Good Old Fashioned DRPGs

[breremarer]

Anyone here a fan of this genre? I only started getting into it this year, when I stumbled into the "Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord" remake on PS5, and I've been totally hooked. I've alternately seen this subgenre referred to as blobbers or first-person grid-based dungeon crawlers.

Anyway, since discovering them, I've tried "Labyrinth of Refrain", "Mary Skelter 2", "Legend of Grimrock", and this very indie one called "Ludus Mortis". Something about the marriage of resource management, JRPG leveling mechanics, and exploration just absolutely clicks in my brain. Anyone else here a fan? Which are some of your favorites?

 

[juanpa85]

Does Bard's Tale Trilogy counts?

 

[Karnik]

Do you mean the 3D Dungeon Crawler genre? I have no doubt: Rance VI: Fall of Zeth for Windows (also playable on Android via Xsystem4 apk). Only for refined (and mature) palates. For the less mature and more bashful, I recommend nice Etrian Odyssey trilogy for DS.

 

[99nereids]

wizardry is good, a lot of titles to play if you like that formula. wizardry 8 has to be my fav, the last of the western games i believe. (iirc the company that created wizardry went bankrupt and the rights were sold to ASCII in japan who continues to make wizardry games to this day i think?)

you should check out etrian odyssey if you havent! sort of the same vibe as wizardry but a lot bubblier and a heavy focus on map making. there's a few remakes on the switch which i've heard some good things about & the originals are all on DS/3DS

as for indie games i've rly been enjoying Lunacid and Dread Delusion, both on steam !

older recs that u can find on here : Arcana (SNES), SMT if (SNES), Etrian Odyssey III (DS)
some more older recs that are real time drpgs: daggerfall (DOS), king's field (PSX), Might & Magic III (SNES)

 

[ATenderLad]

The last one I played was probably Out Live:

Not a big fan though.

 

[Azura]

Disgaea

 

[RustySK]

If you can stomach oldschool console DRPG gameplay in the vein of SMT, I can recommend Artificial Dream In Arcadia.
It's a Touhou game, but I know nothing about that series and still enjoyed it. It's a full-on modern SMT 1/2-style Dungeon Crawler with everything you'd expect from such a game. Pretty great!

Generally I think the games by Experience Inc. are pretty decent. Undernauts is a good one for example. Great art in that one.

Oh and here's a weird one I loved - Fight Knight.
Not strictly speaking a DRPG and more a first-person brawler with some Punch-Out DNA, but it uses a similiar framework and is friggin' fantastic.

 

[Bonkers225]

I'm addicted to the Wizardry game that got released on mobile not too long ago.

 

[Cu-Neo]

Well this year I played Mary skelter 2 (I liked it a lot), Strange Journey Redux on 3ds, SMT 1 on Snes and now to finish the year I will try artificial dream in arcadia because right now it's really cheap on steam (less than a dolar)

 

[Strategist]

I like the Japanese Wizardry games on the PS2:

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And the SMT series, and Etrian Odyssey 3 are pretty good too.

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[RustySK]

I like the Japanese Wizardry games on the PS2

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Oh hell yeah, these games are so damn good! I've been hoping for a fan translation of Busin 0 for ages.

 

[breremarer]

Does Bard's Tale Trilogy counts?

Bard's Tale absolutely counts! I picked up the trilogy on GoG recently, thanks to a good sale, but I haven't booted it up. I grabbed Might and Magic 1-6 at the same time, because all told it was still under $5.

If you can stomach oldschool console DRPG gameplay in the vein of SMT, I can recommend Artificial Dream In Arcadia.
It's a Touhou game, but I know nothing about that series and still enjoyed it. It's a full-on modern SMT 1/2-style Dungeon Crawler with everything you'd expect from such a game. Pretty great!

I also know very little about Touhou, but the vibe of this looks spot on - I'll definitely check it out.

I like the Japanese Wizardry games on the PS2:

View attachment 5486View attachment 5487
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Wowwww I remember seeing the box art on the left at my childhood rental store, but I never took the plunge. Certainly didn't know what I was looking at until... well, right now.

I've seen a lot of love for Etrian Odyssey as well, and I could definitely get into that. I think the "build out your map" system seems way cool, and a nice mid-point between automapping and needing to get out graph paper.

