Retro Dungeon Crawlers Thread

[Anonymous No.6806020]

Discuss your favorite retro dungeon crawling games.

[Anonymous No.6807317]

>>6806020
I'm partial to the Wizardry Series. Dungeon Hack was pretty good too, along with the Eye of the Beholder games.

[Anonymous No.6807475]

>>6806020
I really like the music in Kingsfield 4 and looping in and out of environments to find myself on a lower floor of the Ancient City was cool. I remember getting to the bottom and getting some black eyes and getting lost.

[Anonymous No.6808013]

Are there any legit 6th gen dungeon crawlers though
I've dipped my toes in this genre and I want more

[Anonymous No.6809013]

I have never played Ultima Underworld because I have never had sex

[Anonymous No.6809065]

>>6808013
shadow tower abyss youll need to get the translation though its japanese only

[Anonymous No.6809758]

I've been playing the the US King's Field 2 and having a pretty great time. I feel like I'm going through it incredibly slowly though. I'm in the forest area now and just got a map which is a really holy shit moment

[Anonymous No.6809776]

>>6806020
I never got the premise of dungeon crawlers. Take the fantasy genre, which is basically all about wide diverse worlds, and relegate it to hallways.

I understand the concept of hardware limitations but still. Also Zork is the best dungeon crawler.

[Anonymous No.6810783]

>>6809776
Tabletop RPG's developed from war-gaming when players wanted to play as more individualize characters, the fantasy aspect was a modification of the already existing historical aspect of war games, and Gygax's circle of friends being both big history and fantasy fans. Computer RPG's were all attempts to transfer that into a simulated format and being 1974, that would obviously be very limited.
Dungeon crawlers were built from the hardware limitations of the time, but also from people who just liked fucking around in D&D and picking fights with anyone they meet, which would include the teenagers who mainly played it. The funny thing is that early D&D punished players who picked fights with randoms and monster they obviously wouldn't handle.
So yeah, I think the reason dungeon crawlers still survive are that it appeals to the game aspect of RPG's(the stats, leveling, battles, all that shit) over the role-playing, everything else is minimally sprinkled in the game into setting as you play and you're encouraged that imagine it yourself, fantasy is just the more traditional expected setting at this point.
That's just my best explanation of why it would appeal to people, there dungeon crawlers that have enough appealing lore and setting like Shin Megami Tensei for instance.

[Anonymous No.6810846]

>>6810783
I wonder if something like sci fi wouldn't be more appropriate for the format than fantasy. I see what you're saying about fantasy being a tacked on aspect of the genre, and that makes sense. Because I can't think of any classic fantasy books that even involve dungeons at all.

Are there any sci fi dungeon crawlers. It sounds like a based idea just thinking about it

[Anonymous No.6811884]

CAN SOMEONE RECOMMEND A DUNGEON CRAWLER ALREADY

Preferably a comfy one.

[Anonymous No.6811893]

>>6806020
Genuine question. What are some dungeon crawlers that actually have good art? Most that I see have very ugly art, not trying to hate.

[Anonymous No.6811924]

For me, it's Shadow Tower Abyss.

[Anonymous No.6811934]

>>6811893
This. Might and Magic's photos of real people dressed in cosplay is cringe and distracting to look at. It never looked good.

[Anonymous No.6811936]

>>6811884
hungry ghosts

[Anonymous No.6811961]

>>6811893
The PS1 versions of the original Wizardry games have some great art, most of the Japanese versions of the series do, but it's just mainly the enemy portraits only, everything else is bland.
Shin Megami Tensei has the most notable art out of all in the genre

[Anonymous No.6811964]

>>6811893
Elminage series

[Anonymous No.6811987]

>>6810846
>Are there any sci fi dungeon crawlers
Yes but they're heavily supernatural themed and the other one isn't retro yet

[Anonymous No.6811995]

Here’s hoping the original PS1 Baroque gets translated

[Anonymous No.6812007]

>>6811995
Baroque is better on the Saturn.

[Anonymous No.6812026]

>>6811987
name

[Anonymous No.6812275]

>>6806020
I just realised I never got very far in arx fatalis, I should go back to it, not even out of the first dungeon yet

[Anonymous No.6812637]

>>6811893

[Anonymous No.6812648]

>>6812637
Haha this can get you arrested in Australia. FOR LIFE.

