First-Person Dungeon Crawlers

[Stolas_SMT]

or maybe you are terrified of learning japanese.

(Ooc: Actually, if you don’t mind me going out of character for a second- what is like the best starting point to learn Japanese? Course classes are always a thing- but if there’s a good site or two that’s good for beginners- I wouldn’t mind hearing it! A lotta of the cool megaten stuff is untranslated, and I would kinda want to understand it!)

 

[Ikagura]

RIIGHHTTTT??? DRIVES me just MAD enough to start plucking myself to death! OOohhh what I'd kill to have Bael from SMT1 on my phone whichever I go! Honestly- how much WOULD they lost from just... porting that translation and making it available again back on the app store?

Even re-releasing Persona 1 PSP with the ability to swap the music type could be a good starter.

On a side note the Repo thankfully has the english translation directly from the iOS release in the GBA port (sadly not the SNES one)

https://retrogametalk.com/repo/gba-roms/shin-megami-tensei-japan/

 

[theshiningpath]

Mime is the most recent first person dungeon-crawler I played. It's pretty unheard of given it's PC-98 game, but it does have full translation. Great OST, 90's anime visual style, and some unique mechanics make it worth at least giving it a shot.

 

[SeventhSon]

The Legend of Grimrock

 

[Don Patch]

FROM SOFTWARE's Shadow Tower Joints (though, they're hard as nails)

The Persona Q games on the 3DS.
And, to the point, the Etrian Odyssey games as well.

Let us know what you decide to pick up.

 

[Ikagura]

View attachment 125004

Mime is the most recent first person dungeon-crawler I played. It's pretty unheard of given it's PC-98 game, but it does have full translation. Great OST, 90's anime visual style, and some unique mechanics make it worth at least giving it a shot.

I love that artwork too.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Arcana in the SNES... unfortunately isn't a great game by itself, but mercifully there is a patch that rebalance the game to a point you wonder why the frickfrack that wasn't the way it was released in the first place complete with hud and text updates, mix it with a patch that gives you the whole map in a goand you go from a mid game into a SNES classic

 

[breremarer]

Mime is the most recent first person dungeon-crawler I played. It's pretty unheard of given it's PC-98 game, but it does have full translation. Great OST, 90's anime visual style, and some unique mechanics make it worth at least giving it a shot.

Dang the art in this looks cool as hell.

The Legend of Grimrock

I love Grimrock! I wish I could get into the combat more. I prefer turn-based, and love playing dungeon crawlers handheld. I've just never found a really workable way to get Grimrock playing on the controller. Every once in a while I'll get back into it or its sequel, though. No one quite does mood like them.

 

[Graw]

I've never really been super into first person dungeon crawlers. I've always found them to be a bit disorienting and usually prefer top down dungeon crawlers but lately I've been on a dungeon crawler binge. I've been trying to find as many as I can play and emulate on my phone. So far I've actually had quite a lot of luck.

My experiences so far:

The Etrian Odyssey series:
1-3: I tried the DS versions and I don't really like the mapping. I don't mind manually marking things on the map but I hate drawing the walls. The switch versions work well though with Eden and just seem to be a better experience overall. So far 3 is my favourite of those.

4-6: Only on 3ds. I like them all but V is my favourite of the three and I've gotten the farthest in it so far. I really like the classes in V and I prefer that it's just a straightforward dungeon crawl without overworld gimmicks.

I haven't tried the untold games yet.

SMT Strange Journey: I've only tried the DS version so far. I haven't gotten too far in it yet but so far I've been enjoying it. SMT's demon fusion is always fun to mess around with.

Persona Q/Q2: 3DS, don't know if they're available on other systems. Did not really enjoy. I don't really like the Persona series and the Q games seem like they're probably alright games but I just didn't really find them appealing.

Elminage: PSP. Haven't played a lot of it yet. Seems fairly old school and hardcore but I enjoyed what I've played so far.

Class of Heroes: PSP. Seemed alright. Pretty similar to other games. Didn't really draw me in.

