Dungeon Encounters is the latest adventure that dives into the world of dungeon-crawling, but don’t let the minimalism fool you; simplistic yet artfully balanced, this game will have you constantly pushing for “one more floor”. Square Enix has a hidden gem that I’m begging for them to capitalize on.
Dungeon Encounters really caught my attention when announced probably for the same reason everyone is think. It seemed very barebones and shallow. But I’m a huge sucker for the blessed offerings of Square Enix, so I trusted in the fact that they have rarely led me astray. A group of oddly named adventurers have gathered at The Academy, serving as the headquarters for the journeys ahead. Each character comes with a blurb that serves as a synopsis of their story and what drew them to the depths of the dungeons. Some came to seek a challenge, for others it was fortune and fame. Some were alluded by its mystery, and others are just a fat cat and a dog with a sword in his mouth. Just like the dungeon, don’t pass this one up because on face value it looks plain. There’s a real treasure of a game here and it becomes apparent as you find yourself wanting to delve deeper.
You begin with your selected party of four (slim pickings early on), and since you’re broke it’s time to ignore the shops and head off. There are a litany of enemies, traps, status effects, and…tiles, between you and the superboss below. The core mechanics of the game are slay enemies, uncover tiles on the floor to locate the stairs, and descend. Occasionally, you will come across treasure chests which may have gold or a valuable item, map riddles, or in-dungeon shops that are not accessible on Floor 00. You will lack quality gear and abilities at first, which makes it beneficial to safely explore as much as you can. Safety is the key, as Dungeon Encounters can be unforgiving. Battle is turn based, in which you are utilizing physical attacks or magic, ranged or melee. When you strike an enemy with a physical attack, their Physical Defense will incur damage. Once at 0, they will take HP damage. Same goes for magic, and the same applies to you. Some enemies can ignore defense and have HP attacks, so it’s best to stay healed.
Every 10 floors is a new region in the dungeon, which changes the background that the tiles are overlaying. Each new region is usually also introducing a new mechanic of some sort, such as pitfalls, tolls, hidden tiles, and “islands” of unconnected tiles. They range from annoying to downright deadly. Tolls can put a serious dent in your wallet if not careful, but thankfully an ability called “Toll Evasion” will avoid the costs. Hidden tiles can lead to some great loot, shops, or just provide a shortcut to an exit, but without the ability “Illusion Clairvoyance”, you’ll find yourself scrambling all over the layout in hopes of running into some. Islands can be reached using various abilities such as “Shift” or properly positioned “Lesser Ascension/Descension”. Pitfalls…just no. They will drop you until you come in contact with a tile below you. In theory you can drop down to the 99th floor but A) that’s a terrible idea without the ability “Teleport”, and B) if there is no tile then your party will get tossed into oblivion, and scattered randomly within the 99 floors. If you do not have a kitted out arsenal of abilities, this could leave you screwed. Going up or down a floor will cause pitfalls to move, so if you are going for 100% on that floor, don’t jump into the abyss.
Characters can equip anything, so long as they have the points to do so, or PP. Better equipment uses more PP. It will usually increase as you level up, so a bit of prior floor grinding can pay off by having you enter a new area with plenty of PP to spare, and snagging a weapon drop that is an upgrade from your current gear. Money will come as you play, but a great way to get gear is simply Defeating enemies. You might even get lucky and get a drop that I’d a couple of notches above your current gear. As long as you have available PP to equip it, then anything goes. You are forced to have a balancing act of sorts, choosing between ranged weapons, magic, melee, and a variety of status causing weapons. Armor and all of that too, don’t forget! So a balance is necessary. You will learn which enemies can wreck you, and which can be put off till last, but as you play you will formulate your own strategies on how to go about clearing the dangers ahead of you. To assist in dungeon clearing, you are awarded Ability Points when you clear the map (anywhere from 3 to 5), and when you hit certain Tiles Cleared milestones. Don’t neglect getting 100% on earlier floors, as these points can make a huge difference in your battle capabilities and traversal prowess. The true capabilities of your journey are unlocked when you have a vast array of abilities coupled with solid gear. It makes it possible to even take on stronger enemies, and gives you much more of a fighting chance in those high risk/high reward encounters.
If you die, the end isn’t necessarily near. You will begin back at the Academy, and be prompted to choose a new party. Your old party will have the KO status at the exact tile you met your demise at. This can be cumbersome and deadly if you have a fresh, unleveled party of scrubs, and boy I learned this the hard way. You need to travel to the location where your party died at, swap them into your party, and then find a Ressurection Shrine to bring them back. Early on, this means many dangerous trips, but once you have a good repertoire of abilities and leveled characters it’s much less daunting. That being said, don’t be afraid to level a bit with enemies you can safely dispatch, and ALWAYS err on the side of caution. The ability “Greater Descension” is like your own personal pitfall, so it would behoove you to consult guides on where it is safe to do so, as you may very well drop yourself into the depths of nothing. “Teleport” is another useful ability, and again, teleporting to a tile that doesn’t exist will cause your party to get yeeted into who knows where.
Oh, and Pro tip: USE YOUR LOGS! The Event log has a vast list of enemy info spots, shops, altars, teleporters, etc. Of course that is they only show the location once discovered. But if you wanna go back to the shark shop, once you find it you can easily Teleport back without issue. Another extremely useful log is the Battle Log. Every encounter has some sort of hexadecimal value. See a weird number on the floor in front of you? Look it up. As the numbers get higher, the enemies are stronger. 01 is weak, 99 is strong, and FF is at level 255 with over 2 million HP so stay far away. Dungeon Encounters favors the smarter, cautious play instead of the charge in full steam approach.
Wayne was right. Women lie, men lie, numbers don’t lie. The number game of Dungeon Encounters can be a bit daunting at first but if you can appreciate a mechanically-sound game, this will not disappoint. I will imagine that this title isn’t for everyone. If you can’t get passed a game not having an intricate plot or Ghost Of Tsushima-esque graphics than you will be disappointed, and shame on you. Dungeon Encounters is truly greater than the sum of those parts. I was skeptical at first, but something about the minimalism struck a chord with me, and the dungeon hungers for you to explore it more and more. I can’t hang the way I used to, and very few games have me staying up very late to get some progress in, but Dungeon Encounters managed to have me enthralled until 4:30 AM, out of Ressurections or Restores while stuck on Floor 65 and I loved every moment of it.
-Game Info- Dungeon Encounters Genre: RPG/Strategy/Dungeon Crawler Developer: Square Enix Publisher: Square Enix Release Date: 10/14/2021 Platforms: PS4, NSW, PC -GamerDad Info- Completed On: 10/23/2021 Played On: PS5 Time Played: ~50 Hours Rating: 8/10
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