[Anonymous No.6812776]

>>6806020
does system shock 1 count?

[Anonymous No.6812793]

>>6812637

[Anonymous No.6812870]

>>6812648
I love loli but I also love laughing at the idea of people getting jailed for it

[Anonymous No.6813086]

>>6812026
Soul Hackers, it's retro, came out on the Saturn and Playstation, but you'll only be able to play the 3DS version in English.
The other one in a non-retro DS game that I won't name but is the most popular game in the serious and you'll find easily. Atlus kept the genre alive in my eyes, and the DS has a surprising amount of dungeon crawlers on it. The most retro-friendly ones would be Dark Spire(straight up Wizardry clone) and Orcs & Elves(which looks more from Ultima Underworld's footsteps)

[Anonymous No.6813161]

>>6810783
I never thought of things that way but it does make sense and somewhat explains why many later, more open ended, RPGs put so much emphasis on non-combat skills.

[Anonymous No.6813168]

>>6813086
It's ok to name Strange Journey anon. Being a DS game means we can't discuss it here but you can reference it.

[Anonymous No.6813173]

>>6809776
The dungeon is like a giant Rubik's cube that you're slowly solving over tens of hours of gameplay. It's an acquired taste, but it's very satisfying. This response >>6810783 gives a good short historic overview of how dungeon crawling came to be, but doesn't explain the appeal of the video game form specifically, which divorced from tabletop experience almost immediately. Video game "RPGs" take their inspirations in D&D, but work completely differently and succeed or fail for completely different reasons.

[Anonymous No.6813286]

>>6813168
Not at least giving a passing mention to strange journey in a quintessential SMT dungeon crawler discussion would be a disservece, it's one of the best.

[Anonymous No.6813374]

>>6813168
I just got back from /vrpg/ after a month and after seeing 50 million "tell me what to do guys I can't make my own decisions" threads of people asking about SJ and being new to SMT, I was hoping I could at least force someone find the games on their own and go down their own little rabbit hole. It's the whole other definition of "esoteric" that fits well to the franchise.

[Anonymous No.6813385]

>>6811893
Puyo Puyo unrioncially started as dungeon crawlers and they look pretty cute

[Anonymous No.6813529]

>>6811893
Lands of Lore

[Anonymous No.6813664]

>>6813385
>wut

[Anonymous No.6813776]

>>6813385
>>6813664
The series is called Madō Monogatari and the Game Gear and Genesis versions are translated. As the other anon mentioned, Compile reused the characters for Puyo Puyo

[Anonymous No.6813883]

>>6811924
>>6809065
I actually thought Shadow Tower Abyss was incredibly disappointing after King's Field 4, which is a shame considering it has such an incredible start. After the beginning sections, it felt like going on a haunted house tour: linear and with no real danger.

[Anonymous No.6814429]

>>6813776
thanks for the info

[Anonymous No.6814513]

>Trying to install SWORD OF MOONLIGHT so I can play Kings Field 1: PC Edition
>Its still handled with Jap installers for fucking Win98
>Patches do nothing to unfuck setup

[Anonymous No.6814721]

>>6812637
Speaking of eroge, I suppose everybody's favorite DRPG Rance VI is retro now

[Anonymous No.6814748]

>>6806020
Play Moraff's World. It's kinda funny.

[Anonymous No.6814758]

>>6814721
I wanna grape Magic=chan and make her daddy watch as she moans in pleasure!!!

[Anonymous No.6815354]

>>6808013
Arx Fatalis is great

[Anonymous No.6815404]

>>6814758
Why are you posting like this? Are you a retarded person?

[Anonymous No.6816572]

>>6814513
It works fine on a virtual machine.

[Anonymous No.6816623]

>>6814748
>Moraff
Morraf as in Steve Moraff?! I've met him at a convention. He made a metric shit-ton of Mahjong games after this one.

[Anonymous No.6816707]

>>6816623
He made like 1000 mahjongg games. He' s probably the biggest indie dev of mahjongg games.
But he stopped selling the RPG games, so you need to buccaneer it now.

[Anonymous No.6817048]

a dungeon crawling expert needs to make a dungeon crawling essentials chart