Demon Gaze 1/2: PS Vita. Demon Gaze 1 didn't work with any version of Vita3k I tried. It loads and then won't go into the main menu. It stays frozen trying to load the menu. Demon Gaze 2 randomly crashes in the normal version of Vita3K but so far has worked well with Vita3K ZX. It's been pretty fun so far. The story's interesting enough and the gameplay loop's pretty good. I like the demon catching gimmick.

Operation Abyss/Babel: PS Vita. Haven't tried Babel yet but I've started Abyss and so far it seems pretty good. Pretty similar to the rest of the Experience games as far as I can tell.

Dungeon Travelers 2: Vita. Couldn't get very far in this one. Kept randomly freezing in all versions of Vita3K. Got up to the point where you can build a full party before it got too frustrating to keep going. Seemed like a decent game though. Different combat system to the rest of them, more similar to something like SMT.

Labyrinth of Refrain: Switch: Worked well with Eden but I didn't really like it. The puppet system seemed kind of interesting but also convoluted and I didn't really feel like managing individual body parts.

Undernauts: Switch. Pretty top tier game. Runs well with Eden. Interesting story and premise. Fun game mechanics. Would recommend.

Saviors with Sapphire Wings/Stranger of Sword City Revisited: Switch. I've only played a little bit of Sapphire Wings but it seemed pretty meh. Stranger in Sword City though is my favourite Experience game so far. The story and setting is weird but decent. The gameplay mechanics and class system seem good and deep and the dungeon crawling feels like some good old fashioned crawling through a dungeon.

Wizardry Five Ordeals: Switch. Works well with Eden. Played through the tutorial dungeon. Seems pretty old school and hardcore. I enjoyed what I've played of it so far but it seems like it's going to be a hard game. Minimal mapping features make it a bit questionable how much I'll actually play this one but we'll see.

Wizardry V: Tried to get the FM-Towns version working because that one seems like the best version. Couldn't figure out how to get it to work on android. Might try the snes version instead.

Wizardry VI: Tried to get the new Saturn translation working with both Retroarch and the standalone YabaSanshiro 2 emulators. Got as far as making a party but the emulator would crash when loading the dungeon. Might try the snes version. Wizardry VI sounds pretty cool. From what I've heard it's almost structured a bit like a metroidvania. I would like to try this one.

Wizardry VII: I downloaded the psx port but I haven't tried it yet.

Infinite Adventures: Switch. Did not work well with Eden. Dungeons ran at 15fps, though maybe that's how the game's supposed to be I don't know. It was a pretty consistent 15fps and combat ran at 30fps so maybe the game itself is just unoptimized considering all the other switch dungeon crawlers I tried ran just fine. Either way, it felt sluggish and not fun to play. The art style was also a bit off putting. I get it's an indie game or whatever but it had a pretty amateurish look to it. Also seemed pretty similar to other games from what little I played of it without doing much to set it apart.

Sakura Dungeon: Joiplay Ren'Py plugin. Literal anime waifu pokemon style hentai game. Didn't work well with Joiplay. Would fail to load battle images after cutscenes. Looked like a directory error to me. Not sure if it's a Joiplay Ren'py plugin thing or the game itself. Managed to get down two or three floors or something before it got too annoying to keep playing. Was kind of boring. Pokemon is more fun and the porn was pretty meh. I guess there's a censored switch version that probably works alright but honestly the game doesn't really seem worth playing without the porn and even that doesn't really seem worth playing it for. It's just not a very good game and Ren'Py seems like a bad engine for a dungeon crawler even if it worked properly.

I know there's a few other modern dungeon crawlers I can probably emulate. But my phone's getting low on space and I used up most of my data for the month downloading these so I'm gonna wait on those. I know there's also some older older dungeon crawlers I could check out but honestly I'm not big on the idea of drawing maps out. I'm playing them on my phone so I can have a casual dungeon crawl when the mood strikes me. Not bust out the graph paper and pens but who knows, maybe I'll give them a try at some point.

 

[hazys]

Gotta plug The Dark Spire for DS. It looks so cool. It won't hold your hand though.

