a maze of castles
surround tiny villages -
lurking, Satan waits
Additional Comments:
Oh crap, I meant Natas! Natas!!! (...maybe no one noticed.)
Anyway, while looking through TurboGrafx's library for some games I can add to my collection, I came across Dungeon Explorer. I was immediately drawn in by the almost primitive, yet enriched variation of Gauntlet's tried and true hack 'n slash tomfoolery. I've always loved Gauntlet's kill or be killed attitude with Grunts and Lobbers incessantly bashing away at the heroes en masse. There's something about it that's just so juvenile, even more so than today's hack n' slash offerings, but that's the joy of it. It's simplicity at it's finest in regards to the genre: level after level after level of hundreds upon thousands of mindless souls just aching to be killed. And beyond that? Nothing. Dungeon Explorer, however, chose to investigate the possibility of enhancing the game with actual content and additional gameplay mechanics. There's more than just massacring everything in sight to be found here, or at least at first glance.
This is one of those games that grabbed me by the horns, but then just sort of lost grip as it progressed. In a way, I'd blame it on all of those fresh, new ideas: upgrading Gauntlet's Bingo card style overworld with Odessia's beautiful countryside and incorporating a new RPG style stat/HP increase, but then I'm not so sure. It could also be the downplay of the sheer number of enemies and the ease to erase any unwanted sprites with screen boarder proximity. Actually, while a help in certain areas, that was a big letdown. But first, I'll go into more detail regarding Dungeon Explorer's upgrades.
I think the greatest thing this game did to enhance the primitive hack n' slash of the 8-bit days was to add a true, interactive overworld. This alone brought whole new life to the game and is really what sold me. This alone made the game feel more akin to an RPG experience than the rather lackluster leveling system. Not only that, but it helped enliven the plot; making it feel more substantiated than simply decreeing that the heroes are searching each dungeon for the elusive ORA Stone. Walking from village to village and facing nasty denizens en route also helped tie the world together instead of simply transporting the hero from one dungeon to the next. Sure, this is nothing new to RPG's or even action adventure games, but for the Gauntlet style approach to infinitesimal monster creation, at least until the respective generators are destroyed, it not only opens up countless possibilities, but it makes the game feel wholly unified.
However, the overworld brought on a lot of confusion too. Granted, the game is conceptually a giant labyrinth, but I only ever felt that on the overworld. The dungeons themselves fell short of that standard, playing far too linear. Even Ratonix Dungeon, despite its dizzying array of staircase trickery, was incredibly straightforward. But as far as the overworld went, I always felt like I was overlooking something, fell under a spell of misdirection, or just flat out barking up the wrong tree. The confusion is an unfortunate byproduct of the game's Continue feature. No matter the in-game progress, the hero will always begin in the same little inn in Axis Village, which is more or less the nexus of Dungeon Explorer's universe. Therefore, in an effort to eliminate as much cross-country reprisal as possible, the overworld is littered with shortcuts that are eventually unlocked when the time is right. Honestly, I applaud Atlus tenfold for this approach. With the exception of a couple minor excursions that need to be repeated if you meet an untimely end, they took great care to create effective bypasses where and when necessary. At the same token, it causes some doubt as you travel the land. Maybe it's just my own stupidity, but I never felt confident in where I was going during the latter half of the game. A couple of times, I think I managed to find my destination by sheer fortune. All in all, what should have been labyrinthine felt too linear and vice versa.
As far as the game's leveling system, I'm not sure if it has a positive impact or not. Yes, the idea of stat boosting is always fun - it create's a secondary goal of sorts. And coming from a background of pen and paper RPG's, there's just something about watching individual numbers progress over time; inching ever closer to that next tier where some great new power or ability suddenly comes into play. Unfortunately, most video games muck up the entire system which ends up forcing players to tirelessly grind away for experience points. Dungeon Explorer, however, took a completely different approach, more akin to that of Legend of Zelda where stat increases are done after defeating a dungeon boss. Except here, it makes the rest of the game feel a little hollow. I think this partially has to do with the heroes having separate ability ratings whereas in Zelda, each new "level" only brings additional health. Throwing abilities into the mix cries out for experience accumulation, but sadly it's absent. The further I pressed on, the more meaningless all of the monsters became. Ok, maybe I could obtain some magic after enough kills, but even that wasn't worth it. I eventually hit a point where I just felt like making a mad dash for the stairs. If I had the lives in hand, why not? Typically, the bosses were easy enough to dispose of on my initial encounter, so if I could manage to beeline my way to their lairs, hey, that's all the better. And unfortunately, that wasn't all that hard to do much of the time since Dungeon Explorer really tanked the quantity of creatures compared to Gauntlet considering generators were dispersed throughout the dungeons and overworld.
