What’s with Dungeons?

by Andrew Palchak

Something in the RPG world has angered me Greatly. I’m not talking about the old school/new school debate, the clichés found left and right in today’s games or even the Final Fantasy/Anti Final Fantasy topics that have been appearing lately here. The topic I am speaking of, is an important part of any Role Playing Game, in fact, in my opinion, the backbone of any good RPG and no, it’s not the plot. It’s the dungeon, where arguably, most of RPG’s game play is. The last two Role Playing Games I have played angered me greatly in this department.

Many people argue that Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete is a gift from God, the best Role Playing Game they ever played. I have to argue this point because, well, it took me almost a half-year to complete and the catalyst for this was the dungeon design. Don’t get me wrong; I liked Lunar 2, just not the dungeons. In fact, I loathed the dungeons. For one thing, there were far too many enemies around, resulting in hours trying to make your way through fighting off each baddie. Maybe I’m the only one but I have to kill absolutely everything in the dungeon or else I feel that it’s not complete. Lunar 2 takes this to new levels as enemies are seemingly overflowing everywhere. The dungeons were also a bit too long in my opinion and coupled with the enemies, made a trip through any dungeon seem like a marathon. Also, the dragon caves; let’s talk about these for a second. Your forced to go through at least five sections of dungeon fighting off numerous hordes of baddies before you get to the boss. Of course, you’re already depleted of magic and hit points so what do you have to do? Teleport out, heal yourself and make the long trek through the dungeon again to stand a chance. Some may argue that you can just use star lights/silver lights to regain your magic before the boss but anyone who’s beaten the game knows, you need all the star lights/silver lights you can get for the final boss.

The next game I completed that annoyed the hell out of me dungeon wise was Grandia. Is it just me or did the dungeon designers want to confuse the life out of you while in the dungeons? It seems to me that way. The one major problem with the dungeon design in this game is that it is “too” wide open. I’m all for branching paths and whatnot but Grandia took this to new extremes. I constantly found myself walking around aimlessly trying to look for the exit while missing a ton of treasure. The wide-open fields were beyond annoying in this respect. Now I know it has a compass but it didn’t help me nearly enough, perhaps a radar of some sorts would have been better.

Phew, I feel like I got a little something off my chest. Grandia and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete are good games but in my opinion will never be great because of the dungeons. When you spend as much time as you do in dungeons while playing a RPG, it helps a whole lot if there aren’t countless enemies on your behind or your lost beyond a clue. Tone down the enemy content and make the dungeons a little more linear (not too linear though) and I’ll be a happy camper.