 

[TamagotchiHero24's icon TamagotchiHero24 TamagotchiHero24]

Gotta plug The Dark Spire for DS. It looks so cool. It won't hold your hand though.

Amazing spritework!

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

View attachment 125004

Mime is the most recent first person dungeon-crawler I played. It's pretty unheard of given it's PC-98 game, but it does have full translation. Great OST, 90's anime visual style, and some unique mechanics make it worth at least giving it a shot.

I don’t know why I can’t get the text to work for this one specifically, it’s heartbreaking. On top of that NP2 on Retroarch is real confusing. It worked for a lot of games one day, stopped on another. Mac struggles ig.

Post automatically merged: Feb 23, 2026

I gotta be losing my mind, how is it showing text now

It did not say this shit before when I tried it 2 days ago

 

[NeonKnights]

Dungeons of Daggorath is probably my favorite,
though I remember the first snake enemy being like a Dark Souls boss when I played it for the first time.

 

[SylvanSwordstress]

I've been playing Ultima Underworld recently, and it is a blast! I think it's totally worth playing if you like first person dungeon crawling.

 

[AlmaElma123]

I'm seeing a lot of goodness here! I love RPGs and especially dungeon crawlers so I will give you the ones I know and many I love, even if they are repeats of ones here.

Wizardry 1+2+3 w/ English Patch - SNES

Yes, the SNES one with the English patch specifically. The PC games are great and ground breaking of corse but Japan really cooked when it came to re-releasing theses games for systems. They made a lot of Wizardry games we didn't get here sadly, and this is one of them! It combines the first 3 games and lets you transfer your party to each of them as you beat them. You even get a little symbol on your character sheets for each game you beat! Its the deffinitive way to play IMO!

Swords and Serpents - NES

A fantastic little gem on the NES. Its not a terribly complicaded dungeon crawler, for most of it, but you do have to keep notes AND the manual tells you exactly how large the floors are so it makes map making that much easier too. I wouldnt call this an expert crawler but I wouldn't call it a begginers game too. Highly recommend! Just get ready to write down the long passwords if you play this on the NES like I did!

Arcana w/ Seal of Rimsala patch - SNES

Arcana is a fantastic dungeon crawler that has cards as its main gimic! Enemys are cards, items are cards, people you talk to are cards! Of corse, this is just how it chose to present itself when your in the first person view, and its great. We sadly got a butchered version of it via translation so thats why I recommend the Seal of Rimsala patch but if you dont mind that, go for any version really!

D&D: Warriors of the Eternal Sun - Sega Genesis

Last one for now! While this game isn't purly 1st person dungeon crawling, it is a large majority of the game. The other part of it is over head exploration and some turn based combat in this view from time to time. When your in the dungeon though its 1st person and real time. Its not only fantastic but an ambisious game. Theres a mod that does fix some bugs but it also makes EXP shared and, while it does sound like it would make the game less frusterating, you quickly relise this game was made to NOT have shared exp since you can completely break the game fast with it. Just play it as it!

Thats my small list! If you want more recommendations I would love to give them to you! RPGs are my favorit type of games so don't be scared to ask!

 

[PupinDaTurd]

Bearing good news, the current Steam Next Fest features like four or five first person crawlers on the "most popular" page of demos.

 

[DanCalibur]

I've been playing Ultima Underworld recently, and it is a blast! I think it's totally worth playing if you like first person dungeon crawling.

That's a really good one, I almost finished it a few years ago but my SSD died and the save was lost. It's one of those waiting for a second run.

 

[JellyjamLu]

Been playing a lot of this on Saturn & loving it so much

 

[Eric555]

I don't know if these are mentioned before. Anyway,
- D&D: Eye of The Beholder triology
- Lands of Lore triology
- Legend of Grimlock I/II
- Elminage Original
- Elminage Gothic
(Too bad all the other Eliminage games are in Japanese only.)

 

[UndeadKnight]

I love the Kings Field/Shadow Tower series but I wouldn't even consider those games within the same genre. Emphasizes level design and discovery a lot more than the RPG elements