20/12/2015

Dungeon Travelers 2: A potpourri of goodness


35 hours into DT2 and still loving it just as much as when I started it. More so, in fact. My lone Valkyrie has hit the Lv.75 mark and keeps gaining levels at a jolly good speed, and unless I'm sorely mistaken, the end is drawing near. Whether I will hit the Lv.99 mark before the final boss remains to be seen, as well as whether or not the game has some extra postgame dungeons in store.

But we're not there yet, and for the time being, I want to elaborate on all the goodness packed by DT2. This game has tons of excellent features, from the most minute ones to the most playthrough-altering ones, and I'm now going to enumerate the ones that charmed me the most all in a long, exhaustive—and somewhat haphazard—list. Hail now the amazing goodness potpourri of DT2!

  • The dungeon design is deliciously clever and challenging. Of the three first-person dungeon crawlers I've played so far, DT2 sports by far the most interesting and engrossing dungeons. The game uses a batch of tried-and-tested level design tricks such as invisible passageways, oneway walls, warps, pits, dark areas and stairs and combine them in various ways to great effect. Each dungeon is given its specific brand of level design and its exclusive combination of gimmicks, and the roaming and exploration remain constantly fresh and compelling as a result. The Giant Tree of Tver, for instance, hosts no empty spaces at all; so one can look actively for invisible passageways leading to hidden chambers. Another good point is the originality of the dungeons' themes; although the game starts off with a very classic cave-themed dungeon, it later veers away from established formulas by offering dungeons as pleasantly unexpected as a villa, an onsen and a library. 


  • The art style is gorgeous and the character designs are pure eye-candy. Granted, the dungeons themselves look rather bland and generic, but their lack of aesthetic flair is more than compensated by the gorgeous looks of the characters, friends as well as foes. All the party members—including male lead Fried—are handsome, ooze charisma and are dressed to kill to boot, with several costume variations that all look amazing. As for the foes, they are divided into two categories: incredibly cute non-human foes such as fruits and cats and delightfully alluring monsters looking like young women in bloom, and they are all a pleasure to look at and fight. Although a couple of colour palette swaps can be spotted every now and then, the variety of enemy designs is staggering and one can rest assured that they will encounter brand-new foes in every dungeon. Cherry on the cake, the soundtrack is upbeat and pleasant to the ear, with a distinctive '80s vibe that is unusual for the genre yet quite enjoyable. 

  • The game is choke-full with humour. Self-derisive comments, hilarious dialogues, breakings of the fourth wall, tutorials that poke fun at every cliché under the RPG sun and funnily awkward situations, DT2 has them all in spades and is undoubtedly one of the most witty and humourous games I've played in a long time. I certainly didn't expect that and was more than pleasantly surprised, finding myself giggling and grinning on a regular basis as I played. Heck, even enemies are smiling as though they're having all the fun in the world! 

  • There are excellent incentives to grind senselessly. Not only do defeated foes drop tons of very decent pieces of gears and other useful items, but they can also be transformed into so-called "Seal Books". These books can then be sold for good money, equipped to grant passive stat bonuses and used to enhance equipment, making DT2 the kind of game in which one does not ever run away from random battles. 


  • The class system is incredibly deep and fulfilling. It's basically a copy-paste of Seiken Densetsu 3's branching class system, minus the stone-praying and item-collecting parts, and it allows for an amazing amount of fine-tuning and experimentation with the party. Each class has its own unique abilities and its own combination of strengths and weaknesses—completed with an exclusive outfit that remains judiciously hidden until said class is chosen. Although I'm deeply enjoying my solo run, I nearly regret not having played with a full party just for the pleasure of discovering more classes. Cherry on the cake, the abilities granted by a class are saved when moving on to the next class in line, meaning that a party member will de facto master three classes at once after hitting the second class change mark at Lv.30. Talk about cumulative benefits!

  • DT2 offers a lot of excellent and challenging side dishes to take an occasional break from the main quest. Exclusive bonus dungeons can be unlocked and the main dungeons feature restricted areas that can be accessed later in the game. Exploring new dungeons and revisiting old ones is already fulfilling enough in its own right, and the exercise is made even more enthralling by the presence of ludicrously strong bonus bosses that will very likely obliterate the party in a couple of turns when faced for the first time. Of course, this is bound to change as time goes and XP accumulates, and being finally able to pummel to death a bonus boss that was impassable a couple of hours before is undoubtedly one of the finest satisfactions offered by DT2. It makes you feel that you're progressing in a very palpable way that stats and levels alone could definitely not evince. 


    • The side quests come with yummy benefits. Sure, they seem utterly generic and boring at first sight, since they consist exclusively of farming quests that require to kill x enemies or to gather y items; however, the pay-off for completing these quests amply justify tackling them despite their bland nature. Some of these quests grant keys to access locked parts of main dungeons as well as exclusive rare items, and clearing a certain number of quests will unlock new extra dungeons as well as increase the capacity of the inventory. Knowing that the quests always involve enemies or items that are available in the currently explored dungeon or in the next one in line, there are definitely no reasons to bypass this insipid yet painless way to reap benefits. 

    • Last but not least, DT2 sports plenty of little features that make the gameplay more enjoyable. Customizable speed for roaming and fighting, itinerant shops in dungeons, instant save feature, free resting, forging system with variable results that can be exploited to one's advantage, good modern auto-drawing maps and plenty more. 