 

[RustySK]

I just remembered another really good one!

Shining the Holy Ark!
It has a great difficulty progression curve, super charming, unique visuals and especially in the late game the combat gets really interesting. Oh and the Soundtrack by Motoi Sakuraba is also fantastic!
The only real issue with the game is that some animations take too long, but playing in emulation can easily fix that.

(There's also its predecessor Shining in the Darkness, but that one is really quite clunky and minimalist by today's standards - might still be worth a look though)

 

[chrismas]

Really enjoyed Dark Heart of Uukrul and Lands of Lore on DOS. If you liked the Wizardry remake, could always give Wizardry 8 a shot. Wizards & Warriors is a distant relative of Wizardry 6 & 7 by way of sharing the same lead designer, it was a pain in the ass to get running though. If you liked Legend of Grimrock, its sequel is even better. On the Japanese end of things, got a lot of mileage out of Dungeon Traveler TH2 and Generation Xth Code Hazard. I have heard rumblings that the Elminage games are the crown jewels of Japanese blobbers, but I'm a little scared to try them.
While they are bizarrely few n far between there is digital mapping software for use with blobbers... Grid Cartographer is by far the best of the bunch BUT it's a dev tool first and is priced as such. The only other alternative I know (that isn't a god damned automapper that spoils everything) is Gridmonger, which is free BUT has no mouse support.

Post automatically merged: Dec 20, 2024

Disgaea

This is a series of Tactics RPGs. they're not even FPP.

 

[sandogma]

If you can stomach oldschool console DRPG gameplay in the vein of SMT, I can recommend Artificial Dream In Arcadia.
It's a Touhou game, but I know nothing about that series and still enjoyed it. It's a full-on modern SMT 1/2-style Dungeon Crawler with everything you'd expect from such a game. Pretty great!

Generally I think the games by Experience Inc. are pretty decent. Undernauts is a good one for example. Great art in that one.

Oh and here's a weird one I loved - Fight Knight.
Not strictly speaking a DRPG and more a first-person brawler with some Punch-Out DNA, but it uses a similiar framework and is friggin' fantastic.

I really wanted to like Fight Knight but it gave me motion sickness, even when messing with the settings. Its weird how the brain can be sensitive like that, because I can play other games like the recent Avatar game where Im climbing and diving and sliding all around and I don't feel an ounce of motion sickness but yet this game makes my stomach clench. Stupid brain!

 

[Strategist]

Oh hell yeah, these games are so damn good! I've been hoping for a fan translation of Busin 0 for ages.

Someone translated all of the menus for Busin 0 and wrote a English Walkthrough. Certainly not ideal, but it is possible to play it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/n2dean/wizardry_busin_0_translation_guide/

 

[JustLooking123]

I think Double Dungeons (pce) is my favorite.

I love how enemies are visible and carefully placed, graphics are great and the level layouts are well-designed.
However, it requires a lot of grinding, and even with save states and cheats, i could never beat some of its levels!

I wish there was a game with a similar premise but better execution.

 

[PKT]

I love these games, specifically those that are party focused rather than solo character. Been off and on playing the PSX port of Wizardry 7 for the past few months. I also finally got around to starting the last Etrian I hadn't played (EO5).

My recommendations have already been said in this thread but Etrian, early SMT, and Touhou: ADiA are all good

 

[Darrell42]

I recomend:

• Strange Joutney
• Soul Hackers
• any classic Megami Tensei
• Undernauts
• Vaporum
• Kowloon High School
• Kings Field The ancient City (PS2)

Post automatically merged: Dec 20, 2024

Not sure if these counts as DRPG but they have first person dungeon exploration:

• AmberStat (DOS)
• AmberMoon (PC remake in Itch.io)
• Albion (1995 not the MMO one)

 

[OkinawanMagick]

I like the Japanese Wizardry games on the PS2:

View attachment 5486View attachment 5487
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And the SMT series, and Etrian Odyssey 3 are pretty good too.

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Loving these so far, jumping between them and the Wizardry VI SNES game. Does anyone have more DRPG or any other rpg really with a similar dark fantasy/gloomy aesthetic to recommend?

 

[hazys]

I love DRPGs. I'm especially a fan of the Etrian Odyssey series. The Dark Spire on DS is also cool and underrated.