The general emptiness of the environments and questionable, almost feckless, usage of enemies made the game feel far more casual than it probably should have. While I did face a number of deaths and game overs, the game still felt far too easy. If it wasn't for the confusion that I faced at times as I wandered the world, I'd probably give the game low marks purely for difficulty, or lack thereof. I'm not saying games need to be hard to be fun, but there at least needs to be some challenge, which for me, this game had very little. Even the bosses proved elementary in their strategies. And to be honest, most of my deaths were caused by running the gauntlet without a care in the world. Why waste time killing everything, which serves little purpose to begin with, when I know I can sacrifice some extraneous life force to reach the boss all that much quicker. I know that I could make the same argument for nearly any game out there, but it's never felt more apparent an issue than it did here. And that's sad, because this is still a great game.
But I think what really bugged me the most is the total lack of intelligence and motivation with most of the monsters, especially the various goblins, wizards, skeletons, and other humanoids. While all the sprites are programmed with a basic homing routine to zero in their attacks on the heroes, they have an uncanny ability to be hampered by any sort of object, formidable or not. It's not just an issue of being trapped behind a wall, but for some reason, they all seem inclined to snag their clothing on the corners where they become trapped for all eternity, or at least until you turn your back. Wait. What? That makes no sense. They will charge you head on if you're looking them dead in the eyes, but they somehow lose their way if they fall victim to the various sticky walls, even if you're directly in their line of sight. It's like they're embarrassed by their misfortune and are waiting for you to look the other way so that they can at least retain what little pride they have left. What makes this aggravating though is that they'll clog up tight passageways while still managing to stay out of shot. That's all well and good if that's what was intended, but I'm fairly certain in this case, it was not. And no matter how much you wiggle your hero around, trying to draw the attention of the aloof beasts, they still stay put hugging the adhesive dungeon walls.
The music in this game is pretty fucking phenomenal though. The soundtrack really showcases the raw throatiness of the PC Engine - very similar to Sega's sound engine for the Genesis. For me, those two console were the peak of video game sound pumping out those nice sawtooth lows and square wave highs. Unfortunately, locating specific pieces from Dungeon Explorer to showcase isn't exactly easy, but I found a beautiful little montage showcasing some of the better tracks like Overworld, Dark Dungeon, and Dangerous Garden. Another terrific piece is the Main Theme. The first time I popped in my Hu-Card to ensure it worked; I damn near melted when I heard that song as the intro played out. This game is nearly worth the music alone.
Nano-What?:
Holy crap, the antagonist's name is Satan!? When's the last time I've seen that in a video game? Don't know if I ever have. Ok, his name is actually Natas, or at least that's what everyone calls him, but there is one point where he says, "I am Natas, King Satan." Makes me wonder if this game ever came under the hellfire that titles like Splatterhouse or Mortal Kombat faced during the political correctness and censoring of games during the 90s. Seems to me, it squeaked through without so much as a hiccup. Well done!
Rating: 3 milkshakes out of 4
This is one of those games that grabbed me by the horns, but then just sort of lost grip as it progressed. In a way, I'd blame it on all of those fresh, new ideas: upgrading Gauntlet's Bingo card style overworld with Odessia's beautiful countryside and incorporating a new RPG style stat/HP increase, but then I'm not so sure. It could also be the downplay of the sheer number of enemies and the ease to erase any unwanted sprites with screen boarder proximity. Actually, while a help in certain areas, that was a big letdown. But first, I'll go into more detail regarding Dungeon Explorer's upgrades.
I think the greatest thing this game did to enhance the primitive hack n' slash of the 8-bit days was to add a true, interactive overworld. This alone brought whole new life to the game and is really what sold me. This alone made the game feel more akin to an RPG experience than the rather lackluster leveling system. Not only that, but it helped enliven the plot; making it feel more substantiated than simply decreeing that the heroes are searching each dungeon for the elusive ORA Stone. Walking from village to village and facing nasty denizens en route also helped tie the world together instead of simply transporting the hero from one dungeon to the next. Sure, this is nothing new to RPG's or even action adventure games, but for the Gauntlet style approach to infinitesimal monster creation, at least until the respective generators are destroyed, it not only opens up countless possibilities, but it makes the game feel wholly unified.
However, the overworld brought on a lot of confusion too. Granted, the game is conceptually a giant labyrinth, but I only ever felt that on the overworld. The dungeons themselves fell short of that standard, playing far too linear. Even Ratonix Dungeon, despite its dizzying array of staircase trickery, was incredibly straightforward. But as far as the overworld went, I always felt like I was overlooking something, fell under a spell of misdirection, or just flat out barking up the wrong tree. The confusion is an unfortunate byproduct of the game's Continue feature. No matter the in-game progress, the hero will always begin in the same little inn in Axis Village, which is more or less the nexus of Dungeon Explorer's universe. Therefore, in an effort to eliminate as much cross-country reprisal as possible, the overworld is littered with shortcuts that are eventually unlocked when the time is right. Honestly, I applaud Atlus tenfold for this approach. With the exception of a couple minor excursions that need to be repeated if you meet an untimely end, they took great care to create effective bypasses where and when necessary. At the same token, it causes some doubt as you travel the land. Maybe it's just my own stupidity, but I never felt confident in where I was going during the latter half of the game. A couple of times, I think I managed to find my destination by sheer fortune. All in all, what should have been labyrinthine felt too linear and vice versa.
