Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground

[James]

-edit- Just found an old thread, but with the wrong name. Screw it, have a shiny new one.

Dungeon Maker came out a couple of weeks ago and I've been playing it pretty obsessively since. It's a game where you construct a dungeon to lure in monsters, then smack them around for items and cash to keep building bigger and deeper. There's no turn-based anything happening, although it does politely stop the action when you hit a menu for spells or items, and despite the combat being a bit simple I'm completely addicted.

There are four basic corridor shapes- -, L, T, and +. Monsters don't like straight corridors, so you mostly end up using L and T shaped pieces, and sticking rooms off the end of corners. Rooms and corridors are blank when you put them up, but you can buy kits to dress them up to lure out the better monsters equipped with better treasure. The best stuff is expensive, of course, and so far I've never had enough cash to buy everything I want. My dungeon is only five floors deep, though, and I think I'm at the point where that's about to ease up. Point is, I've actually had to think how to spend money, and that's a welcome rarity in any RPG-style game.

Anyway, there's a lot more to Dungeon Maker than that, but this isn't a 1000-word review so heck with it. All I really want to say is I just saw the half-hour I meant to play turn into two hours somehow. Evil, I tell you.

James

[Jetman]

So its kind of like Tecmo's Deception in a way? Do you lay traps for the monsters once they get in?No main storyline? Ive seen this game in store, just overlooked and didnt think there was much to it.

[Cowutopia]

it sounds a little like dungeon keeper only without the killing of enemies

[James]

No traps to speak of, it's more of a Diablo-ish monster basher. I think the problem with traps would be avoiding catching yourself in them. Damage is indiscriminate, and you can actually get the monsters to damage themselves with decent positioning, so I think traps would be more trouble than they're worth. Besides, this is the PSP, so the monsters don't spawn until you get within range.

James

[Compass]

I was just reading the gamefaqs board, and it seems like a really cool game. I'll look for it tonight if I get off in time.

[Grave]

A friend and I were talking about this a while ago, but I honestly had no clue it was out. They had me with the bizarre premise, but the gameplay sounds like something I dig too. After I'm done with Etrian Odyssey this'll probably be the next game I grab.

[A Robot Bit Me]

Tim Roger's mini-review of the Japanese release piqued my interest in this game last year, I had no idea this was released in the US.

[James]

And here's why nobody knows it's out-



Behold, the most boring case art in recent memory!

James

[MechDeus]

A sword and an axe? Shit, I'm sold.

[Compass]

I picked this up last night. I really wanted to start it, but I'm afraid of losing momentum on Phoenix Wright, since I so rarely get hooked on games anymore. PW is so great, too. Best localization I can recall. I've laughed out loud so many times. And yelling "Hold It!" and "Objection!" refuses to get old.

I'll start DM this weekend. There's a handful of PSP games I need to get this month:

• Riviera
• Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology
• Final Fantasy II (You can't stop me! I haven't played it yet... ;_; )
• Brave Story

Then next month we have Jeanne D'Arc. So much 16:9 high response-time LCD, hand-cramping goodness on the way. And I never even opened DJ MAX 2. @_@