    I could keep raving forever about the excellency of DT2, but all good things must come to an end, including this post. I'm far from being done with writing about that game though, and you can expect more posts about it very soon. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

    12 comments:

    1. "whether or not the game has some extra postgame dungeons in store."
      Oh God, you're in for a treat. DT2's postgame is LONGER than the mainquest. The game is gigantic in terms of content. And some of the postgame dungeons are crazy hard.
      Also, I should add that I agree with everything you pointed out about DT2. Good dungeon crawler is good.

      Oh, and if I remember correctly, there are a couple of missable sidequests that give really good rewards, dunno if they changed anything from the PSP version regarding that, but some were character specific. Try checking the available sidequests as often as you can, as to not miss them.

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      1. "DT2's postgame is LONGER than the mainquest. The game is gigantic in terms of content. And some of the postgame dungeons are crazy hard": although I'm delighted to read that, I'm also a trifle worried that maybe, just maybe, these dungeons are not fit for a solo run... It all depends if levels stop at 99 or not. If they don't, I'm pretty confident that I can beat every dungeon coming my way; if they do, then I will undoubtedly be overpowered at some point... But hey, let's play and see! :)

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      2. While the some of the dungeons were pretty hard (I didn't finish them all) the main problem you'll have is that some of them have Class specific floors. I don't remember exactly how it worked but I remember there were some doors that could only be opened when you had X class on your party. Again, this for the PSP version, maybe they took out that "feature" in the Vita port because it was pretty dumb, honestly.

        Oh, and regarding levels: yeah, lvl99 is the maximum level but you can "reset" as many times as you want to level 1 to gain extra stats. Realistically speaking, you can solo the entire main/postgame, but you'll have to grind a lot for that.

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      3. Class specific floors is such a BAD idea... I do indeed hope that they ditched that concept for the Vita version, because I'm certainly not going to level up the rest of the crew just to access a floor. That would be a surefire dealbreaker for me.

        Resetting to Lv.1 is unthinkable, but I could probably tolerate resets to Lv.90 if they produce stat gains as well. Let's grind and see! :D

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    2. "the character designs are pure ear-candy" Shouldn't it be eye-candy? :p

      But I'm really glad to hear so many good things about a game I will buy. The only thing that makes me kinda iffy is the fact that the postgame is supposedly longer than the main game according to Sieg. As someone who just spent 140 hours on a single RPG, I'm not sure I want to tackle another huge one so soon (especially since I might solo this one, so I'm prepared to reset my level and grind a lot). Oh well, not like the game is on sale yet anyways.

      Speaking of long playtimes, I just spent over 70 hours on Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate and left wanting more. I had never played a warriors game before and it turns out I absolutely love it, so I'll be on the lookout for the remaining Warriors games on the Vita. 2015 has been a terrific year for me to try out new genres that I end up absolutely loving.

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      1. Oops, my mistake! Just fixed it. ^_^

        I'm not too sure I like the concept of a postgame being longer than the main game, because I tend to loose a part of my drive after beating the final boss and seeing the credits roll... In my book, the postgame should be a digestive of sorts, not a whole new beginning.

        Gee, you make me want to play Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate! I've been curious about the series for some time, and your comment is definitely convincing me to try it! :)

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      2. It's pretty hard to pinpoint, in a gameplay-driven dungeon crawler, where the maingame ends and the postgame starts. The focus is entirely on exploring dungeons and building a synergy between party members (or member in case of going solo), so the game basically ends when you either completed everything there is or when you basically done most stuff and you decide that it's over. The story ending doesn't really factor in more gameplay centered games.

        It's hard to say how long the postgame is. If I remember correctly, I had around 40 or something hours when I was on the second postgame dungeon.

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      3. Well, I still stick to the old-fashioned idea that Final Boss Fight followed by Credits=End of the Game. Although I've obviously noticed that modern dungeon crawlers ditched this idea and treat credits as nothing more than an mere intermission, I cannot help but feel a vertiginous drop in my drive after I beat the final boss of the main game and see the credits roll! That's why I prefer the post-credits dungeons to be short and few, to have a hope of actually clearing them before my drive dies entirely... :P

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      4. I have to agree with Isleif there. I know the story doesn't even matter to most dungeon crawlers (Demon Gaze aside), but there's a switch inside me, one that developed over 20 years of gaming, that says "credits appear, game done". Everything else is a little treat for completionists. It is extremely hard to turn off that switch for certain games where I know that rule doesn't apply. I have had a good stride of completing games recently, but I don't know if that stride will last long enough for DT2.

        Still, I feel like the main 40 hours of the game will be enough to make a purchase of this game worth it, so other than a small jab at my completionist pride, the size of the postgame is no biggie in the long run.

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      5. Oooh yes, the main game alone amply justifies purchasing DT2! ^_^ To be honest, I love the game sooooo much that I would nearly be ready for another playthrough right away... That probably won't happen right now though, as Moe Chronicles is still waiting in line! ^_^

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    3. With almost everything brought up already about DT2 in this post, there's only just one thing left to say: If you're planning to get the game, Do so. It's a very good Dungeon-Crawler with very little to almost nothing not to be desired.

      Case and point: I've been playing it for 116 hours now and counting. This is on the last chapter, right before the postgame dungeons start popping up and giving me more reasons to grind.

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      1. Welcome! :) Indeed, that could have been "le mot de la fin". Every first-person dungeon crawler aficionado should definitely get their paws on that amazing gem of a game!

        I had to skip the postgame dungeons due to the fact that I was playing solo, but I'm firmly planning to replay the game one day with a full party and to clear every single dungeon. Have fun in your own posgame epopee! :)

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