As far as the game's leveling system, I'm not sure if it has a positive impact or not. Yes, the idea of stat boosting is always fun - it create's a secondary goal of sorts. And coming from a background of pen and paper RPG's, there's just something about watching individual numbers progress over time; inching ever closer to that next tier where some great new power or ability suddenly comes into play. Unfortunately, most video games muck up the entire system which ends up forcing players to tirelessly grind away for experience points. Dungeon Explorer, however, took a completely different approach, more akin to that of Legend of Zelda where stat increases are done after defeating a dungeon boss. Except here, it makes the rest of the game feel a little hollow. I think this partially has to do with the heroes having separate ability ratings whereas in Zelda, each new "level" only brings additional health. Throwing abilities into the mix cries out for experience accumulation, but sadly it's absent. The further I pressed on, the more meaningless all of the monsters became. Ok, maybe I could obtain some magic after enough kills, but even that wasn't worth it. I eventually hit a point where I just felt like making a mad dash for the stairs. If I had the lives in hand, why not? Typically, the bosses were easy enough to dispose of on my initial encounter, so if I could manage to beeline my way to their lairs, hey, that's all the better. And unfortunately, that wasn't all that hard to do much of the time since Dungeon Explorer really tanked the quantity of creatures compared to Gauntlet considering generators were dispersed throughout the dungeons and overworld.
The general emptiness of the environments and questionable, almost feckless, usage of enemies made the game feel far more casual than it probably should have. While I did face a number of deaths and game overs, the game still felt far too easy. If it wasn't for the confusion that I faced at times as I wandered the world, I'd probably give the game low marks purely for difficulty, or lack thereof. I'm not saying games need to be hard to be fun, but there at least needs to be some challenge, which for me, this game had very little. Even the bosses proved elementary in their strategies. And to be honest, most of my deaths were caused by running the gauntlet without a care in the world. Why waste time killing everything, which serves little purpose to begin with, when I know I can sacrifice some extraneous life force to reach the boss all that much quicker. I know that I could make the same argument for nearly any game out there, but it's never felt more apparent an issue than it did here. And that's sad, because this is still a great game.
But I think what really bugged me the most is the total lack of intelligence and motivation with most of the monsters, especially the various goblins, wizards, skeletons, and other humanoids. While all the sprites are programmed with a basic homing routine to zero in their attacks on the heroes, they have an uncanny ability to be hampered by any sort of object, formidable or not. It's not just an issue of being trapped behind a wall, but for some reason, they all seem inclined to snag their clothing on the corners where they become trapped for all eternity, or at least until you turn your back. Wait. What? That makes no sense. They will charge you head on if you're looking them dead in the eyes, but they somehow lose their way if they fall victim to the various sticky walls, even if you're directly in their line of sight. It's like they're embarrassed by their misfortune and are waiting for you to look the other way so that they can at least retain what little pride they have left. What makes this aggravating though is that they'll clog up tight passageways while still managing to stay out of shot. That's all well and good if that's what was intended, but I'm fairly certain in this case, it was not. And no matter how much you wiggle your hero around, trying to draw the attention of the aloof beasts, they still stay put hugging the adhesive dungeon walls.
The music in this game is pretty fucking phenomenal though. The soundtrack really showcases the raw throatiness of the PC Engine - very similar to Sega's sound engine for the Genesis. For me, those two console were the peak of video game sound pumping out those nice sawtooth lows and square wave highs. Unfortunately, locating specific pieces from Dungeon Explorer to showcase isn't exactly easy, but I found a beautiful little montage showcasing some of the better tracks like Overworld, Dark Dungeon, and Dangerous Garden. Another terrific piece is the Main Theme. The first time I popped in my Hu-Card to ensure it worked; I damn near melted when I heard that song as the intro played out. This game is nearly worth the music alone.
Nano-What?:
Holy crap, the antagonist's name is Satan!? When's the last time I've seen that in a video game? Don't know if I ever have. Ok, his name is actually Natas, or at least that's what everyone calls him, but there is one point where he says, "I am Natas, King Satan." Makes me wonder if this game ever came under the hellfire that titles like Splatterhouse or Mortal Kombat faced during the political correctness and censoring of games during the 90s. Seems to me, it squeaked through without so much as a hiccup. Well done!
Rating: 3 milkshakes out of 4
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