Strategy / Simulation meets hack and slash RPG. Be warned, this may be dangerously addictive!
Although starting out a little slowly, once you put in an hour or two and learn the ropes, prepare to get hooked for hours on end. I've spent most of the weekend playing the game. Obviously, the main component of the game is dungeon building. To do this, you have to make money to buy different dungeon components. You start off with a few parts, and a few rooms, and go from there. Designing the actual dungeon and modifying it is done with ease; you run around within it, and when you hit a dead end, you can choose to add a room, fork, or a corridor. Then if you like, you can add a layer of wood or brick to your halls. Dirt, which is the default (and free) layout will attract beasts (bats, vermin, etc) but spend money and buy wood or brick and will attract more humanoid monsters, which drop nicer loot.
Your customization options will start off basic, but grow as you play the game. What's cool is that at any point, you can remove a room or a fork, and move it elsewhere without permanently loosing the parts. You can even clear out complete sections your dungeon, or the entire thing if you choose, and restart. Customization is masterfully implemented in the game and easily done; nothing is permanent.
So, how do you make money? Well you have to attract monsters in your dungeon, and then kill them for their loot and gold! As your dungeon grows in size and complexity, more and more monsters will come, and different types of monsters will show up depending on what you build to attract them. Many quests you receive from the NPCs in town will have you build a certain room in order to attract a special type of monster. You get the idea, right? If you build it, they will come!
The game progresses using days, although there doesn't really seem to be any limit. Although you can only visit your dungeon once a day, nothing prevents you from sleeping it off and returning to it. You want to make some money to buy a certain magic spell? Just keep going to it and killing monsters. Another nice touch that I've recently discovered, is that once in a while, you will discover a portal to a random dungeon that you didn't build, and you can go through it if you choose to do so. Most of the time it's worth it because there are plenty of treasure chests lying about. It's also nice to crawl through a dungeon you didn't build for a change.
So, to progress in the game and descend to another deeper level and start building your next masterpiece, most of the time you will have to attract a boss mob made specifically for that floor. Once you beat the mob, the townsfolk will rejoice and the building supplier will allow you to purchase stairs so you can go to the next level. As you go deeper, you will encounter more powerful monsters, and different types as well.
There are some RPG elements to the game, such as upgrading your equipment and an odd leveling up system; to beef up the stats of your character, you prepare a meal after you've been to your dungeon. To do so, you combine different components you get from monsters, added with stuff that the market NPC sells. You can choose what you want to upgrade, like HP or HP + STR or HP / Mana. Your options will grow as you slay more different types of monsters. There's also these things called roots that you can equip in a slot to make your weapons more powerful. To upgrade those roots, you combine them with certain drops that also come from the monsters you vanquish. Dungeon Maker does a good job at slowly introducing all these concepts to you with a sort of written text tutorial as you play. The translation is excellent, as far as I can tell. At first, having to do plenty of reading be intimidating, but stick through it, learn the game and you will find a very rewarding experience. The difficulty curve is a little steep at first, since you won't have much money, and you have to start building a dungeon before earning some. But trust me, it feels really good when you finally start getting to haul out some hefty loot and sell it in town, giving you a bunch of new options to play with. There are a few downsides to this great game, but nothing that cripple it. For one, the music gets repetitive, and you can't turn it off. Also, the graphics aren't the best, but do well enough. Lastly, the multi-player options are rather limited; you can only share dungeons using ad-hoc, and that will most likely never happen since none of my friends or family are PSP gamers. And even if they were, the chances are slim that they'd own this game.
Regardless of its minor flaws, this is one of the most unique games I've ever played, and possibly the most addictive. It's these type of games that make the PSP a very unique console system. I'm very happy that this game was translated. Highly recommended!
- Jorlen