r/DRPG

皆さん、こんにちは！私は r/game_engine の創設モデレーター、u/ScarHelpful2551 (通称はtakata)です。

ここが、ゲームエンジンやゲーム作品に関連する色々なことを語り合う新しい場所になります。ご参加いただいたことをうれしく思います。

投稿内容

コミュニティが興味を持ったり、役立つと感じたり、刺激を受けたり、面白そうなことなら、何でも投稿してください。ゲームエンジンやゲームそのものについての考えや写真、質問(AMA含む)などを気軽に投稿してください。

コミュニティの雰囲気

フレンドリーで、前向きで、包容力のある、自由で柔軟コミュニティを目指しています。誰もがストレスなく意見を伝え、交流できる場にしましょう (もちろんこれは強制ではないです)。

始める手順

1.下のコメント欄で自己紹介をお願いします(これも強制ではありません。 また、質問があればAMA感覚でコメントにて！)。

2.すぐに何か投稿してみましょう！簡単な質問でも、良い会話のきっかけになることがあります。

3.このコミュニティを気に入ってくれそうな人がいれば、ぜひ招待してください。

4.運営を手伝ってみたいと思われますか？残念ですが、新しいモデレーターを常時募集してはいません。まあ、常に募集してないとは言っても精神状態が悪いときや、何らかの用事で見れない時などはもしかしたら…ということはあるかもしれません。

私たちと一緒に第一歩を踏み出してくださることに感謝します。ともに r/game_engine を素晴らしい場所にしていきましょう。

Hello,

This winter I played Labyrinth of Refrain, which I enjoyed very much, so I decided it's been long enough since then to play its sequel without burning out. I meant to get it on Switch 2, since it's on sale and it seems like the perfect handheld game, however I found out it was originally not compatible with Switch 2, and once fixed it still crashed a lot. I have Labyrinth of Refrain on PS4 and it hasn't crashed once. The last post I found about this issue is from four months ago, so I'm not sure if the reason why there is no discussion around this is because there is no interest or it got fixed. Has anyone recently played this game on Switch 2 specifically and can confirm this issue? Should I just get it on Steam?

While I'm not totally done with the game, I am sitting in front of a few final challenges (Last boss of F29, the areas that unlocks on F30, and some 550+ floors of the Infinity Corridor), and I think I'm reaching around the end of my time with it, one way or another. So, as I do, I'll now write a review on it!

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The Good!

You know, I REALLY liked the presentation of this thing quite a bit. It's odd to qualify a "Third Person" DRPG as one when I'm usually a bit more tight on the criteria, but there's no real question that, except for the fact that you're looking at it from above, this game is a DRPG at it's core.

Speaking of that 3rd person view, it enables some actually interesting dungeon puzzles, unlike what we normally get in the genre. It was probably a month or two ago when a dev popped in and asked about our opinions on how puzzles can work in DRPGs, and the general consensus is that you can't really get too complicated, because the view and tools of a DRPG simply don't allow the users to see enough to have a full grasp of the area to properly have complex puzzles, but the top down view of this game REALLY works, especially when the game later starts to put in fairly complex switch and push puzzles.

One thing I think think was absolutely amazing was the sheer QoL the game has; If You need to grind, there's just a button for it that instantly turns the encounter chance to max. Likewise, the game works on an encounter chance system rather than a pure encounter rate (Similar to Etrian Odyssey), which you have on screen and can know what's going to happen. Game Overs aren't punishing at all (Just throwing you back to the town), and if you are feeling overwhelmed, there's several different means throughout the game to just get stronger without "just grinding". There's so much more to it that I would basically just be listing game features; I genuinely mean this game took a decent stab at adding DRPG QoL in a way that only a fan game really can.

Finally, I actually kind of liked the story and characters. In a lot of fan games for Touhou, characters can be somewhat... misinterpreted, making them kinder or less rough around the edges than they really are, and this is another good one where the characters you meet are all different kinds of jerk. It makes the story, which is fairly mundane, fun to go through, because they don't just, say, wipe Reimu's laziness or aggressiveness out for the sake of making a good heroine.

The Neutral

I'm a bit disappointed by the music, but mostly just because it's not Touhou music. The music was chosen in a similar way that the developer of Crystal Project chose theirs, where they just went with freely available commercial music (Though, these are from a Japanese store, while Crystal Project's was a western one). The tracks aren't BAD or anything of the sort (I'd say they were actually well chosen and some of the tracks are actually incredible for their use case), but Touhou is a franchise with a deep connection to it's music, so not using those themes in some way is a bit disappointing.

I'm... not the biggest fan of the way boss fights are designed here. I'm not going to put this as a true negative, as I know this is a me thing, but when I'm given a game with an ensemble cast of characters and told to make my own team to conquer a dungeon, my mind tells me that I should be able to take any combination of these characters and, with the right strategy using their strengths, beat whatever comes at me. And... that's not the case. While most fights ARE designed to the degree that you can probably beat them with at worst a bit of tweaking to "your party", there are a few of them (In the early middle and the ones I'm dealing with now in the post game) that just feel like they can only be done with a specific set of units... or just massacred by being severely overleveled. It just kills the gameflow a bit.

