formed a party made up of a quartet of adventurers, which we can assemble through the menu linked toAcademy.
From here we can make our selection, based more on our aesthetic preferences than on any details related to classes or the like. To guide us, in fact, in addition to our heart, we will have the portrait drawn by the character designer Ryoma, as well as a small description of the background of the individual in question. Having done this, after taking a look at the shops scattered around the first level of the game, all we have to do is launch ourselves into the exploration of the hundred floors that make up DUNGEON ENCOUNTERS, in turn divided into ten unique biomes.
The will to propose an essential experience, entirely focused on gameplay, will emerge once again, with greater disruption, as soon as we start the actual game, and we will be dropped into a peculiar Tile RPG with a strongly minimal aesthetic. Waiting for us, in fact, we will find a squared map with an isometric view, along which we will move our main character, in an attempt to reach the exit, perhaps scrapping together objects and skills, while we will try to get the best of the creatures that will haunt the stage. Again everything will be characterized by unbridled minimalism, since each interactive slot will be characterized simply by a pair of alphanumeric characters, which will translate into a thin textual description in case of structures, treasures and the like, while during the clashes they will transport us to a screen dedicated to the fight.
Under whose turn it is
This is where the legacy of Hiroyuki Ito will begin to be palpable, given that the various fights will put on the plate everything that was legitimate to expect from the creator of the iconic ATB System. It will be precisely this never forgotten characteristic of FINAL FANTASY, in fact, to mark the flow of the fight, with characters and enemies who will find themselves acting in turn, all according to a principle linked to the speed of each element involved. To get the better of various threats, our heroes will have two types of attack available (physical and magical), which will decrease one of the two enemy resistance scores: bringing them to zero will allow us, with each subsequent attack, to affect the vital points of the creature, which obviously we will have to finish in order to defeat it. Furthermore, when our turn comes, if we have recovered, and activated through the special structures present in the game area, some skills, we will also be able to choose to use them instead of the attack, to get buffs, or heal allies. and more. That’s all, extremely simple and straightforward, but for this reason also one (if not the greatest) of the successful elements of DUNGEON ENCOUNTERS.
In spite of an extremely static and subdued staging, in fact, progressing in the game we will realize how the clashes are imbued with a very good dose of tactics, which will require us to make the most of our offensive skills, in order to be able to defeat the fierce opponents that the game will throw up on us generously. The strategy will also be indispensable with regard to the equipment system, which cannot be used at will, but will be linked to a cost in points, the sum of which will never exceed the value available to the character in question. Obviously, this number will increase with each level pass, as will the price requested by the most powerful objects: choosing wisely, therefore, will be crucial.
Death lurking
The first playful creaks, therefore, are to be found in the very nature of the clashes that we will be called to face, which they will present a completely busted balance of the already not quite permissive general difficulty. In the course of the test, in fact, it happened to me very frequently to find myself in the presence of opponents too powerful compared to the current level of the party, despite having leveled it with skill, a situation that has brought me to the brink of defeat several times. A defeat that did not fail to arrive, totally free, when the game had fun putting me in front, without the possibility of avoiding them, creatures simply impossible to kill, capable of causing the instadeath of all members of my team. And considering the whole it absolutely does not present the possibility to save progress, but only a soft save when closing the application, which resets as soon as we reload it, you realize how the risk of throwing away hours of play for a simple and sadistic cruelty of the software is very inappropriate.
Of course, there is the possibility of returning to the very first level, to reassemble a group with the remaining adventurers, but if we consider that with them we should return to the place of death, perhaps dozens of levels away, to recover the remains of the fallen, in an attempt to bring them back to life at the nearest sanctuary (in turn almost always very distant), you realize how the whole thing becomes somewhat tedious. Also because each of the fallen will occupy a slot in the party, so as to force us to replace an active member (which we may then have to return to recover) with a useless pile of dying meat. As if it were a boring videogame version of the classic enigma of the goat, the wolf and the cabbage. Which is a real shame, because despite the poverty of the scene and the meager mechanics, when it runs properly DUNGEON ENCOUNTERS can be really fun, capable as it is of presenting a sort of distillation of the JRPG, of which it manages to make the essential elements available, but which unfortunately end up being overwhelmed by that damned randomness (with excessive sadism attached) mentioned above.
I wish I was deaf
As you can already guess from what is written, as well as from the images surrounding the review, the technical aspect of DUNGEON ENCOUNTERS certainly does not scream for a miracle, on the contrary, it does everything to not betray its nature as an experimental title and very low budget. With the exception of the character that we will control on the game board, in fact, we will only have a handful of static images and text boxes. Also on the sound front, given the involvement of Nobuo Uematsu, there is little to be happy, given that to welcome us we will find a small handful of sound effects, as well as a single piece of music per biome, which will appear only during the clashes. And that I personally replaced with my Spotify playlist (on PS5) after just a few levels. For the rest there are not many notes to do, since anyway everything is extremely functional, as long as you compromise with the particular will of the development team. Obviously, given the low budget nature of everything, the game is localized (as well as in Japanese) only in English.
Who do we recommend DUNGEON ENCOUNTERS to?
Minimal, essential (even too much), sometimes funny, but also damn unbalanced and sadistic, the new housework SQUARE ENIX it moves poised between successful experimental production and a sensational hole in the water, with the needle of the balance that ends, alas, to lean more on this side than on the other. When everything works, in fact, DUNGEON ENCOUNTERS manages to attract the attention of those who are looking for a naked and raw role-playing experience, without unnecessary frills, but which unfortunately ends up being brutally drowned by a difficulty not always properly calibrated, capable of nullifying entire hours of play without the possibility of appeal. All this, combined with insights that seem to want to further enjoy putting a spoke in the wheel to the player, make the title suitable only for those who are gifted with a huge dose of patience. Maybe a little too much. Everyone else would do well to opt for a more structured and permissive title.
- Simple but effective combat system
- Tactical at the right point …
- … But the difficulty is unbalanced
- Mechanics that are all too essential
- Annoying soundtrack
DUNGEON ENCOUNTERS
Fun denied
DUNGEON ENCOUNTERS it is certainly an interesting title, by virtue of its blatant experimentalism, but which ends up being suffocated by a design that is all too old school and uncompromising, which tries in every way to embarrass, among other things in an absolutely free way, players who dare to approach him. Real bignami of years of Japanese role-playing culture, the new title SQUARE ENIX it would have needed a few more filings to be considered fun at 360 °, given that at present, although happy in some aspects, it does nothing but be a pure and simple bizarre creative experiment.
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