Solo dungeon crawlies

[rusty_shackleford]

A thread for games like Ultima Underworld, King's Field, and Daggerfall.

The rules are — in addition to being an RPG — that you must control only one character, it must have action combat, and it must have an emphasis on dungeon crawling/exploration rather than combat. Many of them have immersive qualities, but I will not put this requirement on it.

Dungeon does not mean it must be underground, but instead dungeon-shaped. Dark Souls is an example of a game that takes place mostly in a mega-dungeon. Daggerfall has an open world with many individual dungeons. Ultima Underworld takes place in a single dungeon.

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I recently found out about TOWERS II: PLIGHT OF THE STARGAZER in the magazine Game Players, issue 88:

There has also been talk of Telega considering publishing additional finished titles that Atari has turned down the opportunity to publis! first of these titles will be Towers 2, a real-time RPG iñ the tradition of the Ultima Underworld series

It looks neat
Quickplay - Towers 2: Plight of the Stargazer (Atari Jaguar) w/ Commentary

But after digging into it, it seems the game actually received an "Enhanced" edition for the Jaguar:
https://songbird-productions.com/produc ... -enhanced/
Towers II Standard vs. Enhanced Stargazer Edition - Detailed Comparison

That's certainly… interesting.

[rusty_shackleford]

I recently found out about TOWERS II: PLIGHT OF THE STARGAZER in the magazine Game Players, issue 88:

Reading old magazine reviews is always a trip, 50% chance the review is insane. e.g., this one being unable to understand the difference between the game he wants to play vs the game being designed in an intended way:


The implication seems to be that the developers simply erred in making the game too slow and not having plentiful enough savepoints, with these being "problems".

I sent an email to the guy who wrote it to call him a ******

[SpellSword]

Eternal Ring.webp

It's a magic focused King's field style RPG with a bit of a faster pace.
Eternal Ring Trailer
From what I've read, the quicker movement speed was actually a change made during its English localization. The Japanese version instead has a ring that boosts movement when worn. This item has been removed from our version, probably because stacking its effect with the already augmented speed would have turned you into a bullet.
Edit:
I wonder if trying to appease reviewers like that Game Players magazine guy was behind the speed change. Although the increased movement speed seems to have widely been seen as a positive, Eternal Ring's combat was designed around the original version's slower speed, so I worry something was lost rather than gained.

[Tweed]

Been meaning to play this one more.

[Tweed]

Probably FlyKnight

[rusty_shackleford]

Probably FlyKnight

Not an arr-peg

[Tweed]

Probably FlyKnight

Not an arr-peg

vox populi.jpg

[rusty_shackleford]

Probably FlyKnight

Not an arr-peg

They're wrong.

[Tweed]

And who died and made you the RPG President?

[rusty_shackleford]

And who died and made you the RPG President?

I made graphs, would you like to see them?

[Tweed]

And who died and made you the RPG President?

I made graphs, would you like to see them?

Of your election?

[SpellSword]

Baroque Saturn.webp

Baroque for the Saturn and PlayStation is a first person dungeon crawler that I think fits the criteria. I don't have any experience with the original, but if it is anything like the remake it's a weird but interesting trip. It is a bit more of a rougelike though...

► Trailer (Japanese)

Baroque (PS1) Trailer

Although the original was only released in Japan, fortunately it appears English translation patches for the Saturn & PlayStation version are both available thanks to the efforts of someone known as Plissken.

► Gameplay from the English patched Saturn version.

Baroque - English Teaser (Sega Saturn)

Baroque PS2.webp

The more recent Playstation 2 / Wii remake is in third person and from what I've read has altered the combat to make it even more action based than the original. It also has been expanded to have more floors, monsters and equipment. You can even switch to a first person view in the remake to make it more like the classic version.

► Trailer (English)

Atlus USA Trailer: Baroque

[stormvermin]

[DemoGraph]

Been meaning to play this one more.

This one is feature- and plot-complete (90% gameplay is open crawl, playable space is orders of magnitude larger than what's needed for the plot).