The Bad...

Alright, the Infinity Corridor is the absolute best example of a procedurally generated DRPG dungeon I've seen, and it's still an absolute slog that's draining to go through. It's too much to do, too much to track (You have a limited number of steps per floor), and requires too much of a time sink in a single setting to get to where it could be worth it in terms of drops. I saw something where, to start getting the good stuff out of it, you're expected to do some 40+ floors in one sitting, which would not only take HOURS, but I can't see how one possibly could do it without chewing their own arm off in boredom.

The Post-Post Game (the Plus disk) does require a bit of a grind and timesink to make progress in regularly. I think it's supposed to be that you're supplementing your time going through the floors with trips to the Infinity Corridor, but.. well, see above. It does mean that every floor you kind of feel like you're truly diving into the hard stuff, but... yeah, it gets a bit tedious to not be able to just explore.

This is going to tie to the neutral point regarding bosses a bit, but I genuinely think the Bosses, and some of the systems in general, are a bit too complicated for how little information the game gives you. I genuinely don't think I could have made it anywhere near as far into the game as I did without a near constant reference being given to the Touhou Wiki section for this game (Kudos to them; that one is REALLY well put together). There are FAR too many bosses or systems in the game that just do things you can't possibly figure out what they're doing without looking it up.

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I think I'm at 130 hours or so now (My steam time is useless for a "real" understanding; I somehow had a 30+ hour previous attempt on it where I only got as far as I got in 10 hours on my real playthrough, and I have no idea how), and like I mentioned in the opening, I have a boss on F29, the last part of F30 (Locked by the boss on F29), and most of the Infinity Corridor to do, and I'm... kinda nearing the end, as I'm not quite feeling like doing the grind that would be required for either of the two things I can actually do next. The game has an achievement for getting 256 hours in it, and while I'm probably not going to do that, I can see how you could get there.

All in all, I leave with some opposing feelings on it; On the one hand, in terms of sheer gameplay, there's a LOT to love here, with the dungeons being well done (I can't praise the puzzles enough, they were REALLY well done), character building being (While not my complete favorite) complex enough to give you stuff to just theory craft for hours (And with the QoL being that, for the most part, you don't lose time for trying and finding a build doesn't work), some really good music (Again, not Touhou, but still some good ear worms), and at times some bosses that were just amazing to figure out how to beat and how to make your team able to do it.

But it also has just some things that are absolutely AGGRAVATING to play in a way that just drains you; Bosses that just make no sense without referencing a guide (And with how many bosses there are, there's WAY too much of that), some opaque systems that ALSO require a guide, and the Infinity Corridor just... doesn't work in a way that's worth doing, but you're practically required to engage with even if you don't want to (As some of the systems in the game that are practically required for the rest of the game require progress in the IC to unlock).

So, I wholeheartedly recommend the game; Play it until you don't feel like it anymore. I think there's a lot to love, and a lot of clear passion and understanding of the genre's pain points, here, and I know some people probably heard some of my negatives and wondered why I felt that way about complex bosses or the like because it sounds amazing to them.

Looking to the future... We're looking at some of these indie DRPGs coming out this year, hopefully, but the only "big" title I'm aware of in the genre that's recent is Demon Kill Demon from Experience, which is questionable if we're going to get it here in the west (As I'm unsure if Mon-yu inspired any confidence from Aksys, and I don't know if anyone else would pick it up). I'd love it if PQube got Class of Heroes Finale out, though I haven't heard anything on that.

What do you think about dungeon crawlers in the style of Shining in the Darkness?

How do you feel about the combat system? Does the exploration keep you engaged?

Personally, I tend to get bored after exploring a single floor. The walls all look the same, the monsters repeat, and there aren't many moments that really surprise you or shake up the gameplay. Maybe that's just a product of older game design, or maybe those games were simply made with limited budgets.

What do you think this style of dungeon crawler is missing?

I'm thinking about making a game inspired by Shining in the Darkness, but I'd like to expand on the gameplay rather than just recreate it.

I'd really appreciate detailed answers. ♥️

Set the time and start a journey and in the end, find your familiar. Just copy the file WITF-Canon.md. Paste it over your Claude and enjoy. Let me know if you guys have other suggestions too. Cheers 👋🏽

So im a odd ball when it comes down to all this i really enjoy the idea of a rpg dungeon crawler but most i find are not my taste dont get me wrong I enjoy that people like old pixel looking games but its not my taste same with older looking games im looking for a non pixel dungeon crawler preferably first person i play on pc mainly i do like lots of puzzles and fighting I have been wanting a game like this for a long while if its to much a fantasy request let me know please

I really wanna play a dark fantasy game (more like an 8-bit 3d game), on my phone (low end). Suggest me some.